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The Ultimate Guide to Face Yoga: Types, Benefits and Basics

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medically reviewed by Dr Naveen Chandran

Dr J S S Dev

Updated on February 15, 2024

It is truly a marvel what a 5-minute facial workout can do. Like all the muscles in the body, our facial muscles also require regular workouts. Are we giving those muscles what they need? It's sad to see how easily we ignore the most essential part of our body - the face. 

While everyone is obsessed with the facial skincare routine, the muscles of your face often need to be more focused. They don't deserve Botox; they deserve Yotox. Yes, you read it right - Yotox. It is a newly coined social media term where everyone praises Face yoga. As the name says, it can avoid botox. Yotox or face yoga is far better for your face than Botox. 

Read on to find out more about these beautiful facial toning exercises.

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What Is Face Yoga?

To begin, it is nothing but yoga for your face. Your face is one of your body's most quickly responding parts to ageing. Exercises and stretches that help to sculpt, tone, and plump your face can be collectively called face yoga. A face yoga routine can help maintain a youthful appearance by consistently targeting the facial muscles. 

Even though you move your facial muscles daily when you smile, chew or cry, face yoga brings a yogic flow to your facial muscles. When you intentionally give a workout to those muscles, you benefit profoundly, just like any other muscle group. To further understand more, let us learn about the primary muscles involved in your face. 

Anatomy of Face and Muscles Involved in Face Yoga

Understanding the benefits of facial yoga is crucial for you. Why? So that you have a basic idea about the facial structures. Facial yoga's primary targets are the facial muscles. 

Did you know?

Your face alone has 43 muscles in it!

Understanding the anatomy of the face and the muscles involved can explain why we recommend specific facial yoga exercises. Here are the main muscle groups that benefit from facial yoga.

Frontalis Muscle - Muscle of Wrinkles
  • Causes wrinkles on your forehead.
  • The frontalis muscle raises the eyebrows and creates forehead wrinkles. 
  • It covers your forehead region. 
  • Working out this muscle helps to reduce wrinkles on your forehead due to ageing.
Corrugator Supercilii Muscle - Muscle of Frowning
 
  • These are the muscles in between your eyebrows. 
  • It is the muscle involved while you are frowning. 
  • Working out this muscle helps maintain skin tightness. 
Procerus Muscle - Muscle of Bunny Lines
  • This is also located between the eyebrows, just above the nose. 
  • It wrinkles the bridge of the nose and pulls the eyebrows downward. 
  • Exercises that address this muscle will enhance your facial tone and prevent your face from ageing.
Orbicularis Oculi Muscle - Muscle of Beautiful Eyes
  • The muscle helps you close your eyes while sleeping.
  • Surrounds the eyes.
  • Its other functions include squinting and contributing to facial expressions around the eyes. 
  • If you need a youthful glow, this is another muscle you must focus on.
Zygomaticus Major and Minor Muscles - Muscle of Smile
  • Be thankful to this muscle group for all your pretty photographs. It helps you with a smiling expression. 
  • It extends from the cheekbone to the corners of the mouth and elevates the corners of the mouth while smiling.
  • Focusing on this muscle group alone can make a huge difference.
Risorius Muscle - Muscle of Grin
  • It extends from the corners of the mouth to the cheek. 
  • This muscle helps pull the corners of the mouth laterally, leading to expressions like grinning. 
  • This helps in maintaining the firmness of the facial skin.
Orbicularis Oris Muscle - Muscle of Kiss
  • It surrounds your mouth region.
  • It closes and puckers the lips and also shapes the mouth for speech. 
  • This muscle's health will help you maintain the tone of your face.
Depressor Anguli Oris Muscle - Muscle of Happy Lips
  • It extends from the corners of the mouth downward. 
  • This muscle helps pull the corners of the mouth downward while you are frowning.
  • By giving the right exercise to this muscle, your face will remain youthful.
Platysma Muscle - Muscle of Chin Sag
  • This muscle covers the front of your neck. 
  • It pulls the corners of the mouth and lower lip downward and thus helps tense the neck. 
  • One of the major reasons for wrinkles on your neck due to ageing is the lack of strength of this muscle.

Face yoga involves several types of exercises based on the muscles involved and movements. Let us take a sneak peek into the types of face yoga.

Different Types of Face Yoga 

If you had done basic research regarding face yoga, you might have seen different online videos with instructions targeting different muscle groups. There are many types of face yoga exercises, each targeting specific areas of the face. Let's discuss a few of the most popular ones.

Forehead Lifter

Place your fingers on your forehead with your palms facing down and gently apply pressure as you raise your eyebrows. Hold this position for 10-15 seconds and repeat ten times. 

How Does it Benefit You?

The facial yoga exercise helps smooth out forehead wrinkles and lift eyebrows. 

Cheek Lifters 

A set of firm and non-drooping cheeks is one of the signs of a youthful face. One common exercise is to puff out your cheeks as if filled with water and hold it for a few seconds. You can also try smiling as wide as possible and holding that posture for a few seconds.

How Does it Benefit You?

Exercises that target your cheeks' muscles and help lift and tone those cheeks are a boon. 

Eye Brightener

Close your eyes and apply light pressure to your temples with your fingertips. Hold for 10-15 seconds and repeat the steps ten times. 

How Does it Benefit You?

It helps to reduce puffiness and under-eye bags. 

Jawline Sculptor

You might have seen across the internet that having a well-defined jaw is one of the trending beauty standards. Tilt your head back and then jut your chin forward. Hold for 10-15 seconds and repeat the steps ten times. 

How Does it Benefit You?

This exercise helps to define the jawline and reduce the appearance of jowls.

Neck Firmer

Tilt your head back and look up at the ceiling. Hold for 10-15 seconds and repeat the steps ten times.

How Does it Benefit You?

This exercise helps to tighten your neck muscles and reduce wrinkles. Practising these exercises in a yogic flow will keep your skin healthy and young. Moreover, face yoga has many benefits other than just aesthetics. Let us look into it in detail.

Benefits of Face Yoga

Face yoga is for everyone. People get multiple benefits from just spending time on this 5-minute facial workout. Following are some of the significant benefits of doing face yoga.

Increased Blood Circulation

Daily face yoga increases blood flow and gives your face a healthy young glow. 

Prevents Wrinkles and Fine Lines

When you do face yoga, the facial muscles strengthen, preventing the formation of wrinkles and fine lines.

Tone and Lift Your Face

When you strengthen your facial muscles, your face will remain perfectly toned and youthful.

Reduce Puffiness and Dark Circles

Face yoga can also improve your lymphatic drainage and reduce your puffiness and dark circles. 

Relieves Tension Headaches

Face yoga can relieve you from stress. Believe me. The muscles in your face can get tensed with constant stress and frowning. When you do face yoga, they get relaxed and strengthened. Doing so helps people with tension headaches.

Stress Reduction

Face yoga can be calming and soothing, which helps relieve stress from your face and mind.

Suppose just a 5-minute facial workout can do these many benefits. What are you waiting for? Begin your face yoga journey today. But before you start, you must keep a few things in mind. 

Before You Begin: Expert Tips for a Beginner

Note down these expert tips if you are a beginner practising face yoga.

  • If your skin type is sensitive, opt for gentle exercises that won't irritate your skin. Applying a gentle moisturiser on your face is recommended before you start exercising.
     
  • If you have an acne-prone skin type, try focusing on facial exercises that increase lymphatic drainage, like cheekbone pumps or tongue rolls.
     
  • You should perform facial exercises that prevent sagging if you have mature skin.
     
  • Practise face yoga twice a day for better results. When you wake up and when you are off to bed.
     
  • Perform three to four poses in one session. Target the muscle groups according to your needs. 
     
  • Try initially targeting the larger muscle groups like your neck or forehead region and then move on to more delicate areas like your eyes. 
     
  • Clean your face before practising these exercises.
     
  • Make sure you are relaxed and breathing correctly during the process.
     
  • Please include it in your daily regimen and remain patient to see the magical results.

The Key Takeaways

Prevention is better than cure. We all are ageing day by day. We must take care of our youth, preserve it and carry it forward. As discussed earlier, Yotox is far better than Botox. In this modern world of botox, fillers and plastic faces, remain yourself naturally. Holistic ways of staying youthful are always the best thing you can do. 

Keep aside a little time for your 5-minute facial workout. Make it a routine. Keep the consistency, and you will see the results. Flaunt your younger, healthier face.

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