watch: we make ridiculous faces for the #faceyoga trend

proponents are sharing various ways of “working out” your facial muscles, including making big facial expressions, with or without pressure from their hands. the claim is that doing this every day can result in a more “sculpted” appearance, reduce the presence of wrinkles, and/or create a more lifted, youthful appearance. the hashtag #facegym has 144.3 million views, while the hashtag #faceyoga has 568 million views on tiktok alone.

moving the muscles on your face can increase blood flow, which also increases the oxygen supply to the face, deborah longwill, board-certified dermatologist at miami center for dermatology in florida told everyday health. this can improve the health of the cells, and may lead to healthy, glowing skin.

murad alam, md, vice chair and chief of cutaneous and aesthetic surgery in the department of dermatology at northwestern medicine’s feinberg school of medicine, says that these results were likely due to the fact that the resistance training caused the facial muscles to grow, according to nbc news. developing these muscles may help offset drooping skin and loss of fat, creating a “fuller” appearance.

there’s no research

previously, a 2014 review on nine facial rejuvenation techniques like facial exercises, facial massage, face building and face yoga, found that although all studies reported positive results, none used a control group or randomized treatments for proper comparison. many of the studies also relied on the participants themselves to assess the results, casting doubt on the findings.

can facial exercises backfire?

facial exercise has a lot of skeptics. when we make facial expressions — like raising our eyebrows — wrinkles appear elsewhere on the face as the skin compensates for the muscle movement. as we age, the components of our face that help the skin to spring back from these movements — like collagen and elastin fibres — begin to break down , resulting in wrinkles in telltale spots like the forehead, crows feet on the corner of the eyes, and laugh lines along the inside corner of the cheeks.