5 Anti-Aging Face Yoga Exercises For a Younger and Slim Face

Regardless of how pretty and youthful your face appears now, it is bound to undergo changes as you grow older. With ageing, your face will lose its elasticity and firmness, and signs of ageing such as wrinkles, fine lines, sagging skin and laugh lines will become more visible. Truly speaking, no one can escape these. However, how quickly or slowly your face ages is determined by your lifestyle and how well you care for your skin.

To address age-related skin concerns, many women browse through online shopping sites or visit beauty stores for anti-wrinkle cremes, serums, lotions, and gels. Some women, on the other hand, go as far as trying skin tightening procedures, face lifts, and invasive surgeries to achieve a radiant and youthful appearance.

However, if you want to naturally slow the process of ageing on your face, then you don't need fillers and drastic cosmetic treatments. Choosing at-home techniques is the best option. Simple and well-known activities like eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking plenty of fluids, maintaining a regular sleep and skincare routine, cutting down on smoking and alcohol consumption and maintaining a healthy weight helps a great deal. Besides these, exercise your facial muscles. The face workouts I am referring to are simple but effective face yoga exercises.

Benefits of Face Yoga

Face yoga or facial exercises are done with the intention of stretching, strengthening and toning the facial muscles. They give your face a natural lift.

As you exercise your facial muscles regularly (5 times a week for about 25 minutes), you also improve blood circulation in and around your face. This helps give your skin a natural glow. Face yoga is also known to stimulate collagen production and release tension from stressed facial muscles. These exercises also help prevent sagginess and smooth out fine lines and wrinkles, thereby slowing down the signs of ageing on your face.

Completely holistic and at zero cost, you can do face yoga anytime and anywhere you want for a firmer, supple, energized, and younger-looking skin.

5 Face Yoga Exercises

Now that you know a bit about face yoga, are you ready for some simple facial exercises? Experts recommend that you practise the below given exercises daily for 5 to 10 minutes. Gradually work your way up to 20-25 minutes per day and make it a part of your regular skincare routine.

I) Goodbye Frown Lines, Hello Smooth Forehead

Do you worry about frown lines on your forehead? Frown lines are bothersome no doubt. However, they are not uncommon. Fine lines or creases on your forehead are caused due to a number of reasons like ageing, genes, stress, smoking to even making different kinds of facial expressions repeatedly and regularly.

To get rid of your frown lines, as well as dither it from appearing later in your life, you can try a simple forehead exercise. This forehead exercise needs just 5 minutes out of your daily time and is absolutely easy to follow.

How To Do:

1. Make a fist of both your hands

2. Move both fists to the center of your forehead, such that the knuckles of your index and middle fingers touch the center of your forehead (the area between your eyebrows and the hairline).

3. Now, applying light pressure to the knuckles, move them from the center to the sides of your forehead. Release the pressure at the sides.

4. Do not frown or wrinkle your forehead while doing this exercise.

5. Repeat the above steps at least 10 times, or until you have consumed 5 minutes of your forehead workout.

II) Say Bye to Crow’s Feet, Eye bags and Eye Puffiness

The area around your eyes is quite delicate. Hence, it is one of the first places to exhibit signs of ageing. Eye bags, puffy eyes, and crow's feet (the appearance of wrinkles around your eye region) are skin concerns that make you look older and tired than you are.

Truly speaking, time waits for no one, and you cannot avoid the appearance of wrinkles as you age. You can, however, definitely try to minimize their appearance by tightening the skin around your eyes. When done regularly, the ‘V’ exercise helps to make your eye region look wrinkle-free, smooth and your eyes wide awake.

How To Do:

1. Take the middle fingers of both your hands and place them between your eyebrows.

2. Move the index fingers of both your hands to the corners of your eyebrows. The whole formation will appear like a ‘W’.

3. Apply pressure to your index fingers, and without moving your head, look up.

4. Meanwhile, also move your lower eyelids upwards, as if you are squinting. Avoid wrinkling your forehead while doing so.

5. Hold this position for 10 seconds and then relax.

6. Repeat the entire process 5 times.

7. Finish the exercise by relaxing and closing your eyes for 1 minute.

III) For Smooth Nasolabial Folds

Nasolabial folds in your day-to-day terms, mean the ‘cheek lines’, ‘smile lines’, or ‘laugh lines’ that run from the sides of your nose to the corners of your mouth. These skin folds are pretty common, but their severity differs from person to person.

When you are young, these nasolabial folds are present but less visible. However, as you age, their length and depth become more prominent. To reduce the prominence of these wrinkled skin folds, try the 'puffer fish face' exercise. And this is how you do it.

How To Do:

1. Fill your mouth with air and keep your mouth closed tight.

2. Next, move the air to the right and hold it there for about 5 seconds.

3. Move the same air to the left and hold it for another 5 seconds. This action will look like you are swishing air inside your closed mouth.

4. Repeat the same process, while moving the air to your upper mouth and then to your lower mouth.

5. Do not open your mouth during the entire process.

6. Once finished, relax and exhale the filled air.

IV) For Firm and Toned Cheeks

If sagging face line or face fat is your problem area, then you can tighten them naturally without fillers or undergoing cheek lift surgeries.

The 'fish face' exercise is an excellent workout for your cheeks. This exercise helps to stretch cheek muscles and reduce fat in the cheeks, making them look slim and firm. Toned cheeks also tend to make your cheekbones more pronounced. So, it is a win, win situation for you.

How To Do:

1. Suck in your cheeks tightly, with your mouth closed.

2. Simultaneously pucker your lips in the outward direction. This will give your face a fish like appearance.

3. Try smiling with the fish face pose.

4. Hold this posture for 10 seconds.

5. Relax.

6. Repeat the above steps 5 times, at least once a day.

V) Get Rid of Sagging Neck and Double Chin

When you are healthy and young, your neck will appear tight and toned. However, as age catches up and/or you adopt unhealthy eating practices and gain considerable weight, then there are high chances that the skin in the neck area would look loose.

Issues like double chin, wrinkles and sagging neck are pretty prevalent. To counter this, you can try firming the muscles of your neck and jaw area through simple neck tightening exercises. A very popular, effective and straightforward exercise to practice here is the ‘baby bird’ pose.

How To Do:

1. Find a comfortable corner to sit or stand.

2. Keeping your spine straight, look up.

3. While looking up, press the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, with your mouth closed.

4. Try smiling with this pose.

5. Count till 10 and then relax.

6. Come to the original position.

7. Now turn your head towards the right and tilt your chin up. Repeat steps from 2 to 6.

8. Follow the same steps, while tilting your head towards the left too.

Also Read: 7 Basic Yoga Asanas that Beginners Can Start Performing Even Today