Let me set the scene: Looking in the mirror can either be a painful experience if you are dissatisfied with your slightly misshapen, droopy face or it can be a joy as you witness subtle changes occurring daily when you choose exercise over doing nothing … or doing something radical that you might regret later.

Just as our arms, legs and torso appreciate exercise your face will look younger, toned, lifted and radiant when you incorporate a specialized exercise routine into your day.

The media and the medical community have long touted many types of surgery to lift wayward facial skin and muscles. Injections for plumping and paralyzing are frequently used on the areas of your face that wrinkle, droop and sag plus laser treatments and chemical peels are often added. Laser beams can scorch and burn the skin and coupled with the effects of deep chemical peels, you might find yourself wearing a shiny, plastic finish to your features.

Spending a fortune has never been easier.

Cindy Jackson is one of those gals who have endured five facelifts, cheek implants, two nose jobs, a painful jaw reshaping and numerous injections. In all she has had 52 plastic surgeries over twenty years, she’s spent over $100,000 and she’s not done yet. She just loves plastic surgery and artificial enhancements. She obviously has the means to pay for surgery; she doesn’t seem to mind the recuperative time or the fact that she may risk infection and botched results. Cindy Jackson is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most cosmetic procedures and she offers good advice for those contemplating a surgical procedure: Stay away from the mini-lifts because they will have to be repeated in six months or so and take the time to meet with three surgeons before deciding to undergo the knife.

So where does this leave the rest of us? Facial plastic surgery is scary stuff and it has many risks, plus it presents an enigma – here you pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a procedure that has no satisfaction guarantee and you most likely will have to repeat certain procedures because the effects of gravity and atrophy will continue to bombard your facial features. This means more money spent and more risk is taken; and for what? Temporary results.

There is a better way with proven results and there is no cutting. Facial exercise that uses isometric contraction with resistance will produce a younger looking face. If you want to look five, ten, even fifteen years younger, then you will love knowing that facial exercise can change the shape and contour of your facial features. This means that your droopy eye brows and eye lids reposition, your cheeks stop sliding downward, the jowls and pouches dissipate, your jaw line refines and looks defined, the double chin is lessened and crow’s feet lift.

Exercise works for the body and facial exercise works for your face but not just any facial exercise program will produce the results described above. In fact, there are many imposters that claim that twists, puckers and contortions are facial exercise. They’re exercises all right but they have no power to reshape or reposition the muscles and they just might increase the likelihood of wrinkles because repetitive motions and movements like twists, puckers and contortions do indeed wrinkle the skin and facial features during the execution of the exercise.

Resistance training using the thumbs and fingers to anchor the muscles produce the greatest results.

Here’s why: muscles in the face attach to bone only on one end and the other end of the muscle attaches into either another muscle or into the skin. Without anchoring and resistance reshaping and repositioning the muscles cannot be achieved. The thumbs and fingers must first isolate, then anchor the tiny facial muscles. Then by holding the muscle or muscle group the contraction is executed which shortens, tightens and lifts the exercised muscle.

The facial skin is attached directly to the muscles so when the muscle begin to rehabilitate, the skin begins to thicken as nourishing, oxygenated blood is forced to all parts of the face and neck. After just a few weeks of facial exercise your face, neck and skin will look fresher and younger. The results will last longer and longer as you incorporate the exercises into your daily routine. Once you have developed the desired results you can then relax and perform the exercise routine only two or three times per week to maintain your new look.

Exercise is safe and it is effective. You can look younger naturally without surgery, drugs or anything harmful or hurtful. Sagging facial muscles respond quickly to the movements and soon you will love your newly restored youthful face and your confidence level will soar.