KBTV

Yoga for the Face

For years yoga has been touted as a way to tone your body, calm your mind and improve your health. Now a handful of yogis from posh health clubs in places such as New York and Atlanta, claim it could take years off your face. Though doctors and some yoga instructors aren’t buying it, this new trend has swept up a lot of devotees.

At the front of this trend is Annelise Hagen … the Brooklyn-based yoga instructor behind “The Yoga Face." Her recently published book that explains her anti-aging regimen that promises to eliminate wrinkles and tone the muscles above the neck through – as described by the New York Post – a series of eye-popping, tongue-wagging, jaw-dropping moves.

Hagen, who’s taught yoga for more than 10 years and facial rejuvenation yoga for the last three, claims that if you start doing a few minutes of facial yoga a day, in six months you’ll have tighter, more refined skin. In a year’s time, you’ll look like you had a good face-lift. Want to sculpt and narrow your nose? Alternate breathing out of each nostril. Have crow's-feet? Open your eyes wide to smooth the lines. As pale as a glass of milk? A few downward dog poses can add color to the complexion while oxygenating the skin.

So how does this to-good-to-be-true aging solution and plastic surgery alternative work? Partly drawn from vocal training techniques used by actors, it combines facial exercises, body poses and breathing methods to detoxify the skin and lift the face naturally – without knives and needles. The aim is to tap into the 57 muscles in the face, neck and scalp and tone them.
Face yoga falls into a branch of yoga called Revita-Yoga…which basically combines yoga and facial exercises to combat wrinkles, frown lines and sagging. But like most exercises, it takes times to see the results of a face yoga workout. According to Hagen, about six classes and some homework will bring on serious results.

If this all sounds a little too good to be true – it may be because it isn’t. That’s according to doctors who specialize in skin or facial physiology. While they agree that it relaxes practitioners, they find it unlikely that it could rejuvenate the face. Some yoga gurus are skeptical, too. Rodney Yee, a well-known yoga instructor from East Hampton, New York, said ''We've not discovered the fountain of youth…Yoga will add radiance to your face and relax you, which will make you look younger, but to just focus on the face is too specific and sounds more like a marketing ploy.''

Despite the skepticism, hundreds of people are trying out the Three-Stooges-esq facial positions in hope of erasing frown lines and tightening their cheeks. Curious? Here are a few of the positions to try yourself.






For more information on Hagen’s book and face yoga check out her Web site…www.yogaface.net.

posted by Jason Parsley @ 9:05 PM