Preventing Bone Loss Through Facial Exercises
Published: (February, 2023)
"Gaveling Practice"...What is Happening?
Here is a question I received on Instagram: Can you share if you noticed anything from your “gaveling” practice? I enjoy doing it, but I’m not sure what may or may not be happening.
First, I like the new word “gaveling.” We are creating new terminology in skincare. Can you tell? Another is “masquing.”
Let me begin with a question: What are some subtle warning signs of low bone density in the body?
A hunched posture or a decrease in overall height may indicate a reduction in bone density in the spine, and a loss of two inches or more in overall height may signal that an individual has osteoporosis.
And what are the signs of bone loss in the face? Let’s look at the following analogy:
Think of the facial skin as the front of a jacket and the underlying structure, such as soft tissue and bone base, as its lining. Suppose the lining shrinks and becomes coarse—a bad dry-cleaning job, perhaps—the jacket material sags or forms bubbles. The same thing happens to our faces. The bone structure shrinks, and the muscle corset of the face deforms and dries out, creating excess skin.
When it lacks elasticity, the skin cannot contract and inevitably forms a fold under the influence of gravity, creating sagging of the lower face. The skin also forms “bubbles,” a characteristic of hypertonic nasolabial folds in the middle of the face. Thus, the cause for the largest folds and sagging of the face is the deformation of the underlying structure of the skin, and not the stretching of the skin itself, as many mistakenly believe. These are all indirect indications of bone loss that you can see.
So if you don’t see these changes happening, or at least not to that extent, and your jacket (your skin) fits together with your lining (muscles and scalp), when this is already happening with your peers, then something is indeed happening. Your beauty practices, including gaveling, are slowing the facial degeneration process.
Now, let us discuss the sensation you might feel during gaveling. Please watch my video on the left. For me, it is like what I feel in my leg muscles after maybe the tenth squat. Or what I might feel on my shins after kicking a ball for 5–10 minutes. On my face, I feel a sensation of warmth and pleasant tingling after 30–60 seconds of gaveling. So much faster! This tells me we should never underestimate the power of facial exercises. Even though the muscles are small and hard to isolate, the effects will show faster than with body muscles.
What can we learn from going to the gym? Strong muscles lead to stronger bones. Using our muscles puts stress on our bones, which leads to the formation of new bone tissue. This is the “mechanostat theory,” which suggests that the mechanical forces placed on bones influence the formation and maintenance of bone tissue. This remodeling process is how bones get stronger.
Regular weight-bearing exercise and strength training, such as weightlifting, can help maintain and increase bone density in the body. Similarly, I speculate mechanical forces placed on facial bones through facial exercises and gaveling can influence the formation and maintenance of facial bone tissue. I’m sure, one day, there will be studies to prove this. By all means, wait for solid scientific proof. But I am not waiting—I love my facial exercises and gaveling.
People have asked me to make more facial exercise videos from my book Rawsome Flex. So here’s a new one! I hope you like our new model.
I hear you asking, Where do I get the time to do all 30 facial exercises in the book? Here’s the good news: You don’t have to do all of them every day. Try just three exercises daily, working on a different area of your face. Let’s say one day you do three exercises for the eye area. The next day, do three exercises for the lower face, and so on.
Here are more facial exercises for you to choose from...
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You know the expression “If youth but knew; if age but could.”
It’s a great feeling when most people think that being my age makes you over the hill, and yet I feel that the most meaningful and exciting chapter of my life has just begun.
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I'm very glad in my younger years I used paper tape under my eyes and on my forehead to keep the area wrinkle-free. And later I was challenged to find something that would work more effectively. These are WrinkAlign Patches.