Face yoga, the practice of doing specific exercises and massages on the face to reduce wrinkles and improve facial contours, has attracted genuine interest and a degree of skepticism. The skepticism is warranted but not total. There’s more scientific underpinning to some aspects of face exercise than the more critical dismissals suggest, and less than the enthusiastic proponents claim.
The main claim and the main counterargument
Proponents of face yoga argue that exercising the facial muscles builds muscle mass and improves facial contours, lifting the face and filling in areas that have become hollow with age. The result, they claim, is a more youthful appearance achieved without surgery or injectables.
The most common counterargument from dermatologists is that facial expressions and exercises create the very lines being addressed. Dynamic wrinkles form at the points of repeated muscle contraction: crow’s feet from squinting and smiling, forehead lines from raising eyebrows, smile lines from the action of the zygomaticus major. Exercising these muscles more intensely would, under this logic, accelerate the formation of wrinkles rather than reduce them.
The truth sits between these positions. Both the muscle volume argument and the muscle contraction argument have some validity, and they apply to different aspects of facial ageing.
The one clinical trial worth discussing
A 2018 study published in JAMA Dermatology (a well-respected peer-reviewed journal) examined 27 women aged 40-65 who performed a standardised face exercise program for 20 weeks: 30 minutes daily for the first 8 weeks, then alternating days for the remaining 12 weeks. Two blinded dermatologists assessed photographs before and after using the Merz-Carruthers Facial Aging Photoscales.
The results showed that the women appeared approximately three years younger at the end of the study, with the most significant improvements in upper and lower cheek fullness. The study attributed this to enlargement of cheek muscles (zygomaticus major and minor), which adds volume in an area that commonly loses volume with age.
This is the strongest evidence for face yoga available. It’s worth noting the limitations: 27 participants is a very small sample, there was no control group, and there was no follow-up to assess whether results persisted after stopping the exercises. The study was also funded by a face exercise company, which doesn’t invalidate it but warrants awareness.
What face exercises can realistically do
Building muscle volume in the cheeks is plausible from the JAMA study. The cheeks do lose muscle and fat volume with age, contributing to hollowness and the descent of midface tissue. Exercises targeting the zygomaticus and masseter muscles can theoretically build some of this volume back, in the same way that targeted body exercise builds specific muscles.
Improved lymphatic drainage from the facial massage components of face yoga routines is also plausible. Gentle tapping and pressing movements can stimulate lymphatic flow, temporarily reducing puffiness. This is a short-term effect rather than a structural change.
General skin health may benefit from the increased blood circulation that facial massage and exercise produces. Better circulation delivers nutrients and oxygen to skin cells and improves the removal of metabolic waste.
What face yoga probably can’t do
Reducing existing deep expression lines by exercising the muscles that created them is unlikely to be the mechanism of improvement seen in the JAMA study. The improvement was in cheek fullness, not in reduction of dynamic wrinkles. Repeatedly contracting muscles that form expression lines does not plausibly reduce those lines.
Structural changes equivalent to surgical facial rejuvenation are not achievable. Face yoga cannot address significant skin laxity, jowling caused by fat pad descent, or the bony resorption that contributes to facial ageing. These require different interventions.
The time investment required for meaningful results (30-60 minutes daily for months) is significant. For people who enjoy the practice and find it relaxing, this is fine. For people who are primarily hoping for wrinkle reduction from a 5-minute daily routine, the evidence doesn’t support that expectation.
Facial massage: the more evidenced component
If the claims for face yoga are mixed, the evidence for gua sha and facial massage specifically is somewhat stronger, particularly for de-puffing and improving circulation. A 2021 study found that facial gua sha significantly improved microcirculation in the treated areas and produced measurable improvements in skin condition metrics.
Massage with appropriate tools (gua sha stones, jade rollers used properly, or simply hands) along lymphatic drainage pathways can improve the temporary appearance of puffiness, particularly around the eyes and jawline. These effects last hours rather than weeks, but the consistent daily practice of lymphatic massage appears to produce cumulative improvement in facial fluid distribution.
The practical position
If face yoga appeals to you as a practice, there’s reasonable evidence that the cheek exercises specifically produce some muscle volume benefit over months of consistent practice, and that massage components improve circulation and temporarily reduce puffiness. Neither effect is dramatic, and neither replaces other forms of skin and health care.
For someone who enjoys the practice and finds it a pleasant way to start the day, the combination of movement, massage, and mindful attention to the face is probably net beneficial. For someone looking for a powerful anti-wrinkle intervention, the evidence doesn’t support that expectation, and other approaches (retinoids, sunscreen, sleep, not smoking) have much stronger clinical evidence for wrinkle reduction and prevention.