Double Chin Exercise
Double Chin Exercise
A double chin can be a vexing problem. If your weight is normal and you still are bothered by a double chin that won’t seem to go away no matter what you do, you may be able to entice it to leave through exercise.
Double chin exercises stretch and tone the muscles in the neck and face so that the chin and neck area looks firmer and more youthful. One of the most common double chin exercises is called the platysma exercise.
The platysma exercise involves first opening your mouth as wide as you possibly can. You will feel the muscles on the side of your jaw when you do this, the ones that hold up the skin on your neck. Next, tilt your head back and pull your lower lip and jaw over your top teeth as far as they will go. This will create stretch in your neck.
You can perform this exercise several times in the morning and several times at night, and whenever you are alone and think of it. Many people have reported a change in the firmness of their chin and neck tissue after doing this for several weeks.
You can also purchase exercise devices that fit your neck or that your place in your mouth that you use to push against in order to firm your facial and neck muscles. These devices are actually a form of resistance training for the smaller muscles of the body.
Resistance training works by making muscles stronger by making then lift or push against weights. When used on the large muscles of the body, this form of training firms and tones better and faster than any other kind of exercise.
The theory behind the facial and neck exercise devices is sound. How well muscles of the face and neck respond to such training depends upon a variety of factors such as age, weight, heredity, and skin tone.
Getting more exercise in general can also help to reduce or eliminate a double chin. Resistance training of the upper body combined with a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein like broiled meat, fish, and low fat dairy, and good fats like the kind found in olive oil and in nuts and seeds, can change the look of the face and neck area and also pump up a metabolism to burn more calories even while resting.
A double chin can often be eliminated simple by starting a two to three times a week weight training regimen and losing ten or fifteen pounds. Typically people who start such a routine lose inches before they lose pounds. Fat is burned off and replaced by muscle, and muscle burns more calories, takes up less space, is more densely constructed (and weighs more than fat), and looks better on the body.
Aerobic exercise (exercise that gets the heart rate elevated, like brisk walking or running) can also indirectly help to reduce a double chin by increasing circulation and improving skin tone. Getting more whole body exercise of either type (aerobic or resistance training), will often result in just enough weight loss and muscle gain to make a double chin go away for good.
