How would you like a natural face lift, no surgery or Botox? This can be achieved by facial exercises. I managed to sit down with Carolyn Cleaves, who has developed a brilliant program of exercises for the face, to chat about how you can get rid of wrinkles and have a young looking face. Have your friend envious and curious as to how you look so young. So that’s enough chat about the interview, let’s get into it. One thing before we start, at the end she shares with you a free facial exercise, to help smooth your neck!
WHD What is the history behind your facial fitness system?
CC At the age of 52 I noticed that gravity was working well on my face. I did not know that facial fitness programs existed at this point. I had watched my beautiful mom have plastic surgery when she was my age and by the age of 70 ended up looking permanently surprised. Her face was so distorted with having so many surgeries that it was hard to recognise her. I did not want that for myself so I started to look for ways to improve my face without surgery, Botox (which may weaken the muscle beyond repair) or Restylane injections. I wanted a facial skin care treatment that worked, was complete and natural.
I began buying electrical gadgets that emit an electric charge to stimulate the face muscles and I did see a small improvement but having to hold these gadgets for an hour to my face was not convenient. Isometrics alone was not successful. I wanted something to get rid of wrinkles, puffy eyes, a double chin and lots more, and also to have a glowing natural skin.
I then discovered exercises for the face. I bought every face exercise program that was on the market, including books and videos. Although they offered some help, for me they were not complete. They did not address the problems I had.
It was now that I decided to develop my own exercises for the face and make it a workable system. Whilst researching I discovered muscle resistant training, and found that this gave a more dramatic result. So I decided to include muscle resistant training together with isometrics, as they help to further tone. So my program was born, providing toned facial muscles, as in the jowl area and also for those lines around the lips area.
As I used the program I designed, my face started to firm up and my wrinkles nearly disappeared. My skin was also changing; it took on a new glow. My neck wrinkles were disappearing and the skin texture was changing. My double chin disappeared and my eyes were losing their double eyelid look, they were getting back to how they were in my youth. All my friends started to notice that I was looking younger and wanted to know how. As I am a teacher at heart, I wanted to share it with them, so my workshops for facial exercises came about.
The facial exercise program took me three years to develop, it had to be easy to comprehend, cover all the muscles in the face and neck and take just fifteen minutes a day, which was as long as I could devote in a day to firming my face. I also wanted to make sure that it gave the best-looking build to the face which I found other programs did not give. They were just solving one area problem and so were resulting in faces looking not right. I tested the face exercises on myself and six other people of different ages, genders and ethnicity. Using the results from the tests I built them into a comprehensive program offering facial exercises to provide an even, balanced and attractive build for the face for both men and women.
WHD How does the system help to smooth the face of wrinkles?
CC The system consists of a three step technique for releasing the skin sticking to the underlying tissue and then shows how to rub out the wrinkle. Wrinkles are caused by the skin sticking to the underlying tissue and when the muscle contracts, it pulls down the skin and creates a wrinkle.
Improvements in the circulation of the blood and lymph nodes in the skin are brought about with massaging of the skin. The facial and neck exercises together with massage as detailed in the facial exercise program will help to minimize the wrinkles, tighten and firm the face and neck.
WHD How long does it take to see an improvement in our face?
CC Some improvement should be seen after the first two weeks. The tired look goes first, that you get with age. In the next three months, you will usually get people saying that you look good and within six to nine months you can lose five to ten years in your looks. After a year there should be a noticeable difference and friends will be asking how you are managing to stay looking so young. The results will be faster, the younger you are. If the wrinkles are deep then of course it will take longer to bring it back. The best way to get good results is to stay consistent and do the exercises three to five times a week
WHD What is the significance of lying down to do the exercises?
CC Lying down to do the face exercises produces a faster, better and more complete result. The reason being that some of the exercises require you to lift your head and turn your head and doing this will strengthen and build the muscles in the front of the neck. Also with the aid of gravity you can build muscle fiber faster. BY lying down you will get a lifted, tighter face and neck.
WHD What benefits can you achieve from doing facial exercises?
CC There are several benefits for doing facial exercises, first it builds the muscle fiber so that it plumps out the face and neck giving a more youthful look. It improves the complexion because with all the massage movements on the skin, it increases the blood circulation in the face enabling more oxygen and nutrients to feed the cells of the skin. The surface of the face has the old damaged cells wiped away through the process of doing the face exercises. This gives a clearer, healthier complexion and allows the skin to absorb moisture more easily. It is also thought that facial exercises help to stimulate the production of collagen.
WHD How often and how much time is needed to achieve a more youthful face?
CC How often you should exercise: After much research, we've found that performing the basic 28 exercises (15 minute workout) once a day, five times a week for the first three months will give a perfect foundation for adding any bonus exercises (if needed) later on. Giving the face two days off to rest, once a week is also seemingly important for a couple of reasons. One, you won't stop dong the exercises because the demand to workout is too much and it "seems" (no scientific back-up here... just our observation), secondly, the face and the neck do better when they have a little weekly rest from the exercises. The build on the face and neck seem to be more elegant, firm and balanced when the tissue has time to recover with this time off.
Remember to perform all 28 exercises and not pick and choose or you run the risk of spot building the face. It’s the combination of exercises that gives the powerful, elegant and even build to the face.
WHD Can all ages use your facial exercise system or is it aimed more at the older person?
CC The younger you start, the less likely you are of developing wrinkles and sagging skin in old age. If you are younger you will only need to perform the basic exercises two or three times a week. If you are older, like me, I was 52 when I discovered facial exercises and had a lot of “correcting” to do, you can still turn back the hands of time.
WHD Is it possible to do facial exercises wrong and make your wrinkles look worse?
CC It is possible to “overdo” it and damage an area but with care and patience which are an important aspect of my facial exercise system you can get rid of your wrinkles. My program talks you through how to do all the exercises by DVD, sitting up first and then lying down.
WHD What is different about your system to all those other systems on the market?
CC I own numerous books and courses on exercises for the face but found all to be lacking in some way. My facial exercise program is a complete program, all 28 facial exercises are demonstrated in an easy to use DVD format. From all of my researching I have not found any other program offering this important learning device. Also the program can be done in fifteen minutes which was very important to me. As well as the DVD, you also get a motivational CD that talks you through the different exercises once you have learnt how to do the exercises. It is essential to lie down to do the exercises for good results as gravity can help instead of hindering.
WHD Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about?
CC Carolyn’s Facial Fitness offers wonderful customer service. I always try to answer all emails within 48 hours. Once you buy the program and you send your before and after pictures to me, I will evaluate them for you and tell you exactly what I think you should do next to improve your face.
Your free exercise
Instructions for The Gulping Fish:
I call this exercise, “The Gulping Fish”. It helps to alleviate the deep rings that form around the neck as well as firm up the two long muscles that radiate from under the lips to the top of the collarbone. A kind of “cording” can occur on the neck as we age and this exercise will both correct and prevent this from happening.
Place your open hand at the base of your throat, stretched across your collarbone. Holding your hand down, stretch your neck up, leading with your chin and stretch with your bottom jaw, only, towards the ceiling. Do NOT swallow, but rather reach with you bottom lip towards the ceiling “looking” like a gupling fish. Make 10 “gulps”. Do 5 sets, changing hands for each round:
You should start to see results of less lines, smoother skin and a younger, firmer looking neck within 2 weeks. Within 3 months, you’ll have more obvious results. Facial exercises are not a quick fix. They do require some maintenance. But, hey! 15 minutes a day, 3 to 5 days a week is a small price to pay for having more beautiful skin, less wrinkles, a firmer, more youthful-looking face and neck that keeps on getting better over time. Facial exercises help you to age gracefully and elegantly.
Thank you Carolyn for your in depth details of your program of exercises for the face. What a great way to look younger. Carolyn has a very informative web site where you can find out in detail how wrinkles are formed, how you can get rid of them and can buy the facial exercise program, to try out yourself.
