Contrary to popular belief, you can work out more than just your body. Face yoga, for example, “is basically a workout class for your face,” Dermatologist at Westlake Dermatology Dr. Helyn Alvarez tells ESSENCE. “Instead of squats and lunges, you are lifting your cheeks, tightening your jawline, widening your eyes and smoothing your brow with very specific movements and holds.”
Ahead, experts explain how to do face yoga, the risks, and realistic results you can actually expect.
What is face yoga?
Treating your face like a body part you can train, “face yoga is a series of exercises that tones and strengthens the facial muscles,” says celebrity aesthetics expert Mariana Vergara NP-C. “They boost circulation and help the skin look tighter and more radiant. It’s like working out your face.”
How do you do face yoga?
Just like working out your body, face yoga “involves performing exercises that contract and release specific muscles of the face and neck,” says Vergara. For example, lifting the eyebrows while keeping the forehead smooth; puffing out the cheeks and holding it; or gently pressing against the jawline to enhance neck muscles.
In practice, a typical face yoga routine usually includes:
- Isometric holds where you contract a facial muscle and keep it still.
- Dynamic moves where you repeatedly lift, puff, smile or stretch a region.
- Often combined with facial massage, gentle stretching and breathing to make it feel more like a ritual than a boot camp.
- Targets the classic “aesthetic zones” of the face. Think: cheeks, jawline, lips and perioral region, forehead, and the eye area.
Does face yoga really work?
According to Alvarez, “the logic checks out.” Vergara agrees, noting the science behind it lies with activating the muscles and causing an increase in blood flow and circulation. “It’s similar to when you exercise the body; exercises can strengthen muscles, which helps maintain the skin tone,” she says.
While face yoga hasn’t been extensively researched, Alvarez says small studies suggest facial exercise can nudge up cheek fullness and even shave a couple years off of your perceived age. For example, in a JAMA Dermatology pilot trial, 16 middle-aged women did a structured routine for about 20 weeks, which showed fuller cheeks and were rated as looking a couple of years younger.
“That suggests facial exercise can nudge volume and contour in the midface if someone is consistent and puts in real time, think 20 to 30 minutes most days,” says Alvarez. However, it’s important to have realistic expectations.
“Facial exercises are not pure snake oil, but they are also not the miracle sculpting fix social media promises,” she says. “They sit in a very specific middle ground.” Using tools like the NuFace Trinity+, Theraface PRO Microcurrent Ring or Golden Wand coupled with manual face yoga can boost visible results, bringing you closer to your skincare goals quicker.
The Benefits
Regardless of science, the point of any face exercise is to see that it actually works. “Face yoga can subtly lift and tone your facial muscles, improve circulation, and reduce puffiness, giving your skin a firmer, more radiant look,” says Vergara. “It brings oxygenation to the skin, helping to support collagen production and improve elasticity.”
While It’s not something you can do once and expect a dramatic change, the muscle contractions required in face yoga also stimulates lymphatic drainage, which decreases puffiness and enhances the facial contour.
The Risks
“It is not a quick fix for deeper wrinkles, and does not replace medical treatments,” Vergara warns. In fact, “if you perform it too aggressively, especially in delicate areas like the forehead or around the eyes, you can inadvertently accentuate existing lines over time” which means more wrinkles.
Specifically, “moves that repeatedly crunch the exact area you are worried about, like the ‘11s’ between the brows,” Alvarez says. “Exaggerated, repetitive creasing could deepen the very line you are trying to soften, so those specific drills are reasonable to skip.”
What face sculpting trends should you avoid?
With new facial sculpting trends popping up left and right, there’s a few Alvarez says you should absolutely avoid. For one, facial cupping. “[There’s a] high risk of bruising and broken capillaries, very little evidence for real lifting or long term contour change,” she says. Another? The hard jaw trainers you bite on. “[They] can overgrow the masseter, worsen clenching or TMJ symptoms and actually make the lower face look wider, not slimmer.”