As you scroll through social media every day, you probably notice many of your old friends or colleagues undergo many drastic changes in their bodies, faces, and skin. Most of them claim to gain all those physical modifications just by going to the gym.
If you’re looking forward to achieving a more defined and attractive face, you might want to know the truth behind those claims. So, can going to the gym change your face for real?
Yes, regularly going to the gym can change your face by reducing your facial fat. While no exercise can alter your face structure, some activities will improve the definition of your jawline and improve your skin tone.
Here, we will discuss how exercises can affect your face muscles and tell you about several effective workouts that might improve your face shape specifically. PS – We also have an article how gym mirrors can make you look bigger.
Let’s dive in.
How Exercising Effect Your Facial Features
When you start following a fitness routine strictly, you’ll notice a number of changes in your cheekbones, mouth, chin, and neck area. Moreover, your skin begins to glow as you start taking a yoga class or doing a certain face exercise.
Here’s how exercising might change your appearance –
Working Out Reduces Facial Fat
If you have excessive fat tissues around your cheeks and neck, several hours of cardio and resistance training might help you to shed that extra fat off. When you work out, your body requires some extra energy, and it uses the extra fats of your arms, thighs, belly, and face to gain the necessary energy.
The fat travels through your bloodstream to reach your body muscles and help them to function more effectively during exercise. Hence, the fat cells of certain areas shrink and make you healthier. As the extra fat is removed, your jawline and bone structure become more defined, making you look leaner and more attractive.
Improving Blood Circulation
When you do cardio activities and weight training, your heart rate goes up and increases blood flow through the blood vessels. The vessels often expand to deliver oxygen, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to your skin and muscles.
This way, your skin becomes healthier, and your face looks plumper and rejuvenated. As many toxins are removed from your face’s skin cells, your face becomes brighter.
Impacting Facial Muscles
“Like any part of the body, the facial muscles can be developed with exercise. You will note that bodybuilders generally have well-developed facial muscles with a similar chiseled look,” says James Stewart, a former dental officer.
There are about 57 muscles in your face and neck area. By doing regular exercise, you can strengthen each muscle of your body along with the facial muscles, which might tighten your facial skin – making it look healthier. Also, it can improve the elasticity of your neck area.
Going to the gym every day might also help your thin face muscles to gain some mass so that your mouth and cheeks look fuller and younger.
Affecting Skin Cells
One gym shark, Sarah Johnson, says, “Regular exercise also gives you a healthy, glowing look and an unmistakable va-va-voom that you just can’t get any other way.”
A good workout routine benefits your skin health in many ways. It boosts blood circulation, promotes cell renewal, and improves the tone of your facial skin. Most exercises make you sweat, which helps to remove impurities from the pores of your face.
It can help your skin cells to renew faster and reduce your acne problems and skin inflammation. When we’re saying skin inflammation, we’re talking about the overall skin of the body, including the skin of your face as well. No inflammation on the facial skin means your face doesn’t look bulky and weird anymore.
Many gym-goers had noticed a certain glow in their skin when they started working out. Intense exercise makes you hungry and inspires you to maintain healthy food habits so that you can gain a healthy weight and a better skin complexion.
Preventing Depression and Anxiety
Anxiety, depression, and other diseases often affect your face condition. When you’re depressed, your face becomes full of lines and wrinkles. Plus, you get dark circles and sunken eyes.
A regular workout session can stimulate your body’s stress-relieving properties and help you get rid of unnecessary stress and tension. This way, you’ll lose the wrinkles and look more confident and younger.
Plus, most exercises will increase the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, etc., which makes you feel happier, energized, and more motivated. However, wearing makeup during a workout will block your skin pores and damage your skin drastically.
Studies have shown that developing good workout habits can be an effective treatment for managing your sleep cycles. When you sleep sufficiently, your face becomes fuller and more radiant naturally.
Countering Aging Effects
The skin of your face becomes saggy and grows wrinkles after the age of 40. Many exercises can slow the process of aging by elastin and collagen production. These two components present in your skin promote anti-aging and make you look younger.
A 2018 study was conducted to see the effects of exercise and yoga on some middle-aged women. The result suggested that exercises can promote the growth of the underlying muscles of the face and improve skin appearance.
Also, the effects of aging were less visible just by doing those exercises 3 to 4 times each week.
However, the result of the study isn’t universal, and you might not see any changes in your face and skin in several months.
Can Workout Effect Your Face Negatively?
Arjun Bhimwal, a creative director, says, “A high cardio workout will slim down your face considerably. Too much cardio can make your face look drained and tired too.“
Although workout benefits your face and skin in many ways, intense exercise might backfire after the age of 35. Excessive and heavy workouts will grow wrinkles and stretch marks on your face, forehead, and neck.
Moreover, it might sunken your cheeks and cause your eyeballs to sink deeper. In fact, experts have marked this phenomenon as ‘gym face.’ Your face often loses its volume when you age, and unnecessary face exercise can promote the process – resulting in the breakdown of elastin and collagen.
Hence, the effects of aging become more visible, and your jawline becomes unattractive. Keep in mind that you’ll face all these negative effects only if you work out more than your body can handle.
Do Facial Exercises Really Work?
Nowadays, facial workouts are very popular among youngsters, and many have claimed that such exercises can change your face shape dramatically. However many health enthusiasts have declined the claims as there is little to no evidence to support the effectiveness of face workouts.
However, some studies have shown that such workouts have some effects on the face of a particular group of people.
In 2018, a small study was held at Northwestern University, suggesting that if you do particular facial exercises for 20 or more weeks, your skin will become firmer, and your cheeks will become fuller.
So, we can’t dismiss all the claims regarding facial exercises, although the topic requires more detailed studies.
We have already discussed how going to the gym can change your facial features and skin. Yet, you might not see any special changes to your face despite working out regularly. If you want to give it a try, here are some facial workouts that might change your face significantly…
Double Chin Slide
This exercise might help you to get rid of a double chin problem. For this, place your hand just under your chin and try to spread your lower jaw. Then slide your hand over your chin, jawline, and side face as you put pressure using your palms.
Tongue Press
As this exercise is simple, you can perform it very easily. Put your tongue against your mouth’s roof and keep it pressing tightly. Make humming noises or vibrating sounds while putting pressure as it will assist the face muscles. This exercise will help you to define your jawline.
Neck Curl-Up
For a neck curl up, lay down straight, and put your tongue against your mouth’s roof. Raise your head by three inches and bring your face near your chest. Then lower your head again and repeat the process several times. It will help you to shape your neck muscles.
Vowel Exercise
This exercise will help the muscles around your chin and lips. Here you need to create an ‘O’ shape with your lips and try to tighten the muscles around your mouth. Again, make an ‘E’ shape and exaggerate it by putting some extra pressure.
Final Words
So there you have it all. We have tried to answer the question can going to the gym change your face or not.
Regular workouts will surely reduce the additional fats on your face, define your jawline, improve your skin, and reduce the signs of aging. Just be sure not to do any unnecessary heavy exercises, and your face will glow like never before.
