South Koreans have been working their faces out for ages. Follow their steps and exercise your face to a younger, firmer skin.
Staying out of the sun is the number one thing you can do to protect and maintain your skin’s health. Close follow ups include a consistent and intentional skincare regimen, lots of water, a wholesome diet, and workouts. Something else you might not have considered is facial exercising.
South Koreans—as well as Chinese and Japanese—have been doing this for ages as a way to naturally lift and contour the face. In recent years, the Korean beauty world has been doing exercises to specifically create a more pronounced “V-Line,” or a more narrow jaw that’s shaped like a V. I included exercises that will help with that, along with others that lift droopy eyes and tone the forehead and cheeks.
- Exercise 1
Time to channel your inner McKayla Maroney! For this exercise, pucker up and then move your mouth to the left and hold for five seconds. Bring your lips back to the front and hold for five seconds, then move to the right and hold for five seconds. Repeat five times. This tightens your jaw line and exercises the muscles in your cheeks.
- Exercise 2
Here’s another one to help create a more toned jaw and neck. Lift your head up, smile (make sure those teeth are showing!) and then swallow. Repeat five times. It’s kind of difficult to do, but you will feel the effects!
- Exercise 3
This one wakes up your facial muscles and will help you be more expressive. Start by making your face as tiny as you can—imagine it is a raisin! Then, suddenly make your face as big as you can, as if it were a watermelon. Repeat three times, and make sure you’re as animated as possible!
- Exercise 4
Here’s a good one to help lift sleepy, droopy eyelids. Start by placing your fingertips on the outer edge of your eyebrows and slightly lift up. Slowly blink five times, then relax. Repeat five times. You’ll feel your eyelid muscles working as you blink.
- Exercise 5
Sometimes simply massaging the muscles in your face can help stimulate them. You can do this however you wish, but make sure you’re always making an upward motion to lift the muscles. On your forehead, make your fingertips meet at the center and then gently drag your fingertips away from each other and slightly upward to your hairline.
- Exercise 6
One last exercise for your eyes. Create two V-shapes with your index and middle fingers, then place in a V between your eyes. Gently push your fingertips upward and then look down. Hold for 10 seconds, then relax. Repeat five times.
Do these exercises once a day or at least a couple times a week! Most importantly, have fun with it, and make sure you’re also taking care of your skin in all the ways we listed above.