In this article we will talk about gymnastics for the face (face fitness, face building). But not about any specific technique, but about my attitude towards facial gymnastics in general.
You probably noticed that the opinions of experts are divided. Some experts believe that facial gymnastics is a very effective means of prolonging youth, while others, on the contrary, believe that facial gymnastics is a useless and even harmful activity.
I studied this issue, tried it, and am ready to share my experience, impressions and my opinion about facial gymnastics. (c) Olga Fem.
Women's hopes for facial gymnastics
The first thing I noticed is that women sometimes have high hopes for facial gymnastics.
On the one hand, it’s clear why. After all, everyone knows that fitness classes help keep a figure in excellent shape at almost any age. And all other things being equal (weight, age), a person who exercises will look better than someone who does not exercise at all.
Therefore, women may think that if they do facial fitness, they can achieve the same results. That is, keep your face in great shape for as long as possible.
And this is often stated in books on facial gymnastics, that the facial muscles can be trained in the same way as the body muscles, so that the face remains young and beautiful longer.
Real reviews of classes
To understand how beneficial gymnastics is for the face, just read reviews about Facebook building by doctors and ordinary women:
A client who recently turned 50 came to see me. She complained of deep nasolabial folds and furrows on her forehead. According to her, she tried many expensive anti-aging creams, but did not get the desired effect. Her visit to me was the last attempt to restore her face’s attractiveness, since she did not want to resort to injections, much less go under the surgeon’s knife, but in desperation she was ready for this act. After six months of constant training under my supervision, she could not believe her eyes - the wrinkles, of course, did not completely disappear (at her age this would be something out of science fiction), but they became much less noticeable. The oval of the face has tightened, the face as a whole has become fresher and more toned. I recommend face-building classes to absolutely all ladies - both to combat age-related changes in the face and as a preventive measure.
Kravtsova Ekaterina Romanovna, Facebook building consultant, Moscow
Doing face building is really useful; the achievements of many of my clients are impressive. However, it is worth taking into account the factor of thoughtfulness - if you just start grimacing in front of the mirror, you may not only not achieve results, but also lead to the appearance of new wrinkles. It is for this reason that you should discuss with a specialist the specifics of exercises for different groups of the face.
Krasnomovets Oleg Evgenievich, dermatologist, Voronezh
Facial muscles are different from body muscles
But the muscles of the face are different from the muscles of the body. They are thinner, flatter, they (with rare exceptions) are attached to the bone at one end, and woven into the other end either into the skin or into other muscles. Due to this, they provide us with active facial expressions.
If we talk about a floating figure, then in this case the cause of the problem is usually that certain muscles have weakened, lost their tone and we see that the person’s posture has been disturbed, the triceps have sagged, the butt has sagged and everything is clear - you just need to train to strengthen these muscles and body became elastic again.
If we talk about facial deformation, wrinkles, folds, double chin, then the root cause here is not hypotonicity, but hypertonicity of certain muscles. And first of all, these are the muscles of the neck, the muscles of the forehead.
And when certain muscles of the face and neck are in hypertonicity, the balance is disturbed and it is because of this that other muscles are in a state of hypotonicity. That is, they become weak and begin to sag.
Therefore, in this case, first of all, you need not to train weakened muscles, but to relieve tension, relieve hypertonicity from those muscles that are overstrained. And then the balance between the muscles will be restored and those muscles that are weakened will gradually return to normal tone.
Training program
Facebook building includes working on the following areas:
Forehead
We work the frontalis muscle so as not to have horizontal wrinkles on the forehead, then the muscle that brings the eyebrows together so as not to have vertical wrinkles on the bridge of the nose.
Eyes
We get rid of congestion on the face: bruises, bags, swelling under the eyes.
We improve the elasticity of the upper eyelid, eliminate or prevent sagging, and remove crow's feet.
Cheeks
You can hide your forehead, but it’s your cheeks that always show your age. We start with the muscle that lifts the corners of the mouth, then we work on the zygomatic major - to have high cheekbones.
Oriental beauties with high cheekbones do not have saggy cheeks.
It's either one or the other. Then we move on to the cheeks: from top to bottom, outside and inside. We make them elastic, textured and strong, so that there is no lethargy and jelly-like appearance. All together this will lead to the creation of a beautiful oval face and its preservation for many years.
Mouth
We exercise the annular muscle of the mouth, making plump, juicy lips
Chin
We carry out the prevention or elimination of a double chin, then move on to the décolleté area (up to the second rib of the sternum).
How physiological are facial exercises?
Therefore, the first question that arose for me was how physiological it is to do any exercises for the facial muscles. Because if we are talking about fitness for the body, then I have no doubt that it is physiological.
Because by nature we have quite a lot of muscles and they are designed not only to move the mouse on the rug, but also so that we can walk, run, swim, climb trees all day long to get our food.
We certainly don't do this now. It is clear that it is stupid to refuse the benefits of civilization. It’s much more pleasant to work in the office on the computer, then go to the supermarket, buy a whole cart of delicious food and go home to the sofa.
But in order for our body to be in good shape, to feel good, we need to somehow compensate for this sedentary lifestyle. And fitness classes are very suitable for this, where we can train all muscle groups.
Physiological massage of the face, neck and décolleté
As for massage of the face, neck and décolleté, I also have no doubt that this is physiological.
Please note, when we sit too long, for example, at the computer and our neck already hurts from overexertion, then any person who has no idea what muscles are there, who has no idea about massage movements, still intuitively, involuntarily begins to make kneading movements in this area, or even asks someone close to them to stretch their neck.
So everything is clear about massage too - it relieves tension, relieves hypertonicity from those muscles that are overstrained.
A look from the inside
The condition of the skin depends on the condition of the internal organs - and this is clearly manifested in Facebook building. The muscle begins to work, and actively, and this creates colossal blood circulation and stimulates enormous metabolic processes.
The rate of aging processes slows down, good movement of nutrients occurs, and oxygen is also well tolerated.
We put the muscle frame at the forefront, it must have volume - this is how the skin looks different. But its quality or color depends on the amount of nutrients that will be delivered. Therefore, everything really comes from within, both positive and negative. A bad internal ecology will be visible on the face, but a good ecology will be visible too.
Isolated training for weakened facial muscles
There is one more point that I would like to say. Let's say there is nothing wrong with doing exercises for weakened facial muscles. Let's say this is really useful and good. But you probably know that it is very difficult to train any muscle in isolation.
And if, for example, you want to pump up your gluteal muscles, then during the exercises, in any case, your thigh muscles will be involved in the work to one degree or another. That is, the thigh muscles will also be trained. In this case, there is nothing wrong with this, but with the facial muscles the situation is different.
If, while training weakened facial muscles, we involve other muscles in our work that are overstrained and hypertonic, then nothing good will come of it. Because these muscles cannot be trained, on the contrary, they need to be relaxed.
And it’s very difficult to trace this, because the facial muscles are very thin, flat, you won’t even feel that some muscles that are not needed are involved in the work.
In general, I have doubts that exercises for the facial muscles are physiological and beneficial.
Gymnastics for the face - a product in the beauty industry market
Many women have high hopes for facial gymnastics, because they believe that it is free, which means there is no catch.
When we buy cosmetics or some services in a salon, we understand perfectly well that they are making money from us, and since they are making money from us, since it is beneficial for someone, then they can sell us both high-quality and effective cosmetics, both good services and low-quality ones cosmetics, useless, unnecessary services.
But here, it seems like you don’t need to buy anything, you just need to not be lazy and work on your own. But it is not so.
Gymnastics for the face is the same product on the beauty industry market as cosmetics and salon services, but in this case you are not buying a specific product or service, but a technique. Like some kind of diet.
And now a lot of books are being published by different authors, with various gymnastics - face building, face forming, face fitness, facial aerobics and so on.
And they make good money from this too!
Even if you didn’t buy gymnastics, but downloaded the book for free on the Internet or borrowed it from friends, these books are still sold and sold in fairly large editions, which means in this case we can also find both useful, sensible information and illiterate and stupid information. Because they just want to make money from us. Since it’s popular now, it’s trending and everyone is interested in it.
Brief educational program
Facebuilding is gymnastics for the face. Its author is German plastic surgeon Reinhold Benz. Currently, Facebook building refers to everything that has something to do with a person, but in fact, it is a specific program of a specific author with specific content.
We tense a muscle, relax it - that’s all what gymnastics consists of. We work on all areas of the face and décolleté area.
Initially, Reinhold Benz created a facial modeling technique. But the female audience did not understand what to model, how, and whether it would be worse, so the author immediately replaced the word “modeling” with the word “rejuvenation.”
Rejuvenation means getting a face that was given by nature - therefore, thanks to gymnastics, it itself does not change, but youthful accents are placed: a high forehead, high cheekbones, plump lips, a sculpturally sharpened oval.
Individual approach? No, I haven't heard
The first thing I encountered when I started studying various methods and sites dedicated to gymnastics was a huge amount of superficial and sometimes even quite illiterate information.
For the most part, these sources of information looked something like this: a small introductory part, which says that facial gymnastics is very good, very useful, it will help preserve youth. And then there were sets of exercises: if you have a wrinkle between the eyebrows, do this exercise, if you are worried about the nasolabial fold, do these exercises, and if you have a double chin, then do these exercises.
But it's not right! If a person is bothered by a wrinkle between the eyebrows, this indicates that the muscles in this area are in hypertonicity, and such a muscle cannot be trained, but on the contrary, it needs to be kneaded in order to relax and relieve tension.
If a person develops nasolabial folds, then you also need to understand the reason.
If a nasolabial fold appears in a woman over 40-50, then perhaps the reason is that with age, some muscles shorten and pull the skin, forming a fold.
And if this is a young girl of 20-25 years old, and a nasolabial fold is already forming, then perhaps this is simply an incorrect bite and this girl should contact an orthodontist to correct her bite, and not do facial gymnastics.
Facebook building instructors
It would seem that since everything is so complicated, it means you need to entrust the matter to a professional and find a good instructor in facial gymnastics. But I have to tell you that this is not so easy either.
When preparing this video, I watched videos on YouTube where people who introduced themselves as face fitness instructors showed exercises. For example, one girl said, “Now we will train the nasolabial muscle.” I immediately turned off the video at this point, because the nasolabial muscle simply does not exist.
We have muscles that can really cause a nasolabial fold, but these are the levator muscles that raise the upper lip, raise the corner of the mouth, but, alas, there is no special nasolabial muscle.
Maybe the person misspoke, maybe she meant that we would do exercises for the nasolabial fold. But in any case, if a person made such a gross mistake, then the material needs to be re-shot or at least put in an accompanying text that says something else was meant. And such negligence in work, in my opinion, is unacceptable.
Preparation and execution rules
We will not tell you about the rules of Facebook building, because we do not recommend using it. Let’s better discuss proper relaxation of the facial muscles.
- Before the procedure, thoroughly wash and dry your skin. It is better not to use regular tap water - it contains a lot of chlorine, which dries out the skin. Give preference to natural hydrosol of sage, mint or lavender. You can find them on the website www.beauty365.ru
- DO NOT overdo it with moisturizers. You have to make tight, deep movements and oil or cream will only get in the way. Apply, let it absorb, remove excess with a napkin.
- Hands must be washed thoroughly.
- But after the procedure it is necessary to apply a nourishing agent. It will be able to maximize its properties by working the muscles.
What are facial gymnastics made of?
When I started studying the topic of facial exercises, I expected to see some detailed information like fitness, which would first talk about the structure of muscles, then about the cause of facial deformation.
Then some recommendations for self-diagnosis, how to determine what problems there are, which muscles are hypertonic, which muscles are hypotonic, and then some recommendations for specific exercises.
And I must say that over time I found such information that actually talked about the causes of various facial deformities and how to conduct self-diagnosis. This is not a specific book or a specific website on the Internet. I collected this information like a puzzle - piece by piece.
In the end, I even found exercises that seemed interesting and useful to me, but the most interesting thing was that these exercises were essentially not gymnastics or exercises for the face.
These were either fitness exercises that were aimed at relaxing the neck muscles, relaxing the trapezius muscles, or they were kneading techniques, that is, massage techniques to knead those facial muscles that are in hypertonicity.
That is, in essence, I was faced with a substitution of concepts when, when talking about gymnastics for the face, they offer partly exercises for the neck muscles and partly kneading techniques, that is, self-massage techniques.
Facelift or lifting?
In aesthetic medicine, it is customary to distinguish between the lifting effect and the general facelift. Unlike a lift, which is designed to radically eliminate the manifestations of age-related ptosis (change the geometry of the face), lifting procedures provide an improvement in the condition of the skin, improve the appearance of the face as a whole, without radical tissue redistribution.
We can say that a facelift is a radical lifting. Despite the fact that the methods and techniques used are similar, there is a wider choice of cosmetic methods to achieve lifting goals.
Surgical facelift - effective, but expensive and with rehabilitation
You can radically solve the problem of a floating oval with the help of plastic surgery. However, you need to understand that in most cases, surgeons can “cut and tighten”; surgery cannot restore the youthful roundness of the face.
Based on your indications, the clinic will offer you two methods of performing the operation:
- Endoscopic lift. The method is effective at the first signs of ptosis and consists of the following: a puncture is made in the area of the temple in front of the ear, through which, using an endoscope, the doctor tightens the soft tissues and fixes them in a new position. The advantages of the procedure include a short recovery period.
- SMAS lifting or tightening of muscular aponeurotic tissues. The surgeon makes incisions in front of the ear and behind the auricle and through them tightens a group of tissues, followed by their fixation at the required level.
It should be noted that these types of operations are the most expensive of all. The cost starts from 350,000 rubles and does not end at 1 million rubles for famous doctors. The most important thing in surgical lifting is the choice of doctor. We all remember and know examples of unsuccessful corrections by show business stars: both ours and foreign ones.
Thread face lift
This procedure is also called bioreinforcement, and its essence consists of implanting thread-like absorbable and non-absorbable implants under the skin. The biocompatible material from which the thread is made stimulates the growth of tissue around it, forming a frame, thereby tightening the skin and maintaining the oval shape of the face.
Threads with notches are used to tighten (move) tissues and give the desired oval to the face, threads without notches are used for prevention.
The cost of the procedure is calculated based on the number of threads inserted. At the same time, the price range for one thread is very wide, depends on the type of thread and ranges from 800 to 15,000 rubles.
Bioreinforcement with Radiesse
Another way to create a supporting frame is to inject fillers under the skin using a special technique. At its core, this technique is identical to a thread lift, only instead of threads, a liquid preparation is injected into the dermis. Most often we are talking about the drug Radiesse, since it promotes the production of its own collagen.
Bio-reinforcement with fillers does not allow you to tighten the oval of the face, but it works effectively in the initial stages of age-related changes!
The Radiesse bioreinforcement procedure is a preventive procedure, since it cannot be used to completely remove jowls or tighten the oval of the face. It is recommended to administer the drug in the early stages of tissue ptosis on the face - preventively stimulating and prolonging the youth of the skin.
Facial contouring
Despite the fact that our chief doctor is a plastic surgeon, we consider contour plastic surgery the most optimal way to give the oval of the face the desired shape and remove local imperfections.
Look at the before and after photos of our patients at the beginning of this article - all corrections were carried out using contouring techniques.
The essence of the correction is the introduction of safe fillers in order to recreate lost volumes and disguise certain aesthetic defects.
You can achieve the maximum effect from the procedure by simultaneously correcting the angle of the lower jaw, cheekbones and chin - then the oval will acquire a smooth transition from one part of the face to another. The volume of the drug is selected individually, but the optimal dosage is from 3 ml on one side, subject to simultaneous treatment of the cheekbone area.
An example of correction and rejuvenation of the oval of the face using contouring methods using fillers.
The drugs are injected deeply into the periosteum area under the cheekbones and into the chin area. Thanks to this technique, the face restores youthful volume and acquires clear, graceful contours of the lower jaw. With the simultaneous correction of lost volume in the cheekbones, you can achieve real facial rejuvenation by 10 years or more .
As is the case with bioreinforcement, Radiesse is often used in contouring. The main advantage of the drug over other fillers is its ability not to attract water and thus not provoke swelling, as well as a longer period of effect.
The procedure is minimally invasive, since an inconspicuous puncture is enough to administer the drug. In our clinic, injection rejuvenation procedures are carried out using cannulas - safe needles!
After the procedure, you will not notice any visual traces of injections: no hematomas, no blood!
Due to minor tissue damage, the patient does not need a long recovery period, unlike complex surgical interventions.
Who can benefit from facial gymnastics?
I don’t want to say that such gymnastics where there are exercises for the neck, where there are kneading techniques, self-massage techniques are absolutely useless.
No! I even think that if a person who does not play sports at all and never does massage suddenly starts doing such gymnastics, then perhaps after 2 weeks he will notice some improvements and results.
But for me, most likely because I already regularly do fitness and do facial massage, such 10-minute gymnastics is like a poultice for a dead person. That is, for me personally, it is ineffective, if not completely useless.
As a result, I came to the conclusion that I personally am much more suited to working out in the gym, getting a massage from a good specialist, or self-massage of the face. Because working as a cosmetologist often puts stress on the back muscles, for example when I massage a client.
During certain procedures, the cosmetologist’s face is often tilted over the client for a long time, and this contributes to the formation of edema. Especially if you have a penchant for it, and I have one.
Therefore, I need a massage from a good specialist, and not some 10-minute gymnastics.
The same goes for fitness classes. It's not enough for me to just stretch my neck muscles. I need a normal workout to be in good physical shape.
Sagging oval face: reasons
The clarity of facial contours is lost due to various reasons, and after 30 years, several act at once:
- Age.
As you get older, the skin loses its elasticity, because after 35 years, the production of elastin and collagen, proteins that support the contours of the face, decreases. The most vulnerable places are the neck, where the subcutaneous fatty tissue is not burned out, which predisposes it to dehydration. The absence of an abundant network of small vessels is the cause of atrophy and early ptosis of the skin.
- Heredity.
Genetics plays an important role in age-related changes and the type of aging. If there were women in the family who aged quickly, then preventive measures should be taken care of in advance.
- Fluctuations in body weight.
Gaining weight, and after losing weight, does not have the best effect on the contour of the face. This is the main reason for the appearance of jowls and other aesthetic problems. Gaining weight causes the skin to stretch, while losing weight causes it to sag.
- Posture and bite disorders.
Incorrect posture and bite affect the contours of the face, the position of the lower jaw changes, which predisposes to ptosis.
- Aggressive effect on the skin.
Ultraviolet radiation, errors in skin care, the use of aggressive cosmetics and lack of nutrition and hydration are the reasons that deplete collagen and elastin reserves.
conclusions
At the end I would like to summarize:
- I still have doubts about how beneficial and physiological gymnastics for the facial muscles are.
- Some techniques that I found really interesting are essentially exercises for the neck muscles and self-massage techniques.
- I think that such techniques can really be useful for people who never exercise, who do not have the opportunity to do facial massage regularly. It will be much better than doing nothing at all. And most likely these people will actually see some improvements and results.
But as for me personally, I didn’t notice any improvements or results and I simply had no motivation, no incentive to continue these exercises further.
And most importantly, I not only want to work, do self-massage and do fitness, sometimes I just want to relax. Come, lie down, trust yourself in the hands of a good, experienced specialist and not only rejuvenate, but also have fun. OLGA FEM.(c)
The benefits and harms of face building
Women who systematically engage in exercises that include facial gymnastics note the following advantages of this procedure:
- Improving blood microcirculation.
- Acceleration of lymphatic outflow, which “carries away” all accumulated toxins.
- Additional accumulation of collagen molecules, making the skin elastic and taut.
- Smoothing wrinkles and adding volume to facial muscles.
