Yoga was firstly mentioned in the sacred texts of Hinduism called Vedas, written in Sanskrit. These writings date back to 6000 BC. An ancient practice one might say. It was only around 1890, that yoga gained massive popularity in the West. Swami Vivekananda is often portrayed as the monk that introduced yoga to the West. He was believed to be the first one to give a yoga demonstration in the West, the interest and demand for teachings shortly after exploded. Via this pathway, many monks came to the West to show their wisdom, and Westerners went to India to follow workshops and classes.

In the beginning, people saw it as hype, but it never really stopped, didn’t it? Yoga had always been practiced everywhere around the world and it has always been in the foreground of a healthy lifestyle. Now, what about Face yoga? Is this hype or is it like body yoga a well-kept secret from ancient times?

Even skilled poker players recommend face yoga as it enhances the facial muscles hence controls your expressions.

These infamous card gamers are renowned for keeping their cool when they are on the brink of losing their immense high bets. Everyone knows that besides the game rules, which is the most important in the game, bluffing comes as a close second.

Of course, this is only possible in real live casinos and not in online casinos as you play with an avatar. But who knows maybe new casino sites might come up with a new digital game in which your head is visible and you can practice your bluffing or even strike a face yoga pose.

Founder

The American educated Fumiko Takatsu who lives in Japan and works as an English teacher invented face yoga. After a very unfortunate car accident during a holiday in California, she severely injured her head, shoulder, and hip. She barely survived and was in a lot of pain as you can imagine. All these wounds instantly made a place for a shock when she saw her face… It was completely asymmetrical and she wasn’t in the possibility to create any facial expressions.

She was stressed out and tried everything she could think of, roughly said, to straighten her face. She tried all lotions, creams, oil whatever you can think of but nothing worked. And as with all great inventors, while she was rock bottom, the million-dollar idea was born. If I do exercises to keep my body toned and in shape, why don’t do face workouts? After a few weeks, the results were out of this world. And so, the word about Face yoga started spreading worldwide.

Does it work?

I don’t know about you but I am a bit skeptical about these practices. If you google Face yoga, you will see many great results, amazing pictures, and true stories. But how can we really know it works?

Further, there are some articles out there that claim that you can do it wrong and instead of getting rid of wrinkles, create them. That’s scary…

Care needs to be taken that you correctly execute the training. To play it on the safe side you can follow classes in a group. I imagine this being a funny sight because the face poses are quite distinctive. Well, if you end up laughing your whole way through the lesson, at least you had a good laughing yoga practice.

That’s probably why classes aren’t that widely offered. A good alternative would be to follow a class on YouTube.

Most of the videos on this medium also provide necessary background information, greatly reducing the risk of carrying out the exercises incorrectly.

Poses

We choose the 5 most important poses to generate a younger overall face.

Lips

Also known as the Marilyn pose;

This pose is concentrating on preventing the little lines around your lips. What you need to do is form your lips as you are blowing a kiss to your little niece or nephew. The key is to really exaggerate this for maximum effect. This pose needs to be repeated 5 times.

Lips and cheeks

To strengthen these muscles, you can shape your mouth like a fish, the extra challenge here would be to try and smile as hard as you can with your fish face. Maybe looking in the mirror or performing this pose in the company of friends might help to get you a smile.

The line between nose and lips

To reduce the wrinkle between the lower part of your nose and the corners of your mouth firstly smile broadly and secondly place two to three fingers in between your nose and lips. Finally, push your fingers in the direction of your ears.

The wrinkles between eyebrows

Also known as the eleven lines. I don’t know about you guys but this is quite a crevice in my case. To lessen these marks of age, apply horizontal pressure between the inner corners of your eyebrows by spreading your thumb and index finger apart. The next step is to slowly frown.

Neck

Raise your head, turn to the right and point your chin at a 45-degree angle. Subsequently, form your lips as if you are about to kiss someone. Hold for 5 seconds, repeat 5 times, and then start all over on the left side. This exercise will tighten your neck and jawline.

As after every physical activity, the importance of a cooldown is present.
To relax all the facial muscles, simply tap your fingers from the crown of your head to the base of your neck.

Conclusion

Are you convinced? If you ask me, I am not entirely sure, as we all have busy lives and I already dedicate 30 minutes a day of my free time to physical work out. To add face yoga to my daily routine might be a bit much.

Due to the awkward, notable nature of these movements, it definitely won’t go unnoticed and accordingly is better not be done during commuting to work.