Do Jawline Exercises Work? 4 Experts give their opinions

There’s been a lot of buzz about jawline exercises. From chewing on mastic gum to using a jawline exerciser like Jawzrsize, advocates claim that consistently working out your face muscles produces measurable benefits. But what do the medical professionals say: Do jawline exercises work?

Frankly, because jawline exercises are so new, there’s been ample discussion on them but few scholarly studies. However, face workouts have been studied repeatedly, and the results have been relatively conclusive: there are tangible benefits to facial exercises.

We’ve already written a comprehensive piece on the medical opinion behind facial exercises. You can read that article here, where we discuss experts’ opinions and scholarly studies on the effects of facial exercises. For example, one such clinical study conducted at Northwestern found that face exercises make one, on average, look three years younger.

This article, however, is about the medical opinion surrounding jawline exercises specifically: what do medical experts say about jawline exercises? Do they actually work?

So Do Jawline Exercises Work?

What the Experts Say: Do jawline exercises work?

Facial and jawline exercises are often treated as the same because they usually work out similar muscle groups. Jawline exercises, however, specifically focus on the lower half of your face and neck. They prevent sagging jowls by strengthening and slimming your jaw.

Dr. Charles Archer, a medical practitioner with his own private practice in New Orleans, recently endorsed the Jawzrsize Jaw Exerciser as producing tangible benefits. He has used it himself and recommends it to patients: “In just a few months, my double chain was more or less gone,” he said in his review of the product.

Dr. Julie Russak, a board-certified dermatologist based in New York City, has said that having sagging jowls or a double-chin is frustrating among her clients who have lost considerable weight. “Skin elasticity loss and skin looseness are what give the appearance of fat below the chin,” she writes. “Tightening the skin is really the answer to a more defined jawline,” which is why “jawline exercises work.”

The craze over jaw exercises even received enough attention from professional trainers and medical practitioners that Face Love Fitness opened in 2015. The pop-up fitness boutique in downtown Manhattan was reported on by CNN. Rachel Lang, a certified esthetician, massage therapist Heidi Frederick and personal trainer Kate Gyllenhaal co-founded the practice together and are major advocates of the jawline exercise method. Many others have followed in their footsteps and opened their own fitness centers for the face and jawline.

Another advocate, Valeria Georgescu, creator of FACE (Facial Activation Conscious Engagement), simply told Slate magazine when asked about scientific research:

“Try it for a month, five minutes a day, and that’s your research.”

That’s because the results are noticeable even after a few weeks.

There are plenty of studies done on face exercises, however. Therefore, we compiled all the clinical studies we could find in our article: The Evidence: Do Face Exercises Really Work?

When Is Jawline Exercising “Too Much?”

However, like any other workout, overdoing the workout for your jaw can lead to some issues. For example, an overly worked-out face can cause sagging, similar to how overdoing your chest workouts can lead to sagging muscles that look unseemly under a shirt.

One way to not overdo jaw exercises is to chew instead mastic gum which is the most-rounded technique. Kathryn Midgley, a certified medical practitioner at Clarity Medical Aesthetics in Pennsylvania, explains:

“Facial exercises are effective in building your masseter muscle (the large muscle just in front of your ear at the jawline). This will allow your jaw to become wider and appear slightly more angular. The best way to exercise your masseter muscle is to clench and chew.”

The Medical Consensus

Be careful, though. If you do facial exercises that rely on exaggerated expressions, you can actually give yourself face wrinkles! Excessive and exaggerated facial movements can cause the skin to crease and wrinkle. Likewise, overworking your jaw muscles can, in some extreme cases, even cause TMJ and jaw pain. So, do this all in moderation: overdoing face workouts won’t give you results quicker. In fact, you could end up injuring yourself.

You want to be working out your masseter muscles, but don’t overdo it: this is a bit easier with jawline exercises for men. You may want a square jaw. However, women should be more hesitant and perhaps focus on more comprehensive face and neck exercises to avoid overly square, masculine jawlines.

The medical consensus is still pending for jawline exercises, though. It’s a completely new option for those that want a more defined jawline without surgery. And, of course, those doctors who prefer traditional methods using botox are still wary of jawline exercises because there is still much scholarly work to be done on them.

Jawline exercises intuitively make sense, but it all depends on how strong you want your jaw muscles to be. The result of jaw workouts could be a drastic change, so be monitor your physical appearance closely. Our recommendation is to read our comprehensive guide on the subject to get started.

What are your experiences with jawline exercises? Has it been effective in bettering your profile and appearance? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.