For skin health and to combat wrinkles, acne and dull complexion, it is good to choose cosmetics containing few natural ingredients, such as plant based oils or essential oils, capable of bringing nourishment to the skin. But facial gymnastics also plays an important role. In fact, by practicing some specific movements every day to activate the muscles of the face, it is possible to improve the blood flow to the tissues and therefore the oxygenation of the skin, which becomes brighter, and to smooth out fine lines and expression lines (D ' Souza et al, J Clin Diagn Res, 2014). Not only that, the facial gymnastics exercises contribute to plump the features and give tone to the skin (Alam et al, JAMA Dermatol, 2018). Today we see what are the best exercises to firm the cheeks, to strengthen the muscles of this area and to do a lifting of the central part of the face.
Exercise 1
Bring your hands in prayer. Interlace your fingers but not your thumbs. The thumbs are parallel and both face upwards. Between the two thumbs there is a small slit. Bring your hands up to your face, inhale with your nose and then exhale through your mouth, forming an O with your lips and blowing the air into the slit. Continue in this way ten times.
Exercise 2
Breathe in with your nose, puff up one cheek, as if you had a big candy, and then slowly let the air pass into the other cheek. Repeat this for 5 cycles, holding the air each time for 5 seconds.
Exercise 3
This exercise, which appeared on the Northwestern University website in reference to the article published in the JAMA journal that demonstrates how facial gymnastics sessions contribute to reshaping the face features (Alam et al, JAMA Dermatol, 2018), works very intensively on the cheeks. Smile without showing your teeth, turn your lips outwards as if you want to show as many lips as possible. Smile while stretching the corners of your mouth, you should almost feel this area burn. Press your index fingers just above the corners of your mouth. Still smiling and with your lips turned outwards, slide your index fingers up to the cheekbones, applying light pressure. Stay with the index fingers on the cheekbones for 20 seconds, then relax and repeat two more times.
