Does Exercise Deliver for Skin Care?
Just as everyone wants the perfect flat stomach, many people would love a quick way—short of a surgical face lift—to firm up their faces. That’s the hook behind a recent spate of articles, books, videos, and even tiny devices touting facial exercises as a vital addition to the daily fitness routine. Promoters say these exercises can minimize wrinkles, eliminate under-eye bags and firm double chins. They can, according to the promises, restore or maintain that youthful profile. But do they really work? Probably not, says Rodney Basler, M.D., a member of the American Academy of Dermatology. “The only thing that’s going to push those wrinkles out is if you increase the volume of your face, like blowing air into a balloon,” Dr. Basler says. Unfortunately, you can’t pump up tiny facial muscles with exercise, he says. And no amount of heavy jawing can improve skin tone. Looking for the real cause of skin wrinkling and aging? “It’s not muscle laxity,” says Fred Fedok, M.D., director of facial
