How Often Should You Do Face Yoga, and for How Long?

How often should you do face yoga? For most people, a gentle 5 to 10 minute routine on most days of the week is the most practical schedule, because consistency matters more than length. The research used heavier programs, such as 30 minutes a day for 8 weeks followed by alternate days, but those show what was tested, not a dose you need. Below is what the studies actually did, a realistic weekly plan, the best time of day, and how to make it stick.

The short answer

Short, regular sessions beat long, occasional ones. Here’s the schedule in a nutshell:

• How long per session: 5 to 10 minutes. Five minutes is enough to learn the moves; ten lets you add a focus area.
• How many days a week: most days, roughly five to seven, with a lighter day whenever your face or jaw feels tired.
• How many weeks: think in months, not days. Commit to a few weeks to build the habit, then keep going if you enjoy it.

These are practical suggestions, not a proven dose. No study has compared different face yoga schedules head to head, so nobody can tell you the “right” number of minutes. What we can tell you is what researchers asked participants to do, and what most people can realistically keep up.

What the research protocols used

The two best-known face yoga studies used daily or near-daily practice, and both were small. It helps to know what they tested, because you’ll often see their numbers repeated online as if they were instructions.

The 2018 JAMA Dermatology study

Researchers at Northwestern University ran a small pilot study of facial exercise (Alam et al., 2018):

• Who: 27 women aged 40 to 65 enrolled; 16 completed the program.
• Schedule: 30 minutes of facial exercises every day for 8 weeks, then every other day from week 9 to week 20.
• What was measured: dermatologists rated standardised photos. They saw improved upper and lower cheek fullness, and the average estimated age fell from about 50.8 to 48.1 years.

There was no control group, and many participants dropped out, so larger controlled studies are needed. Notice also how heavy the protocol was: about 28 hours of exercise in the first 8 weeks alone.

The 2025 Medicina study

A newer pre-experimental study looked at facial muscles rather than appearance (Medicina, 2025). Twelve middle-aged women practised face yoga for 8 weeks: two days a week with a supervisor and five days a week at home. A handheld device measured muscle tone, stiffness and elasticity before and after. It was also small, had no control group and measured muscles, not how faces looked.

What this means for your schedule

Both programs asked for practice on most or all days, which supports the idea that regularity matters. Neither tested a short routine, and neither compared schedules, so you can’t conclude that 30 minutes is necessary or that 5 minutes is enough. For a fuller look at the evidence, read our review of whether face yoga works.

A realistic weekly face yoga routine

Start small, build gradually, and keep one or two lighter days each week. The table below is a suggested face yoga routine at three levels. Move up only when the current level feels easy and you’ve kept it for a couple of weeks.

Level	Days per week	Minutes per session	What to do
Beginner	5–7	5	One full-face routine, forehead to neck, with a mirror for form
Consistent	5–6	8–10	The full-face routine plus one focus area, such as the jaw or forehead
Maintenance	4–7	5–10	Your favourite moves, with a longer session when you have time

A few ways to shape your week:

• Plan lighter days. One or two days a week, swap the full routine for 2 to 3 minutes of slow forehead strokes, a neck circle and some calm breathing. This keeps the habit alive without tiring your jaw.
• Combine with gua sha on some days. If you use a gua sha stone, two or three of your weekly sessions can be gua sha instead of, or after, face yoga. Our gua sha routine covers the order and pressure, and face yoga vs gua sha explains how the two differ.
• Don’t double up to catch up. If you miss a day, just pick up the next day. A long make-up session is more likely to leave your jaw sore than to help.
• Rest when something hurts. Soreness in the jaw, neck or skin is a sign to ease off, not push through.

If you want a ready-made structure, our free 21-day face yoga challenge lays out every day, with an easy day each week. For the moves themselves, start with the 5-minute face yoga routine for beginners, then branch out with our face yoga exercises for every area.

The best time of day for face yoga

The best time of day is the one you’ll keep. Morning and evening each have their own advantages, and some people do a short session at both.

• Morning: a quick, energising routine fits well after you wash your face. Gentle massage strokes may help your face look a little less puffy for a while after waking, which is why many people pair them with a morning routine. Our guide on how to debloat your face has more on that.
• Evening: a slower routine works well as part of winding down. Moves that relax the forehead and jaw can be a calm way to notice tension you’ve carried through the day. If you clench, our jaw tension relief guide has slow moves that suit the evening.
• Any time: a 2-minute mini routine at your desk or before a video call counts too. Fixed times just make it easier to remember.

Whatever you choose, use clean hands, a little oil or moisturiser for gliding moves, and light pressure.

How long before you notice anything

There is no reliable timeline for face yoga, and anyone promising one is guessing. The 2018 study assessed women after 20 weeks of a far heavier program than most people follow, and even then it measured modest changes in a small group.

What you’re more likely to notice early on is how your face feels: a looser forehead, a jaw that sits more relaxed, or simply knowing the moves by heart. Visible changes, if any, are hard to judge day to day, because sleep, salt, hormones and lighting change your face more than any routine.

To track progress fairly:

• Take photos every 2 to 3 weeks with the same light, angle, time of day and neutral expression.
• Keep a short note of how your face, jaw and neck feel, alongside your sleep and anything new in your skincare.
• Compare specific things, like how your brows rest or how your jaw sits, rather than looking for an overall change.

Our guide to face yoga before and after photos explains the full photo setup.

Making face yoga a habit

A habit forms through repetition in the same context, so tie face yoga to something you already do every day. In a study of 96 volunteers who repeated a new daily behaviour, the time it took to feel automatic ranged from 18 to 254 days, and missing a single day didn’t materially set people back (Lally et al., 2010). In other words, expect it to take a while, and don’t worry about the odd missed day.

Practical ways to make it stick:

1. Anchor it. Do your routine straight after something automatic: brushing your teeth, putting on moisturiser, or your first coffee.
2. Keep the bar low. On busy days, two minutes still counts. The habit matters more than the length of any one session.
3. Set a reminder. A daily reminder at your chosen time helps until the routine runs on its own.
4. Track your streak. A simple tick on a calendar or a journal note is surprisingly motivating, and it shows you how consistent you really are.
5. Make it pleasant. Use a comfortable spot, a little facial oil and slow breathing, so it feels like a break rather than a chore.

Some people find it easier to follow a video than to remember moves from a list. If you’re weighing that up, our comparison of free YouTube face yoga vs an app covers the trade-offs.

Keep a steady schedule with Gluvy

If you want the schedule worked out for you, Gluvy’s face yoga video workouts follow the pattern on this page: 3-week plans of about 5 to 10 minutes a day, built from more than 200 guided video exercises, with a timer on every step so you don’t have to count. You can set up morning and night routines and reminders, and the progress journal keeps your notes and selfies in one place for those every-few-weeks photo checks.

Gluvy is an iPhone app and free to download; see pricing for what Gluvy Pro adds. For everything else about the practice, including safety and the research, read our complete guide to face yoga. When you’re ready, download Gluvy and set your first reminder.

Sources

• Alam M, et al. Association of Facial Exercise With the Appearance of Aging. JAMA Dermatology, 2018.
• Effect of Intensive Face Yoga on Facial Muscles Tonus, Stiffness, and Elasticity in Middle-Aged Women: A Pre-Experimental Clinical Trial. Medicina, 2025.
• Lally P, van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 2010.