Can Face Yoga Help Prevent Wrinkles?

For many of us, our associations with yoga include visions of delightfully stretchy yoga pants, Zen moments, and a little downward dog. Yes, our modern take on yoga has come a long way from its origins. According to Yoga Basics, the practice originated over 5,000 years ago in northern India. The original poses and spiritual teachings, the latter of which emphasized sacrifice of the ego, were carefully collected and transcribed in over 200 scripts. These days, you can find the poses and type of yoga you prefer with an app.

Even with so much modernization surrounding the practice of yoga, we're still surprised when we come across one of the latest modifications (for better or worse). Enter, face yoga. It's exactly what it sounds like; it's yoga for the face. "The aim is to create a moment of self-care where you improve blood circulation for a healthy glow and reduce stress and tension in your face," Elsa Jungman, a scientist, microbiome expert, and proponent of facial yoga based in San Francisco, said to Everyday Health. While face yoga seems to have a calming effect, can it help prevent wrinkles?

The aim of face yoga is to let go of tension in our facial muscles that may lead to wrinkles. "All these daily activities cause patterns in how we use our face and the specific muscles we recruit," Dr. Jungman said to Everyday Health. Adding, "This is why we want to focus more on releasing and softening our faces to let go of these patterns and any held facial tension."  It's important to note that there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that face yoga will prevent wrinkles or other forms of aging in the face.

Even if wrinkle prevention isn't on the top or bottom of your priority list, it's important to remember that our face muscles are connected to the rest of our bodies. And targeted relaxation of the face can help the rest of you unwind. "The head and face contain most of our major sense organs — the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin," explained Melissa Murphy, a face yoga instructor and yoga teacher of 15 years, to Byrdie. "They're inextricably linked to the whole body," she added. As with most forms of yoga, Murphy goes on to say you can find a class or create your own practice at home.

Yoga, with its well-known positive effects on your health, has certainly come a long way from its ancient roots. And though you may raise a skeptical eyebrow before testing the hype of face yoga, that eyebrow will likely relax and go down during your first session.