The Question: Will facercise (exercises for the face) improve my facial muscles?
I tend to be a skeptic about most things, but some things I’m willing to give a try- especially if the effort or expense is minimal in comparison to the pay off. Like Hope, I attempted to do the facercise challenge, and these are my results.
My beginning situation: Please see my picture to the left. While I jest, this is definitely how I felt at times. There have been times in my life where I got so tired and exhausted, I started to feel like my face was turning into one big droopy slab, slowly sliding down my face as I aged, my cheeks seeming to just slide off the cheek bones and onto my jaw bones, I’m assuming to eventually fall and make their escape across the floor.
At one point prior to this challenge, when I was getting an especially small amount of rest, I started to wonder if maybe I had had a mini-stroke, and my face was actually exhibiting the tell-tale signs (I actually knew someone who had no idea she had a stroke, and it was her face that alerted the medical professionals!) But this is me being my paranoid self, where headaches are likely brain tumors, sore throats are esophageal cancer, and shedding hair is the beginnings of alopecia. Thankfully, I’ve yet to experience any of these things, and while facercise is unlikely to prevent them, it will at least stave of my conviction I’m living in a post-stroke body).
What I did: The set of facercises I have takes me awhile to get through, so I was doing about 15 a day rather than the full 30. I did miss a few days (3, tops), but I pretty much facercised daily for over a month, and there were days where instead of the newer set, I did some that I had learned a while back, where rather than holding a pose for 5 seconds, ten times, I’d attempt about 40 reps of a movement. The muscles were still getting some exercise, and that is the point.
The results: At first, I didn’t see any changes, and part of that is because while I generally think of myself as less than stunning, I still find myself in shock every time I realize I no longer have the face of an 18 year old. I don’t know why it should be so shocking, but yet it is, every time I see myself in the mirror– or in a picture. Which brings me to the pictures I took every Monday morning: post-wash, pre-makeup, hair slicked back, no facial expression (and hellllll no, I will not be sharing those photos). I chose this time because this is when I do all my body accounting- I weigh myself, measure myself and input into My Fitness Pal (I like to catalog things, what can I say). I hated taking those pictures, but I hated looking at them even more. I spent so much time focusing on all the flaws built into my facial structure that it eclipsed all else.
It’s very hard to measure changes like this when you are as hard on yourself as I am on myself, because not only is every reflection an awful reminder I’m no longer as young as I feel, but I also often expect miracles. Like when I buy an outfit, a swimsuit, or make up and I put it on and I STILL have the SAME body or face that I had prior to putting said item on, I am very discouraged, and a bit outraged that I was so badly cheated. So the pictures didn’t convince me.
What DID convince me it was working was an accidental glimpse.
Do you ever catch your reflection in your computer screen at work? I don’t often either, but when I do, I’m not usually impressed. However the other day I did, and I actually was- my face looked lifted and more youthful. It made me re-evaluate my reflection when I was back home and the pictures, and see there actual was a change. It made me feel kinder towards myself, too. Obviously, I still have a lot of work to do on THAT front.
My overall feeling: I admit facercise will never give me cute plump lips of a model, or almond-shaped uplifted eyes, but it will help me have a much better version of my face than it would have if I weren’t working the underlying muscles. A tighter, less saggy, less baggy face. And I can do it while watching TV, while on the treadmill- the results are worth the minimal amount of effort put in.
