Exercise your way to younger looking skin

Here’s a study which shows that you may not have to spend a lot of money on expensive facial creams to make yourself look younger. Instead, you may be able to exercise the wrinkles off your face.

Researchers at Northwestern University published a study in JAMA Dermatology reporting that middle aged women were able to improve their youthful appearance simply by doing facial exercises.

How the study worked

Twenty seven women aged 40 - 65 were first trained in how to do facial exercises. The exercises were developed by a yoga instructor. The women then did these exercises at home. There were 32 distinct facial exercises that were performed 1 minute each. For the first eight weeks they did them 30 minutes daily. For the next twelve weeks they did them every other day.

This was a small study and only 16 of the participants did all the exercises the whole length of the study.

The results - The average age of the group of women as judged by dermatologists went from 50.8 years at the start of the study to 48.1 years at the end. The participants also reported being happier and highly satisfied with the results.

What does this mean for formulators?

The reality is that even if this works, this is never going to replace skin creams. Thirty minutes a day requires a huge amount of dedication. Most people can’t generally exercise thirty minutes a day. I can’t imagine many would be able to exercise just their facial muscles that often.

The other thing is that these exercises don’t have an impact on the surface appearance of skin. While they might have an impact on the shape of the face and the droopiness of the skin, it’s not going to impact skin dryness, redness, or features like that. Skin moisturizers are here to stay.

But this might make a good marketing angle for those sport beauty product brands. Someone should put together a booklet or a youtube video series. It sounds like this work would be perfect for that.