Ageless if you Dare - Loulou's Facial Exercises
EDS Skin Care Forums Forum Index » Skincare Tools & Do-It-Yourself Skincare

Sun Apr 01, 2012 9:41 am

Lotusesther - thanks for an encouraging post! That's so good to hear your cheeks are building and pulling up! I can't wait to get the apples back in mine Smile

free skin care · Sun Apr 01, 2012 1:42 pm

HollyJoy wrote:

Thanks Sandooch, I will take a before pic today (as I don't have any from when I first started) and will take another in a couple of months, to give enough time to see the difference.

Ah, I'm 29 so maybe that does helps to see faster results, but since starting I'm forever checking mirrors and scrutinising my face for ANY changes so maybe I'm noticing it more due to my obsessing over it Wink

I can really see the difference in your before/after pics though and it's great that your starting to see the difference with it too! - I just saw your blog and can't believe what an amazing job you've done in such a short time, you look so much younger, your pics are really inspiring, thanks so much for sharing!! Smile

Thanks so much, Holly. And, even though I've just recently started to see some positive changes, I agree with you and the others that some days the changes seem better than others. For me at least, a lot has to do with if my weight is up or down, if I ate something a bit salty the day before, if I'm retaining water from TOM or by how much sleep I've been getting.

I'm looking forward to the day the changes stick for good...for the most part. Laughing

Looking forward to seeing more of you guys posting pictures soon. It's getting lonely here in before-and-after picture world. Razz

free skin care · Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:51 pm

Okay, here's a silly Ageless question that I'm asking over 14 weeks into the program... Confused

When we are pinching our cheeks in the first 4 exercises, are we also supposed to be pullinging them downward, against the effort of the lift when we smile or is just gripping them enough? I don't know why this just came to me today. I have just been pinching them. I'd hate to think I've been wasting my time and could have gotten even better results had I been holding the skin down while smiling. Loulou doesn't say to do this in the download, just to pinch them. But, thinking about this more, it would make sense to give the cheeks muscles more resistence by pulling the cheeks down a bit while smiling.

What do you do?

free skin care · Wed Apr 04, 2012 10:33 pm

Sandy, I pinch/grasp the muscle and ever so gently push against my 'smile'. In other words my fingers don't move with my cheeks, I 'resist' the move. I can feel the burn far more this way, the muscles get tired quicker. Does this make sense?

free skin care · Wed Apr 04, 2012 10:59 pm

You're pinching, making it harder for the muscle to move. Don't pull, just pinch. And not so hard that the muscle isn't moving at all, you are providing resistance to make the movement harder, not impossible.
Too bad the Ageless forum doesn't exist anymore, there was so much info there.

free skin care · Thu Apr 05, 2012 8:31 am

HippoMe, yes, that makes perfect sense. This is what I did yesterday and now when I smile, my cheeks muscles feel a bit sore. I like that feeling; makes me feel like I'm really working them. But at the same time, I feel like I sort of wasted 14 weeks where I could have gotten better results. Grrrr! Mad

Lotusesther, I guess pulling was the wrong word to use. I actually meant pinching and trying to hold in place while the cheeks move up in the smile. They still do go up just a bit, but not as much as before. And, yes, I wish the Ageless forum was still up, too. I do enjoy talking about it and wish there was a forum that centered around this program.

Luckily I have you wonderful ladies to talk to about Ageless. Very Happy

free skin care · Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:02 am

Its true I do miss that forum, but then I got to say that I also think it was also open to abuse. At the end, there was some really nasty business going on there with a few individuals and outright bullying. It didn’t help either that for whatever reason Lou decided to ditch it. I know there must be a story behind it, and suspect its one we’ll never know but at one point the business partner she had was up and looked promising. Sad really, but then when I think back she kinda did the same thing when she was at FlexEffect didn’t she, just vanished without a word or trace. It’s a shame really as I did like her in the beginning and her stuff was effective for the cheeks. Ca la vie!

Lotusesther wrote:

Too bad the Ageless forum doesn't exist anymore, there was so much info there.

free skin care · Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:39 pm

That is so sad. And how childish adults can act when the "teacher" is out of the room. Loulou really had a good thing going there, and it would be interesting to know why she left.

I also find it odd that this thread had so many followers at the beginning and so many people raving about the results. Now, it is practically like a ghost town in here, with only a handful of people still doing it and chiming in about it. I find it odd that just because Loulou left many people stopped posting and/or started putting down the program. How did Loulou's disappearance make her program any less effective? Neutral

Or maybe after some initial success, many people found it stopped doing what it was supposed to do or didn't hit all the areas of their concern. I don't know, but I wish I could ask each and every one of them what their reasons were for not continuing to post here any more.

free skin care · Fri Apr 06, 2012 3:09 am

I think the fact that she left is one thing, but the fact that she just suddenly reappeared with no explanation at all and just to sell her latest product was unforgiveable in my book. No explanation offered at all. She wouldn't have had to offer any major details, you know if she simply said had personal things going on or family issues - I'd have been much more forgiving but there was no explanation at all!

I think the real issues with the program wasn't so much that it was ineffective, but that things were being said to other people behind the scenes and never acknowledged or shared on the forum by Lou publicly. Best example is the crush exercise which was done every other day from memory on day 2, well it turns out that Lou had recommended to several people to remove it from day 2 and do it as an ocassional exercise only, as it had an adverse effect. Why she said this behind the scenes and never on the forum is crazy as I think thats the kind of info that should be shared on the forum by her.

Why people stopped posting here, I'm not so sure they did but think they just moved on to other things, like ULtimate Facercise or the 3rd FlexEffect or even Yumana Face Ball etc.

sandooch wrote:

I also find it odd that this thread had so many followers at the beginning and so many people raving about the results. Now, it is practically like a ghost town in here, with only a handful of people still doing it and chiming in about it. I find it odd that just because Loulou left many people stopped posting and/or started putting down the program. How did Loulou's disappearance make her program any less effective? Neutral

Or maybe after some initial success, many people found it stopped doing what it was supposed to do or didn't hit all the areas of their concern. I don't know, but I wish I could ask each and every one of them what their reasons were for not continuing to post here any more.

free skin care · Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:34 am

I didn't realize that she only shared that information to people in PMs and such. That information should have definitely been on her forum for all to see. I didn't know that. From reading this forum, it seemed like I had either heard that from her or others.

I actually love that exercise; it's giving me a nice high-cheek bone look by giving me some definition. If I start to notice it's working too well, especially after I reach goal weight, I will eliminate it or cut back to once a week.

free skin care · Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:46 am

That's really funny, TM and Sandooch that you mention crush. I actually don't use crush, I use the flexeffect cheek press because its so much easier for me to feel and understand, but I am one of those who is noticing the hollow under my cheekbones getting excessive. I am of two minds: one, to limit it to a occasional exercise or two, to go at it really hard and try to bulk it up instead. I'm only on page 44 of this monster thread and haven't yet hit anyone else's opinion on it. But, it looks from what TM said a few posts up the LL herself suggested to limit it.

Another issue I have is the strong mouth muscle and subsequent NL lines issue where the cheek meets the OOris muscle. On the NL thread (another big one that I'm reading through) way back, ThisIsMiranda mentioned that she had this issue and stopped exercising. I've chosen to go the other route, to push through and keep focusing on activating my cheek muscles and hope the build and lift improves the situation, God willing.

free skin care · Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:50 am

sandooch wrote:

Okay, here's a silly Ageless question that I'm asking over 14 weeks into the program... Confused

When we are pinching our cheeks in the first 4 exercises, are we also supposed to be pullinging them downward, against the effort of the lift when we smile or is just gripping them enough? I don't know why this just came to me today. I have just been pinching them. I'd hate to think I've been wasting my time and could have gotten even better results had I been holding the skin down while smiling. Loulou doesn't say to do this in the download, just to pinch them. But, thinking about this more, it would make sense to give the cheeks muscles more resistence by pulling the cheeks down a bit while smiling.

What do you do?

Loulou once gave a detailed answer to this on the now closed forum. I forget what she said, but I remember her having a nuanced answer regarding why the pinching motion was beneficial. Sorry, it's been a while since I've looked at Ageless in depth, so I forget exactly what Loulou said.

FWIW, I think you gain most of the benefit from actually "pulling down" the cheeks. The reason why is that the muscle contracts in a direction parallel to the muscle fibers. So you want to apply resistance parallel to the muscle fibers (the "pulling down" or pulling against the muscle), rather than applying resistance perpendicular to the muscle fibers (the "pinching"). Not that there aren't benefits to the "pinching", but in terms of muscle building, you should see the best results from the "pulling". Of course, there's no reason why you can't do both and perhaps this was what Loulou intended!

HTH Smile

free skin care · Mon Apr 09, 2012 3:29 pm

That certainly does help, cm. Thank you.

UmEnis, I'm hoping to see some improvement in this areas, too, as my cheek muscles get even stronger. Mine are not too bad, so it wouldn't take much of a lift to eliminate them.

Where I am see things getting worse are on my forehead wrinkles. But Loulou had mentioned that if you did the occasional forehead exercise (the one for the eyebrows) too frequently, you may get some forehead wrinkling for a while and then the wrinkles would smooth out. I'm hoping this is what's happening to me. I'll put up with it for a while, because I really want to see my eyebrows a little higher.

free skin care · Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:00 am

I think you'll find mention of limiting the Crush exercise actually in this thread, because I seem to recall thats where I first learned about it (and that was when she was on her own forum), but its one of the many examples which got me a little cross, because I always felt that it was like some people were in the circle and some weren’t and it was a little unsettling to find things were being told to some and not to others and Crush being an ocassional one that was having strange effects for some as a result of being done too regularly was just one of those things that I felt should have really been spoken about by Lou herself on the forum rather than elsewhere still who knows what was going on. Likewise when Lou just reappeared with talk of the new program, and no real explanation for the absence it just left a strange taste in my mouth. I wouldn’t have minded if there had been some sort of explanation, you know she’s only human after all and there were things going on that some of us knew about, but it was just really strange to reappear with no real explanation and then vanish again. I got hopeful when she announced she was having a business partner helping her out but even she vanished. It’s a shame because I do feel that she started out genuine and had a real development but just never followed through and kind of slapped those of us who supported her in the face with her behaviour.

.

UmEnis wrote:

That's really funny, TM and Sandooch that you mention crush. I actually don't use crush, I use the flexeffect cheek press because its so much easier for me to feel and understand, but I am one of those who is noticing the hollow under my cheekbones getting excessive. I am of two minds: one, to limit it to a occasional exercise or two, to go at it really hard and try to bulk it up instead. I'm only on page 44 of this monster thread and haven't yet hit anyone else's opinion on it. But, it looks from what TM said a few posts up the LL herself suggested to limit it.

Another issue I have is the strong mouth muscle and subsequent NL lines issue where the cheek meets the OOris muscle. On the NL thread (another big one that I'm reading through) way back, ThisIsMiranda mentioned that she had this issue and stopped exercising. I've chosen to go the other route, to push through and keep focusing on activating my cheek muscles and hope the build and lift improves the situation, God willing.

free skin care · Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:49 pm

I'm a little late posting my picture updates here and on my blog. No change in the weight department, but I can really see a big difference in my eyes now, so I decided to only do face shots this month. I also started doing the Tanaka massage once daily for 11 days now. I love it and am already seeing a big difference in the look of my eyes and face slimming down, even with no additional weight loss. And my 11s are slowly fading away as well. Yay!

And for a really big comparison, this is what I looked like at the start of my wieghtloss challenge thread at back in July 2011 at 225 pounds (I weigh 195 today). I think I look at least 5 years younger now thanks to Ageless and Tanaka:

And here is a side shot from July. Yikes!:

Before starting Ageless on 12/24/12:

Today 4/29/12:

Close up on eyes before:

And today:

Before side:

And today:

free skin care · Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:07 pm

Wow Sandooch! You look great!

Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:31 am

You look wonderful. How can anyone doubt the power of facial exercises. Thanks for insiring me, helps me stay on track with my own facial exercise program!!!

free skin care · Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:41 am

Your whole face looks lifted! And the eyelids are amazing, but also the chin area! You look GOOD!!!

free skin care · Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:39 am

Thanks everyone! I am happy that I didn't give up on Ageless after two months. But I also think that Tanaka has produced great results in such a short time. I do 6 sets instead of the recommended 3 sets for the eyes and double chin area. I cannot wait to see how much more improvement I can get in another month with both Ageless and Tanaka. Wink

free skin care · Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:53 am

sandooch wrote:

Thanks everyone! I am happy that I didn't give up on Ageless after two months. But I also think that Tanaka has produced great results in such a short time. I do 6 sets instead of the recommended 3 sets for the eyes and double chin area. I cannot wait to see how much more improvement I can get in another month with both Ageless and Tanaka. Wink

You look fabulous sandooch! The entire transformation you have shown on your blog is simply amazing! Bravo!!!! Very Happy

free skin care · Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:20 am

Very sweet of you, Dark Moon. Thank you.

free skin care · Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:26 am

sandooch wrote:

Very sweet of you, Dark Moon. Thank you.

I don't believe in phony compliments, I am just telling it as I see it! You have done a great job on looking even better than when you started! Very Happy

free skin care · Tue May 01, 2012 11:33 am

Sandy, you look wonderful! Very Happy

What a difference! You know how when people get older, their faces expand somewhat. I think with the facial exercises, massages, etc. it kind of pulls the face in and makes it look younger bc you are getting back your youthful contours. This is why I never argue with people who put down this stuff. Most of the time the people who say it doesn't work are the ones who have never done it or who have never really put in the time. You prove that by hanging in there and doing it, you can turn back the clock. Good for you!!

free skin care · Tue May 01, 2012 2:32 pm

Hi sandooch, first of all, you look wonderful. It's amazing what facial exercises can do for the eye area. This area usually responds to exercises the quickest. I remember you were anxious for results when you first started. I was hoping you would realize visible progress doesn't come in just a few weeks and that you would stick with it. Things will only get better. It's a lifetime commitment, but the results are worth it.

free skin care · Tue May 01, 2012 5:09 pm

Thank you both so much. Yes, I am doing this for life! Both the facial exercises and the massage make me feel and look more youthful, and the time it took really did go by, even though I was so impatient at the beginning.

I will forever sing the praises of facial exercise...and now Tanaka massage. I am not against people having PS or using fillers/botox if that makes them happy (I've mentioned having had an upper/lower bleph some 14 years or so ago and surgery to reduce a protruding jaw and lower lip (YES...it was actually bigger than it is now! Laughing

) ), but I'm done with facial surgery now that I know I can keep Father Time at bay all by my little ol' self. Wink

Now, I wouldn't mind getting a tummy tuck when I reach goal weight, but maybe I'll start No-lipo Lipo and not even need that! Very Happy

Automatic Message

If this is your first visit to the EDS Forums please take the time to register. Registration is required for you to post on the forums. Registration will also give you the ability to track messages of interest, send private messages to other users, participate in Gift Certificates draws and enjoy automatic discounts for shopping at our online store. Registration is free and takes just a few seconds to complete.

Click Here to join our community.

If you are already a registered member on the forums, please login to gain full access to the site.