Gauntness
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free skin care · Thu Feb 02, 2012 4:40 pm

Hello all,

I am a 26 year old male. I have been exercising my face for a good 3 years now. When I started I was getting amazing results. I noticed a lot more attention from females and everything was great. I really wanted to make it so I had high cheekbones, so I really started to go hard on this area. Keep in mind, I am not talking about the inner high cheekbones but instead the outer high ones. I was working the zygo major. What happened was I begun to become blind and focused only on this area. Fast forward to now and I have extreme gauntness in my face. Any suggestion you guys might have for me? Thanks.

free skin care · Thu Feb 02, 2012 5:48 pm

I would like to add, my diet is fine.

What I am looking to do with this post is to get into a conversation about how one exercise may effect the other areas of the face. I have been reading this forum from time to time, as well as looked at many face exercise programs (Maggio, Debs, Ageless). My eye area is great and I have no forehead lines whatsoever to speak of. I do get confused for looking younger than I am.

I believe starting so early may have not been a great idea in hindsight, but I also believe I have some great knowledge on this subject.

free skin care · Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:11 pm

I apologize that I keep replying to myself Laughing

But what do you guys think of puffing up your cheeks with air? I know theres no resistance, but it seems it would definitely get the blood going to the lower cheeks. I look forward to someones input Very Happy

free skin care · Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:11 am

Have you contacted the author of this program and expressed your concerns? If not , I think this would be the best thing to do since he or she may be able to give you some first hand advice how to rectify this problem...

I have experienced a similar problem myself and it took me a whole year to start looking as I did before the face progam. Since then I've focused more on the massage and face relaxation techniques and lately I've started noticing some improvement in the fullness of my lower cheeks.
So I'm certain that there is a solution for this, it just may not come overnight....

free skin care · Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:03 am

What are you suggesting the gauntness is? The area appears sunken due to excessive building elsewhere? Or actual loss of fatty tissue?

If the former then stop doing the exercises and let the area reshape itself. If the latter it is likely your diet, bodily exercise regime or general health is not all you believe it to be. Research shows it is not possible to 'spot reduce' fat by over-exercising (except the abdomen but that is another story).

free skin care · Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:05 am

Thanks for you replies guys. I think what happened is the upper middle cheek area appeared gaunt because I was exercising the upper outside cheek area too vigorously. But at the same time, I lost considerable fat in my lower cheek area. It became very gaunt and even developed new lines and i think wrinkles?

I think there is truth to what naysayers say about face exercise. It can break down collagen and elastin. The exercise I constantly did was to lay my fingers with heavy resistance on the top part of my upper cheekbones. Constantly doing this perhaps did not make me lose fat, but instead break down all the collagen in the lower area of my face?

Now dont get me wrong, I completely love facial exercises, I am just trying to figure out what happened.

free skin care · Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:35 pm

agatha wrote:

I have experienced a similar problem myself and it took me a whole year to start looking as I did before the face progam. Since then I've focused more on the massage and face relaxation techniques and lately I've started noticing some improvement in the fullness of my lower cheeks.
So I'm certain that there is a solution for this, it just may not come overnight....

I have not experienced gauntness but my tear troughs are hollow after facial exercises. I'm glad to hear that your face got back to normal after a year. I thought it was a long time since I stopped doing facial exercises so I was losing hope, but hopefully I just need to wait a little longer! I think it's not good to do facial exercises if you're under like 45.

free skin care · Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:50 pm

agatha wrote:

Have you contacted the author of this program and expressed your concerns? If not , I think this would be the best thing to do since he or she may be able to give you some first hand advice how to rectify this problem...

I have experienced a similar problem myself and it took me a whole year to start looking as I did before the face progam. Since then I've focused more on the massage and face relaxation techniques and lately I've started noticing some improvement in the fullness of my lower cheeks.
So I'm certain that there is a solution for this, it just may not come overnight....

can you please go into further detail as to what you did for the massages? I am in a very similar position. After I started massaging I also noticed a thickening in the lower cheeks.

free skin care · Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:44 am

I think it is very important to be exact at what happened exactly here to prevent newbies being scarred off facial exercisese, which is that as you have said you picked and choose particular exercises and did your own thing to work a particular area of the face. No program out there advises you to do this at the get go. There does come a time when modifications can be made to a program, but it is really essential to have that healthy foundation in place first to benefit from doing so, and I think what happened is that you focused on one area and spot trained, and the surrounding areas (which weren’t being worked on) now look different in comparison because you neglected them.

If you have become gaunt, then in my experience its generally because there were lacks of nutrients in the diet. The face never becomes gaunt for no reason. Many examples of when gauntness does show up and there are no changes to the diet are where there is perhaps an endocrine condition in place that’s coming to light, but whilst that’s unlikely in your case it is not impossible but I truly believe it is because you started modifying the workout too early on, and I’ve suggested to you ways around this in PMs and tried to help you to the best of my ability. Likewise in my experience when lines show up, its not due to the exercising but because there are issues in the facial tissue and one of the ones I have studied in most detail and have most experience of is dehydration, and I’ve seen many people noticing this themselves on EDS. If they are ill or haven’t drunk water for a while they notice these same changes in their skin.

bob44 wrote:

Thanks for you replies guys. I think what happened is the upper middle cheek area appeared gaunt because I was exercising the upper outside cheek area too vigorously. But at the same time, I lost considerable fat in my lower cheek area. It became very gaunt and even developed new lines and i think wrinkles?

Actually there is no truth to this, and this case isn’t proof that facial exercises will break down collagen or elastin. In fact, to really go into detail on this you would have to consider in greater depth what causes the face to break down collagen and elastin first. If you did, you’ll see that facial exercise is no where near the top of causes of break down. What it sounds like you did was simply overwork an area, and probably didn’t make any dietary changes, and as a result your body used whatever resources it had to try to recuperate and recover from what you were doing. Now the good news is that your young, alive and still breathing so you can reverse a lot of what you have done already, but you need to work out sensibly which is not what you did before.

I told you in a PM I truly believe that if you had followed one program in its entirety you would be in a very different space than that you are in now from mixing and matching, and the same is true for anyone. But you’ve tried to do an advanced bodybuilding workout without having lifted a weight and it is like saying all bodybuilding workouts are damaging – whereas in reality they’re quite the opposite!

bob44 wrote:

I think there is truth to what naysayers say about face exercise. It can break down collagen and elastin. The exercise I constantly did was to lay my fingers with heavy resistance on the top part of my upper cheekbones. Constantly doing this perhaps did not make me lose fat, but instead break down all the collagen in the lower area of my face?

Now dont get me wrong, I completely love facial exercises, I am just trying to figure out what happened.

I don’t think figuring out what happened, is going to help you out just yet, as much as getting sensible on working out, tightening up the diet and water and allowing your face some rest time to try to enable it to atrophy to its former state. Much of the information which would help you figure out what has happened isn’t going to make sense to you just yet because you have insufficient experience of your face, its muscles, the fast/slow twitch fibre ratio, how the facial muscles interwine and pull together etc. So don’t give up hope but get SMARTER and LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES!

Tue Feb 14, 2012 5:50 pm

Doing some lymfa massage, having some days pause and going on with fewer reps and concentrating on lighter exercises has helped me when I've got a bit too eager with cheeks.

free skin care · Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:18 pm

Well, I didn't say that my face is back to how it was before I've experimented with face exercises, but I believe it is slowly improving. Some days it looks somewhat better, some days I still look far thinner in the face then I did before this whole fiasco. And I still get comments that I look like I've lost some weight from the people whom I haven't seen in a while.

I can't really generalize if the face exercises are beneficial or detrimental to younger people, but I believe that the muscles in that case respond much faster, and it seems that it also takes longer for them to atrophy back to their original state (at least from my experience).

budderballer wrote:

agatha wrote:

I have experienced a similar problem myself and it took me a whole year to start looking as I did before the face progam. Since then I've focused more on the massage and face relaxation techniques and lately I've started noticing some improvement in the fullness of my lower cheeks.
So I'm certain that there is a solution for this, it just may not come overnight....

I have not experienced gauntness but my tear troughs are hollow after facial exercises. I'm glad to hear that your face got back to normal after a year. I thought it was a long time since I stopped doing facial exercises so I was losing hope, but hopefully I just need to wait a little longer! I think it's not good to do facial exercises if you're under like 45.

free skin care · Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:29 pm

Sorry but I should think figuring out what happened would be very important, not only for the ones who experienced trouble but for everyone else doing facial exercise. Knowing what caused it, where the damage was done, which parts were afflicted and how, is info that not only can be helpful to find a way to undo things, but also to be able to caution people with certain facial structures or other characteristics about the possible effect of a certain exercise. If anything, mistakes are to be learned from.

free skin care · Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:32 pm

I must admit I personally hate doing self massage (to have someone else performing it on me is another story Very Happy

).

What I usually do is pinching the skin with two fingers and gently rolling it between them for a couple of seconds and working across the whole face area. At first I've tried alternating the intervals from 10-15 mins up to an hour (with intervals, while watching a movie), but what I do these days are many short sessions throughout the day (usually when I go to bathroom I massage my face for 1-2 mins). I also started using vaculifter, which is a handy little device that massages by employing the suction technique, so you can check out that thread as well.

But some weeks I'm simply to busy to do any massage or face treatment (besides a few daily topicals) and sometimes it happens that in these weeks my skin looks its best. So I believe that it is very important to introduce some rest periods in your skin regime.

bob44 wrote:

can you please go into further detail as to what you did for the massages? I am in a very similar position. After I started massaging I also noticed a thickening in the lower cheeks.

free skin care · Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:51 am

For sure, its important to figure out what happened and I think a large part of it is always going to rely on the individual being completely honest and upfront about what they’ve been doing, and I’m often surprised when I find out that people haven’t been completely upfront about things, because truly it is necessary to know this kind of info in order to come up with a solution and be able to see what has happened, how its progressed but this of course is information that unless you have a lot of experience in dealing with people and these things can be overlooked without recognising the impact.

Lotusesther wrote:

Sorry but I should think figuring out what happened would be very important, not only for the ones who experienced trouble but for everyone else doing facial exercise. Knowing what caused it, where the damage was done, which parts were afflicted and how, is info that not only can be helpful to find a way to undo things, but also to be able to caution people with certain facial structures or other characteristics about the possible effect of a certain exercise. If anything, mistakes are to be learned from.

Its funny you say you hate doing self massage, well that’s a belief and like most beliefs it takes a bit of work to change. The important thing is motivation with both facial training and massage. If your motivated and have seen results come from what your doing, then you are more likely to keep it up.

Rest is essential, but like most things massage is about stimulating the tissues. I’ve not seen anything that suggests doing it all at once, or doing it at several intervals during the day is better or worse than another, but what I do know is that if you are constantly massaging a particular area of the face several times, then you can very much easily interrupt the healing/rest period that is needed by that area. That’s why when you say you notice that you have some weeks where you don’t massage and you notice your skin is best – isn’t a surprise to me because its during that time that your face has extra or additional recuperation time. I’ve done prolonged massages for experimentation (and I’m a trained masseur also by trade in both face and body) and have even massaged for a straight out several hours on my entire face (in fact one time I did 12 hours on a flight to India) and I can tell you that I had noticeable results, but I’ve also had noticeable results from doing quick and short massages too. Is one better than the other – not really but both deliver results that are distinct and different so it really all depends on the goal of the individual and what they’re working with.

agatha wrote:

I must admit I personally hate doing self massage (to have someone else performing it on me is another story Very Happy

).

What I usually do is pinching the skin with two fingers and gently rolling it between them for a couple of seconds and working across the whole face area. At first I've tried alternating the intervals from 10-15 mins up to an hour (with intervals, while watching a movie), but what I do these days are many short sessions throughout the day (usually when I go to bathroom I massage my face for 1-2 mins). I also started using vaculifter, which is a handy little device that massages by employing the suction technique, so you can check out that thread as well.

But some weeks I'm simply to busy to do any massage or face treatment (besides a few daily topicals) and sometimes it happens that in these weeks my skin looks its best. So I believe that it is very important to introduce some rest periods in your skin regime.

bob44 wrote:

can you please go into further detail as to what you did for the massages? I am in a very similar position. After I started massaging I also noticed a thickening in the lower cheeks.

free skin care · Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:02 am

I agree, but I found that it is not always easy to do so. I've asked several people on their opinion about my problem (including a PS) and received several different interpretations of what might have happened. However, when someone explained me a sensation one should feel when contracting certain muscles, I have realised that I was doing some exercises in the wrong way (unintentionally engaging wrong muscles) which probably contributed to facial asymetry and gauntness.
But when I was first starting with facial exercises, I believed that if something goes wrong, simply stopping would undo the damage, but it seems that in my case it is taking a bit longer to revert back.

Lotusesther wrote:

Sorry but I should think figuring out what happened would be very important, not only for the ones who experienced trouble but for everyone else doing facial exercise. Knowing what caused it, where the damage was done, which parts were afflicted and how, is info that not only can be helpful to find a way to undo things, but also to be able to caution people with certain facial structures or other characteristics about the possible effect of a certain exercise. If anything, mistakes are to be learned from.

free skin care · Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:44 am

Sean,

I also believe that it is important to show some sympathy to the person in distress in order to be able to help her. I can tell from personal experience that when things go wrong with facial exercises, it can be emotionally very challenging. In my case I blamed myself for not accepting minor problems I had and instead I tried to rectify them with FE. I believe I was very motivated and committed to the program. And I still believe that the program has its value, however, I believe it requires some knowledge about face anatomy, how to independently contract each face muscle, otherwise things can go wrong.
This is just my opinion and I don't expect anybody to agree with me on this.

As for massage, my current regime fits my day schedule perfectly and I love that instant refresh feeling that these short intervals provide. I'm not saying that this is the best way to do so, I've just answered to Bob's question about how do I perform it.

I know that you've suggested several things for me to try at the time, and I thank you for that, but at the end I simply couldn't agree with you on your explanation what has happened to me.
I was lucky enough to receive many instructions and additional materials from Loli on your forum and I'm eternally grateful to her for that. Her support and knowledgeable explanations helped me a lot in this recovery process.

SeanySeanUK wrote:

For sure, its important to figure out what happened and I think a large part of it is always going to rely on the individual being completely honest and upfront about what they’ve been doing, and I’m often surprised when I find out that people haven’t been completely upfront about things, because truly it is necessary to know this kind of info in order to come up with a solution and be able to see what has happened, how its progressed but this of course is information that unless you have a lot of experience in dealing with people and these things can be overlooked without recognising the impact.

Lotusesther wrote:

Sorry but I should think figuring out what happened would be very important, not only for the ones who experienced trouble but for everyone else doing facial exercise. Knowing what caused it, where the damage was done, which parts were afflicted and how, is info that not only can be helpful to find a way to undo things, but also to be able to caution people with certain facial structures or other characteristics about the possible effect of a certain exercise. If anything, mistakes are to be learned from.

Its funny you say you hate doing self massage, well that’s a belief and like most beliefs it takes a bit of work to change. The important thing is motivation with both facial training and massage. If your motivated and have seen results come from what your doing, then you are more likely to keep it up.

Rest is essential, but like most things massage is about stimulating the tissues. I’ve not seen anything that suggests doing it all at once, or doing it at several intervals during the day is better or worse than another, but what I do know is that if you are constantly massaging a particular area of the face several times, then you can very much easily interrupt the healing/rest period that is needed by that area. That’s why when you say you notice that you have some weeks where you don’t massage and you notice your skin is best – isn’t a surprise to me because its during that time that your face has extra or additional recuperation time. I’ve done prolonged massages for experimentation (and I’m a trained masseur also by trade in both face and body) and have even massaged for a straight out several hours on my entire face (in fact one time I did 12 hours on a flight to India) and I can tell you that I had noticeable results, but I’ve also had noticeable results from doing quick and short massages too. Is one better than the other – not really but both deliver results that are distinct and different so it really all depends on the goal of the individual and what they’re working with.

agatha wrote:

I must admit I personally hate doing self massage (to have someone else performing it on me is another story Very Happy

).

What I usually do is pinching the skin with two fingers and gently rolling it between them for a couple of seconds and working across the whole face area. At first I've tried alternating the intervals from 10-15 mins up to an hour (with intervals, while watching a movie), but what I do these days are many short sessions throughout the day (usually when I go to bathroom I massage my face for 1-2 mins). I also started using vaculifter, which is a handy little device that massages by employing the suction technique, so you can check out that thread as well.

But some weeks I'm simply to busy to do any massage or face treatment (besides a few daily topicals) and sometimes it happens that in these weeks my skin looks its best. So I believe that it is very important to introduce some rest periods in your skin regime.

bob44 wrote:

can you please go into further detail as to what you did for the massages? I am in a very similar position. After I started massaging I also noticed a thickening in the lower cheeks.

free skin care · Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:41 am

Agartha I’m not sure I’m understanding your first comment – are you suggesting that I didn’t show you sympathy?

I’m a little perplexed by that statement but you are of course entitled to your opinion. What I will say though is I spent a great deal of my personal time in trying to explain things and develop an action plan only to have you disregard all the information I gave you and we are also talking of many PMs that were exchanged here in trying to solve the dilema for you.

Of course I can understand if something goes wrong, a person is completely entitled to sympathy and compassion – and do give I to people but I truly believe no matter what the scenario there is always a solution, whether someone chooses to follow a solution I’ve given them or not is their choice entirely.

I think your post raises a great question though, which is ultimately what I think many people struggle with and that is the idea of what they can expect from a trainer, and to what degree is support necessary or reasonable for a trainer to give people. I certainly know there wasn’t a single message of yours that wasn’t responded to, or read and considered in depth.

I know you didn’t accept the suggestions I gave you, which were based upon the messages you had sent me, but at the same time it was the age old problem I had where you had said one thing in a PM and written another on the forum and of course it was both confusing and frustrating to me and I seem to recall having that conversation with you about that too.

Re massage, whilst it may be working for you at the moment, I’m simply using my background knowledge of massage – and it’s a professional training I have had to make those recommendations and so as previously explained its worth noting the points above to others and yourself in case the results change in the future pure and simple.

free skin care · Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:30 pm

SeanySeanUK wrote:

Agartha I’m not sure I’m understanding your first comment – are you suggesting that I didn’t show you sympathy?

I’m a little perplexed by that statement but you are of course entitled to your opinion. What I will say though is I spent a great deal of my personal time in trying to explain things and develop an action plan only to have you disregard all the information I gave you and we are also talking of many PMs that were exchanged here in trying to solve the dilema for you.

Of course I can understand if something goes wrong, a person is completely entitled to sympathy and compassion – and do give I to people but I truly believe no matter what the scenario there is always a solution, whether someone chooses to follow a solution I’ve given them or not is their choice entirely.

I think your post raises a great question though, which is ultimately what I think many people struggle with and that is the idea of what they can expect from a trainer, and to what degree is support necessary or reasonable for a trainer to give people. I certainly know there wasn’t a single message of yours that wasn’t responded to, or read and considered in depth.

I know you didn’t accept the suggestions I gave you, which were based upon the messages you had sent me, but at the same time it was the age old problem I had where you had said one thing in a PM and written another on the forum and of course it was both confusing and frustrating to me and I seem to recall having that conversation with you about that too.

Sean, if I was inconsistent with my answers, it's because at that time I was inconsistent with my routine. And this was my mistake. But I was panicking, terrified that I have caused some permanent damage to my face, and I just want the diminish negative effects as soon as possible. And this is the main reason I've commented on this thread, because Bob's problem is similar to mine and because I know how frustrating this situation can be.

I've never said that my questions were left unanswered and that I think I clearly stated in my last post that I'm grateful for your opinion on the matter. However, I didn't agree with you with you on what was the cause, and thus, did not believe that suggested solutions would work (albeit I did tried them, but did not stick to them).

But this all is now in the past, so let's not waste any more of your or mine personal time on this.

Quote:

Re massage, whilst it may be working for you at the moment, I’m simply using my background knowledge of massage – and it’s a professional training I have had to make those recommendations and so as previously explained its worth noting the points above to others and yourself in case the results change in the future pure and simple.

The advice to do short gentle massage sessions throughout the day was given to me by the professional I worked with last summer. I underwent a series of light massage sessions to remove any potential muscle tension I might hold in the face. Although my face looked beautifully refreshed and relaxed after each session, unfortunately they didn't helped me with facial leanness.

free skin care · Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:04 pm

Agatha, I had extreme gauntness because of an extreme * spam alert * to a delicious tasting ginger powder. How was I to know that it was a fat-burner?
I thought that it was because of my lack of protein. I continued doing my flexEffect routine but it seemed to encourage my gauntness.
The solution: I had gotten trigger thumb and golfer's elbow through a marathon session of gardening. I looked for remedies, exercises. Then I spotted some excellent reviews on iherb for a product containing collagen 1 & 3 that you take in water before any food in the morning (I use a stick blender to mix it in). You must refrain from eating for 30 mins.
I gained 5 lbs in a bit under 2 weeks. It affects the skin on the whole body. My face started plumping up from the first day. It's like night and day. I'm not joking. I wasn't even taking it for my gauntness.
The ridiculous thing is that it's so inexpensive. And has no taste.
Now I can indulge in my ginger. Oh, btw, it did nothing for my joints so far. Here's the product that I got, but I don't think that brand is important:
http://www.iherb.com/Neocell-Super-Collagen-Type-1-3-Powder-7-oz-198-g/6074?at=0

free skin care · Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:22 pm

I was 32 when I started weight training and during that time I was teaching Facial Isotonics. When I stepped into competitive bodybuilding my face began to drape and became unbelievably gaunt. This is when I developed Facialbuilding

If you look at today's women bodybuilders you'll see what I mean...notice full bodies with faces that look twice their age.

The photo below was taken during prejudging (bodybuilding competition) The close-up is not very clear but you can still see that my cheeks are quite full. I was 5’6” and in the photo 112 lbs (no fat). Without Facialbuilding my face would have look emaciated.
Age 34:

free skin care · Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:06 pm

Marie-Andrée wrote:

Agatha, I had extreme gauntness because of an extreme * spam alert * to a delicious tasting ginger powder. How was I to know that it was a fat-burner?
I thought that it was because of my lack of protein. I continued doing my flexEffect routine but it seemed to encourage my gauntness.
The solution: I had gotten trigger thumb and golfer's elbow through a marathon session of gardening. I looked for remedies, exercises. Then I spotted some excellent reviews on iherb for a product containing collagen 1 & 3 that you take in water before any food in the morning (I use a stick blender to mix it in). You must refrain from eating for 30 mins.
I gained 5 lbs in a bit under 2 weeks. It affects the skin on the whole body. My face started plumping up from the first day. It's like night and day. I'm not joking. I wasn't even taking it for my gauntness.
The ridiculous thing is that it's so inexpensive. And has no taste.
Now I can indulge in my ginger. Oh, btw, it did nothing for my joints so far. Here's the product that I got, but I don't think that brand is important:
http://www.iherb.com/Neocell-Super-Collagen-Type-1-3-Powder-7-oz-198-g/6074?at=0

Interesting Marie-Andrée. I have heard theories of people taking collagen supplements and how they believe it helps their facial collagen but I've always felt that whatever protein you take your body breaks it down into amino acids and then it uses those building blocks of protein to build whatever protein the body needs. So this doesn't necessarily mean that collagen will become collagen in the body. Protein is good for muscles so I do wonder if your fullness was from just regular ol' protein feeding your muscles or collagen or both. Very interesting indeed.

Deb Crowley wrote:

I was 32 when I started weight training and during that time I was teaching Facial Isotonics. When I stepped into competitive bodybuilding my face began to drape and became unbelievably gaunt. This is when I developed Facialbuilding

If you look at today's women bodybuilders you'll see what I mean...notice full bodies with faces that look twice their age.

The photo below was taken during prejudging (bodybuilding competition) The close-up is not very clear but you can still see that my cheeks are quite full. I was 5’6” and in the photo 112 lbs (no fat). Without Facialbuilding my face would have look emaciated.
Age 34:

Deb Crowley what I see in your photo is beautiful tone and a beautiful shape that is flawless. But are you sure you'd be emaciated-looking without face exercises? I ask because 34 is not such an old age to have lost a lot of mass in the face, and you had a young looking face at 32 which you had been toning with non-resistance exercises for a few years thus holding onto the mass you had then. In other words, the face you had at 34 had the tone you'd maintained with exercise so really we could be looking at a 20-sth year old structure there.
What's more, the only bodybuilders who seem to get gaunt faces are those who were gaunt to begin with or who were older and therefore had lost a lot of mass in their face anyway.

Below are some female bodybuilders. All of them except for Christine Roth and Jaslyn Hewitt were born in the 60's and I think one was born in 1959.

Quote:

Colette Guimond

Stephanie Kessler

Kim Harris

Christine Roth

Rosemary Jennings

Dayana Cadeau

Dianne Solomons

Eulalia Santos - Hi-Rez Version, brace yourself.

Jaslyn Hewitt – Tennis pro Lleyton Hewitt’s sister, before and after her foray into bodybuilding.

Nicole Bass – Self-proclaimed "Largest Woman Bodybuilder in the world today" and former WWE and ECW pro-wrestler.

Except for Dayana Cadeau who's in her 40's, I don't think any of their faces are gaunt. In fact, the two young uns have pretty full faces. Jaslyn didn't really have a fat face before bodybuilding so if losing fat gives a gaunt face, then she'd have been the perfect example of this but she didn't get gaunt after bodybuilding. Her face shows sag--something that yours Deb does not, thanks to exercise. I suspect the reason for their faces looking as full as they do is because most bodybuilders consume a lot of protein. They need it to build and repair their muscles and just like Marie-Andrée found out, if you ingest a complex form of amino acids, once broken down in the body the units are used to rebuild the body all over including the face. So I personally think that exercise you did since your late 20's helped you maintain the muscle tone you had when young and the protein you took as well as exercise together helped keep your face looking so flawless.

In short OP, you still have a lot of muscle in your face and exercise will help you keep it in good tone so you hold onto it and hence to the fullness of youth. As has been advised avoid spot-training and work your whole face. All those muscles are affected by the state of the others so don't neglect any part of your face in favor of another trying to create a look you think is cute. It may be cute on another but I usually think we look best the way nature made us.

I don't think face exercises should change how you look. They should help you maintain a normal-looking face like you had when you were younger. I think when we are young we admire the high cheekbones and slim faces of those older folk but we will get them in due time, if we just give it time. (Older folks miss the fullness of youth, oy vey!) So rather than try to change how you look, focus on keeping your whole face in good tone and as time goes by, you will begin to appreciate the face you have as you realize that perhaps the things you didn't like were just some muscles being slack and therefore not holding your face up right. I find that if one stops looking to others for beauty but rather looks at oneself and starts to appreciate the little things that make one unique and special, slowly but surely, one starts to be happy with the person one is.

free skin care · Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:08 pm

Hamelin is still a fabulous example of guantness rec'd through excessive Fat Loss.

He would actually be akin to a bodybuilder of the past.

Where he works for a leaner, tighter body.

However, while he's been very busy with his recordings and personal training, he himself ran into the situation of losing too much fat. And it showed in his face.

Hamelin, started FE quite young, and worked out with Sean a fab. training reg. to get rid of his guantness quickly.

This of course without increasing his body fat, as photo shoots were next!

And quite frankly, it seems Hamelin's situation mirrors a bit of the OP's the most. Being a MALE, young, and I believe rather tall and I'm guessing not a bulky kind of guy.

have you seen Hamelin? And the guantness that he caught on camera (caused by overworking his body?), as well as the amazing changes he attributes to his FE work out as arranged by Sean?

https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150506072297116.373458.149612442115&type=3

free skin care · Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:29 pm

Here is a link to a bodybuilding forum.

You will find that guantness among bodybuilders is a concern...

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=126814573&page=1

Notice at the end of the thread. They are talking of one woman who is 5'6" and 142 #...Where they say they don't expect her to be gaunt just yet.

Now, Deb states, she wa 5'6" and weighed 112. I can attest she would have been allowed in a ballet studio. Perhaps asked to lose 2 more lbs. She was too thin. And it showed.

I don't understand why someone who was not there begs to differ. How strange.

free skin care · Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:32 pm

Nonie said:

Quote:

Deb Crowley what I see in your photo is beautiful tone and a beautiful shape that is flawless. But are you sure you'd be emaciated-looking without face exercises? I ask because 34 is not such an old age to have lost a lot of mass in the face, and you had a young looking face at 32 which you had been toning with non-resistance exercises for a few years thus holding onto the mass you had then. In other words, the face you had at 34 had the tone you'd maintained with exercise so really we could be looking at a 20-sth year old structure there.
What's more, the only bodybuilders who seem to get gaunt faces are those who were gaunt to begin with or who were older and therefore had lost a lot of mass in their face anyway.

Below are some female bodybuilders. All of them except for Christine Roth and Jaslyn Hewitt were born in the 60's and I think one was born in 1959.

Nonie You have it ALL wrong. I did not lose mass (muscle)in my face I lost fat You do not lose muscle in your face unless you are training without proper diet As for the women you posted their faces ARE gaunt (folds in the skin and sunken cheeks etc. Most of them would have been my age(average) during their competitions... unless they are in the Masters...over 40. You are also looking at different training goals (as much muscle as possible...with the help of steroids) note their incredible vascularity. This type of training was not the look competitors of my day were looking for. In fact too much muscle could be a problem for a competitor. The women below are the trainers of my time in competition

Nonie wrote:

Quote:

... at 32 which you had been toning with non-resistance exercises for a few years thus holding onto the mass you had then. In other words, the face you had at 34 had the tone you'd maintained with exercise so really we could be looking at a 20-sth year old structure there.

The pic of me at 32 was not how I looked once I started to compete. I lost sooooo much fat in my face, gaunt is putting it mildly So... I developed facialbuilding to fill out my face and the build in my cheeks made all the difference.

free skin care · Wed Feb 22, 2012 1:53 pm

Nonie,

BTW it would probably help the reader to see where you are coming from by posting the link to where you got the photos of the women bodybuilders.... ! http://www.creatinejournal.com/women-body-builders/

VERY TELLING!

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