Below
are answers to some of the most common questions
new student
have regarding The Eigard Method:
How
does it work?
What
is facial posture?
Do
I have to do all ten of the exercises every day?
How
long will it take me to learn the exercises?
How
long will it be before I see results?
How
is The Eigard Method different from other facial exercise
programs?
Can
I practice The Eigard Method even if I've had plastic surgury?
Does
The Eigard Method work for men as well as for women?
Does
The Eigard Method reverse sun damage?
Can
I do these exercises in the car?
Will
I have to make funny faces for the rest of my life?
How
does it work?
The
Eigard Method is a strength-training program based on isometric
and isotonic muscle contractions. Let’s take a moment
to explain the difference between the two:
An
isometric exercise is one in which the muscle simply tenses,
straining against an immovable object without lengthening
or shortening. Pushing against a wall or squeezing a ball
are very basic and familiar examples of isometric exercise.
In The Eigard Method, we sometimes use the fingers to provide
tiny, controlled points of resistance, working the facial
muscles against them.
An isotonic exercise is one in which the muscle “works” by lengthening
and shortening as it moves through a range of motion while under load. This
load is called resistance. A simple biceps curl is a good example of an isotonic
exercise: the biceps muscle lengthens as the arm is extended and shortens during
the curl. The barbell provides the resistance. In the exercises you will learn
in The Eigard Method, resistance is provided solely by the hands and fingers.
A few of the exercises don’t introduce any external resistance at all
until you have reached the advanced level.
For
you Latin lovers, “isometric” comes from iso,
meaning same, and metric, meaning length.
“Isotonic” comes from iso meaning same, and tonic, meaning tension.
What
is facial posture?
Remember
all those times your mother told you not to make that silly
expression or your face would “get
stuck that way”? It turns out that she
was right. She probably also told you to sit up
straight in your chair and to square your shoulders when you
walk. If you listened to her and developed
good posture habits, you probably don’t
suffer endlessly from backaches or neck pain.
The Eigard Method is designed to teach you the correct habits
of facial posture that your mother instinctively
knew existed.
It’s
true, the face has posture—good or bad—just
like the body. In the course of day-to-day living,
most of us develop poor facial posture. We sleep with our
faces mashed into a pillow, we purse our
lips when concentrating, we scowl when tense, we squint when
driving into the sun, or we develop a
permanent smoker’s pucker. The best route
to physical grace and poise is the study
of martial arts or classical ballet, and The Eigard Method
is the only exercise system designed to accomplish
the same results for the face.
Good facial posture brings with it a long list
of lasting benefits. Most students come in search of beauty,
but many have happily reported headache and neck pain relief
from practicing The Eigard Method.
Do
I have to do all ten of the exercises every day?
Each of the ten exercises in The Eigard Method
works a majority of the fifty-seven muscles of
the face and neck. This means that any program you can stick
to will be a balanced one. Even if
you choose to start with a single exercise performed once a
day, you will be getting a complete
workout, building muscle strength and toning the face. This
is because The Eigard Method is not
based on repetition but rather on precise, concentrated, and
methodical execution.
How long will it take me to learn the exercises?
Those
who have studied fitness systems for the body (students of
dance, yoga, ballet, weightlifting, Pilates,
and so on) may learn more quickly than others, but even fitness
fanatics will find these exercises challenging.
Unlike other facial exercise systems, which teach you to
work one muscle at a time,The Eigard Method
is a complex discipline and requires practice and effort.
Of course, this is also why it works so well. The good news
is that you will see positive results from The Eigard Method long before you achieve mastery.
How
long will it be before I see results?
If
you perform the exercises that make up The Eigard Method
correctly, your face will be sore the very
next day. If you aren’t sore, you probably aren’t
working the muscles hard enough. When you
work your muscles until they “burn”, meaning
that you always sustain the exercise until
the muscle is weak, you can expect to see the effects of your
workouts within a couple of weeks.
How
is The Eigard Method different from other facial exercise
programs?
Most
other exercise programs are like simple calisthenics and
focus on one muscle at a time. Predictably,
the results are hit-or-miss. By contrast, each exercise in
The Eigard Method begins with a precise facial
alignment, much like the basic positions in ballet, so that
as you begin the exercise your whole face
is engaged in a disciplined set of movements that build overall
strength, posture, and control.
Some
popular books on facial exercise offer advice that can be
harmful. These books describe
exercises that crease and pucker the delicate facial skin as
you perform them, when it’s wellknown
that repeated creasing is exactly what causes the collagen
breakdown that leads to
wrinkles. If you fan through the illustrations of The Eigard
Method, you’ll see a lot of funny-looking expressions,
but not a single crease, pucker, or furrow.
Can I practice The Eigard Method even if I've
had plastic surgury?
Cosmetic
surgery patients can benefit tremendously from practicing
The Eigard Method, either before or after
their procedure. When surgery patients are dissatisfied with
their results, it’s often because
the skin has been stretched tight while the muscle underneath
continues to sag like an old rubber band,
producing an unnatural rippled effect. The exercises in this
book can help alleviate this condition by
tightening the underlying muscle. Practiced before cosmetic surgery,The
Eigard Method can give your doctor more to work with, improving
your chances for a positive outcome. But
physicians take heed: widespread use of The Eigard Method
before surgery might result in a lot of cancelled appointments.
Does The Eigard Method work for men as well as
for women?
You’ve
probably noticed that men’s and women’s
bodies respond to physical exercise in different
ways. Because of their higher testosterone levels, men tend
to build more bulk when
they begin a weight-bearing exercise program than women do.
The exercises in The Eigard
Method, however, are designed to strengthen and tone muscle
tissue and to build bulk only in
areas where you want it—such as the cheeks. They are
equally effective for men and women of
any age.
Does The Eigard Method reverse sun damage?
When
your sixth-grade teacher asked you to write an essay called “What
I did on my summer
vacation,” you probably didn’t write, “I
ordered up some crow’s-feet, but they won’t be
arriving
for another twenty years.” But maybe you should have.
According to the American Academy of
Dermatology, 80% of sun damage occurs before the age of eighteen.
The Eigard Method will
give you a fit face; still, it’s never too late to prevent
further sun damage—if you’re forty now,
you’ll thank yourself at sixty. You should always wear
a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15.
Read labels carefully, as many products sold as sunscreens
do not block the full spectrum of
UVA, UVB, and UVC rays. Adults who do wear sunscreen often
forget that snow, water, and
even pavement can reflect up to 80% of the sun’s rays,
burning the skin even in inclement
weather. The good news is that you can take steps to minimize
further damage even if you do
accidentally burn. The damage from any burn continues to
worsen over a twenty-four-hour
period. To draw away the heat and arrest the damage, take
a tepid bath. Since burns strip the
skin of its protective mantle, mix a quart of cider vinegar
into the bath water to restore your
skin’s pH balance. (Don’t worry, the vinegar evaporates
from your skin, and you won’t come out
smelling like a salad as long as you leave out the garlic
and olive oil.)
Can I do these exercises in the car?
The
exercises you will learn in The Eigard Method require a high
level of concentration and precision.
Distracted driving is dangerous, and distracted exercise
is just plain useless. You also must ask
yourself whether an exercise regimen easy enough to be performed
while driving a car could possibly be
rigorous enough to provide you with noticeable benefits.
Will I have to make funny faces for the rest of my life?
After
you’ve trained your muscles in The Eigard Method,
they will benefit from something called “muscle
memory.” This means that once you’ve
achieved the results you want, you can go ahead
and cut back on your program without fear of permanently
losing the benefit of all that
hard work. If you like, you can revert to a maintenance
schedule of a few exercises several
times a week. When you feel your muscles are ready for
a new challenge, you can pick up the
pace and take your program to a higher level.
As with any exercise program, the first hurdle is the
biggest. Once you’ve made a good
beginning, you’ll be able to maintain your fitness
level without undue suffering, and achieving
higher levels of fitness will always be easier than
that first big push. Yes,The Eigard Method
requires you to do some work, but in return it offers
a long-term benefit. That simply isn’t true
of a surgical face-lift. Remember, the younger you
are when you start the program, the more
memory your muscles will have.
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