New York, Jan 4 : Do you feel old and wrinkled? Just 30 minutes of facial exercises which includes puckering and squeezing the cheeks daily can make you look three years younger, reveals a study.
Instead of undergoing anti-ageing skin treatments and care routines, middle-aged women undergoing this non-toxic method can have a younger appearance with fuller upper and lower cheeks and reduce some visible signs of ageing, the study further showed.
"Facial exercises that may be beneficial include those that entail puckering and squeezing the cheeks. There are many muscles that collectively allow movement of the cheeks, and our study showed that building these up makes the upper and lower cheeks look fuller," said Murad Alam, Professor at the Northwestern University in Chicago, US.
"The exercises enlarge and strengthen the facial muscles, so the face becomes firmer and more toned and shaped like a younger face," Alam added.
Fat pads present in between the muscle and the skin are responsible for providing firmness to the cheeks and keeping a toned shape of the face.
But as the skin starts ageing, the face pads too gradually becomes thinner.
The sagging of the pads makes the elasticity of the facial skin loose and fall down.
"But if muscle underneath becomes bigger, the skin has more stuffing underneath it and the firmer muscle appears to make the shape of the face more full," noted Emily Poon, an assistant research professor at the varsity.
"Muscle growth is increasing the facial volume and counteracting the effects of age-related fat thinning and skin loosening," Poon explained, in the paper published in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
The researchers studied over middle-aged women, aged between 40 to 65 years, who underwent face-to-face 90-minute training sessions from a facial exercise instructor. At home, they continued to do these exercises for a total of 20 weeks.
