Here's how you can get a toned face

While yoga provides overall bodily benefits, how do you specifically target your facial muscles? Dubai-based Isadora Peric gives us some insights into the workings of 'Face Yoga'

by

Anamika Chatterjee

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Published: Fri 4 May 2018, 12:00 AM

Last updated: Fri 11 May 2018, 9:39 AM

A few years ago, I managed to shed five kilos, thanks to a combination of careful eating and daily yoga practice. While parts of my body visibly shrunk, my mother, with whom I'd Skype once in a while, was far from impressed. "Doesn't really show on your face," she'd say.
My mother's lack of confidence in what I then felt was a personal triumph led me to search 'how to lose fat on the face' multiple times on Google. From having sugar-free chewing gum to looking at the ceiling for 30 minutes straight, the solutions - as bizarre as they sounded - were varied. It was during this time that I first heard of face yoga, and immediately concluded that it could be the answer to my problems. However, 'getting rid of facial fat' could be a reductive way of looking at face yoga, as is evident from a conversation with Isadora Peric, one of Dubai's leading face yoga practitioners.
To substantiate, Isadora narrates the story of her own discovery of the discipline. Six years into her career in the PR industry in Dubai, Isadora, who is not yet 30, began to notice early signs of ageing on her face, thanks to the stress that came as part of the job. Serums, face creams, moisturisers were, at best, quick-fixes. "Instead of going the mainstream route, I ended up studying face yoga professionally and implementing it in my daily life. I didn't only transform physically, but felt mentally calmer with less anxiety." As Isadora began to experience the changes herself, she decided to teach face yoga and that's when she came up with Fit Face, an hour-long routine that includes facial workouts and massages.
A simple Internet search will throw up textbook definitions of face yoga as a "series of exercises that promise to do for your face what yoga does to your body: relax and tone muscles". In Isadora's own words, "it is calming and really does lift, tone and sculpt the face with regular practice". Does that mean it can alter facial features and be a potential substitute for invasive surgeries? "Face yoga cannot make one's nose smaller. It won't turn someone into a whole other person like invasive procedures can. People will still have their characteristic expressions that make them unique. But it can definitely create a more youthful appearance due to the fact that with the muscle mass, the face looks plumper and when those muscles are strengthened, the skin is lifted. It sculpts the face, so it can lift up the cheeks, for example, making the face look slimmer. However, fat is something that has to be targeted with an overall lifestyle and weight management," she says.
There are two primary techniques Isadora espouses as part of face yoga (and, thankfully, neither involves chewing gum for hours together). While one comprises of a set of facial exercises - specialised postures that are designed to strengthen and sculpt facial muscles - the other is facial acupressure stimulation, which essentially means activating facial muscles by using the right amount of pressure on certain parts of the face.
A typical 60-minute fit face session begins with a meditation, followed by a warm-up for the whole body and face. "We then move on to about 25 minutes of exercises, targeting all parts of the face, including the neck, then there is deep tissue face massage and, finally, stimulation of acupressure points for relaxation," says Isadora. The exercises are not all fun and games. Isadora says the process is painful and one could also feel an immediate burn. "The length of the posture or the amount of times it has to be repeated depends on the posture itself. For example, you can hold a fish face for as long as possible whereas some of the exercises for the neck should be repeated up to 30 times."
The most important thing to remember, says Isadora, is that face yoga is not about dealing with facial imperfections, rather it's about embracing ageing. "It's all about a healthy approach to ageing. We teach the concept of pro-ageing, which is understanding life and accepting ageing instead of fighting it all the time."