Face Exercises For The Chin & Neck
Because your chin sits directly below your mouth, it is something that people tend to notice when they speak with you. The same also applies to your neck, although because it is a larger area of the body, it tends to get a bit more attention than the chin. This is especially true for women, as from the face the neck leads down on to the breasts, which is why men have traditionally thought of the neck as an area of beauty.
The condition of the chin and the neck act as an indicator as to the condition of the rest of the body. A jaw line that is undefined with a flabby double chin for example, is likely to lead on to a flabby neck and body.
Although most people will not consciously make such an assertion, subconsciously, that is what will be triggered in their mind. In addition, a double chin also tends to be associated with people who are overweight, which carries it own negative connotations. This is despite the fact that not all people who have double chins are overweight.
In addition to the cues about the overall attractiveness of a person, the chin, and especially the neck, also give clues about a person’s age. Normally, the first thing that we use to judge a person’s age is their face.
This is simply because when looking at a person it is normal to start at the head, and then scan down the body to the feet. As there are normally only three exposed areas of a person on display, the face, the neck and the hands, we use each of these bodily areas sequentially to form a rough judgement as to a person’s probable age.
It is quite surprising therefore, that the neck is one of the most neglected areas when it comes to skin care and facial exercises. Most people just tend to focus their anti-aging efforts on the face, largely forgetting the skin that covers the neck and the hands. As a result, it is not uncommon to see men or women with young looking attractive faces, only for their true age to be revealed in their aged neck and hands.
The Effects Of Aging
Although fine lines and wrinkles are often thought of as being the first signs of facial aging, sagging of the skin actually happens before you begin to notice fine lines or wrinkles. However, because this process occurs so slowly, most do not realize that their skin has begun to sag. It is not until a person reaches middle age that they notice how much their skin is sagging, but by this time it is usually sagging so much that it is visibly hanging off the face.
There are many factors which can cause the skin to sag, although the ultimate cause of sagging skin really comes down to a combination of gravity, excess fat accumulation and weak facial muscles. All of these things can gradually pull down on the skin, stretching it and causing it to hang loosely on the face.
The effects of sagging skin are most visible in areas of the body which are horizontally positioned or positioned at an angle, as such areas allow for the skin to literally hang in mid-air. This is why the chin and throat are especially vulnerable to having skin which sags.
The good news however, is that even though the chin and neck readily show the signs of aging, they are also two areas which tend to respond the quickest to facial exercises.
Shape Your Face With Face Exercise
Facial exercises, are, for many people, a way to hold back the signs of aging without having to resort to cosmetic surgery such as by getting a surgical face lift. In fact, many people have incorporated face exercises into their regular anti-aging skin care routine, choosing to tackle aging both with cosmetics and with exercise. So how do face exercises work to hold back aging and keep a person looking younger for longer?
In simple terms, when you exercise the muscles on your face, as shown in the picture below, you make those muscles stronger and bigger. This is basically what happens when you exercise the muscles on your body. If those muscles are not exercised, they become weak and flabby and so do you. Since the muscles on your face also support the skin which sits on it, helping to keep your muscles toned also has the effect of keeping your skin nice and tight.
This is important because it is when your skin becomes loose that you start to develop fine lines and wrinkles across the face. The more your skin sags, the more chance there will be of you developing wrinkles and the deeper those wrinkles will become.
This is why some women choose to have face lifts, as not only does having a face lift tighten their skin and make them look younger, but it also slows down the formation of new wrinkles because the skin is now much tighter than it was before.
The idea behind doing face exercises is to do a little bit each day, so that when you do get older, you won’t have to need a face lift because you will have kept your skin tight enough to prevent noticeable sagging and excess wrinkles. As a result, face exercises tend to work better as a preventative measure for younger skin, although they still can be very effective on mature skin that is starting to show the signs of aging.
But for skin that has already aged very visibly, face exercises are unlikely to produce satisfactory results as aging has reached a point where only surgery will be effective.
In the rest of this article, we shall be looking at some exercises which you can do for two regions of the face:
• Chin face exercise
• Neck face exercise
Face Exercise For The Chin
A double chin is caused by a combination of excess fat around the chin and jaw line and excess loose sagging skin. The extra skin creates a large wrinkle or fold, which makes it appear as though a person has two chins.
People with a double chin are usually overweight, although this is not always the case. But either way, having a double chin can make a person look as though they are overweight, even if the rest of their body can’t be seen.
The following face exercises are designed to workout your mentalis and platysma muscles, which are the muscles that sit on your chin and neck. By strengthening these muscles, you should, over time, help to tighten up the skin on your chin and neck and stop it from being so loose.
However, it is important to note that in order to fully get rid of a double chin, you must also lose weight because a double chin is caused by both loose skin and excess fat accumulation.
• Place your thumb at the bottom of your chin, so that it is on the skin above your chin bone. You will been in a position as though you were sucking your thumb, but positioned lower down on your chin.
• Now lower your chin, working against the resistance created by your thumb.
• Raise your chin.
• Repeat this 50 times.
Note : This chin exercise can also be done without using your fingers or thumb, although it is more effective when you are pushing against some form of resistance. You will know when you are doing this exercise correctly, as you will feel the muscle on your chin pushing against your finger and pushing it downwards.
You may also get a slight burn in the chin muscle, which indicates a buildup of lactic acid as a result of the chin muscle being exercised. This is nothing to worry about and actually indicates that you are doing the exercise correctly. If you rub your chin slightly, any discomfort that you are experiencing should quickly go away.
Alternate Method 1
The following chin exercise is a bit more challenging, but it is very effective at helping to firm and tone up the chin line.
• Place the palm of your hand underneath the bottom of your chin, so that your palm is facing upwards as though you are resting your chin on your palm.
• Now push up gently with your palm.
• Against the resistance created by your palm, lower and raise your jaw as though you were making a chewing motion.
After a few repetitions, you should feel the muscles in your lower chin area being worked out. Do as many reps as you can, and gradually build up the amount of reps that you do each day.
Alternate Method 2
With this facial exercise you don’t need to use your hands, so it is something that you can do quickly anytime you have a few spare moments to kill.
• Lower your chin down on to your chest and push down hard.
• Keeping your chin on your chest, move your head from side to side.
• Repeat this 20 times.
This facial exercise will help to tone up both your chin and your neckline, although some people find it an uncomfortable facial exercise to do.
Facial Exercises For The Neck
The following facial exercises tighten the muscles along the neck, which can help to prevent or reverse sagging skin on the neck that can cause a so-called “turkey neck”.
• Open your mouth wide, pulling the corners of your mouth downwards towards your neck (not with your hands).
• As you do this you should feel your neck muscles tighten, and if you touched your neck, you would be able to feel your neck muscles tensed up.
• Hold for a moment.
• Relax.
• Repeat 20 times.
This is quite a simple neck exercise to do. You will know if you are doing it correctly, as you will be able to see the muscles of your neck contract if you were watching yourself in a mirror.
Alternate Method 1
This facial exercise targets your whole neck, but is very beneficial for the muscles on the sides of your neck.
• Lie down on the floor on your back.
• Raise your head slightly off the floor.
• Turn your head from side to side, trying to touch your shoulders with your chin.
• Repeat this 20 times.
This is a very effective movement to do, but it can cause pain in the neck if you try to do too many repetitions at once. So it is best to build up gradually by increasing the number that you do slowly over time.
Alternate Method 2
This face exercise targets your whole neck, but is very beneficial for the strip of your neck that runs directly below your chin (turkey neck).
• Lie down on the floor on your back.
• Raise your head slightly off the floor.
• With your head raised move your chin close to your chest.
• Turn your head from side to side, keeping your chin close to the chest.
• Repeat this 20 times.
This neck exercise is virtually identically to the previous one just described. The only difference is that with this neck exercise you are keeping your chin on your chest as you move your head from side to side.
Alternate Method 3
The following neck exercise is very easy to do, and can also be beneficial for increasing blood flow to the head and improving eyesight and brain function as a result.
• Stand up and nod your head by looking up at the ceiling at high as possible and then down at the floor as low as possible.
You can make this exercise harder by getting on your hands and knees, like a dog or a cat, and then raising your head up towards the ceiling and down towards the floor.
The angle which you are positioned in will create an extra form of resistance that your head and neck muscles can work against, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of this position.
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