We Heart Face Yoga

Find out why we heart face yoga with Joanna Benecke’s video about this wrinkle-busting workout!

We Heart Living – We Heart Face Yoga Video

What’s the point in exercising to keep your body young and fit if your face looks 150? Stress, worry, lack of sleep and – ironically – the pressure to fit in that evening ashtanga class can all take their toll on our faces, leaving us hollow-eyed, with sagging cheeks and deepening frown lines. So what’s the solution? Chemical peel? Face lift? Paper bag? Luckily, there’s a far nicer and cheaper option (well, the bag is pretty cheap, but trust me, this is a better long-term solution) that will also help you feel more relaxed and centred in your daily life. Welcome to Face Yoga.

While it may sound like the latest fad to blow in from Hollywood, Face Yoga has actually been around for a long time. Supposedly, both Cleopatra and the Empress of the Imperial Court of China were busy tensing and releasing facial muscles to tone their cheeks and smooth their brows some 2,000 years ago. The first written guide to the practice dates from 1710 and is based on the routines of Anne “Ninon” de Lenclos, a French thinker, courtesan and independent woman who was known for both her brains and her beauty. Since the 1960s there have been various schools of facial exercise from the likes of Senta Maria Runge and Eva Fraser, but now Britain has a new face yoga guru in the form of Danielle Collins.

If you can get to Bath, where Danielle has her studio, you can book in for a face-to-face class, but she also offers skype lessons, and her workouts are available on DVD. Most excitingly in my opinion, however, is her new Face Yoga App which contains all the exercises, divided into 10 minute mini-workouts for you to carry with you and perform anywhere, at any time. (Warning: you will get strange looks if doing The Owl or The Lion on the tube…)

Watch my mini-intro to face yoga and discover the joys of toning your face! Happy grimacing…

Find out more about Danielle Collins at faceyogaexpert.com, download the Face Yoga app for iOS or Android, or buy the DVDs

Chat to me on twitter: @joannabenecke