Oral Motor Exercises : FacExer Provides An External Resistance For Head, Face and Neck Muscles Workout.

         It is a well-known fact that our body posture is very important. Your head should sit directly on the neck and shoulders. The weight of the head , holding forward, puts a tremendous strain on the neck and upper back muscles.

        Unfortunately, our life style doesn't contribute to a proper posture maintenance.  Look around - our postures are "forward head postures" when we are checking our smartphones, tablets, computers. Looking down at your computer monitor all day can cause the muscles around the neck joints  become overstretched. The result can be an aching neck.

        Have you ever think about relationship between your tongue position and the body posture?

       Our head is quite heavy. Average adult human brain weighs about 3 pounds, average human tongue weighs about 0.5 -1 pound and consists of 8 muscles.That is why tongue position is very important for posture in general.

•       We are emphasizing the importance of the oral posture in our brochure:

  "your  lips are closed, tongue is flat and resting on the roof of your mouth with tip of the tongue behind the front teeth. Your upper and lower teeth are in relaxed position and are not engaged." This tongue position helps to balance your head on the neck and keep proper posture of your body.. Tongue Exercises, which are  listed below will  require the input from various stabilizing muscles  - muscles of the neck and back.

•         Tongue (lingual) strength also plays a very important role in the process of swallowing food or drinking fluids . We use our tongue to move food inside of the mouth,  mixing food  with saliva, then form the bolus and direct it towards back of the mouth , proceeding towards swallowing stage.

      According to multiple studies, it is very important to keep a good tongue (lingual) muscle strength,  if  "lingual strength is reduced, which further limits oral and pharyngeal structural movement during swallow . As a result, the swallowing muscles are no longer actively used and might eventually atrophy, affecting both oral and pharyngeal phase swallowing function, especially in the long term. " (Effects of Strengthening Exercises on Swallowing Musculature and Function in Senior Healthy Subjects: a Prospective Effectiveness and Feasibility Study S.A.C. Kraaijenga et al., 2015) sourse:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25840788

      Also there is possible  relationship between neuromotor control of speech and swallowing (Posterior tongue grooving in deglutition and speech: Preliminary observations Sandra L. Hamlet et al., 1988) sourse : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02412421

There are more then hundred muscles located above our shoulders, for example, "speech articulation is often described as the most complex motor behaviour, because over 100 muscles are involved, and the movements occur on an extremely rapid timescale." (Conant, Bouchard, & Chang, 2014)

(sourse: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3913904/ )

    Hope we already convince you that tongue is a very important conglomeration of the muscles and you are ready for exercising with FacExer.  

• Tongue exercises

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• Have the FacExer pressed against your mouth and chin. Stick your tongue in front and push the FacExer with tongue as hard as possible for count of 5 and do 10-15 repetitions.
• Next, stick your tongue in front of you. This time have the FacExer placed on the right side of your tongue. Press against the FacExer as hard as you can (as if you’re trying to push the FacExer to the corner of your mouth). Hold for a count of 5.
• Repeat this exercise with the left side of your tongue.
• Already well known sucking motion exercise  is tremendously important  tongue exercise. This exercise is very important for  jaw and lips strengthening  as well.

  Place the middle part of the FacExer in your mouth between tongue and roof of the mouth. Press remainder of FacExer against your lips and chin. Do not engage your teeth. Hold the FacExer with your lips and start a sucking motion with your tongue. A suck occurs with positive pressure and negative pressure. Positive pressure occurs when the jaw elevates, the tongue elevates to the hard palate, and the lips are sealed. Hold in this position for a count of 5. Negative pressure occurs when the jaw drops, the tongue moves away from the hard palate, cheeks contract, the soft palate elevates, and the lips remain sealed. Notice the majority of the muscles above your shoulders – muscles of the neck, chin, tongue, forehead, around your eyes, around the mouth - are engaged in this motion – isotonically or isometrically.

  As you gain strength repeat this exercise  creating more resistance by pulling the FacExer away from your face during suction motions. The resistance applied should be less than the muscles are capable of overcoming. Resistance during exercises can be varied if desired, by moving the hand farther away from or closer to the mouth. Please refer to video below for sucking motion exercise demonstration:

•  Gently bite FacExer, apply pressure with your teeth as you are biting of an apple, Repeat 5-10 times. As you gain strength repeat this exercise  creating more resistance by pulling the FacExer away from your face.

• You can find more exercises in our broshure ( https://facexer.com/pages/method-of-exercising-with-facexer-and-brochure) and on the home page of our website (https://facexer.com/pages/more-exercises-for-bilateral-muscles)

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• exercises for jaw and lips:

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Tip: If you exercise one side of your face with FacExer, fix an opposite side  with your fingers to stabilize skin folds.

    You can also use two FacExers  simultaneously for exercising symmetrical muscles of the face. Benefits:  you are giving the equal load for both sides of your face and also you  save time for exercising. 

• Muscle: Risorius. Symmetrical .Place both exercisers  bilaterally at the corners of your mouth keeping your lips together. Try to draw the corners of your mouth straight back as you pronounce  sound 'eee'. Feel the resistance of FacExer bilaterally. Hold for a count of 5. Repeat 5-10 times.

• Muscle: Zygomaticus Major. Symmetrical. Place both exercisers bilaterally just outside the corners of your mouth onto your cheeks. Draw the corners of your mouth upwards and outwards as in smiling. Feel resistance of FacExer. Hold for a count of 5. Repeat 5-10 times.

•      Muscle: Buccinator. Symmetrical muscle.
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             Press your FacExers against mouth and lips area in order to stabilize skin. Hold  the inside of your cheeks firmly against your side teeth and draw back the corners of the mouth as when pursing your lips as if to playing FacExer as trumpet. Hold for account of 5. Repeat 5-10 times.

• Muscle: Pterygoideus Medialis and Lateralis. Press FacExers against both sides of your lower face and chin area. Try to push your lower jaw forward exposing your lower teeth. Hold on a count of 5. Repeat 5-10 times.
  
  

• Cheek lifting exercise helps to elevate lines and permit a more natural, rounded contour, reduce malar bags .

     "Malar Bags, which may appear as "cheek dents," generally manifest toward the outside, upper portion of the cheek area. Multiple factors may contribute to their development, among them the natural volume deflation and sagging that comes with aging and drainage problems in the small lymphatic vessels in the region. Owing to the latter, anything that affects fluid dynamics, like allergic reactions, fatigue, excessive salt consumption, etc. may worsen the appearance.of malar bags" according to Dr. Nelson Lee Novick, New York Dermatologic Surgeon.

  (Web reference: http://YoungerLookingWithoutSurgery.com )

  Next exercise will help you to strengthen neck and facial  muscles, such as zygomaticus, risorius, orbicularis oris, buccinator, masseter.

    Put your mouth in "O" shape to pronounce AW [ɔ] vowel (as in word Law sound). Corners of the mouth pressed forward, which brings centre part of the lips away from the face. Strech your cheeks muscles over teeth, squeexing mouth muscles very tight.

     Place FACEXERs bilaterally along your cheekbones and raise lower eyelids upwards to make a strong squint (have a fun!). Look up.  

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• For each exercise:
• Hold for a count of 5. Repeat as indicated ( 5-10 repetitions  initially, increase amount of sets to 10-15 over time as tolerating).