The third of a series of fascinating articles by Derek Boughton about how to look, feel and be years younger naturally.
In the first article we introduced the concept of Facial Isometrics. In the 2nd, we worked on the specific exercises for the neck and chin area. So let’s continue with these anti-aging techniques by moving up a bit!
A. Sides of mouth
While doing these, make sure that you concentrate on using the muscles all the way out to the edge of your face – don’t just use your lip muscles.
a) The action is to pull the side of the lip straight out to the side. As usual, firstly do the left side for at least 10 times, then the right side, then alternate left and right and finally stretch out both sides at the same time.
b) Now to use the opposing muscles, pull the left end of your lip away from your jaw-line and towards the centre of your mouth. Repeat on the right side; alternate; then both sides in together.
To finish off here, alternate the last movements of 5 a) and b), that is, both ends in then both ends out 10 times making sure you complete it with both sides out – I say this because I would rather my mouth ‘remembers’ to smile out than pucker in! Remember the saying “I’ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.”
B. Mouth to ears
This is one of my favourites and is what a basic face lift is trying to accomplish. That is, to lift the jowls and ends of the lips out and up towards the ears.
a) So starting with the left side, pull the corner of your mouth diagonally up towards your ear. Do this at least 10 times where some of them are really pulling so hard that you are pulling your ear down slightly (some of you will find this easier to actually achieve than others but you should at least be getting this feeling). Continue right, alternate, both sides together.
b) Now of course, do the whole thing in the opposite direction. This tends to use the muscle in the upper lip mostly, but try to use muscle as far up the cheek as possible. Now I tend to prefer my muscles’ memory to be a smile rather than concluding with this strange frown so I finish off by creating a false smile for a count of ten. Alternatively you could do these exercises in reverse (i.e. b before a)
Notice that while doing some of the exercises you will find it easier to isolate the necessary muscles by opening your mouth a bit and even moving your jaw sideways.
C. Upper lip and nose
a) We’ve worked the sides of the upper lip in a downwards direction in 6 b). So now lift the middle half of your upper lip hard and scrunch it up to your nose ten times.
b) Now lift the left side of your upper lip straight up the side of your nose. Continue right, alternate, both sides together (this last one is a bit hard to distinguish from 7 a) but try to notice the difference using a mirror and your fingertips. To explain the difference, this exercise is concentrating on the lip muscles below and at the side of the nose, whereas 7 a) is working the upper lip muscle directly under the nose.
c) Now for the opposite of 7 a), which consists of pulling the middle of the upper lip downwards past your upper teeth.
d) Finally a much harder movement. This is using muscle immediately above the upper lip and partially in the lower nose. To do this, you must concentrate on keeping the upper lip still and using this small amount of muscle to pull the nose downwards. I always find that I cannot do this for as many reps as other exercises as it tends to burn quickly.
In Part 4 of these articles, we will continue working on other areas of your face with more exercises from my book How To Look Years Younger Naturally. These natural treatments could really help you remove wrinkles. If you want to start using them right away then get the info’ from
