Coming to a class near you very soon, could be the face exercises developed by yoga teacher Annelise Hagen. A seasoned yoga teacher based in New York, she wrote the book The Yoga Face: Eliminate Wrinkles with the Ultimate Natural Facelift published by Avery/Penguin. She shows the reader how to perform a series of facial exercises to improve appearance and the philosophy behind this new anti-aging secret.
Hagen says that by working out the muscles on the face as we do our bodies, it will prevent them from sagging and getting flabby. With the idea in mind that yoga practice rejuvenates the body, Hagen began incorporating relaxation of the face while doing poses during her classes. That‘s when she began seeing a change in the tone of her and her student’s faces. As a result, she started developing a program specifically for anti-aging purposes that involved yoga, and face work. Her program teaches that by training the muscles on the face, a person can regain lift and suppleness that was once lost.
These exercises are a great alternative for people having or considering invasive procedures. Also, it’s worth a try for consumers who spend so much money on anti-aging products. Although you must have some discipline and stick to the program, see if it works for you, and finally not be afraid of making weird faces repeatedly!
A Few Exercises:
With our modern world full of serums, lip plumpers, plus botox and collagen injections that are expensive and invasive, maybe you would like to try some simple exercises from the book. There are exercises for every part of the face. To plump your lips, there’s an exercise called Marilyn that is said to do the trick. Now if your problem is around the eyes, Hagen uses an exercise derived from Indian Dancers to tone and firm that area. There are also various exercises to firm the chin and neck, and she also teaches how to involve facial exercises while doing yoga poses.
While it’s well known that yoga poses are about releasing tension and stretching muscles, Hagen realized that many of her students were contracting the muscles on their faces instead, creating more tension and lines. This is possibly one of the most important facts to take away from this book, we all carry a lot of tension on our faces and we must learn to release this stress and relax our facial expressions.
Hagen goes on to describe many more yoga poses, breathing exercises foods for beauty, natural beauty products, and more. Overall, the real results will be individual but the philosophy and balanced advice Hagen offers are sound, common sense information that will tempt most people to at least try some of the exercises in her book.