Facial Exercises Pt1 to hold back ageing

Good morning folks,

Many moons ago I bought a book called Facercise by Carole Maggio, in which she basically had created a facial exercise routine to strengthen the facial muscles, in effect a natural face lift, for people afraid to, or unable to afford, invasive, painful surgery.

This book has languished in the back of my book case until recently, but I've dug it out, dusted off the cobwebs and over the next few weeks, together we can give these exercises a go and see if they make a difference to our looks.  You might get funny looks if you try ding them on the bus or tram, so i suggest you do them in the comfort of your home either once or twice a day.

Many of us do regular exercise to tone and strengthen the muscles in our body, to improve our appearance and enhance our looks but have you not wondered why the muscles in our face don't get a work out too?  Think about it?  Our facial muscles are made of the exact same stuff as say a hamstring or bicep so why aren't we exercising them also?  


As you can see there is alot going off there.  As we age, along with the effects of lifestyle, diet and the environment, the delicate contours of our face begin to soften and (here's the word I hate) SAG!! (shudders) Wrinkles and lines develop and the only way you're gonna look 21 again is in flattering lighting whilst stood on your head!!  

So, Carole says by doing facial exercises, we can strengthen our facial muscles and, although we can't make our faces look 20 years younger, and I haven't found a tardis on ebay, I, and hope you too, will join in giving these exercises a go.  I'm giving us 2 to try this week, with more to follow next week.  

Are you ready to pull faces?

This is working the lips for a fuller pout without the trout! You can sit or lie for this.  Close your lips but don't clench your teeth.  Put the tip of your finger where your lips meet then firmly press your lips together.  Imagine your finger as a pencil that you are trying to press against your lips.  Slowly move the finger/pencil away from your lips whilst keeping your lips firmly pressed together.  Imagine a trail of energy from your finger to your lips, keep pulling the finger back til you feel "the burn".  Now pulse your finger for a count of 30 then relax.  Repeat.  This is great too for dispersing tension that you may hold in your mouth.

Exercise 2

This may look like I've swallowed a golf ball but it is in fact working the jaw, drawing up droopy jowls and sagging around the jaw.

So, in a seated position, open your mouth and roll your lower lip tightly over your lower teeth.  Pull the corners of your mouth back tight.  Press your upper lip against the upper teeth.  Open and close your jaw in a slow scooping motion as if using the jaw to scoop something up. with each scoop, lift the jaw up half an inch or so.  Imagine the sides of your face lifting.  Place both hands (i could only use 1 as holding phone with the other)  to move energy up the side of the face.  After several scoops your head should be tilted back and your chin facing the ceiling.  When you feel "the burn" hold the pose for a count of 20 then relax.  Repeat.

More exercises to follow next week.  If you follow them, please let me know how you get on.

Til next week, stay safe 

IT Band pain and my lazy glute

I'm writing this on day 3 of having the most pain thighs, walking especially up and down stairs is a real challenge, even touching them is a sore point.  How did I end up in such a state?  A conditioning class on Thursday!!! I'm not exactly sure which exercise did the deed or if it was a combination of exercises, but come Friday morning I was walking like a very bad low budget 70's robot!  And it hasn't improved much yet either.

The actual problem is my IT Band (ITB), the ligament that runs down the outside of your thigh that begins up by your hips (where it connects with the Tensor Fascia Lata, sorry getting technical here) then runs down to the knee and onwards onto the shin.  Doing alot of physical activity for the first time, or changing the type/intensity of exercise that you do pushes the body to do things differently and can result in muscle soreness (yeah right, these thighs of mine BURN baby, burn!!)

The popular misconception is that as a result of this your ITB tightens, me included and I advised clients accordingly.  The latest studies show that rather than tightening, our ITB's are actually getting "glued" to a muscle below it with the friction between them being the cause of discomfort.

There are a few reasons why this happens; problems with the knees, unbalanced hamstrings (I have issues in this area), a tight piriformis (those of you who have had massage with me know that I target this often painful deep muscle in the bum with my elbow), or a a glute muscle, the medialis, that isn't working as it should, allowing it to weaken, forcing other tissues such as the ITB to take over.  As a result your body automatically uses these other structures to move leaving the poor glute to longer in obscurity.  Are you still with me?  Basically my ass has gotten lazy!!

In the past to relieve my ITB pain, I'd be on that foam roller, frantically hammering away at my ITB, biting my lip and swearing through the pain I was experiencing because it's all worth it to have a freed up ITB.  I apologise to all clients who I advised to follow my lead because, guess what?  We've probably been doing more harm than good.  Yes, rolling some parts of the body is great for increasing mobilisation of tissues but not necessarily the ITB where we could be stretching an already over stretched and abused piece of tissue.So stop abusing your tissues and join me in waking up your lazy glute.


Here's a simple glute med test to see if yours is or isn't working properly, you may need assistance for this;
 Lay down on your side in a straight line and make sure your hips are stacked on top of one another. Now with your legs out straight bring your top leg, whichever it may be, back a bit so that your toe is touching the heel of your bottom foot. Now flex your ankle and try to raise your leg.

Many people have trouble even performing this leg lift without rolling backwards (which allows you to cheat with your hip flexors), turning the foot outwards (which allows you to cheat with your external rotators) or letting the leg shift forwards (which lets you use your hip flexors again). So if you’re able to do this you’re already ahead of roughly 50% of the population.

Now have your friend attempt to push your leg down gently at first and then with slightly increasing force. If you can maintain the height of your leg without your body position shifting, then congratulations, your hip abduction is actually quite strong. For most of us, we will either resort to cheating or simply be unable to maintain the leg raise.


The nice thing about this issue is that it can be fixed pretty easily. The same leg lift you used as a test can be used as an initial exercise to reteach your glute med to fire. You simply need to pay close attention to avoid cheating and make sure you feel the muscle pulling.  If you start to feel the pull on the front of your hip, then take a break and adjust your position because you’re cheating.

I mentioned a tight piriformis earlier. If you feel tightness in the fleshy part of your bum when yu get into a position similar to this, chances are yours is tight.  It can be the cause of sciatic or lower back pain.

To help relieve yours between sessions with me, try these simple stretches and hold for up to a minute.




As with most movement disorders the true solution is mindfulness of your body position and mindfulness of your movements. Get your glutes firing again and maintain mindfulness of their proper use while working out. It really is that simple.


Til next week, stay safe 

MB

How sunglasses can be an aid to good health

 As I write this the forecast is set to be mixed with a heatwave predicted for the end of the week?  Do we believe them?   Fingers crossed it'll warm up a bit, this cold snap, with snow and hail has been a real let down.  At least I'll be able to wear my sunglasses and not receive funny looks from folk wondering why I'm wearing them when it's dull.  The answer to that is very vain and very me.  If you wear your sunglasses most of the time, in any light, you're less likely to squint and squinting repeatedly might give you more wrinkles...I'm that shallow!!  Any how, this leads me  to a tabloid sensation  headline..

HOW SUNGLASSES SAVED MY LIFE

Well not perhaps my life but some of my sight.  Harking back to my sight test the other week (and no I still haven't had the prescription in), when I was tested macula degeneration I was cheerfully told that my retina was totally clear and asked if I wore sunglasses alot (see I'm a genius as well as vain) as my wearing them was obviously offering me protection.

What started off in my goth days as way to look even more fabulous and then as a tool to hide I had no eyeliner on on lazy days had all this time been protecting me from going blind!!

The macula is the part of the retina where rays of light(Madonna!) are focused.  It is no bigger than a grain of rice and is responsible for our central vision, what we see in front of us.  As some of get older it can degenerate, more often in women than men. This condition is called age related macula degeneration, AMD.

Someone with AMD gradually loses the ability to see things straight in front of them ,though peripheral vision remains, meaning not total blindness will occur, fine details cannot be seen, faces against a background cannot be determined.  No cure is available at present though vision aids such as a magnifying glass,large print books etc may help a bit

Evidence shows that eating lots of leafy green veg, stopping smoking, moderating alcohol consumption, achieving a healthy weight can all help protect us from getting AMD, as well as wearing a pair of humble UV absorbing sunglasses if outside for long periods of time.  Being a goth did have some health benefits afterall!

Til next week