You might have heard miracles of yoga and exercise when it comes to overall well-being of the body but do you know with the help of yoga and exercise you can sculpt your facial and neck muscles too? Now, there is no denying that we all yearn for celebrity like features, pointed nose, chiseled jawline, fuller cheeks and a slender neck, don’t we? And then there is whole cosmetic industry, making money out of our desire to look perfect.
Thousands of tips and tricks are fed to us by the social media on how we can contour to define our jawline, how this certain cream helps you smoothen out wrinkles, how Botox can help you look younger again and much more. The problem is all these things can be expensive and can have side- effects too, but like always every problem comes with a solution and here we are going to discuss the solution. And like we earlier told you face yoga exercises are your solution.
How Face Yoga Exercises Help?
Like every other part of our body our face is made up of 42 individual muscles, and these muscles can be exercised by proper techniques which we will learn later in the article, the face yoga exercises can help in toning and slimming up the face. Face yoga aims at strengthening and relaxing the facial muscles, and by increasing the blood flow around them which ultimately boosts collagen production and makes the skin look younger and brighter. Let’s discuss some face yoga exercises and neck exercises to enhance your appearance.
1. Warm Up
Warm-up is the most crucial part of any workout regime and same applies for the facial yoga exercises, warm-up increases the flow of blood and hence activates and prepares the muscles for the upcoming exercises, warm up can be done by giving a gentle massage in circular motion to the area below your collar bones, you can use a gentle moisturizer to provide the perfect slip to your skin. Blowing up your cheeks and lips is another way of warming up, the vibrations produced help in relaxing the facial muscles and the warm-up can be a great face yoga for glowing skin.
2. Fish Face
Fish face is an extremely popular exercises, it indeed is a great face yoga for double chin, and trust me you will find it very easy as Fish face is the most common selfie pose for most of us, all it takes is sucking your cheeks in and holding this position till you feel stress in your cheek muscles, you should repeat it five to ten times to get better results.
3. Mouth Wash Technique
This is another simple face yoga for double chin. We know how annoying double chin can be! But exercises as simple as Mouth wash can help you to a great extent, all you need to do is pretend you are rinsing your face but instead of water you are using air, move the air from left to right for a while, take a break and repeat four to five time and it is done. Mouth Wash technique is also beneficial for strengthening your cheek muscles.
4. The V
Eyes are the liveliest part of your face, eyes do all the speaking for you while you are silent and the V is one of the best and simplest Face Yoga for eye, it helps in tightening the muscles around eyes, treats the droopy eyelids and hollow under the eyes, it is also beneficial in case of crow’s feet.
To perform the v, you need to put your middle finger between the brow and using your index finger apply pressure at outer corners of the brow thus making a v around your eyes, now with the help of your lower eyelid try to squint, repeating this exercise five to six time will be enough.
5. Rubber
Rubber as the name tells is an excellent facial exercise for wrinkles and regaining the elasticity of facial muscles, this helps immensely in fading out the wrinkles at your forehead, to perform this exercise you need to interlock your fingers and place them at your forehead near the hairline, now pull yourself back with the help of your hands and purse your lips making an O, you need to hold this position for 20 seconds and repeat it for 20 times for better results.
6. Cheek Lift
We are well aware of the obsession with a slimmer and toned up face, cheek lift is an ideal face yoga for slim face, it also helps in uplifting the cheek bones giving you a younger looking face, cheek lift is an extremely simple exercise, all you need to do is sit comfortably and smile as wide as you can, now with the help of your index and middle finger try to lift your cheek towards your eyes, hold it for a while and do some repetitions.
Yoga for Neck and Shoulders
Owing to the sedentary and tech friendly life style most of us suffer from neck and shoulder pain, tightness around neck muscles and shoulder is very common nowadays but there are some exercises which can help you immensely in getting rid of neck pain and tightness, these exercises are also beneficial in correcting the posture and a good posture makes the facial exercises more fruitful so without further ado let’s discuss some easy yet effective yoga for neck pain.
1. Cat Cow Pose
To perform this exercise, begin on all fours, with your wrists under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Exhale, arching your back and curving your spine upwards. (At this point, you should be dressed like an enraged cat.) Hold for three breaths, allowing your head to hang freely between your arms. Exhale as you elevate your tailbone and roll your shoulders back. Allow your belly to fall toward the floor as you look up.10–12 times is a good rule of thumb.
2. Standing Forward Fold
This exercise is quite easy to perform all you need to do is to extend your legs in front of you while sitting. Consider concealing your ribs from the sun to strengthen your core. Raise your arms straight in the air. Maintain a long spine by hinging at the hips and allowing the upper body to close in on the legs. Continue lowering until your back begins to circle slightly. Grab the knees, shins, or toes. Inhale and exhale, deepening the fold as needed on the exhale.
Bottom Line
Self-care is the highest form of self-love, facial yoga is the new way of showing some love to your skin, facial yoga can be your go to solution if you dream of chiseled and toned face. The best thing about facial yoga exercises is they don’t have any side effect and they are absolutely free and easily accessible so why don’t you try them out to bring your hidden glow outside.
Mr. Vijay Kumar Pandey is an eminent Yoga teacher with 15 years of experience. He excelled himself in Iyengar Yoga under the guidance of revered master BKS Iyengar Read More