Fitness Pudding - Where The Proof Is
Exercise for Your Face?
Can facial exercise or yoga reduce the appearance of aging? There is thought that exercising the muscles of the face can increase their size, thus reducing the appearance of aging. Claims can be fairly dramatic.
But, here’s the study1 behind recent media attention, looking at the effect of 32 different facial exercises, 30-minutes per day, 3-4 times per week, for 20 weeks. The main outcome was the appearance of aging, as rated by two physicians using a facial aging scale.2
Of the 19 different areas examined across the face and neck, there were no changes at 8 weeks, and only two rated as different from baseline at 20 weeks: upper and lower cheek fullness, barely decreasing an average score of 0.7 points on the 5-point scale. So, their face went from “mildly sunken” to about “mildly sunken.”
References
- Alam, M., Walter, A. J., Geisler, A., Roongpisuthipong, W., Sikorski, G., Tung, R., & Poon, E. (2018). Association of facial exercise with the appearance of aging. JAMA Dermatology.
- Carruthers, J., Flynn, T. C., Geister, T. L., Görtelmeyer, R., Hardas, B., Himmrich, S., ... & Narins, R. S. (2012). Validated assessment scales for the mid face. Dermatologic Surgery, 38(2ptII), 320-332.
- D’souza, R., Kini, A., D’souza, H., Shetty, N., & Shetty, O. (2014). Enhancing Facial Aesthetics with Muscle Retraining Exercises-A Review. Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR, 8(8), ZE09.
