Face Yoga 101: Benefits, Risks, and 7 Effective Exercises

People have been practicing yoga for thousands of years. This practice has undergone many changes and modifications depending on the different periods and schools. However, the thousands of yoga health benefits always stay the same: building strength, supporting joint health, reducing stress, and obtaining a more youthful appearance.

Nonetheless, the yogic practice is a full-body experience. This means that you can use yoga to exercise any part of your body, including the face. That’s why nowadays, people do face yoga for many reasons.

From strengthening their facial muscles and improving their skin tone to battling double chin problems and eliminating forehead wrinkles, face yoga can do you miracles! Check out this extensive article and learn more about:

• 🤔 What is face yoga?
• ❓ How to do different types of face yoga workouts.
• ✔️ What are the benefits of doing face yoga workouts?

Without further ado, let’s see what face yoga is and how you can benefit from it!

What Is Face Yoga?

Simply put, face yoga is a set of exercises that target and stimulate the facial muscles. Similarly to standard yogic practices, face yoga consists of movements and stretches that target specific facial muscles.

The techniques are usually based on a play between muscle tension and relaxation aimed at helping you get rid of stress and strengthening your facial muscles.

This set of facial workouts often involves massages and movements of a whole range of different parts of the upper body. For instance, people doing face yoga exercises activate the facial and neck muscles, the lymphatic system, and the facial skin.

There’re numerous face yoga exercises for getting a desired and attractive face. Some more popular ones are the:

• Temple developer,
• Eyebrow lifter,
• Cheeks sculpting technique,
• Cheek lifter.

The idea behind these movements is to keep your face toned and healthy. These movements are a natural way to reshape your facial appearance and can guarantee you fewer headaches, better sleep, and much less stress.

However, people naturally ask themselves, “Can face yoga reverse the aging process?” In recent years, there have been many studies, and almost all of them point out the fact that these exercises reduce the signs of aging. What’s more, many dedicated practitioners have already reported a more youthful appearance and healthy glow.

On the other hand, people also ask themselves if face yoga builds up the collagen percentage in the face. Collagen is essential for getting toned skin and wrinkle reduction, as well as obtaining a healthier facial appearance. The answer is yes – face yoga doesn’t only build up the facial muscles, but it also builds up the percentage of collagen in the face!

Last but not least, facial yoga can be a great tool to prevent sagging or battle saggy cheeks. With consistent training and a healthy diet, face yoga can lift cheek muscles and make your face look fabulous.

Face Yoga Benefits

The face yoga method offers numerous benefits, such as improving nostril breathing, reprogramming muscle memory, supporting a firm neckline, correcting saggy face, and much more.

What’s even more important, these exercises will save you a lot of time and money spent on dermal filler procedures and skincare products. These yoga techniques are a natural and easy way to lift your cheeks and get toned skin. However, you’ll have to be consistent and do them daily to see results!

Following are some of the most common benefits of facial yoga workout:

• Improving the control and mobility of facial muscles
• Promoting natural and healthy nostril breathing
• Strengthening the neckline
• Improving facial muscles memory
• Preventing and alleviating the symptoms of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders
• Reshaping your jawline and making your face look more symmetrical
• Bolstering confidence
• Reducing the dark circles under the eyes
• Reshape and strengthen face muscles
• Prevent and correct sagging
• Support positive emotions
• Give a chiseled jawline

Face Yoga Exercises for Beginners

There’re many types of face yoga exercises. With the power of the Internet today, you can easily find thousands of results that lead to facial yoga exercises.

Nonetheless, the different techniques derive their names from the different face parts. From the forehead lifter and the eye opener to the pucker lips and face savasana, there are tens, if not hundreds, of different movements.

However, we’ve separated the most popular and most effective ones for you and detailed them right below.

Mewing

Mewing is one of the easiest and most efficient jawline reshaping techniques. You’ll have to wait not more than a few weeks before you start witnessing the crazy facial transformations of mewing. There’re tons of mewing benefits that will boost your confidence and make your jawline look perfect!

However, if you want to start mewing, you’ll need a professional and dedicated guide toward your jawline transformation. There’s no better solution than to download the Mewing.Coach app and see for yourself that mewing does work!

This app will provide you with a fully-fledged and custom-tailored program suitable for your unique facial features and bodily predispositions. The Mewing.Coach app will also support you with daily reminders, educational content, and a set of guides on how to properly mew.

The app will also help you add mewing to your daily routine and stimulate you into doing it properly.

To give you a better picture of what mewing is all above, we will explain it to you in two simple steps. First of all, when you start mewing, you’ll have to close your mouth and gently touch your teeth. Next, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and induce light pressure. Make sure not to block the airways when breathing, and try to keep this posture for a while.

Mewing has a bunch of benefits! Some of the more frequent ones are getting you a chiseled jawline and smooth under-eye area, toning your lips and your neck, improving your nose appearance, and accentuating your cheekbones.

The Cheek Lifter

The cheek-lifting method is second on our list! This comes quite naturally because the cheek-lifting technique is one of the most common face yoga practices. It’s a great facial exercise for both beginners and more experienced users.

You can do the cheek-lifting technique in a few simple steps. Just open your mouth and form the letter “O”. Place your upper lip above your teeth and smile to lift your cheeks. Then, gently press your index fingers on your cheeks and lift them towards your eyes. In the end, release the pressure on your cheek muscles and lower them.

The cheek-lifting technique is quite an effective exercise if you do it daily. You can start by doing ten repetitions each day and gradually increase the number of reps. However, keep in mind that at the 10th repetition, you’ll have to push your cheek muscles as high as you can and hold them there for 20 seconds before releasing the pressure.

The Forehead Lifting Method

This face yoga method is great for obtaining a more even skin tone and tighter skin on the forehead. You can do this exercise by interlacing your fingers over your forehead and applying gentle pressure. While you do this, try to lift your forehead and/or hold it there for about a minute.

To experience the full results of doing the forehead lifts, you’ll have to repeat this exercise 50 times each day. This exercise is a great natural solution to smooth wrinkles and forehead lines. Moreover, the forehead-lifting method will raise your brows and polish the skin area around your eyes.

The Happy Cheeks Sculpting Technique

This sculpting technique is yet another method where the power of your smile is essential. You can do this technique by smiling without showing off your teeth and trying to roll your lips outwards as much as possible.

The next step is to try to smile from the corners of your mouth until you start noticing a burning sensation on both ends. Once you feel this sensation, place your index fingers on the corners of your mouth and lift the cheek muscles toward the corners of your eyes.

When you reach the top of your cheeks, hold the pressure for 20 seconds and then release the tension. This exercise should be done two to three times with brief pauses between each repetition.

The Neck And Jaw Firmer Technique

This technique will help you reduce tension in the neck and the jaw. It’ll also improve the appearance of your neck and strengthen your jaw muscles.

You can begin doing the neck and jaw firmer exercise by opening your mouth and start uttering a gentle “A”. Next, you should extend your lower jaw outwards while folding your lower lip and the corners of your mouth inwards.

Then, continue gathering up your lower jaw while closing your mouth. With each scoop up, try to pull your chin and tilt your head backward for about an inch. Repeat this 10 times before you reach the maximum extension of your neck.

You should finish with your chin against the ceiling. When you reach the final position, try to hold it for around 20 seconds before releasing the pressure and bringing your head back to a normal posture.

The Temple Developer

The temple developer is also one of the facial movements recommended for both experienced and face yoga beginners. Even though it’s done in a few straightforward steps, the temple developer benefits you in multiple ways.

First of all, you’ll strengthen your facial and neck muscles. Secondly, the exercise is great for improving the mobility of your jaw and supports healthy chewing movements.

Start doing the temple developer by closing your jaw and pressing your fingertips on your temples. Then, clench your jaws and grind your teeth while trying to imagine that you’re pulling your ears backward. Hold this position tight for around 10 seconds.

Then, continue by clenching your back teeth downwards and try to hold this position for another 10 seconds. After that, you can relax.

The logic behind these repetitive clenches is flexing your temporalis with each separate clean and building up the pressure. Just like you exercise with any other muscle. However, there’s one more essential trick for properly doing the temple developer.

And this is where the yoga comes in! When you’re clenching your teeth, try to concentrate on the temple region and visualize the movements and pressure in the area. This way, you’ll stimulate and improve your facial muscle memory.

Facial Massages

The last and the most pleasant thing you can do for your face and neck is a massage. What’s most interesting is that you can do the facial massage alone. You’ll just have to clean your hands and face and apply a thin layer of natural oil (coconut oil, for example) before you start massaging your face.

Press your fingers into the muscles of your face and massage the whole surface for about 20 minutes. You can also circle around your eyes and follow the shape of your jawline with your fingers.

Facial massaging will promote relaxation and better blood circulation in your face. It can also reduce stress and make you feel calmer. You can do these self-care massages every day for about 20 to 30 minutes. Once you’re done, get a clean and warm towel and place it on your face, lay on your back, and relax!

Does Face Yoga Really Work?

In the past few years, many studies have confirmed the benefits of doing facial yoga. According to people’s testimonies and scientific research, these movements can improve a person’s overall well-being.

For example, one study found that facial exercises can improve cheek fullness. The research subjects concluded that their aging outcomes were far better than when they started. In fact, the general conclusion of this study was that doing face yoga for 30 minutes per day for over 20 weeks can result in improved facial features, especially for middle-aged women.

In general, face yoga workouts can release the tension from the face and the whole body, boost circulation, tighten the skin, and make you look much younger. However, you should note that these exercises must be done continuously and for at least 20 to 30 minutes. As studies have shown, this is the optimal time to increase blood flow and thus get better results.

Face Yoga Before and After: Real Transformations

If you’re still asking yourself whether face yoga works so effectively, as scientists say, you can always check the real mewing achievements.

As you can notice from the pictures, people doing face yoga consistently experience a more chiseled jawline, tighter face, and more symmetrical facial features. Most importantly, they feel relaxed and stress-free!

How Long Does Face Yoga Take to Work?

There’re different types of exercises – from muscle loss and face slimming techniques to exercises for lower cheek fullness and fuller lips. However, you can’t expect the results of each of these exercises to be in the same or similar time frame.

For example, for mewing, you can expect the initial results as quickly as 30 days. On the other hand, doing exercises like massages and the temple developer won’t show you results for at least about 20 weeks.

Nonetheless, if you want to experience a real facial reshaping process, do these workouts 30 minutes a day and stay consistent for a few weeks.

Risks and Side Effects of Practicing Face Yoga

Just as there’re many professionals promoting face yoga exercises, many opponents are constantly warning of the negative effects. Even though scientists still can’t prove the negative side of doing these exercises, some professionals suspect a range of side effects.

Some of the most frequently mentioned ones are the acceleration of the aging process and the emergence of acne. For more information, read our in-depth guide – Exercise And Acne-Prone Skin: The Dos and Don’ts

Speeding Up Aging

Some experts and doctors, like Dr. Lucy Chen, a board-certified dermatologist, say that these types of exercises can accelerate aging. The main argument behind this statement is that, contrary to botox, face yoga techniques activate the muscles on the face and stimulate their movements.

Moreover, these experts say that botox is much more effective because it works towards freezing the muscles so that the face stays longer without wrinkles.

Causes Clogged Skin Pores & Oily Skin

Some of the facial yoga techniques will require you to touch your face. However, a huge number of dermatologists will advise you not to touch it to avoid and prevent acne. Furthermore, they say that this is one of the main reasons for clogged pores and oily skin.

Nonetheless, there’s one technique that won’t require you to touch your face – the mewing technique. Mewing is all about proper tongue positioning and doesn’t include any movements that can harm your skin or underline the wrinkles on your face.

If you want the hard mewing technique explained and see for yourself the effects of these movements, you can always download our Mewing.Coach app. On top of that, you’ll get a custom-tailored training program and a whole pack of educational content on how to improve your facial appearance.

Your Best Face Yoga Sources

Some certified experts can give you professional face yoga classes. However, they can be quite expensive and hard to find. That’s why the best way to learn and combine different techniques into a single training plan is to search the Internet for online facial yoga classes.

You can find anything that suits your needs, from simple online videos to complete guides. Moreover, these exercises are usually explained in depth, and you can download and learn them for free. You can also educate on the benefits and effectiveness of each exercise.

One such option that gives detailed guides on some of the top facial exercises is the Mewing.Coach app. This simple application will provide you with a great set of facial exercises, training time notifications, and a customized training program – all you need to help you achieve the facial features you’ve dreamed of.

How Often Should You Do Face Yoga?

If you want to see your face transform, you should perform facial exercises every day. Professionals will advise you to do 30-minute face yoga sessions 2 times a day.

Depending on the types of exercises, you can combine them into a single yoga session and change their order according to your taste. For example, you can do the massages first and then do the mewing and forehead lifting technique or vice versa.

Naturally, you can choose the time of the day when you do the face yoga techniques. They’re most effective when done once in the morning and once in the evening. Nonetheless, you should stick to the training plan and make your sessions last around half an hour.

Which Facial Muscles Does Face Yoga Help You Engage?

Face yoga doesn’t only stimulate the face muscles but also the neck, cheek, and even ear muscles. By doing face yoga techniques, you’ll activate the muscles around your eyes, mouth, frontalis muscles, and the muscles on your cheeks.

This makes face yoga an all-out training method that can improve the activity of all the muscles on your face. Furthermore, each facial exercise targets a different muscle group. For example, the forehead lifting method stimulates the frontalis muscle, while the neck and jaw firmer technique improves the activity of the muscles beneath your lower jaw and neck.

The mewing method, however, can be used for any facial area. These workouts are divided into different muscle groups. Some of these mewing techniques are meant to be effective ways to get rid of the double chin, while others are just facial exercises that enable you to combat face fat.

The best thing is that you can always choose between the different types of mewing workouts depending on what you want to achieve and which muscles you would like to activate.

Final Words on the Face Yoga Workouts

Face yoga can bring many benefits, like reducing stress and tension, making you look younger and more appealing, and boosting your confidence.

There’re tons of face yoga techniques available online. However, some of these may take a while to show results. While chin tucks can take months, mewing is maybe the quickest technique, showing effective results in just several weeks.

On top of that, you can always download our free Mewing.Coach app and learn more about these workouts and how they affect your appearance and well-being.

So, don’t hesitate to try out these simple yet powerful movements that will enrich your everyday appearance and make you look younger and much happier!