Facebuilding: exercises for the forehead area

Author: Kristina Bondareva - facebuilding coach.
2016-05-09

Face-builders and all beauty enthusiasts, today I will tell you about training the forehead area. First, let’s start with a bit of anatomy.

Occipitofrontal muscle covers the arch from the eyebrows at the front to the highest nuchal line at the back. This muscle has a frontal belly (venter frontalis) and an occipital belly (venter occipitalis), connected by an aponeurotic helmet (galea aponeurotica, s. aponeurosis epicranialis), which occupies an intermediate position and covers the parietal region of the head.

The frontal belly is more developed than the occipital. Unlike the occipital belly, the muscle bundles of the frontal belly do not attach to the bones of the skull but are woven into the skin of the eyebrows. Therefore, the forehead is a very mobile part of the face, prone to early wrinkles and expression lines.

The muscle that wrinkles the brow (m.corrugator supercilii) begins at the medial segment of the brow ridge, runs upward and laterally, and attaches to the skin of the corresponding eyebrow. Some of the muscle bundles intertwine with those of the orbicularis oculi muscle. This muscle pulls the forehead skin downwards and medially, resulting in two vertical folds forming at the bridge of the nose.

The procerus muscle (m.procerus) originates from the outer surface of the nasal bone, with its bundles running upward and ending in the forehead skin; some of them intertwine with the bundles of the frontal belly. When the procerus muscle contracts, transverse grooves and folds form at the bridge of the nose.

All the exercises described below are shown in this video:

Exercise No. 1 "Eyebrow Raises"

Place your fingers above your eyebrows. Push your eyebrows upward with effort, while resisting with your fingers. Ensure that no horizontal wrinkles appear on your forehead during the exercise; relax your shoulders and lower them, and firmly fix the skin above your eyebrows.

After completing this exercise, tap your fingers on your forehead.

Effect: The eyebrow-raising exercise strengthens the frontal muscle, lifts and tones the brow arches, and prevents the forehead from wrinkling.

Exercise No. 2 "Brow Squeezing"

Place your ring fingers under your brows, middle fingers above, and index fingers next to the middle fingers, forming a "house" shape with your fingers. Make a sad/disappointed facial expression. Your forehead should crease, and your brows should move toward each other and down. Now press your palms against your forehead and eyebrows. Repeat the frown. You should feel tension in the central part of your forehead and eyebrows. No folds or creases should occur.

Effect: This smooths out the wrinkles at the inner bases of the eyebrows.

Exercise No. 3 "The Procerus Muscle"

Form a triangle with your palms, leaving a small space above the bridge of your nose, and try to lift only the central part of your forehead from your nose up. Make sure that no horizontal wrinkles appear on your forehead, and no vertical wrinkles form between your eyebrows during the exercise.

Effect: Training the procerus muscle prevents the appearance of transverse wrinkles on the bridge of the nose and smooths out the vertical wrinkle between the eyebrows.

Exercise No. 4 "Lifting Eyebrow Corners"

Fix your palms in the center of your forehead. Lift only the corners of your eyebrows upwards and outwards. In this exercise, try to pull your ears up as well.

Effect: This exercise helps raise the drooping outer corners of the eyebrows, improving the shape of the brow arch.

The muscles of the forehead are involved in emotions such as astonishment, surprise, admiration, fear, effort, disgust, and more. The forehead is a very active part of our face, so controlling facial expression directly impacts positive results. You can read about controlling facial expressions in this article.

With regular training of the forehead area, it is possible to eliminate horizontal wrinkles, vertical wrinkles between the eyebrows, prevent and correct the fold on the bridge of the nose, strengthen the muscle structure, and restore the position of the brow arch.

P.S. I develop individual programs for face-building training and conduct classes via Skype. If you are interested – click here.