Ageless if you Dare - Loulou's Facial Exercises
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free skin care · Thu Oct 04, 2012 1:24 pm

Immacolata wrote:

OK, try this: when you grab your chunk of flesh for #1, grab it underneath your pupil. When you grab for #2, move your fingers back 1/2 inch or an inch.

You'll get it, honey. Like I said, even making the attempt works the muscles. They're just weak, and being a bit cranky about it. Muscles are like children, they'll moan and groan but stand fast - be gentle but insistent! Threaten to beat them! LOL - just kidding, don't hurt them, but be persistent and they will start to cooperate.

Thanks for the encouragement and more tips! I'll try that Smile

free skin care · Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:28 am

I woke up this morning after my third Day 1 of Ageless (2 days of Day 2) and my nasojugal ridges, the main reason I started Ageless, looked significantly pronounced Sad

The grooves are more pronounced, especially when I smile.
I have also been incorporating a few minutes of Tanaka massage every night.

Has anyone else experience similar effects? I hope this is temporary, because I am a little scared of such significant negative changes in such a short period of time.

free skin care · Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:49 am

Me too! I have had this happen before with other programmes (plus redness) and it has always settled down - I think its a case of overworking the skin with the intensity and it does say (somewhere!) that we may look more tired as we do this but the intensity of the sessions will decrease toward the end of the 30 days.

free skin care · Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:51 am

puddlelover wrote:

Me too! I have had this happen before with other programmes (plus redness) and it has always settled down - I think its a case of overworking the skin with the intensity and it does say (somewhere!) that we may look more tired as we do this but the intensity of the sessions will decrease toward the end of the 30 days.

I'm not doing the 30 day program though... I'm just doing the regular Ageless, alternating Day 1 with Day 2 exercises.
The left side of my face, right above the nasojugal ridge, was even a little red this morning.

free skin care · Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:21 pm

http://www.agelessifyoudare.org/contact/

You should write to LouLou with this question. No doubt she'll know exactly what exercise is doing this and advise you accordingly. Smile

Edited to add, I found this on her site:

Quote:

The process of building new muscle means using that muscle, squeezing the sponge hard. In the time after an exercise session you might well see wrinkling produced because the old muscle has retained the shape of the facial exercise and pulled the skin with it. It’s nothing to worry about at all, because once all the new cells have formed, the muscle will be very elastic, strong and reluctant to leave an imprint.. The puckered muscle will flatten out over the time till the next exercise session
If you were to go to the gym and work hard your shoulders or leg may be stiff for a day or two. You’d understand it was the body’s immediate response to the exercise, not a permanent state of affairs because you have ruined your leg muscles.

I don't think you have anything to worry about, but you should still contact LouLou for reassurance.

free skin care · Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:30 pm

By the way, found this on their site, for those who haven't quite yet made up their minds:

http://www.agelessifyoudare.org/

3 free exercises to do for 5 days, then you can see the difference for yourself!

Edited to add - click the "Road Test" link.

free skin care · Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:40 pm

Immacolata wrote:

http://www.agelessifyoudare.org/contact/

You should write to LouLou with this question. No doubt she'll know exactly what exercise is doing this and advise you accordingly. Smile

Edited to add, I found this on her site:

Quote:

The process of building new muscle means using that muscle, squeezing the sponge hard. In the time after an exercise session you might well see wrinkling produced because the old muscle has retained the shape of the facial exercise and pulled the skin with it. It’s nothing to worry about at all, because once all the new cells have formed, the muscle will be very elastic, strong and reluctant to leave an imprint.. The puckered muscle will flatten out over the time till the next exercise session
If you were to go to the gym and work hard your shoulders or leg may be stiff for a day or two. You’d understand it was the body’s immediate response to the exercise, not a permanent state of affairs because you have ruined your leg muscles.

I don't think you have anything to worry about, but you should still contact LouLou for reassurance.

Thanks, I really hope it's just the muscles rebuilding themselves...

Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:27 am

BLONDEdotcom wrote:

Jaana wrote:

Blonde, I've got wonderful results with Carolyn's Facial Fitness. Unfortunately the exercises that fixed my eyes are not in the basic exercise set. If I understood right, there will be some new product that contains them, hopefully soon!

How did you learn those particular exercises if they're not currently available... did you do a private consultation?

Customization belongs to CFF. You are supposed to send Carolyn your pictures (after 4 months or something) and get extra exercises. I did that (after 2 years, lol) and got to try the new exercises still in testing.

Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:51 am

I did the Ageless If You Dare exercises today and I really like it. The method is really unique and innovative. I love how affirmations are used to rhythm the exercises! And Loulou is so cute on the video!

I was able to get some kind of grip for most of the exercises. I just took a new shellac to my nails and I don't want to cut them now.

But these exercises are not based on resistance any more than CFF is!

The masseter exercise could be, but as masseter is one of the strongest muscles in the body, you'd need 80-100 lbs resistance to train it. Also, people are taking botox to make masseter smaller, so I have no idea who would want to train it! Just google "botox masseter" to see what a trained masseter looks like.

Another exercise that might qualify as resistance is the brow exercise for frontalis. I've done facial exercise for years, so I find that I actually move my scalp to stretch frontalis, instead of contracting it. Maybe people who find it makes their forehead more wrinkly are really contracting frontalis? When I do it with scalp, its a great exercise!

But most of these exercises are like taking a tight grip on your biceps as you do curls. Excellent deep massage, but little resistance.

Overall, I really enjoy this program, even though it does not affect the eye area as much as CFF (but then, I can't get exactly the correct grip on eye-area with my nails).

Loulou, well done!

free skin care · Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:14 pm

No resistance? I don't see how you can say that. Try doing the exercises without grabbing your chunk of flesh - nothing, just your face moving.

Gripping the skin and muscle while you try the movements is resistance.

free skin care · Sat Oct 06, 2012 5:56 pm

pinkiebrie@yahoo.com Yes, Elinor Glyn did face exercises and I know of two books she wrote on them. One is called "Eternal Youth" (Copyright 1928) and the other "The Wrinkle Book" (Copyright 1927).

Elinor was born in 1864 so she was about 64 years old in 1928 and if the date on this photo reflects when it was taken, she truly did have "eternal youth":

free skin care · Sat Oct 06, 2012 6:19 pm

Jaana wrote:

But these exercises are not based on resistance any more than CFF is!

I really don't understand how you could say this. When I perform the Ageless exercises there is plenty of resistance. With no resistance, there will be no results.

free skin care · Sat Oct 06, 2012 6:50 pm

packratmack wrote:

Jaana wrote:

But these exercises are not based on resistance any more than CFF is!

I really don't understand how you could say this. When I perform the Ageless exercises there is plenty of resistance. With no resistance, there will be no results.

Packratmack since there IS resistance in CFF (http://www.carolynsfacialfitness.com/why-is-muscle-resistance-training-so-important), I interpreted Jaana's statement as meaning that the resistance in Ageless is not unlike that in CFF. Jaana correct me if I'm wrong.

Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:03 pm

thanks Nonie for the information about elinor glyn and the picture. she sure was a woman ahead of her time. her face and neck at age 64 were flawless.

free skin care · Sun Oct 07, 2012 12:20 am

Jaana wrote:

But these exercises are not based on resistance any more than CFF is!

The way this is phrased sure makes me conclude that Jaana does not think resistance is a key component of either exercise program.

Jaana wrote:

But most of these exercises are like taking a tight grip on your biceps as you do curls. Excellent deep massage, but little resistance.

It seems that she believes that resistance is minimal and has little impact when performing the Ageless exercises. I certainly wouldn't compare them to a deep massage.

Jaana, can you clear this up for us? Smile

Sun Oct 07, 2012 12:51 am

Well, I'm referring to my article about how facial exercises work: http://www.look-younger-naturally.com/relax-the-face.html. The scientific studies go against the resistance theory of how facial exercises work.

In CFF, you stretch the muscles and then slide over them to enhance the stretch. Or you contract them and then slide over them to open them up. In both of these programs, analytically looking, there are only total of 1-5 exercises that might have something to do with resistance (as in resistance in muscle training).

In Ageless, you'll grip the skin or muscle while you stretch/contract it. In cases where you grip a muscle, you are gripping the non-moving end.

Just look at the anatomy of facial muscles. To get resistance to smiling (e.g zygomaticus), for example, you'd need to put the resistance to the end of the muscle that actually moves... I mean, if you put on an armbands over your biceps with a weight hanging from them, that does not add resistance to your biceps curls. You'd need to add the resistance to your hand - the part that moves.

Other thing to look at is the direction to which muscles contract. For example, the platysma, in your neck. It contracts as you pull your chin down. If you raise your chin, platysma lengthens. That's a stretch, not a contraction/resistance exercise. Even when trying to contract, it counts as isometric, non-muscle building exercise.

The "resistance" felt in the exercise comes from stretch/massage. I must admit I used to think they work because of resistance too - before I read the studies of what happens to facial muscles as we age.

I love facial exercise, but I love science too Smile

free skin care · Sun Oct 07, 2012 3:37 am

With Ageless you do apply resistance to the muscle, but in most key exercises (day 1) not in a length wise direction (like you would in for instance Eva Fraser's exercises). You apply resistance to the muscle in the direction it contracts.
If you only experience the grips as 'massage' I suggest you apply a firmer grip to make the muscle work harder to fully contract.

If you want to compare programs I suggest you do so in one of the general topics on facial exercise. This topic is about Ageless, not about CFF.

free skin care · Sun Oct 07, 2012 3:35 pm

I've done many different facial exercise programs over the last 30 years, and consider LouLou's Ageless to be a premier resistance system. I suppose you can get technical and define "resistance" however you wish, but I definitely know when my facial muscles are moving against resistance, and Ageless provides that resistance in a very effective way. To say that the Ageless exercises don't provide resistance is incorrect.

I recently had proof in a very tangible manner, that the Ageless exercises, along with challenging the skin with vigorous facial tugging, pinching, rolling the skin between the fingers, massaging, dry brushing, etc., works wonders in keeping the skin elastic and youthful. On an episode of Dr. Oz's TV show, he addressed the issues of aging and maintaining a youthful look. All the women in the audience had to remove all their makeup before the show started (which proved to be very traumatic for some of them). At one point all the audience members were given a small mirror and told to examine the skin on their face. Then Dr. Oz had them test for skin elasticity. He said: "As you age, your skin loses its elasticity. To do a skin elasticity test on your eye, pinch your skin under your lower eyelid (note - it was a vertical grip between the thumb and index finger, directly under the center of the eye). How long does it take for your skin to go back to its normal state? Ideally it should go back to normal in under 2 seconds". Just about every woman in the audience, some of them in their 30s or younger, were shocked and dismayed to find it took their skin 5 seconds or longer to go back to normal.

Since I've done so much pinching, pulling, massaging, etc. all around my eyes, face and neck over the past three years (since starting Ageless), I wanted to see if I could pass the pinch test. I pinched hard just below one eye for 5 seconds, released, and was actually surprised to see my skin return to normal instantly! No sign of a loose-skin pinch mark whatsoever. And I'm in my 60s. Proof positive, as far as I'm concerned, that LouLou absolutely knows her stuff and has set us on the right track for facial fitness.

Ronn

Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:15 pm

I'm not questioning IF facial exercise works. I've done it over 2 years and have wonderful results. Ageless is innovative and functioning program.

What I'm questioning is the reason why it works. I find myself getting better results after dispelling the myths.

But as Lotusesther said, this should be about Ageless and not about facial exercise in general. Also, I have already written several articles about this to my site so the information is available, so I cease my case.

Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:49 am

Savajo,
Thats such good news. Just curious, Do you use any hormones. I'm getting to the age where soon I will have to make a decision about hormones.

Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:20 am

i started taking biosil a month ago. it's supposed to be befeficial for skin, hair and nails, and bones. i haven't been consistent and it is too soon to tell but there a great reviews on it. i tried the elasticity test under the eyes, the skin under the left eye went right back but the right took over 10 sec. all the more encouragement to keep up with excercises. as LouLou has stated on her website "there is no cream" i love watching the beauty shows and a popular selling point is firming. i think a lot of people mix up sagging/ loss of elasticity with firming, and resort to buying different creams.

free skin care · Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:44 am

pinkiebrie@yahoo.com wrote:

i started taking biosil a month ago. it's supposed to be befeficial for skin, hair and nails, and bones. i haven't been consistent and it is too soon to tell but there a great reviews on it. i tried the elasticity test under the eyes, the skin under the left eye went right back but the right took over 10 sec. all the more encouragement to keep up with excercises. as LouLou has stated on her website "there is no cream" i love watching the beauty shows and a popular selling point is firming. i think a lot of people mix up sagging/ loss of elasticity with firming, and resort to buying different creams.

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but I've been taking both Biosil and Biotin consistently for 2.5 months, and I see no difference... If anything, the thing that did make an impact on my nails was good old plain Silica by NOW Foods, despite Biosil's claims that it isn't as well absorbed as their version...

free skin care · Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:46 am

Sorry, did not mean to hijack the thread. Here's a thread on supplements I started a while ago:
http://www.essentialdayspa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6467763#6467763

free skin care · Tue Oct 09, 2012 7:10 am

polkadot wrote:

Savajo,
Thats such good news. Just curious, Do you use any hormones. I'm getting to the age where soon I will have to make a decision about hormones.

Hi Polkadot,

No, I don't use any hormones. I know that HRT is becoming more common among men, but I don't really have any interest in it.

free skin care · Wed Oct 10, 2012 1:00 pm

Has anyone experienced finger/hand fatigue from gripping the face muscles during Day 1 Ageless exercises?
I know I don't grip too hard, because I barely feel my muscles contracting...

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