BLOG 183: 5 FACE YOGA MOVES FOR IN YOUR 60ā€™S
Oct 07, 2022
Face yoga is a beautiful practice whatever age you are. But in this blog post, I particularly want to run through five face yoga techniques that are wonderful for people in their 60s.
Now, you can do this routine at any age – whether you’re under 60, in your 60s, in your 70s, 80s, 90s, or beyond. You’ll see benefits from using these techniques on your face at any point in your life. However, I’ve worked with a lot of people in their 60s over the past 17 years and the face yoga moves I’m sharing in this post are ones that are especially beneficial if you’re in this age group.
A few quick notes before we get stuck into the routine itself. Firstly, it’s important to work to your own level with face yoga. If anything feels uncomfortable, please feel free to stop and rest, or to skip that move entirely if it just isn’t working for you.
Secondly, make sure you have clean hands and a clean face before you start the routine. Apply some serum to your skin – my Fusion by Danielle Collins Pro Lift Moisturising Serum is ideal. Packed with high-performing botanical seed oils, it is gentle and nourishing for ageing skin.
Finally, if you prefer to watch along with a video guide, you can also find this sequence on my YouTube channel.
1. MASSAGE
Let’s start by warming up the skin. Take all your fingertips onto your neck and tap quickly and lightly all over your neck area. Tilt your chin up slightly so you can access the skin here too.
Keep tapping up over your face, making sure to cover your jaw, cheeks, around your mouth, and your forehead too. Keep tapping all over your face and neck for around a minute.
Not only does this start to wake up the circulation, but it also helps the serum penetrate deeper into your skin.
Next, we’re going to work with lymphatic drainage. When your lymphatic drainage is sluggish, it can cause all sorts of issues, including dull or bloated-looking skin or dark circles around the eyes. So, a bit of lymphatic drainage massage can be amazing when you are in your 60s.
Gently stroke your fingertips down the sides of your neck. When you reach your collarbone, pause there to make a little pulsing movement with your fingers. Then return to the top of your neck and repeat the action, continuing for about a minute.
We want to stay slow and gentle with this move so that we’re not dragging at the skin. We’re also looking for a very light pressure – the lymphatic drainage system is just beneath the skin so we’re not trying to press down deep into the muscle for this massage.
Finish with your fingertips on your collarbones and spend a few seconds pulsing your fingers to stimulate the lymph nodes there.
2. NECK
The neck is an area where we can really notice signs of ageing as we get into our 60s.
I just want to take a moment here to say there is nothing wrong with lines, wrinkles, and sagging skin. These are all completely normal. I really feel that we should celebrate ageing – it is a privilege to get older. My aim with face yoga isn’t to eliminate those lines and wrinkles altogether. These are just techniques you can use to enhance your natural beauty and look and feel like the best version of yourself at the age you are.
Reach your arms down and back behind you, like giant wings. At the same time, lift your chin up slightly and gently turn your head from side to side.
This move opens out the chest area and helps to combat that hunched posture so many of us find ourselves in after years of desk work or caring for children.
When we do hunch forward, it often leads to lines on the neck area and fluid accumulation under the chin – a double chin, in other words. So, this move helps to correct that posture and release tension from the neck and shoulders.
Take the move deeper by clasping your hands together behind your back. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and straighten your arms as much as you can. Tilt your chin up. Keeping your lips together, move your tongue up and down from the roof of your mouth at a rate of one per second.
You should feel this working the muscles under your chin.
After around a minute, release your arms and bring your head back to centre.
3. LIPS AND CHEEKS
Another thing that is common as we age is that the corners of our lips start to droop down because the muscles here start to weaken. Our next move helps to lift those corners back up again. This makes us look happier and helps to lift many of the other muscles of the cheek area.
Wrap your lips around your teeth and bring the corners of your mouth up into a smile, keeping your lips together. If any lines appear as you do this, use your fingers to smooth them away.
Hold the pose for ten seconds, then release. Repeat twice more. You should really feel the check muscles working.
Then, massage along your cheekbones to brighten your cheeks. Use your index and middle fingers to press up under the bone, then flick up and off. Work along from your nose towards your ears, repeating a few times.
4. UNDER EYES
Our next technique helps to reduce dark circles, puffiness, and eye bags. We’re working with the lymphatic system again here.
Use your index fingers to very lightly stroke from the bridge of your nose, down under your eyes, up to your temples, round behind your ears, and down the sides of your neck. Continue for around a minute, breathing deeply.
Stay very gentle here – we don’t want to drag at the sensitive skin.
5. FOREHEAD
Next, form a hook shape with one of your index fingers. Using the middle knuckle, smooth up between your eyebrows. Keep varying the angle to cover a wider area as you continue this massage.
This technique targets the procerus muscle between the eyebrows and helps to reduce number 11 lines. It also stimulates the third eye acupressure point – a great one to use if you’re feeling stressed or worried, or if you suffer from tension headaches.
Finally, place the sides of your index fingers together in the centre of your forehead and smooth outwards until you reach the outer corners of your eyebrows. Use your fingers to slightly lift the corners of your eyebrows.
Hold your fingers there and open your eyes as wide as you can, making sure not to crease your forehead. Focus on a point just in front of you. Hold for around thirty seconds, release, and then repeat.
This helps to strengthen the orbicularis oculi muscles that run around the eyes. It also relaxes the frontalis muscle – the big one across the forehead.
DONE!
We’re all finished. Release your hands and take a few deep breaths. Close your eyes, bring your hands into prayer position in front of your heart and repeat three times, “I am happy, glowing, and relaxed.”
I have other guides available for other age groups, so do check out these links if you’d like to explore other targeted face yoga routines for different ages:
You can also dive deeper into face yoga and explore more techniques like the ones I’ve shared in this post in my two books, Danielle Collins’ Face Yoga and the Face Yoga Journal.
