Face muscle says: Squinting again?

When the face muscle moves, it creates dynamic facial expression lines on our face.

For instance, raising the eyebrows induce horizontal lines across the forehead, whereas pulling in the eyebrows produce the vertical frown lines between the brows.

We don’t normally worry too much about facial lines created as a result of moving the face muscles. Most times, we are not  aware of these dynamic facial lines.

On the contrary, we can’t help but notice the lines and wrinkles showing on a face that is ‘at rest’. We certainly pay more attention to the forehead wrinkles or crow’s feet that’s looking back at us in the mirror.

Will facial expressions lead to facial lines?

Yes. This happens over time, and the effect is accelerated with aging. The fine lines you see on your face is often associated with a certain facial expression or facial activity.

Repetitive, everyday facial expressions or facial activity(eg. smoking) can produce permanent facial lines in the long run. For instance, think about laugh lines, frown lines or smoker lines.

How did dynamic expression lines become static(permanent) facial lines?

This happens because a facial expression often have one set of face muscle constantly contracted, and the antagonist muscle remains constantly relaxed.

Take the all so common problem of the frown lines between the brows. Even though you might object and say, “I am a happy person, I don’t have the habit of frowning. Yet I have the 11 etched between the brows.”

Well, the 11 can be a result of your work habits. Do you tend to knit your brows together in deep concentration while looking at the computer or when reading important documents?

Poor lighting(too dim or too bright) at your work station might also cause you to squint your eyes while you are at work.

What happens when the face muscle stays contracted in the same position?

To hold the brows in a knitted position, groups of face muscle have to remain contracted constantly. Over time, the repetitive contraction cause these muscles to lose tone.

In other words, a face muscle that can previously pull back(smooth out) a frown has now lost the tone and strength to do the job. As a result, the frown lines become apparent.

Babies have no problem with frowning or smiling too much. When a baby is upset, he frowned and wailed to get your attention. Once pacified, his scrunched up face relaxes. The face muscles spring back and the skin is smooth again

There are of course extrinsic factors like sun damage, alcohol, stress and lifestyle that also contribute to facial lines and wrinkles. However, we keep the discussion here focused on the relationship between expression lines becoming static facial lines, along with the aging process.

How can you minimize facial lines caused by your everyday facial expressions?

There are three ways you can reduce facial lines.

1. Eliminate Bad Habits
Get rid of bad habits associated with any facial expression or facial activity. Top on my list are squinting, frowning and smoking. Examine your everyday routine. You might come up with other detrimental behavior.

Hey, you don’t need to keep an expressionless face. Laughing, smiling is good for you. You just need to kick the bad habits that are not doing you good.

2. Use Skin Care Products
Good skin care can keep your skin healthy and supple and help reduce fine lines and wrinkles.

3. Improve Face Muscle And Skin Tone
Prep up the muscle and skin tone. In order to maintain muscle tone, we need to use all of our muscle fiber to optimal.

A face muscle that is in a constant state of contraction or relaxation will degenerate. You want to get every face muscle moving to the optimal. One way to do this is by doing face exercises.

The important thing is to have a well rounded workout, so that every face muscle and neck muscle get to be toned and strengthened. Skin tone improves naturally when you exercise your face.

So get going. Keep the lines off your face.

Image Credit: striatic

Face Muscle – Expression Lines Can Become Permanent Facial Lines is a post from: Face Exercises Blog where you can get tips and resources on facial toning exercise.

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Face Muscle

I must confess, it’s so much easier to do a face exercise than to learn the name of a face muscle.

For example, have you heard of Orbicularis Oculi, Buccinatorius or Mentalis?

If you read Latin, then not a problem for you, but for the rest of us, it can be difficult to remember the names.

Each of the term refers to a specific face muscle. In this case, it is the muscle around the eyes, cheek muscle and chin muscle.

We have more than 50 muscles in the face and neck, so it can be a pretty challenging task to master the names of all the facial muscles.

But why do you need to know about facial muscles?

Actually, you don’t have to. Even if you have no knowledge about the face muscles, you can still go ahead  with facial exercises.

However, many face exercises make reference to specific face muscle in their training instructions. So, if you are familiar with the name and location of each face muscle, you can quickly and effectively focus on the target muscles. No more hit or miss, or worrying whether if you have place your fingers on the correct positions on your face.

If you are doing face exercises, it’s good to have a basic knowledge of the facial muscles. You will have a better understanding of your face structure and a greater awareness of the relationships between face muscles, facial expressions and facial lines.

The more you know about the working of the face muscles, the more confident you have in performing the face exercises correctly and each specialized exercise becomes more meaningful.

Come with me if you are interested to know more. I found an interactive website where you can teach yourself the name and position of each face muscle. Once you are on the website Artnatomy, click on “Application”(on the lower right hand side), and you can start right away. Have fun exploring.

Image Credit: Patrick J. Lynch

Face Muscle – Why Can’t They Give It A Simpler Name? is a post from: Face Exercises Blog where you can get tips and resources on facial toning exercise.

Technorati Tags: Face Cheek, Face Exercise, Face Exercises, Face Muscle, face muscles, facial exercises, muscle anatomy, muscle head