There are lots of creams, lotions, treatments, non-invasive surgeries, invasive surgeries, lifestyle changes, and more you can take advantage of to keep you looking young and healthy. One method that is gaining increasing attention, however, is doing anti-aging facial exercises. Could they really work?

Anti-aging facial exercises are sometimes referred to as facial yoga. The method involves doing specific exercises that stretch and contract the muscles and skin on your face and neck. It sounds too easy, but many celebrities and anti-aging experts swear by it as being an effective method of making you look younger. Research is starting to back this up too.

One study, for example, found that 30 minutes of anti-aging facial exercises a day for 20 weeks helped middle-aged women look younger. The women who took part in the study were between 40 and 65, and they were rated at the end of the 20 weeks by an independent panel. That panel found the women looked three years younger on average.

Wouldn’t it be great to look three years younger at completely no expense? Here’s how it works.

How Anti-Aging Facial Exercises Work

Your face and scalp have 10 distinct muscle groups. Like other muscles in your body, they attach to your bones—in this case, your skull and the bones on your face.

Unlike other muscles, however, the muscles on your face and scalp also attach to your skin. This is why your face is so expressive; when you move the muscles on your face, the skin moves with them.

There is a big downside to this of course. All those facial expressions you make, repeated hundreds of times a day, cause wrinkles to form. In addition, your skin starts to sag the older you get.

Anti-aging facial exercises combat both these problems by tightening the skin and smoothing out wrinkles. They do this by toning and tightening the muscles on your face, which also tightens the skin.

Anti-aging facial exercises also increase the blood circulation, which gets more oxygen to the cells in your face, giving you a younger-looking appearance. Increased blood circulation also helps remove toxins.

In addition, many anti-aging facial exercises stimulate the production of collagen and elastin. This makes your skin suppler, smoother, and tighter.

How Often Should You Do Anti-Aging Facial Exercises and for How Long?

You should do anti-aging facial exercises six to seven days a week for around 30 minutes a day to get the best results.

This may seem like a long time, but you will quickly start seeing a noticeable difference. Also, doing anti-aging facial exercises is completely free, making the process the cheapest option available for keeping you looking young and healthy looking. This helps put the time you need to allocate into perspective.

Just how soon will you see results though? In most people, you can see visible results in around two weeks, with the improvements continuing for several months. In addition, anti-aging facial exercise also counteract the ongoing effects of aging, so they deliver benefits long after this initial period of visible improvement.

Anti-Aging Facial Exercises You Should Do

Below are some of the best anti-aging facial exercises you can do to get you started with an initial routine.

Face Yoga

It is best to do this exercise while standing up and keeping your back straight. Start by taking a deep breath and then hold the air in your mouth, blowing out your cheeks like you did when you were a child holding your breath. If you can, hold this breath for one minute or as long as you can hold it for. Then, exhale slowly by breathing out through your nose.

Do this exercise five times and repeat daily. This will help to smooth out wrinkles, including laugh lines, as well as to tone the muscles in your cheeks, face, and neck.

The V

This anti-aging facial exercise is particularly helpful around your eyes. In other words, it helps reduce puffiness and bags around your eyes as well as smoothing out crow’s feet wrinkles.

To do the exercise, press the index and middle fingers of your hands to the corners of your eyebrows, making a V with your fingers that you are looking through. Apply pressure to your fingers, effectively stretching the eyebrow. Now look up at the ceiling, raising your lower eyelids at the same time. Hold this for a few seconds, and then repeat the exercise seven times. Once finished, shut your eyes tightly for 10 seconds.

Platysma Toning

The platysma is a muscle at the front of your neck. As with other muscles on your face, this starts to sag with age. By toning it, your jawline will become smoother. This exercise can help tone the skin on your neck too.

You can do this exercise sitting or standing. Start with a straight back, and tilt your head so you are looking up toward the ceiling. Then simply push your tongue up to the roof of your mouth and keep it there to make the muscles and skin around your throat tighten. You should then nod your head slowly forward until your chin meets your neck.

Smile Smoother

Your cheeks will get the most benefit from this exercise. In particular, it helps tighten up sagging skin as well as smoothing out the lines on your cheeks that you get from smiling and frowning.

Start by opening your mouth slightly and covering your teeth with your lips. Your teeth should now be hidden, and your mouth will be in the shape of an O. You then need to smile as widely as possible. It will feel strange, but keep your teeth hidden throughout. Hold the smile at its widest point, and put your index finger on your chin to hold your lower jaw in place. Then tilt your head back gently to open up the jaw before relaxing your face to its normal expression again. Repeat this process seven times.

Cheek Exercise

The part of your face that usually sags the most visibly is your cheeks. This exercise will help you combat this sagging as well as reduce the visibility of wrinkles.

Hold your head straight, and then smile. Make the smile as big as possible without opening your lips. Then, wrinkle your nose. This makes the cheek muscles contract and move up. Hold this mouth-smiling, nose-wrinkling position for five seconds, and then relax your face again. Repeat the exercise 10 times in a row.

Forehead Exercise

Do you have wrinkles on your forehead you would like to make smoother? Do you want to prevent wrinkles from appearing? This exercise will help, although it takes a bit of getting used to. Start by placing your index finger above your eye but below your eyebrow, right at the top of the eye socket. Then raise your eyebrows and at the same time pull down with your index finger to stretch the skin. Do this exercise 10 times in a row.

Brow Smoother

This is one of the easiest anti-aging facial exercises on this list. It is designed to smooth out lines on your forehead. To do it, you simply place the tips of the fingers on each hand in the middle of your forehead, spreading the fingers evenly between your hairline and eyebrows. Then pull your fingers across the forehead while applying gentle pressure. This stretches the skin and helps to tighten it. Repeat the exercise 10 times in a row, relaxing between each one.

Giraffe

Your face is not the only part of your body that will benefit from anti-aging facial exercises; your neck can to. This exercise focuses on the neck and helps to tighten loose skin and reduce lines and wrinkles.

You do this exercise in two stages. You should repeat the first stage three times. It involves putting your fingers at the bottom of your neck, close to or on the collarbone. Next, tilt your head back, gently pull the skin down, and then nod your head slowly forward until your chin reaches your chest.

Keep your fingers at the bottom of your neck for the second stage. Now push your lower lip out as far as you can. This pulls down the two corners of your mouth. Once in this position, tilt your head back to point your chin up toward the ceiling, stretching the skin and muscles of the front part of your neck.

Getting Started

The beauty of anti-aging facial exercises is that you don’t need any equipment or supplies, you don’t need training, and you don’t need to go anywhere. You can do these exercises in your own home at a time that fits your schedule.

As you get more experienced, you can add different exercises to the routine to bring in other muscles and to work the skin in different ways. The result will be tighter skin, less sagging, and a healthier looking, glowing complexion. That is a big prize for just 30 minutes a day that you can even do while watching TV.