By Tiffany Ocampo Certified Body and Face Yoga and Personal Trainer with 20 years of experience.

 

You know the incredible benefits of body yoga and you’ve likely practiced before but have you heard of face yoga? Maybe you’ve seen a social media ad with a women making a strange face thinking...there’s no way that works and I don’t have time to try it.

Face yoga is a catchy name for: facial massage, acupressure, releasing tense muscles, strengthening weak muscles, posture exercises, breath work and correcting aging habits. We have over 40 muscles in the neck and face that we use to make thousands of expressions daily! Combine that with our bad habits like looking down at your phone, side sleeping, or crossing your legs we get a recipe for wrinkles, tension, asymmetry, and premature aging. Face yoga has been proven to take years off your face while helping with anxiety and stress.

The first record of face yoga dates back to 1710! It’s evolved and is complex in nature. The most effective and transformative face yoga technique starts with breath work, then posture exercises, followed by neck poses, and finally poses for different areas of the face and head. It’s important to understand that everything is connected.

Your body muscles connect to bone, but the muscles of your face connect to other muscles. This helps you to understand why releasing tension or moving one facial muscle affects another area of the face.

 

The most loved face yoga benefits are preventing and eliminating wrinkles, & looking younger. Below are additional benefits:

 

1. Releases Tension

Your skin is closely attached to the muscle, when your muscle is tense it shortens leaving your skin behind. The skin has no choice but to form a wrinkle, releasing facial tension is a must! Restoring your facial muscles back to their original length eliminates or minimizes fine lines and wrinkles. Face yoga relaxes muscles naturally without potentially harmful side effects or high cost procedures.

 

Most people have tension in the face, head, neck, &/or jaw. Did you know releasing tension in your ears can help with minimizing nasolabial folds and bags under your eyes? About 70% of people have one form of TMJ symptoms. Tension can be released in the four chewing muscles: masseter, temporalis, medial and lateral pterygoid.

 

2. Properly Functioning Lymphatic & Circulatory Systems

In short, your lymphatic system supports the circulatory system by draining excess fluid and removing waste products and abnormal cells from the body.

 Having a clean lymphatic system means a brighter complexion, acne prevention, increased elasticity and collagen production, and reduces premature aging.

 

3. Stress & Anxiety Relief

Stress breaks down collagen and elastin, chronic stress has negative effects on the skin and causes wrinkles to form. It’s well-known breath work relieves stress and anxiety.

 

Face yoga promotes relaxation and the massage technique has been proven to minimize depression by 59% and anxiety by 30%.

 

4. Improved Posture

Having poor posture shows up on your face, for example, looking down at your phone contributes to a double chin. Improved posture is attributed to less back pain and spine issues, improved digestion, better respiratory function, better mood and mental health, less headaches, and improved concentration.

 

In just minutes a day you can see benefits in a matter of a few weeks, and feel benefits with one session. Want to learn more?

 

I'm Tiffany with MZ Wellness I'm certified in two face yoga methods that have accreditation.

 

I have a passion for teaching, creating personalized programs, and love to help women feel better about themselves with this proven natural method of anti-aging. You can find me on IG @muscleandzen

 

I'm also a yoga teacher and personal trainer taking clients online and locally in Wilmington, NC.