Brad Shaw
If your working day now consists of ricocheting between Zoom, Netflix and doom-scrolling your phone, don’t be surprised if your neck creaks like an old golf cart and your jaw feels welded shut.
Modern life has turned us into hunched, screen-lit gargoyles – and our poor facial muscles are staging a quiet protest. That’s where a new kind of facial workout comes in: FaceToned, a routine that promises to lift your face, unkink your neck and talk your shoulders down off the ledge.
FaceToned is the brainchild of Pilates teacher Carme Farré, who looked at our lockdown posture and decided enough was enough. We’ll dutifully drag ourselves to the gym to squat, lunge and plank, but from the neck up it’s a no-man’s land of tension, teeth-grinding and tech-neck. Her solution? Treat your face like the rest of your body – with structured, progressive exercise rather than the occasional half-hearted stretch between emails.
Facial fitness for the Zoom era
Billed as “facial fitness”, FaceToned Facial Fitness is built on a simple, slightly brutal truth: we work out the muscles in our body regularly, yet the muscles in our face tend to get forgotten. FaceToned® steps into that gap with a natural facial Pilates routine that uses specific exercises and stretches to tone the muscles, lift and rejuvenate your overall appearance and, crucially, ease the nagging aches in your jaw, neck and shoulders.
The bonus? After just a few sessions, clients report not only visible improvements in their appearance, but that the irritating little pains and discomforts that lived rent-free around the upper back and neck have quietly packed their bags.
Carme, who talks about anatomy the way other people talk about weekend plans, puts it like this: “Anatomically back muscles extend from the spine up to the neck and the skull so adding exercises for neck, jaw and face makes sense if you are suffering from tension.
By targeting these areas you can restore length, relax and strengthen the cervical spine muscles, and release tension in the jaw, both of which are imperative to improve mobility”
In other words, if your back, neck and jaw are all part of the same overloaded system, it makes sense that a properly designed facial routine might do more than smooth out your frown lines – it might actually help you move like you’re not made of Lego.
Why FaceToned feels different
What makes FaceToned® more than just pulling faces in the bathroom mirror is that it directly applies classic Pilates principles to the face and neck. Yes, really – your jaw gets its own version of “engage your core”. The method focuses on:
- Stability of the joints: particularly the jaw and neck, which take a daily battering from poor posture and phone scrolling.
- Centering: working out the ‘core facial muscles’ so the work starts from a stable base, not a clenched jaw.
- Concentration: getting the maximum benefit from each movement, instead of just going through the motions.
- Control: using isometric and isotonic movements so muscles are strengthened safely and effectively.
- Precision: isolating specific muscles to get better, faster results – a kind of targeted facial strength training.
And, as Carme insists, the session doesn’t end when you stop pulling faces.
“Breathing and stretching at the end of each FaceToned® session” is also very important says Carme. “Normally, clients have poor posture, which puts pressure on the lungs preventing the diaphragmatic muscles from activating.
Proper breathing allows space for the diaphragm to expand and only then it is possible to start strengthening the upper back.”
So before you’ve even thought about serums and sheet masks, you’ve got a facial routine that tackles posture, breathing, jaw tension and back strength in one hit. Not bad for something you can do in a chair.
Try this FaceToned® routine at home
Carme has put together a handful of FaceToned exercises designed to tackle tension and stress in the shoulders, neck and jaw – all the places your body complains when you’re on your fourth video call of the morning.
FaceToned Basic Exercise
A short FaceToned routine for easing tension and stress in the shoulders, neck and jaw
This is your gentle entry point: a focused sequence of movements that helps release tightness in the upper back, neck and jaw, setting you up for the more targeted work to come.
Lower Facelift – Advanced exercise that tones the neck, cheeks and jowls
This one sounds like a cosmetic procedure, but it’s pure muscle work:
Lengthen the neck upwards and bring the chin up slightly holding your collarbones with your hands, and slightly pulling down.
Now bring the chin forward and slightly up so to hold the top lip with lower teeth, then try to touch the tip of the nose with your lower lip.
Now, lift up the corners of the mouth and pulse up and slightly down as if smiling for eight counts. Hold this position for eight counts and then relax.
Perform three times.
Yes, you will look ridiculous doing it. No, the neighbours don’t need to know. But as a facial toner for the neck, cheeks and jowls, it’s doing far more than any filter.
FaceToned Exercise – Neck Strengthening
Think of this as a resistance workout for your cervical spine: Make sure that you are sitting upright, and your ribs are relaxed and core engaged.
Lengthen the neck upwards and place both hands behind your neck with your shoulders wide open.
Push the neck backwards against the hands without moving any other part of the body – make sure the shoulders stay relaxed.
Repeat 3 sets of 8 reps, and hold between reps.
Simple, controlled and surprisingly effective at reminding your neck it was designed to hold up a head, not just a headset.
FaceToned Neck Stretching
This one blends mobility, stretch and upper-body awareness: Through the stretch, bring both hands behind your back and lengthened, then bring one arm up and over the head to reach the opposite arm and to hold hands, or at least touch the fingers at the level of your shoulder blades.
Repeat twice on each side.
If your shoulders crackle like breakfast cereal while you do it, that’s your cue to keep going.
FaceToned Jaw Release
Designed for the clenched-jaw brigade – the grinders, the midnight worriers, the “I’ll just finish this email” crowd:
Slide the jaw forward and backwards very carefully.
Then, open and close the jaw as your fingers run along the back teeth, making sure you stop when you find a tender point.
Repeat 3 times for the count of 8.
It’s a deceptively small movement with a big payoff: a softer jaw, fewer headaches and a calmer, more relaxed facial expression that doesn’t scream “I’ve had eight coffees and one hour’s sleep.”
What clients say: pain gone, jaw unlocked
Of course, you don’t have to take the creator’s word for it. The most convincing evidence often comes from people who’ve tried everything else first.
One client, Yulia, had been stuck in the classic corporate loop of meetings, screens and physio appointments:
“I have been seeing a physiotherapist for a while to help with my upper back and neck pain (as someone who spends a lot of time in meetings and in front of a screen this has been an issue for a while).
Since Carme and I started doing our exercises regularly (which includes stretching) my pain disappeared – which is quite unbelievable.” Yulia, May 2020
For Alison, FaceToned has helped turn her jaw from a vice into something closer to its original hinge: “Working with FaceToned has really helped keep jaw tension to an absolute minimum. My jaw feels free and easy to move.” Alison, June 2020.
Ros arrived with a long history of tooth grinding – and a night guard she hated: “All my life I have suffered from tooth grinding at night and would often wake up with a stiff jaw. (This has the medical name “bruxism”.)
My dentist made me a mould to wear at night to stop this and also suggested some exercises (some of which are similar to some of the FaceToned® exercises).
Since doing FaceToned he remarks that my jaw is better (and I certainly don’t wear the night guard, which I never liked anyway!).” Ros. June 2020
And then there’s Almudena, who’d damaged her teeth from years of grinding and found conventional solutions – like a mouth guard – a non-starter:
“I have had problems with my jaw due to stress for a while, to the point that some of my teeth has chipped from grinding at night and I would get headaches.
My dentist prescribed a mouth guard at night about 15 years ago, but it is really uncomfortable to use.
Since I started FaceToned® my jaw is relaxed. I now know what exercises to do to bring the tension down really easy, and I do them almost automatically during the day. I wished my dentist had told me about it before!” Almudena June 2020
A different kind of self-care
In a world where “self-care” usually means another expensive cream or an aspirational bath you don’t have time for, FaceToned sneaks in from a different angle. It’s a structured, evidence-informed facial workout that treats your jaw, neck and shoulders as part of the same overloaded system – and then politely, methodically, gives them a way out.
If your face currently feels like it’s doing 36 holes a day while the rest of you sits still, it might be time to add a little facial Pilates to your routine. Your neck, your jaw and possibly your physio bill will thank you.
