Face Muscles Explained: The Anatomy Behind Face Yoga

Your face muscles fall into two groups: the muscles of facial expression, which attach to your skin and move it when you smile, frown or raise your brows, and the chewing muscles, which move your jaw. Most face yoga moves work the first group with gentle holds and stretches, and a few touch the second, which is why jaw moves stay soft. Below is a plain-English map of the main face muscles by area, what each one does and which face yoga moves involve it.

Knowing which muscle a move uses helps you do it with better form and less tension. It doesn’t mean that working a muscle will change how that part of your face looks.

Two kinds of face muscles

Your face has expression muscles and chewing muscles, and they are wired differently. The StatPearls medical reference describes around 30 muscles on each side of the face, depending on how they are counted (StatPearls: facial muscles).

• Muscles of facial expression are supplied by the facial nerve (the seventh cranial nerve). Many attach directly into the skin, so when they contract, the skin moves with them. That is how a smile lifts your cheeks and a frown creases your forehead.
• Muscles of mastication are supplied by a branch of the trigeminal nerve (the fifth cranial nerve). The main ones are the masseter, temporalis and two pterygoid muscles, and together they open, close and shift your jaw (StatPearls: mastication muscles).

In practice, expression muscles need only light effort, while strong chewing muscles are used for relaxation, never hard clenching.

The face muscles at a glance

Instead of a facial muscles diagram, here is the same information as a table, from the forehead down to the neck. The moves listed come from our published face yoga guides.

Area	Muscle	What it does	Expressions and lines linked to it	Moves that involve it
Forehead	Frontalis	Raises the eyebrows	Surprise; horizontal forehead lines	Palm-Supported Brow Raise, Forehead Smooth Down
Between the brows	Corrugator supercilii	Draws the brows together and down	Frowning; vertical “11” lines	Frown release, Forehead Smooth Down
Top of the nose	Procerus	Pulls the skin between the brows down	Frowning; a line across the bridge	Frown release
Around the eyes	Orbicularis oculi	Closes the eyelids, from a blink to a squeeze	Squinting, smiling; crow’s feet	Temple Lift, Under-Eye Slide, Wide-Eye Hold
Cheeks	Zygomaticus major and minor	Lift the mouth corners and upper lip up and out	Smiling, laughing	Supported cheek smile, O-Shape Pump
Beside the nose	Levator labii superioris	Raises the upper lip	Sneering, disgust; part of the smile	Upper lip stretch, Supported cheek smile
Inside the cheek	Buccinator	Presses the cheek against the teeth	Puffing, blowing, chewing	Cheek puff and roll, Fish face hold
Around the mouth	Orbicularis oris	Closes, purses and pushes the lips forward	Kissing, pursing; lip lines	Pucker and Smile, Lip roll smile
Mouth corners	Risorius	Pulls the corners sideways	A wide, tight grin	Pucker and Smile (smile phase)
Below the mouth corners	Depressor anguli oris	Pulls the corners down and out	Frowning, sadness	Mouth-corner lift
Chin	Mentalis	Raises the chin skin and lower lip	Pouting, doubt; a dimpled chin	Chin soften and glide
Side of the jaw	Masseter	Closes the jaw with force	Biting, chewing, clenching	Jawline Press & Pull, masseter massage
Side of the head	Temporalis	Closes the jaw and pulls it back	Chewing, clenching	Temple circles
Front of the neck	Platysma	Pulls the lower lip and mouth corners down; tenses neck skin	Grimacing; vertical neck bands	Sky Smile, Platysma Stretch

Forehead and brow muscles

Three muscles control your brows, and they pull against each other: the frontalis lifts, while the corrugator and procerus pull down and in.

• Frontalis. A broad, flat muscle across the forehead. It is the only muscle that raises the eyebrows, and the procerus, corrugator supercilii and orbicularis oculi act against it (StatPearls: frontalis). Raising your brows folds the forehead skin into horizontal lines.
• Corrugator supercilii. A small muscle at the inner end of each brow that draws the brows together and down when you frown, concentrate or squint. The vertical “11 lines” sit where that fold happens.
• Procerus. A small muscle over the top of the nose that pulls the skin between the brows down. It works with the corrugator when you frown.

Face yoga here is mostly about release. The Forehead Smooth Down and the frown release in our brow exercises guide help you notice when you frown without meaning to. Our guide to forehead wrinkles explains why sunscreen and skincare matter more for the lines themselves.

The eye muscle: orbicularis oculi

The orbicularis oculi is a ring of muscle around each eye that closes your eyelids. It sits just under the eyelid skin, has parts for gentle blinking and for squeezing the eyes shut, and helps with tear drainage (StatPearls: orbicularis oculi).

Squinting and broad smiles fold the skin at the outer eye corners, where crow’s feet appear alongside the effects of sun and age.

Eye-area face yoga is the gentlest of all. The Temple Lift and Under-Eye Slide are light-touch moves around the bone, and the Wide-Eye Hold in our hooded eyes guide asks you to open your eyes without letting the frontalis take over.

Cheek and mouth muscles

The cheeks and mouth are the busiest part of the face: they handle smiling, speaking, eating and most of the emotions you show.

Muscles that lift

• Zygomaticus major runs from the cheekbone to the mouth corner and pulls it up and out. It is the main smile muscle. Zygomaticus minor, just inside it, helps lift the upper lip.
• Levator labii superioris raises the upper lip, especially when you smile, and shows up in expressions of disgust and disdain (StatPearls: levator labii superioris).

Our exercises for smile lines and face exercises for sagging cheeks use these muscles and explain what really changes the midface with age: mostly fat, bone and skin.

The cheek wall: buccinator

The buccinator is a flat muscle that forms the inner wall of your cheek. It presses the cheek against your back teeth while you chew and helps with speech and swallowing. It’s nicknamed the “trumpeter’s muscle” because it works when you puff out your cheeks (StatPearls: buccinator). The cheek puff and roll and the fish face hold both use it.

Around the lips and mouth corners

• Orbicularis oris surrounds the mouth inside both lips. It closes, purses and pushes the lips forward. It isn’t a simple ring: its fibres run in several directions and other mouth muscles attach into it (StatPearls: orbicularis oris).
• Risorius is a thin strip that pulls the mouth corners straight out to the side.
• Depressor anguli oris runs from the lower jaw up to each mouth corner and draws it down and out, the movement behind a frown. Our guide to face yoga for marionette lines explains its role and uses a mouth-corner lift to work the opposite direction gently.

Chin and jaw muscles

Small expression muscles move the chin; large chewing muscles move the jaw.

• Mentalis. A small chin muscle that raises the chin skin and pushes up the lower lip when you pout. When it’s tense, the chin can look dimpled. The chin soften and glide in our marionette lines guide is a relaxing move here.
• Masseter. A main chewing muscle that runs from the cheekbone to the angle of the jaw (StatPearls: masseter). It does most of the work when you clench.
• Temporalis. A fan-shaped chewing muscle over the temple that helps close the jaw and pull it back.

Face yoga works these strong jaw muscles through release, like the masseter massage and temple circles in our jaw tension relief routine, and our jawline exercises keep the teeth apart for every move. Jaw pain, clicking or locking is a reason to see a dentist or doctor.

Neck muscles: platysma and sternocleidomastoid

Two neck muscles matter most for face yoga.

• Platysma. A thin, sheet-like muscle just under the skin that covers most of the front and sides of the neck and runs up toward the jaw and mouth (StatPearls: platysma). It helps pull the lower lip and mouth corners down and tenses the neck skin, as in a grimace, and its edges are related to the vertical bands some people see on the neck. The Sky Smile and Platysma Stretch in our double chin exercises stretch it gently.
• Sternocleidomastoid. The rope-like muscle on each side of the neck, from behind the ear to the breastbone and collarbone. It turns and tilts your head. Posture moves like the chin tuck in our turkey neck exercises involve it.

How face yoga and massage relate to these muscles

Face yoga exercises engage the expression muscles with holds and stretches, while massage and gua sha work on the skin and soft tissue on top of them.

Exercises ask a muscle to contract or lengthen on purpose, for control and less habitual tension. Massage and gua sha glide over the skin and are more about relaxation and comfort.

The research on face muscle exercises is limited. A 2025 pilot study measured facial muscles with a handheld device after eight weeks of face yoga: tone and stiffness fell in the frontalis, corrugator, orbicularis oculi and orbicularis oris, and rose in the buccinator (Güzel et al., 2025). It had 12 participants, no control group, and measured muscles, not appearance. The best-known appearance study rated fuller upper and lower cheeks in 16 women who completed 20 weeks of facial exercise, also without a control group (Alam et al., 2018). Larger controlled studies are needed; our face yoga research roundup covers every study.

So use anatomy as a guide to form, not a promise of results. For the realistic upside, read about face yoga benefits, and for who should take care, see face yoga side effects.

Which Gluvy plan works which muscles

Gluvy organises its face yoga videos into area plans. Here’s how the muscle groups above map onto them.

Gluvy plan	Main muscles involved
Forehead	Frontalis, corrugator supercilii, procerus
Eyes and brows	Orbicularis oculi, frontalis
Nose	Procerus, levator labii superioris
Cheeks	Zygomaticus major and minor, levator labii superioris, buccinator
Lips	Orbicularis oris, risorius, depressor anguli oris
Chin and jaw	Mentalis, masseter, temporalis, platysma
Neck	Platysma, sternocleidomastoid
Full face	A mix of all of the above

Face muscle exercises: form tips from the anatomy

A few principles follow directly from the map above:

• Light effort for expression muscles. They are small and sit right under the skin. About a third of your maximum effort is plenty.
• Never clench. Keep your teeth slightly apart so the masseter and temporalis stay relaxed.
• Stop at pain. Stop any move that hurts, clicks or makes you dizzy. Check with a doctor, dentist or physiotherapist first if you have jaw joint (TMJ) problems, a neck condition, facial nerve problems, or recent facial surgery, dental work or injectables.

To put the moves together, our 12 face yoga exercises for every area turns this map into a 10-minute workout, and our guide to facial exercises by area goes deeper on each region. If tension is your main concern, start with how to relax your face muscles.

Train each area with a guided plan in Gluvy

If you’d rather follow along than read, Gluvy’s face yoga video workouts guide you through moves for every area on this map, with a countdown timer on every step. The app has 229 guided video exercises across the forehead, eyes, nose, lips and mouth, cheeks, chin and jawline, neck and full face, organised into 3-week plans of about 5–10 minutes a day. For the lower face there’s a dedicated chin and jawline plan, and our complete guide to face yoga covers safety, research and getting started.

Sources

• StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf: Facial Muscles; Mastication Muscles; Frontalis Muscle; Orbicularis Oculi Muscle; Levator Labii Superioris Muscle; Buccinator Muscle; Orbicularis Oris Muscle; Masseter Muscle; Platysma Muscle.
• Güzel, et al. Effect of Intensive Face Yoga on Facial Muscles Tonus, Stiffness, and Elasticity in Middle-Aged Women. Medicina, 2025.
• Alam M, et al. Association of Facial Exercise With the Appearance of Aging. JAMA Dermatology, 2018.