Why you should train your face as well as your body

You work out and spend hours trying to perfect your guns and toning up those abs. Even keeping those buttocks looking cute and in good shape takes work and we all know that squats are the real killer.

Keeping those muscles toned on our body becomes more important as we get older. Pumped up and toned muscles means our skin has the perfect foundations on which to lay.

In my opinion, it’s all about balancing things out for the body and the face.

You are unlikely to walk into a bar and flash your abs immediately at a complete stranger but your face is always first seen and first judged. As we age our faces naturally lose the springy elastin and collagen.

I think of it a bit like the tent pegs on a canvas, pulling the tent tight. As these decline, the support the skin has is more reliant on the thin layer of fat we have beneath our skin.

The thinner this is the more the skin will wrinkle as it doesn’t have the tent pegs to keep it tight. This is why you see people who lose lots of weight suddenly looking older in the face.

Faces can often look harsh without any of those softer curves. We may strive for the perfect abs by stripping fat out of our diet but at what cost to the face?

Just as we work out the muscles in our body we should consider how we treat the muscles in our faces. 

A jawline to a man is what great cheekbones are to a woman and yet we can often neglect this neck area.

What no one really talks about is that as we age the muscles around our neck, like anywhere else on our body, decline unless we do something about it. This can lead to a slackening of the skin around the jaw or neck area.

This, along with weight gain, can cause the double chin effect.  Simple neck exercises can keep this area strong and toned and prevent this and it is never too early to start! Weight gain around the face can occur at any age.

Here are 3 simple ones you can try:

1) Kiss The Ceiling

Stretch your neck up towards the ceiling, pucker up and place a big kiss on the ceiling.

Repeat 10 times.

2) Chin Up

Push your bottom jaw out and lift your lower lip over the top one.

Hold for a few seconds and relax.

Repeat 10 times.

3) Neck Crunch

Lying on your back bring your chin to your chest and lift your head off the ground a few cm/couple of inches.

Don’t lift your stomach or push your chin out.

Repeat 10 times.

Frown lines are another area you can start to tackle by building up muscle strength between the eyebrows by using resistance training.

The resistance in this situation is in fact your two index fingers. Simply use your index fingers to pull your eyebrows apart at the centre of the forehead, whilst at the same time trying to frown. This builds up the muscle strength in this area and helps prevent frown lines.

These simple exercises are just the tip of the iceberg, I think as soon we realise our face is a muscle which needs training too gay men will look even better for their age than they do already! That way we won’t have to rely so much on things like botox injections or more extreme treatments.

Gay men lead the way when it comes to the body beautiful and now it’s time to tackle the face beautiful!

If you would like to know more about ‘How to Age Well’ then check out my brand new retreat at Champneys in Tring over the weekend of the 7/8 July. You can find all the details here about this exciting new event I am hosting.

You’ll learn loads and be able to take full advantage of all the facilities that Champneys offers for the entire weekend.

See you in the steam room!

Stuart Miles is the founder of MilesYounger.com and the UK’s leading ageing expert. Follow him on Twitter @Stuart_Miles.