Fit & Proper: Yoga to tone your face

Many women turn to botox or go under the knife for a wrinkle-free face. They try all kinds of anti-aging "miracle" products. But do you know that facial yoga can help you achieve the look that not even plastic surgery can? Facial yoga helps you to relax and tone the muscles, making your face look smooth and wrinkle-free. It also prevents the muscles from sagging.

But let me warn you: if you do these exercises wrong, you would get wrinkles instead of toned muscles. That's because repetitive wrong movements make your skin more elastic and create creases. It is like ironing a piece of cloth. The iron can create the creases if not handled properly. So, one must try facial yoga only under expert guidance.

Our facial muscles cannot lift weights, unlike the rest of our body. So, facial yoga is the best option. It irons out the tension lines around the eyebrows, forehead, next to the lips and jaw, thereby giving you a natural facelift.

It completely changes the face structure and helps get rid of the double chin and get high cheek bones and a defined jawline. Some people even develop dimples after facial yoga, which they did not have earlier.

Here is a simple facial exercise:

Step 1: Open your mouth as wide as you can.

Step 2: With the mouth still open, tilt you head backwards. Look up.

Step 3: Close your lower jaw towards the upper jaw. Feel the neck muscles stretching. Keep it there and hold it for a few seconds, feeling the stretch.

Step 4: Now bring the closed mouth back to its normal position, looking in the front.

Do the exercise 20 times in the morning and 20 times at night. You are sure to notice a change in your face structure within a month. Take a picture before you start this and then after a month - you will see a considerable difference. It only takes less than two minutes to do this and helps tone the face muscles.

Kiran Sawhney
Fitness and yoga expert, New Delhi