The Importance of Warm-up & Cool-down

The facial muscles are generally divided into orbital, nasal, and oral groups. This relates to why we focus on three zones of the face through our Face Yoga practice. The upper zone includes the forehead and eyes, the middle zone includes nose and cheeks, and the lower zone includes the mouth, chin, and neck

As we continue through this guide, we practice exercises for each zone and learn how to combine them to create a well-rounded personal Face Yoga practice.

Before focusing on a warm-up and cool down, the key is to check in with breath and posture. Learning to relax tension even before we practice our exercises can be difficult – because it may involve changing expressions and posture we may have used unconsciously for years.

By first using a conscious breathing practice to control our breath, we can begin to relax our face, particularly during stressful times. Conscious breathing means the practice of breathing with awareness and intention, and attention to your inner experience, in the present moment. When we practice conscious breathing during face yoga, we are relaxing the body and face and promoting mental focus that opens us up to fully experiencing our exercises and yoga moves. While consciously breathing, we feel the movements of the muscles, are aware of our face and feel tension actively seep away. On a physiological level, using conscious breathing while practicing facial moves also increases blood flow to the skin, which helps in reducing stress lines and encourages the development of a more relaxed-looking countenance.

Three Steps to Conscious Breathing:

1) Breathe deeply and slowly, in and out, through your nose. 2) Breathe from the diaphragm, not the upper chest (you’ll know you’re doing this correctly if you can feel your stomach expanding and contracting). 3) Follow the breath as it moves in and through your body and out again.

Along with awareness of our breath, ensuring that our posture is correct as we carry out our Face Yoga exercises ensures we are placing less strain on the neck, jaw, and head muscles. Many of our Face Yoga moves will require us to sit or stand. Lengthening and realigning our spine to sit or stand correctly will significantly help our exercises. Not only will poor posture cause you to become tired more quickly, but it can create back pain, neck and shoulder pain, and inefficient breathing – all of which can gravely affect our face. More often than not, we consciously or unconsciously express our pain by scrunching up our face, furrowing our brows, or holding our head low.

Breathe and posture preparation are key. As mentioned, without realizing it, we may brace our shoulders, neck, and back muscles. Taking time to focus on a warm-up that prioritizes breath and body awareness and limbering our shoulders, neck, and back muscles will help us avoid injury. On the other hand, our cool-down helps keep our body and face relaxed the rest of the day, allowing us to continue to benefit from the exercises we practice.

Goals of warmup:

Create breath awareness which calms, centers and connects the body and mind. Release tension in face, shoulders, neck and jaw. Provide awareness of posture and correct body alignment. Open up circulation pathways and increase blood flow to the face. Loosen muscles and joints to eliminate stiffness & improve flexibility. Focus the mind on the present moment.

Goals of cool down:

Encourage skin and muscles to relax. Help cells in the face start to assimilate the benefits of the Face Yoga practice. Bring your expression back to normal with a greater awareness of how you’re moving your face.