Ageless if you Dare - Loulou's Facial Exercises
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free skin care · Sun Jan 25, 2009 6:43 pm

on day 5 now and enjoying the programme so far! I was wondering if any of the exercises should be avoided if you are looking to fill rather than sculpt your face?

I saw in a thread here (maybe this one) someone mentioned that the crush (no.6) exercises is good for creating the hollow under your cheekbone. I already have a good hollow there and actually want to decrease that/lessen its severity rather than make it more obvious!

I am avoiding this one for now, and am substituting the fuller cheeks one on day 2.

Has anyone seen their cheek hollows increase with this programme?

free skin care · Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:45 pm

charis wrote:

Bethany, Thanks so much for sharing your photos. Great results! Definantely encouraging! I wanted to ask - do you combine in any other facial exercises or are you just doing Ageless alone?

Just Ageless. I bought FlexEffect before Ageless, but was too overwhelmed by it to even get started. Ageless turned out to be just what I needed...from the short time commitment to the fast results.

free skin care · Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:48 pm

Mishey wrote:

Good one Bethany. You can really see that difference. Awesome!!!
And just imagine that these are results even with weight loss!

I think my face would be looking FAR worse if I was not doing Ageless...there are definitely some lumpy, bumpy areas Mad

but I just need to be patient and keep doing my exercise, massage, STOP treatments, and hope for the best!

free skin care · Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:53 pm

fawnie wrote:

sigma wrote:

The neck issue is hard to describe - it looks OK, but when I do certain movements right in the middle of the neck appear all of sudden a bunch of vertical lines, and then they disappear. It is very aging. Another problem is double chin - it is the way my face is structured (my dad has it even though he is skinny).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Sigma, that's exactly the problem I have. I have been massaging the area in addition to exercise, trying to thicken the skin so it's tighter and obliterates the "cords" better. I'm looking around for a skin tightening formula too in the mean time. Please keep me posted if you find something is working for you! thanks! fawnie

Sigma and Fawnie, if all else fails, you can have Botox injected into the cords to relax them. But hopefully Ageless will help enough.

BTW, the STOP might be the best option for both the double chin and tightening the neck skin. I have not seen huge results yet, but I have only done 3 treatments and have quite a bit of sag to shrink. Rolling Eyes

But considering that it cost less than 1 tube of filler for my marionette lines, I am still ahead of the game!

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:28 am

Bethany......You know how I just LOVE seeing your marionettes shrinking down to nothing!!! Just amazing results for both sides!!! Always an inspiration for me Bethany!!

Denham...never thought about not puckering for that exercise...I will give that a go and see what happens. Not sure if puckering is required to get the desired effect of the workout, but there must be some modification you can do to make it just as effective. I seriously will not pucker, suck or anything else of the like movement wise on these lips of mine. I have even altered the way I brush my teeth due to the puckering movement that I used to do when doing that....I know, a little excessive!! ha ha...but I think I may be having my "nearing 40" breakdown!!! Laughing

Fawnie and Sigma....Add me to that list of people with the same neck problem. Mine only pops a bit when I move to the side or a certain way. Drives me nuts because holding my head and neck in my normal position you wouldn't even know I have a bit of laxity down there.

Kandy....it was mentioned about the crush exercise a while back that you don't actually "blow" your cheeks up for that exercise. LouLou was merely demonstrating in that video with the "blow" the muscle you are supposed to use when you grab. So the actual exercise doesn't entail blowing up the cheeks. Just grab that piece of flesh and pull out a bit with your hands....then, try and pull/squeeze your cheeks back in against your teeth like you are trying to crush something between your cheeks and your teeth. I think this is why you are having difficulty with this exercise. I too was wondering about the cheek blowing when I first started doing this one and I saw the video.... so give it another go and see what happens!!! Very Happy

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:46 am

Kandy - Bren is right on. It's all about using those muscles to pull the cheeks inward toward the teeth. Blowing out or puffing up the cheeks is really is no part of it at all. It is meant to demonstrate the part of the face you are using and need to grab on to.

Great exercise by the way!!!!!

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:47 am

bren21 wrote:

Bethany......You know how I just LOVE seeing your marionettes shrinking down to nothing!!! Just amazing results for both sides!!! Always an inspiration for me Bethany!!

Bren, I was thinking specifically of you when I posted them. Very Happy

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:21 am

I had a feeling you were thinking of me at that very moment Bethany!! I tell ya though, even with that bad side there is a great amount of improvement there. That thing looks nearly half the size that it was. Its a great feeling to think I may get there myself without the help of the Juve shots. Can't wait til my 2 month mark!!!!!!

Yep I agree Sis...that crush is an awesome exercise and is one of my fav's....

Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:00 am

denham wrote:

bren, i totally hear you about the puckering (even though according to loulou that's not something you need to worry about w/ facial exercises; then again she also specifically leaves out the big muscles around the mouth from her program, so it's probably a good idea not to mechanically crease that area); on that note i was thinking maybe doing the kiss the ceiling just without the pucker - just sort of jutting the jaw forward. i don't know if that'd be a legit modification. i thought it would be more like the 'long neck' that way. also, for resistance, i remember seen a c maggio (?) video on youtube that had the hand placed horizontally across the neck while leaning into it. it could be one way of not pinching too much. will see - i'll keep toying with it. suggestions always welcome

It's interesting that this has come up as I've been working with a modified version of the "kiss the ceiling" exercise. I was finding that when I puckered for the kiss, I was left with a few fine lines around my lips. They did disappear after a while, but I was concerned that doing this repeatedly would create lip lines.

What I'm currently doing is more of a "mega-pout" at the ceiling! Rather than puckering, I push my lips out in an exaggerated pout (think duck's beak!) keeping my mouth as closed over as possible. This seems to work well for me in avoiding the creation of lines around the lips.

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:00 pm

Yes, I do exactly as Colli does when "kissing the ceiling" - a huge pout. First I did it that way because I was concerned about deepening a few lines I have above my lip - not bad but there. With my use of L2K products (see that huge thread!) those lines are practically nonexistent anyway. But I didn't want them to come back or for the exercise to be counter-productive for me in another area. Then, I thought that pouting felt more intense than puckering. So I guess you can say that it's more of a "pouting at the ceiling" exercise. Smile

bren21, your explanation of the "crush" exercise is helpful; thanks!

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:25 pm

Kiss the ceiling exercise fits more into Do you do Facial Exercises thread discussion since it is not part of Ageless. I posted my response on kiss the ceiling on facial exercises thread.

Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:11 pm

Hi,

I haven't been here in a while.. so I may be re-asking a question already posted so I apologize.
I've tried to catch up reading them all.

I would appreciate it if someone could help me here..

1. Is there anything besides the "wish #8" that can help build up under the eye?

2. I don't know how to explain this.. but since my under eye became less firm and I have incurred muscle loss I have experienced this very fine pebbly texture near the under eye. I have seen this on people who have aged.. can someone offer any advice on some thing I can apply there?

Thank you..

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:55 pm

"Fine pebbley texture" is what I have. I am treating it with the BQ, LouLous and Dermalastyl at the moment. So far, I don't think anything is working! (patience, girl, patience...) I didn't have this texture until after a lower bleph, where the fat pads were repositioned. This makes no sense to me at all, as I would have expected a taut skin over the newly-repositioned fat.

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:50 pm

hi sean

thanks for this, so do you think its not physically possible to work the face as intensely as the body as in when you do weight training?

i know through my own experience (im a personal trainer) that when muscles are given more of a rest they actually grow bigger than when they are worked every day, but maybe if you cant work the muscles as intensely then you dont need to rest, but generally the more intensive the work the more the muscle growth.

just curious how would having more circulation make a difference to muscle growth?

i think i will try doing both ageless and flex effect together but working different muscle groups different days and let you know how i get on, thanks

SeanySeanUK wrote:

Hey Ellie

Well there is some truth to that, but for the face its not completely factual for the reasons I will describe below.

Yes you want to damage or challenge the muscle fibres, and the best way of that is using resistance and engaging full muscle activation, which in turn will engage the repair process if all the correct resources are available (water, nutrients etc).

The facial muscles are not of identical shape, as you know already by know, but they vary in size, thickness etc. When you Flex, your using variable resistance, which is governed by your brain. Your brain will never really let you overmax the muscle (as in doing so the nerve endings etc would produce amazing pain, you just physically couldn't do it).

Secondly, when your working your body your using an external fixed weight that stays the same throughout the entire range of movement. When you flex, your using variable resistance, in that the brain makes the resistance adapt depending on the feedback of the muscle at that point in time.

Thirdly, many of the facial muscles attach to skin, whereas when your doing weights with the body, they attach bone to bone. Think of your tricep for instance. Also keeping with that think of the length of your tricep or even calf muscles and compare that to your masseter or even eyelid muscles.... can you see the amazing size difference.

Doing both programs together, its intensely challenging, so you might find that your face does benefit from the rest.... but the only thoughts I have about doing it that way is that its not reeducating the facial muscles to hold the additional circulation as much as it does when you flex daily. Saying that, its up to you to experiment and get creative with.

ellie213 wrote:

i am trying to decide the best way to get maximum muscle building and wondered what the best way of doing this would be

from what i know about the muscle growth process, a muscle grows through the process of the muscle fibers being damaged through being worked intensively and then during the repair process it grows

so with the face wouldnt we get better results from working different muscle groups on alternate days as in ageless rather than daily as in flexeffect. i know they are that way in ageless to save time, but if you arent interested in saving time but want best results as in biggest muscles (cheeks)maybe the muscles would actually get bigger from allowing more of a repair process?

i was thinking for a more intensive workout to add flexeffect exercises, eg. all ageless cheek and flexeffect ex one day, then rest of face ageless and flexeffefct the next

has anyone tried this or does anyone know which way would be more effective? thanks! getting married aug dont have much time!

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:56 pm

thanks jasminerosey

i went through the overworked look a while ago been doing flex effect a year, just looking to build my muscles bigger now! i am going to try a new approach and see what happens!

jasminerosey wrote:

Ellie,

my understanding of why Loulou has us do 5 minutes of exercising each muscle ..on alternative days..rather than every day...

..is not that a muscle builds faster that way..

.but that it avoids the 'overworked' look that the face can get...especially when first building the face muscles.

i think she described the overworked look.. as looking tired or haggard...and i believe she said also that our face can even look more temporarily wrinkled or sagging....as the muscle tissue breaks down.... in order to be rebuilt stronger.

Loulou has said that people often stop building their face muscles at this point...thinking that the process is causing even greater damage to there face..

..and she said she is trying to avoid this by just working each of the muscles every other day instead of every day.

i have just listened..for the first time to the first part of Deb's video.from FE

...and she also speaks about how ..at the beginning..flexer's can go through this kind or process...(she goes into more detail than i am here)..and advocates that we stop working a particular muscle for a while if it seems to be overworked...

it seems to me..in this regard... that Deb and Loulou are saying the same thing..only Loulou is structuring her program to avoid the overworked look..

while Deb is asking us to be sensitive to it on our own..and stop working the muscle for a while according to our own perception/observance.

free skin care · Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:18 pm

Ellie,
what did you personally experience during the overworked stage...how long did that last for.

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:28 am

jasminerosey wrote:

Again...for Loulou or Sean

or anyone who has such info....

It was difficult for me to finally express that i have this aging neck 'issue', since i've been fortunate, and aging has never been a concern for me before this year ...

However, now that i've 'broken the ice' and brought up the issue, i'd like to be more specific.

The mid vertical 'band' of the skin on my upper neck is actually tight(and even more so now that i'm doing Ageless)...but it's the skin on either side of this mid vertical 'band' that is really loose and 'turkey-like'

and although i can feel the Ageless exercise effecting my whole neck, it seems as though it's more directly and forcefully targeting the mid vertical 'band' of the neck, which is not so much where my main problem is..

so my question is....are there exercises that target more directly the area on either side of this vertical 'band'?

I am, of course, massaging and tugging at the area(scary though..since the skin is already so loose)

Hi Jasminerosey,

The skin on the neck itself isn't attached to the muscle, so you can't actually pull it tight against the neck through exercise as you can the eyes or upper cheeks. But the platysma is attached on the lowerr part of the face, so the lift you get here will pull the neck skin upwards and to some extent take up the slack, and as happens with most of the face, the loose skin has often dropped there because the upper areas of the face aren't holding the flesh so high. Everything will move up over time.

You can also work on the skin's elasticity, pulling, brushing and so on will pay dividends. Don't worry about any slackening, your skin grows slack because you don't pull it!

I was up at my youngest daughter's school yesterday and one of the mums who I haven't seen for ages came up to me and said, 'Not being rude, but have you had Botox or something cos you look great!' I said, 'Oh wow thanks, no, but I've just had the inside of my nose done and the guy made it a bit shorter while he was there'. She said, 'no, it's your eyes and stuff, you haven't got any wrinkles'. So I explained to her and then started describing what I do, and she was like 'woooooo pull your skin!' Then somebody else came along and she said,' Hey, Louise says we should pull our skin!' And I sat there in a group of about 5 mothers, pulling my neck and eyes and all over my face while they looked more and more horrified and distressed. I know how you feel.... just try to keep at it. You will never regret it!

((((hugs)

)

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:35 am

Take Care wrote:

Hi,

I haven't been here in a while.. so I may be re-asking a question already posted so I apologize.
I've tried to catch up reading them all.

I would appreciate it if someone could help me here..

1. Is there anything besides the "wish #8" that can help build up under the eye?

2. I don't know how to explain this.. but since my under eye became less firm and I have incurred muscle loss I have experienced this very fine pebbly texture near the under eye. I have seen this on people who have aged.. can someone offer any advice on some thing I can apply there?

Thank you..

Hi Take Care Smile

I don't do anything except 'wish', and haven't for a long time. You really don't need to do anything else, there's only one muscle there... you can do more if you like, but bear in mind that contracting the muscle leaves a crumpled surface in the short term, so if you do a lot it might look worse before it looks better.

Pebbliness will go as well in time... I've taught several people with this.

LL Cool

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:40 am

ruk1 wrote:

Hi LouLou,
Just to let you know, I pm'd you to request trial exercises.
Thank you.

Hi Ruk, sorry not to have replied before... yes, surgery!

I'll gladly send you some exercises, but then I'm going to have to stop sending because I'm trying to keep up with email, and because now the vids are on the website, there's not very much programme left to buy! Laughing

LL

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:48 am

Hi Ellie

It depends on your definition of intensity really, but I do think the facial muscles are slightly different than the body muscles, so have to be worked differently to achieve the same results hence the approach in FE and others of working daily, but its always worth trying.

Deb herself qualified as a personal trainer and used that knowledge in designing FE. As I stated with the body your using a fixed external weight during a motion, whereas when you exercise the face your using variable resistance (and it changes at an unconscious level). Most people will never go beyond what the muscle can handle (and usually its different person to person) but the fear of damaging things in the process is what they find worrying. I often tell them that provided they don't have any health issues or nerve problems, that they would experience explicit pain in trying to make the facial muscles go beyond what it can do.

As to the circulation, one of the problems that we face as we age is that our circulation diminishes. You can see this by looking at children, you know their faces are so expressionate and soft to the touch, and thats usually for so many factors, one being 100% circulation. Then lets go forward with that same child 40 years (or use whatever number you want), that circulation isn't at the 100% it was as a child (because of many reasons, lifestyle, diet, etc), and so the person now has some 70% of the circulation that they did, and apparently the scientists believe after 40 it diminishes quite rapidly. Jump forward to the average 60 year old, and you can kind of see them with the skin and muscles that hang.

Now when it comes to working a muscle with resistance, the blood literally pumps into the muscle in order to do the movement. So your getting 10 times the normal blood supply into that muscle and thus the pump you often hear raved about by bodybuilders, as the blood comes in bringing nutrients etc, it literally fills the muscle up.

It will be an interesting experiment and take photos, so you can monitor it for yourself and let us know how it goes.

Sean

ellie213 wrote:

hi sean

thanks for this, so do you think its not physically possible to work the face as intensely as the body as in when you do weight training?

i know through my own experience (im a personal trainer) that when muscles are given more of a rest they actually grow bigger than when they are worked every day, but maybe if you cant work the muscles as intensely then you dont need to rest, but generally the more intensive the work the more the muscle growth.

just curious how would having more circulation make a difference to muscle growth?

i think i will try doing both ageless and flex effect together but working different muscle groups different days and let you know how i get on, thanks

SeanySeanUK wrote:

Hey Ellie

Well there is some truth to that, but for the face its not completely factual for the reasons I will describe below.

Yes you want to damage or challenge the muscle fibres, and the best way of that is using resistance and engaging full muscle activation, which in turn will engage the repair process if all the correct resources are available (water, nutrients etc).

The facial muscles are not of identical shape, as you know already by know, but they vary in size, thickness etc. When you Flex, your using variable resistance, which is governed by your brain. Your brain will never really let you overmax the muscle (as in doing so the nerve endings etc would produce amazing pain, you just physically couldn't do it).

Secondly, when your working your body your using an external fixed weight that stays the same throughout the entire range of movement. When you flex, your using variable resistance, in that the brain makes the resistance adapt depending on the feedback of the muscle at that point in time.

Thirdly, many of the facial muscles attach to skin, whereas when your doing weights with the body, they attach bone to bone. Think of your tricep for instance. Also keeping with that think of the length of your tricep or even calf muscles and compare that to your masseter or even eyelid muscles.... can you see the amazing size difference.

Doing both programs together, its intensely challenging, so you might find that your face does benefit from the rest.... but the only thoughts I have about doing it that way is that its not reeducating the facial muscles to hold the additional circulation as much as it does when you flex daily. Saying that, its up to you to experiment and get creative with.

ellie213 wrote:

i am trying to decide the best way to get maximum muscle building and wondered what the best way of doing this would be

from what i know about the muscle growth process, a muscle grows through the process of the muscle fibers being damaged through being worked intensively and then during the repair process it grows

so with the face wouldnt we get better results from working different muscle groups on alternate days as in ageless rather than daily as in flexeffect. i know they are that way in ageless to save time, but if you arent interested in saving time but want best results as in biggest muscles (cheeks)maybe the muscles would actually get bigger from allowing more of a repair process?

i was thinking for a more intensive workout to add flexeffect exercises, eg. all ageless cheek and flexeffect ex one day, then rest of face ageless and flexeffefct the next

has anyone tried this or does anyone know which way would be more effective? thanks! getting married aug dont have much time!

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:40 am

About the pebbliness that Antonia mentioned, I also just very recently started to have it on the lower lid, by the inner corner, and I really hated it.

So, aside from the exercises in Ageless, I started brushing my lids, as well as pinching and pulling them. At first they looked red and a little swollen. Now, about 6 weeks later, they are fine and the pebbly look is no longer there.

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:52 am

Bethany, your photos are inspiring. Thanks for posting them.

I've been doing Ageless intermittently.
I've got to commit to them, but for a while I thought they were making some silly looking "comma" lines above the corners of my mouth. Then I realized it was the Facial Flex gadget and stopped that.

On Saturday, we had overnight guests, and I was trying to run through my Ageless exercises quickly and gave myself a dark red blotch just above my lips. That was attractive. I'll get there.

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:26 am

catballou wrote:

I've been doing Ageless intermittently. I've got to commit to them, but for a while I thought they were making some silly looking "comma" lines above the corners of my mouth. Then I realized it was the Facial Flex gadget and stopped that.

Cat, I noticed something similar, but read in Flex Effect that you will see that line when your cheeks start to lift, and that it will eventually go away.

free skin care · Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:31 am

bren21 wrote:

Kandy....it was mentioned about the crush exercise a while back that you don't actually "blow" your cheeks up for that exercise. LouLou was merely demonstrating in that video with the "blow" the muscle you are supposed to use when you grab. So the actual exercise doesn't entail blowing up the cheeks. Just grab that piece of flesh and pull out a bit with your hands....then, try and pull/squeeze your cheeks back in against your teeth like you are trying to crush something between your cheeks and your teeth. I think this is why you are having difficulty with this exercise. I too was wondering about the cheek blowing when I first started doing this one and I saw the video.... so give it another go and see what happens!!! Very Happy

I think I understand better now how to do it, thnx for that explanation! Smile

Isn't it so that you pull your cheeks between your teeth then and if you push it further you end up making a 'fishface'..or am I wrong again? Rolling Eyes

Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:01 am

At 19/20years old, is it too early to begin with facial exercises?

I read that the earlier the better, however, 70% of the reason we get wrinkles are repeated motion, isn't these face exercises just repeating motions and hence causing wrinkles to appear 10years before they would normally?

I'm only 19 and have had forehead wrinkles since 17 due to repeated frowning only..

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