
Facial exercises and “facial yoga” have become increasingly popular in recent years, thanks in large part to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Countless users claim that simple exercises you can do at home can tone and lift the face, reduce the signs of aging, change facial structure and improve overall appearance.
Sounds great, but do facial exercises really provide any noticeable benefits, or are they just another overblown, bogus beauty trend?
What do facial exercises do?
First, a little anatomical overview: The face consists of layers of skin, fat and muscle located at the top of our skull, explains Dr. Murad Alam, vice president of dermatology at Northwestern University. The outermost layer of skin is the epidermis, the thickest layer is the dermis, and below that is a layer of subcutaneous fat.
“Underneath it is a series of fat pads, which are plump, fat-laden areas that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle …… to create the volume that gives our faces their shape,” Alam said. Underneath the fat pads and before the bones, there are facial muscles, Alam adds. These allow us to move our faces, smile, frown, raise our eyebrows and chew.
According to Alam, these fat pads contribute to facial plumpness, which is often associated with a youthful appearance. “As we age, fat pads in particular begin to shrink, which means they thin and become less plump …… When they do, they also sag (due to gravity),” Alam said, adding that this is what causes the upper part of the face to “sag” as we age.
Alam says facial exercises do not plump up or raise the fat pads to their original position, nor do they directly affect the appearance or texture of the skin.
“The purpose of facial exercises seems to be to help the muscles under the fat pad grow so that when you exercise them, they get bigger and start performing some of the functions that the fat pad was performing before, making your face look fuller,” Alam says.
What’s the best facial workout?
Experts tell TODAY there’s not enough evidence to support that facial exercises can change your jawline, slim your face or reduce wrinkles, so it’s hard to say which are the best ways to use your time.
An informal study conducted by Alam at Northwestern University in 2018 found that the facial exercises in Happy Face Yoga founder Gary Sikorski’s videos helped participants (16 middle-aged women) look fuller in the cheeks. It also found that their “estimated age” dropped by 2.8 years after 20 weeks of at least 30 minutes of daily exercise. However, the group of authors said the study had many limitations, including a small sample size and no control group.
Some of Sikorski’s facial exercises include:
Facial exercises for the jawline: With your hands at the base of your neck, lift your chin and tilt your head back slightly. Then stretch your jaw, push the tip of your tongue into your palate and smile to tighten your neck muscles. Sikorsky holds this facial position for 30 seconds.
Cheek facial exercise: Smile without showing your teeth and roll your lips outward so you make a “sour cat” face. Keep trying to smile at the corners of your mouth so you can push your cheek muscles upward. Press your fingers into the corners of your lips on either side and slowly slide them upward toward your cheekbones with force. When you reach the top of your cheekbones, continue pressing firmly for 20 seconds.
Facial exercise for wrinkles: Place three fingers of each hand between your eyebrows, pressing down and pulling up so you can lift your eyebrows, pull them apart, and frown down. With your fingers still firmly pressed against your forehead, slide them in the opposite direction to the sides of your head. sikorksi recommends 10 repetitions.
Many health influencers on TikTok have also shared their own facial workout routines, but it’s unclear if any research has been conducted on these exercises or what, if any, benefits they provide.
According to the video description, a user named @kvitka_app shared double chin facial exercises. The first step involves tilting the head back, extending the tongue, bending the tip upward and moving the tongue up and down. Another facial exercise demonstrated in the video begins with pressing two fingers upward under the cheekbones while rolling the lips into the mouth and smiling as you move the corners of the mouth upward.
A skincare influencer named Odisseya shares a multi-part skincare routine that they say targets the forehead, eyes, cheeks, chin and jaw. The routine includes raising the eyebrows, massaging the forehead, blinking, smiling without showing teeth while massaging the corners of the mouth, raising the entire head and then lowering it to eye level.
Another influencer, Steph Flockhart, posted a video showing what they call a before-and-after facial workout. flockhart’s method involves pulling out the lips with his fingers and then manually pulling up the skin on the side of the eyes by the temples. In the clip, Flockhart also tries out an LED mask and shaving.
A trend called “meowing” – pressing the tongue into the upper jaw while keeping the jaw closed – is also rapidly gaining popularity on TikTok, with many users claiming it can change the contours of the jaw.
Does face exercise really work?
“I think the benefits [of facial exercises] are very limited,” Dr. Adam Friedman, professor and chair of dermatology at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, told Today. “Strengthening those facial muscles has no real impact on the supporting structure of the skin, which breaks down over time and causes signs of aging.”
Even if you can strengthen your facial muscles with exercise, the actual amount of growth and improvement in those muscles is limited, Alam said.
Sebastian Cotofana, associate professor of anatomy in the Department of Clinical Anatomy at the Mayo Clinic, told Today, “When we train [our muscles], we overload them and the muscles adapt to that stress by hypertrophy or increasing in size.” But facial muscles are an entirely different story.
“The facial muscles are embedded in a three-dimensional framework of connective tissue, like a honeycomb, and when you move the muscles, all the soft tissue moves, and that’s how facial expression works,” Cotofana says, adding that facial exercises are mostly just about moving the skin.
This may increase blood flow to the face and oxygenation of the soft tissues, but this visible effect, if any, will be very short-lived, Cotofana says.
“There is no evidence that these muscles adapt to stress by increasing in size. … One reason for this may be that you are limited in the amount of stress you can apply to these muscles, or that you are not applying the correct amount of stress to them,” Cotofana explains.
In other words, you can’t work your face the way you work your biceps by lifting weights.
However, Cotofana says, the temporalis and bite muscles that help open and close the mouth can be trained more directly by chewing or clenching. He adds that it’s possible to grow these muscles to the point of making the jawline look more square and contoured – but these exercises can worsen temporomandibular joint (TMJ) problems, and not everyone wants a wider jawline.
Cotofana says that while meowing could theoretically work those same chewing muscles, experts note that no studies support viral claims that it can reshape the face or jaw.
“It’s not the scientific method on social media, even if a person generates a huge backlash,” Friedman said.
Does facial exercise cause wrinkles?
Probably not, according to experts. “I think the likelihood of hurting yourself with these things is very, very low. …… The worst that can happen is you waste a little bit of time and you don’t see as much improvement as you’d like,” Alam says.
Friedman says it makes sense that people are concerned about wrinkles and fine lines, which are caused in part by repetitive facial movements. However, experts say there is no evidence that facial exercise accelerates the process or creates new wrinkles.
For example, when someone has an “eleven” or two lines between the eyes, it’s usually not because the muscles are getting stronger, Cotofana says. “It’s because at some point the skin gives in, like when you have a new pair of worn (or creased) shoes.”
The bottom line: facial exercises may not cause any harm, but there’s not enough conclusive scientific evidence that they work at this point, says Kottofana. They are definitely not a substitute for fillers, Botox or surgery, for example, experts note.
“No matter what you do, there is no quick fix,” Friedman said. Friedman said, “If you’re going to invest time or money in order to maintain or improve your appearance …… you might as well invest in something that actually has some supporting evidence.”
Friedman says that if you’re looking for easy-to-follow ways to combat the typical signs of aging skin, then you’re better off focusing on moisturizing and sun protection.
Experts say anyone concerned about their skin or facial appearance should consult a dermatologist.