Go into any newsagent or magazine seller, and you will see a wide selection of well-known fitness publications for men. The glossy covers show young guys with rippling abs and biceps, and their pages will be packed full of conventional exercise regimes designed to strengthen and tone nearly every muscle in your body.

Without doubt these workout routines will keep your body strong, healthy and more resilient to disease, in fact, I’ve included my own ‘fast fitness’ exercise routine in this book because regular exercise is a vital weapon in your quest to stay sexy.

While these magazines concentrate on the muscles in a man’s body, very much less is said about another, neglected set of muscles that have a huge impact on how young or old you look and feel – the muscles in our face.

Yet, while the muscles in the body are exercised almost to obsession, those in the face are usually neglected and left to wither away.

It is this deterioration in the tone and strength of the facial muscles that encourages the formation of wrinkles, sunken eyes, hollow cheeks, eye bags and a flabby neck.

Without toned muscles to support the skin, gravity sucks your features down, making you look drawn and tired. The corners of the mouth droop downwards, giving you with a permanently sad expression.

You may think that because you use the muscles in your face every day to talk, eat and make expressions, this would be enough to keep them in good condition, but this type of sporadic, uncoordinated movement is not enough to keep the facial muscles in their best condition.

We assume that this deterioration in our looks is just a natural part of the ageing process, but I disagree. Women have known for a long time that simple daily exercises that tone the major facial muscle groups can help to firm the contours of the face and prevent or reduce the visible signs of ageing Now it’s your turn.

Just as with the muscles of the body, if you exercise the muscles in your face, you can stay looking fresher and younger for longer.

The idea of exercising the muscles of your face may seem a little strange, but it can become a normal and natural part of your daily routine, and it only needs to take five minutes a day.

No matter what your age, you can look and feel better with facial exercise. If you are a young man, performing facial exercises will help you maintain that smooth, fresh, healthy look of youth. If you are more mature, a facial workout will help ‘turn back the clock’.

Performed regularly, facial exercises can:

• Firm the forehead, reducing worry and frown lines;
• Reduce and prevent crows feet and bags around the eyes;
• Stop the downward turn of your mouth and thinning of the lips;
• Accentuate your cheekbones to give a more elegant tapered shape to the face;
• Reduce and prevent jowls and slack neck skin (turkey neck);
• Fill out the sides of the mouth to prevent hollow cheeks.

There are sixteen major groups of muscles that influence how the face looks. The diagram below shows a simplified view of how the facial muscles are arranged on the skull, and the legend on the next page gives the name of each muscle group. As you will see, muscles cover almost the entire face and head and therefore have a huge influence on your unique appearance.

Firm the forehead, reducing worry and frown lines;

Reduce and prevent crows feet and bags around the eyes;

Stop the downward turn of your mouth and thinning of the lips;

Accentuate your cheekbones to give a more elegant tapered shape to the face;

Reduce and prevent jowls and slack neck skin (turkey neck);

1, longs colli; 2, rapezius; 3, sterno-hyoid; 4, sterno-mastoid; 5, erico-thyroid; 6, trapezius; 7, constrictor of pharynx; 8, sterno-mastoid; 9, digastric; 10, attrahens aurem; 11, mylo-hyoid; 12, masseter; 13, depressor of lower lip; 15, orbicularis oris; 17, levator of upper lip; 19, levator of angle of mouth; 21, orbicularis palpebrarum. Source: Joseph G. Richardson, Health and Longevity (New York, Home Health Society, 1912).

The exercises, detailed in other posts, if performed correctly and regularly, will tone and strengthen these major facial muscles, restoring their tone and strength.

Each exercise is clearly explained in words and pictures, and you also have the option of watching a demonstration video in the Member’s area. 

You will be exercising your muscles ‘isometrically’. This means you will be tensing the muscles against counter pressure from your hands for a number of seconds and then relaxing.

At first, it may seem very difficult to perform each exercise or to feel any effect. This is normal. Much like the muscles of your body, any exercise performed for the first time on muscles that have not been actively exercised for years will be a challenge.

Even holding the tension for a few seconds may seem impossible but don’t give up! When you first work out the biceps on your arms it can be difficult to even lift the dumbbell off the ground, but the more you do it the stronger the arms muscles become and the easier it gets to lift the dumbbell. It’s no different with the muscles in the face.

In the beginning, aim to hold the tension in each muscle for a slow count of 10. Do this every day for one or two months. As the muscles begin to tone and the exercise feels easier, double the tension hold to 20 seconds for another couple of months. When this becomes comfortable, increase the hold to thirty seconds for each exercise.

The important thing is not to rush and expect instant results. Muscle toning takes time, dedication and patience, but the rewards are worth the wait and the effort. You don’t have to perform all the exercises in one session.

If there is a particular part of your face you wish to concentrate on that’s fine, or you can spread the exercises out over an entire day or week, but for the fastest results and a complete ‘makeover’ I suggest doing the entire workout on a daily basis.

Before you start, make sure your hands are clean and dry so that you can hold the skin under your hands and fingers. If your hands or face are too greasy, you may find it hard to create the resistance needed for your facial muscles to work against. If you wash your face before the session, either use a non-drying facial cleanser that does not leave your skin feeling tight or moisturise after you wash with a light, easily absorbed non-greasy lotion or cream and give it time to absorb.

You want your skin to be dry enough so that your fingers and hands do not slip over the skin. You want to be able to hold the skin gently but firmly and work the muscles underneath against that hold.

Each exercise is clearly explained. Please follow the step-by-step instructions to make sure you perform each exercise correctly. It may be a good idea to practice each exercise in front of a mirror or webcam to check the position of your hands. As you become more confident in performing each exercise you should be able to perform the exercises by feel alone, but you can, of course, continue to use a mirror if you wish.