Facial Exercises

Face and neck exercises should be an essential part of the daily routine to maintain a healthy, youthful look. The ageing process can be delayed and even reversed with a few daily exercises. Drooping of the cheeks, hanging skin, crowsfeet and puffy, loose skin around the eyes can be avoided with just 10 minutes exercise a day.

• In a sitting position, tilt the head back, keeping teeth together. Contract neck and chin muscles for 30 seconds.
• Repeat exercise 1 with teeth slightly apart: when head is tilted back, close the teeth. Repeat for 30 seconds.
• Say the word “cue” pushing your lips forward. Now say the word “ex” pulling the muscles back towards the ears. Repeat 20 times.
• Open the eyes wide and drop the mouth open, stretching all the muscles as far as possible for 30 seconds. Repeat, but stick your tongue out as far as possible for 30 seconds.
• Close eyes and screw your face into a ball for 30 seconds.
• Tilt head slightly, push lower jaw and teeth forward.
• Try to reach your nose with your lower lip. Hold for 30 seconds.
• Turn the lower lip down, stretching neck and jaw muscles.
• Try to reach the tip of your nose with your tongue.
• Open your mouth as far as possible and mentally say “Ah”; then quickly say “Hoo”. Purse your lips as though trying to whistle. Repeat 30 times.
• Close your eyes to a slit and contract the muscles under the eyes. (The rest of the face should be relaxed). Hold for 5 seconds. Repeat this exercise 5 times.
• Relax forehead, place the right thumb under your right eyebrow and push upwards. Then resist pressure at the point where your thumb is, so that the eyebrow squeezes down. Hold for 5 seconds. Repeat this exercise 3 times for each eye.
• Place the tip of the middle finger of both hands just under the bridge of the nose. Add firm pressure towards the sides, but at the same time resisting through the bridge of the nose. Do the exercise for 30 seconds.
• Place the fingertips at the top of the forehead. Put on firm pressure, now try to move your forehead downwards. Close your eyes with each contraction and pull down. Do the exercise for 30 seconds – 5 seconds for each contraction.
• Put your thumbs inside your mouth into the laugh lines. Start at the top, placing the first fingers of your hands over the thumbs. Put on pressure. Now put pressure on with thumbs and resist with the fingers. Move down the laugh lines, using 5 second contractions.

Neck Rolling

• Sit straight in a chair, drop your head onto your chest, then slowly swing your head up to the right shoulder, then rolling to the back and down to the left shoulder and back onto the chest. Repeat 6 times clockwise and then 6 times anti-clockwise.

Foot Exercises

The feet spend most of their time confined and unable to exercise freely. Most people should be able to find a few minutes a day to perform these simple exercises.

• Sit barefoot on an upright chair and cross one leg over the other. Stretch the toes downwards as far as they will go pointing towards the floor. This is called plantar flexion. Stretch the foot back towards you until you can feel a pull in the front of the leg. This is called dorsi flexion. Do the complete exercise six times then swap legs and repeat.
• Sit down with the legs crossed. Keeping the uppermost leg as still as possible, and with the toes pointed, draw six wide circles in the air with the foot. Repeat the exercise with the other leg uppermost.
• Stand upright and take the body weight on one foot. Raise the heel of the other foot and bend the toe joints at right angles to the rest of the sole.