Ponytail Pull-Ups

Continued from our Retreat & Renew Daily Tip.

By Melissa Williams

The masterminds at Mama Mio created this exercise to help minimize what they call the “sag and drag” of aging skin. Called Ponytail Pull-ups, they give you the effect of pulling your hair up in a ponytail, “literally pulling your face back and up.”

Draw the corners of your mouth towards your ears like a big broad open toothy smile to locate and feel the action of this muscle group. Think superwide smile but not too upwards at the corners. Think out more than up.
Place your fingers in the hollow immediately underneath your cheek bone. This is just to feel where the muscle is working no pulling.
Hold this big broad smile for ten seconds then gently pulse the contraction five times. With your fingers on your cheeks you can actually feel the muscle pulsing.
Release the contraction, take a deep breath and relax your face. Repeat three times.

Ponytail pull-ups are targeting the zygomaticus muscles that run right across your cheekbone from corner of mouth to temple, tightening it up to avoid sag.

Reprinted from Mama Mio’s Mighty Moisture.