Meet Your 57 Facial Muscles
THIS is how we create lip lines. Do as I say…not as I do!
When I first started my training to teach face yoga, I was astounded to learn that we have 57 muscles in our face, head, and neck. 57! If you had asked me prior to my training how many I thought we had, I’d have guessed maybe half that, at most.
The more I learned about the individual muscles that create every nuance of our expression, support the skin, and contribute to our unique appearance, the more I realized how amazing the human face actually is.
Some of these muscles get used regularly and are healthy. Some get overused and create lines we don’t want. Still others are rarely, if ever, isolated and intentionally exercised.
The result is that some parts of our faces get stronger as we get older, while other parts get weaker and even begin to atrophy. What we end up with is an imbalance and a sense that we look “less like ourselves” that sends many of us scrambling for solutions by the time we’re in our 50s.
Let me introduce you to a few key players in your facial landscape:
🍃The Frontalis (your forehead muscle) This muscle raises your eyebrows when you're surprised and contributes to those horizontal lines across your forehead. It's often one of the first areas where we notice expression lines, especially if you tend to raise your eyebrows when speaking (like I did!). But there IS a solution for this that involves teaching yourself to use this muscle differently.
🍃The Orbicularis Oculi (around your eyes) This circular muscle surrounds your eyes and creates those delightful crow's feet when you smile genuinely. It's also involved in squinting and winking. When it gets weaker, it can contribute to sagging eyelids and under-eye bags.
🍃The Zygomaticus Major and Minor (your smile muscles) These muscles pull your mouth corners upward when you smile. As we age, they can begin to lose tone, contributing to a downturned appearance at the corners of the mouth. Keeping these muscles toned helps maintain a naturally uplifted expression. (And can help compensate for the southward drift of our facial fat pads which can give us a ‘hollowed out’ look.)
🍃The Masseter (your jaw muscle) This powerful muscle helps you chew and can exert incredible pressure. For many of us (myself included!), it tends to hold tension, especially during sleep or stressful times. This tension can contribute to headaches and jaw pain. Learning to take good care of your masseter can help you keep a sharper jawline as you age while simultaneously relieving things like tension headaches and TMJ.
🍃The Platysma (your neck muscle) This broad, sheet-like muscle runs from your chest up to your jaw. It's a critical support structure for the lower face and neck. When it loses tone, it can contribute to that "turkey neck" appearanc and jowls that many of us notice in the mirror at a certain age.
Understanding your facial anatomy isn't just an academic exercise—it gives your face yoga practice intention and focus.
When you know which muscles you're targeting with each exercise, you become more effective with your time. Instead of just going through the motions, you're consciously engaging specific muscles that need toning or relaxation.
The beauty of face yoga is that you're both the guide and the beneficiary for all these muscles. You get to decide which ones need more toning, which need more relaxation, and which are doing just fine as they are.
And please don't worry—you don't have to memorize all 57 muscle names to practice effectively! (That’s MY job.)
What matters is that you begin to develop a deep awareness of your facial muscles and the intricate ways in which they interact. Often, the awareness alone is transformative; you begin to notice how patterns you’ve held for decades have shaped - and are continuing - to shape your face every day.