Just like the rest of your body, your face needs exercising too. Dr Blossom Kochhar shares easy facial exercises that one can do to get that perfectly toned skin at home
We all are very particular about our fitness, we all hit the gym, do yoga or any other form of exercise to keep our bodies in shape but most of the time we forget a very major part that also needs regular exercising and toning — our face. There are 42 individual muscles on our face which are responsible for our facial expressions, the way we smile and look. So, it is even more important to keep all these muscles toned so that you always look young and slow the ageing process.
Facial yoga is the latest fad that a lot of people are teaching and talking about. Many say, practicing facial yoga is as good as getting Botox done, if done regularly and correctly. The best thing about facial yoga, you can do it anywhere and at any time.
Here are a few facial exercises that one can do to tone the facial muscles:
Start with reciting the vowels — A, E, I, O, U. Say the vowels in an exaggerated manner so that you stretch all your face & neck muscles. To begin with say the 5 vowels each 10 times in a day, then slowly build it to 20-30 times in a day. This is a complete exercise for your face.
Second exercise that you can do is, close your fist and place is under your chin. Now try opening your mouth while pressing your fist up to close the mouth. This is a great exercise to get rid of double chin. Once you’ll start doing it, you will yourself feel the stress on your jawline and who doesn’t want the perfect jawline.
A perfect exercise to avoid getting wrinkles under your eyes and on your forehead is to place both your hands on your forehead so that no muscles move. Now blink your eyes in an exaggerated manner for about 10 times. Blinking will strengthen your eye muscles.
Another exercise that you can try for strengthening your eye muscles is by placing, put your index finger and your middle finger on either side of eyes, one at the inner corner and the other at the outer corner and blink. Do this 10 times in a day. Chubby cheeks look super cute when we are kids but becomes a major concern when we grow up. To pull up saggy and chubby cheeks, pull everything to your side. Its like doing a sideway kiss, this stretches your cheek muscles and helps in making it firm.
We all worry about our laughing lines and as we grow up, they tend to become more visible. The perfect solution to reducing laughing lines are placing your fingers firmly over your laugh lines, now smile as widely as possible, remember to keep your lips apart. Hold this for five-10 seconds and repeat the exercise 20-25 times. This will help to remove creases around the cheek and lift your cheeks.
A major thing to remember while applying your daily moisturiser is to always apply in upward motion, especially around the cheeks and on neck. If you do it otherwise you are pulling your skin down making it saggy. Remember all these exercises if done regularly can relax your facial muscles and give a natural lift to your face, but we cannot rule out ageing all together.
The writer is Chairperson, Blossom Kochhar Group of Companies