| Author | Message | ||
     Linda R New member Username: Linda Post Number: 1 Registered: 06-2008 |
I will be sixty in August and have been teaching my own brand of fitness for ten years now. I am in very good shape so I know what toning the muscles of the body can do. My face, however, hasn't fared so well! I read a book a few years ago about facial exercises but guess i threw it out, so decided to do a little research and found your site. I think it makes perfect sense so I'm going to give it a try. My husband and I both tried the exercises yesterday - he could wiggle his ears a little but mine would'nt budge! Guess I'll have to work extra hard on this one. Hope this helps. | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 71 Registered: 05-2006 |
Linda R: Since you are almost sixty years old, it is especially important that you lubricate your face when you do the exercises. The sebaceous glands in the skin slow down in their activity as we get older, so it's necessary to apply a film of oil or water before doing the exercises. "he could wiggle his ears a little but mine would'nt budge!" You're talking about Exercise Five, the scalp exercise. It's usually hard for women to learn this exercise because their occipitalis muscles are often atrophied. But with practice and patience the scalp will start to move. Exercise Five is an excellent exercise because it gives a natural brow lift. When the occipitalis muscles at the back of the head are toned up, they pull up and back on the forehead, giving a younger, more expressive look to the eyes and the whole upper face. | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2008 |
1. How does one know if he/she is doing an exercise correctly (I heard if you do not do them right it can actually promote or even add wrinkles)? 2. Is there a particular exercise for vertical (ll) lines between the eyebrows? (I am only 32 y.o. and already have those frown lines, I use "frownies" at night but, honestly, do not see much improvement). 3. Does anyone know the benefits of using Apricot oil (I heard it does a good job fighting wrinkles)? | ||
| C M New member Username: Ceeme Post Number: 94 Registered: 06-2007 |
1) You know you are doing the exercises right by doing them in front of the mirror and making sure to pay attention to the specifics described in the exercise. For instance, in the winking exercise, Tom says to make sure you don't scrunch up your face, so you watch yourself as you do it and ensure you are adhering to that. So depending on what program you do, you try to do it exactly as it is directed. 2) I believe Tom's scalp exercise can help with the double lines between the eyebrows. Also good habits, like being aware of the grimaces you make and trying to stop making them unnecessarily. Like since I started doing face exercise, I tend to notice when people are making faces that they don't need to be making. Like on TV, I'll see people raising their eyebrows as they speak, but not because what they are saying calls for an expression of surprise, but it seems that action has somewhat turned into a punctuation for everything they say. And I'm not talking about people with nerve problems. I believe combining the scalp exercise with breaking bad habits will help smooth out the skin in that area. 3) I do not know the benefits of Apricot oil. But a quick search led me to this:
Taken from http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/1807/1/Benefits-of-Apricot-Kernel-Oil.html The oils I have heard wonderful things about are coconut oil as a great moisturizer and rice bran oil as an elixir of beauty. I share my findings on these somewhere on this forum. | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 100 Registered: 05-2006 |
Ellie: CM is right about the scalp exercise - Exercise Five. This exercise, which is hard to learn and hard to do correctly, can get rid of both the vertical and horizontal lines in the forehead that add years to a person's appearance. Instead of my telling you more here about this eccentric exercise, read what I've written about it in both my websites - the one I linked to above and My Approach. CM was also right about facial posture. Some people develop horrible habits of continually contracting certain facial muscles, namely, the frontalis muscle that raises the skin of the forehead into transverse lines; and the procerus muscle that lowers the forehead into a frown, causing vertical lines to form between the eyebrows. The scalp exercise, if you do it correctly, tones up the occipitalis muscle at the back of the head. This muscle pulls up and back on the upper face, eliminating "expression" lines. The exercise also makes you conscious of your facial posture. You'll find you are no longer raising your eyebrows or frowning. | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 2 Registered: 10-2008 |
Thank you all very much. I appreciate the willingness to help and very fast responses with useful information. I am going to work on my frontalis muscle. Do you think I should continue with "frownies" at nighttime? I do not want to be paranoid about the wrinkles but would like to do as much as I can: I am trying to only sleep on my back, as when I sleep on the side my "ll" lines get even worse. | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 101 Registered: 05-2006 |
Ellie: Here's a fair description of frownies from The Performance Leader: Overview Interestingly, Frownies was developed over 120 years ago when a mother wanted to help her daughter get rid of her wrinkles and frown lines. Frownies would go on to become very popular among actresses in early Hollywood and those endorsements went a long way and helped Frownies’ marketing tremendously. The brand has recently experienced a revival in popularity after since new generation of actresses have been overheard talking up the benefits of their mother’s anti-wrinkle treatment. Frownies is most widely known for its facial pads, which claim to teach the muscles under the skin to remain in their normal position. These pads remain on your face for a minimum of three hours and the result is a claimed reduction of fine lines and wrinkles. Usually pads are applied in the evening, when the user has a few quiet hours indoors. Frownies offers a unique and different approach to your standard creams and serums, and also offers a few products that you would expect to find in your anti-aging department. There are five products you can purchase from the official website. According to the manufacturer, these have all been formulated to work together. These products include the ph Balancing Complexion Wash, Immune Perfect Wrinkle Cream, Frownies Facial Patches, and the Immune Shield Serum. These are all part of a four-step daily regimen (using all products is most likely to get you ideal results) and there is also a Frownies Hydrator Spray, which seems to be the brand’s toner. Product Details The Frownies Facial Patches are basically sticky pads you apply to your face to help smooth out your skin. You stick them on where you want to treat your wrinkles and the patches hold your skin smoothly in place. This allegedly encourages your skin cells to shift to the position they originally held before the wrinkles developed. The only ingredients are Kraft paper and gum adhesive so they should be safe for most people to use without worry of side effects or allergic reactions. The other products created by Frownies contain many anti-oxidants and vitamins and the Immune Perfect contains water-soluble melanin, which we found unique and interesting. The Good Very long history with a great reputation. Frownies offers a money-back guarantee. The Bad You must wear a patch on your face for at least three hours per day. There are no clinical trials or research posted on the official website. Some people may sweat while wearing Frownies patches and become uncomfortable. It is necessary to buy all of this manufacturer’s line in order to see the ideal claimed results. The Bottom Line It's nice to come across a product with such a rich and exciting history. Unfortunately, this technology is just seems too outdated. You can essentially accomplish the same thing with some duct tape. The addition of products to accompany the patches is nice, but there just aren't enough people around with the time to hide out at home for three hours a day while they wait for a patch to help smooth their skin. | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 3 Registered: 10-2008 |
My dear support group: I am a little frustrated with the scalp exercise. Maybe I do not understand certain details of how exercise #5 is done, but it seems to me impossible to simultaneously contract the frontalis and the occipitalis muscles. Or are the frontalis muscles supposed to be down when the occipitalis are contracted. Is there a certain sign that the muscles are contracted correctly? | ||
| C M New member Username: Ceeme Post Number: 95 Registered: 06-2007 |
Oh Ellie, join the club of those who did not understand that exercise at one point. There's another thread in this forum where I go back and forth on this probably making everyone dizzy, thinking I fully get it each time, only to return with a new theory next time. In the end I did get, but what a ride getting there! So this is how it goes: First you raise your eyebrows thus contracting your frontalis. Then you return your eyebrows back to their normal place. Now you contract your occipitalis thus moving your ears back, and then relax the occipitalis before doing the eyebrow movement again. So it's eyebrows up, then down (or back to place). And then ears back then forward (or back to place). Engage frontalis, relax, then engage occipitalis, relax. I found I had to think aloud and watch myself in the mirror initially to get the rhythm going. But I must confess that for years, (long before I joined the forum or knew of it) I did the scalp exercise without engaging my frontalis. I had no idea this was part of the exercise. As your muscles get stronger, you'll be able to do what Tom can do. When he contracts his frontalis, not only do his eyebrows move up, but his entire scalp seems to be pulled forward as the muscles of his forehead contract. Then when his occipitalis contract, his scalp is clearly pulled back. His hair moves back and forth so much that if you didn't know he had a thick head of hair, you'd swear he had a furry animal on his head doing a dance he learned from one of Tom's dance classes.  Pretty cool to see indeed.  When you do the occipitalis contraction, your forehead will appear to move up a little from the scalp moving back, which at first led me to think I had to raise eyebrows while contracting occipitalis but I found that so hard and really impossible, coz it was antagonistic. I decided to return to only working the occiptalis, never involving the frontalis. But after I got Tom's CD video and saw him do it, I finally, fully got it. I hope this helps. | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 4 Registered: 10-2008 |
CM: You rock!!! Your description clarified a lot of confusion. Thanks a million. And you know what, if you could paste your post addressed to me somewhere on the official exercise #5 description page it would make life of many people so much easier. I have a few friends who gave up on these exercises because they could not understand the way they should be done. | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 102 Registered: 05-2006 |
Ellie: That's a good idea. In the next few days I'll paste CM's message on the Scalp Exercise page of my website. Everyone has trouble learning this exercise. CM's descriptions will help a lot. | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 5 Registered: 10-2008 |
I am sorry for being such a pain in the … (non exercisable muscle), but here I am again with my questions: Is it critical to do exercise #1 by one eye at a time? I find it easier to work with both eyes at the same time. Also, in the picture Tom’s eye is completely closed, but the description says to partially wink the eye. One more thing, Tom & CM: will you please tell me what you think about these exercises: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm_6q4p5zpo Thank you very much. Ellie | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 103 Registered: 05-2006 |
Ellie: If you don't like the one eye at a time exercise, scroll down the page - Exercise One - to Part B. Do that exercise. (I hope I explained it sufficiently.) This one might be even more effective for the muscles around the eyes. It targets them more specifically. | ||
| C M New member Username: Ceeme Post Number: 96 Registered: 06-2007 |
Hi Ellie: The exercises shown in that youtube video can be found in several face exercise programs. I don't know how effective they are on their own--since every program is made of several exercises that work *together* to achieve one goal, but they do work. I once owned Judith Olivia's video and her forehead exercise is similar to the one where you raise eyebrows while your fingers provide resistance holding your forehead flat to prevent wrinkling. A similar exercise can be found in several other programs as well as the one of smoothing the skin between eyebrows as you frown. They are both in Carolyn's program that I do, but I would never do them on their own as I feel that there has to be a balance to every exercise so that there's a smoothing rather than bulking up of the muscles because another part of the program works on related muscles to tone them thus prevent their being overpowered by one--if at all that makes sense. In other words, when you work your biceps, you need to work your triceps too to get a good uniform, balanced build. Likewise, since face muscles are connected, you can't just work one set w/o working the others that connect to it so balance things out. I think Tom discouraged closing both eyes in Part A of Exercise 1 because it's easier to scrunch up the face or bridge of the nose if you close both eyes, and the idea is to prevent new wrinkles. But his part B of the exercise does help prevent the wrinkling/scrunching--thanks to the fingers providing resistance--so as he says, do that one if you prefer. | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 6 Registered: 10-2008 |
I am so glad I found this website. (I finally have read all the posts and links on the site). Great information, very helpful site!!! Millions of thanks to Mr. Hagerty! Also, many thanks to “Press Attaché” to Mr. Hagerty, CM. Your responses are always packed with useful info. Keep up the good work!!! | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 8 Registered: 10-2008 |
Hi, everyone, When doing scalp exercise, is it O.K. not to see the ears move? I feel the contraction of occipitalis, I see my eyebrows go a little up, but there is no ear movement at all. I even asked my friend to see if she can notice something moving back, unfortunately, the answer was no. Does this mean I am doing it wrong? Many thanks | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 104 Registered: 05-2006 |
Ellie: "I feel the contraction of occipitalis, I see my eyebrows go a little up, but there is no ear movement at all." When you contract the occipitalis muscle at the back of your head, the eyebrows do go up a little. There are no horizontal lines in your forehead when you get this rise in you eyebrows as there is when you contract the frontalis muscles at the front of your head. But when you contract your occipitalis muscle strongly, you definitely will see ear movement. Your ears will move up and back. This will be pronounced. Another test for control of the occipitalis is the pressure test. Place your fingers firmly on your occipitalis muscles. (Check out where they are - Exercise Five. Look closely at the back view of the head. If you are getting a good contraction, you will feel the occips bunch up strongly. | ||
| Ellie New member Username: Ellie Post Number: 10 Registered: 10-2008 |
Tom, thank you very much. I guess it's going to take a century of continuous practice to see my ears move. But, I shall stick to practicing to be able to imitate the great master of scalp Cha-cha-cha, Mr. Tom Hagerty! |
