I have recently been on a workout [1] research binge, spending hours upon hours looking up routines to get me in the perfect shape — yoga for anxiety [2], cardio for a healthy heart [3], training tips for marathon first-timers [4] — and I have read up on them all, excitedly keeping them in mind for future exercise sessions.

But while looking into new ways to get myself up and moving, I came across a very unique workout at a very special space that I had not yet become familiar with — FaceGym [5], an intense facial sports massage which acts as, you guessed it, a workout for your face.

What It Is

Founded by Inge Theron, FaceGym uses kneading movements and cutting-edge technology to work out 40 "forgotten" muscles in the face. Inge, who spent three years writing for the Financial Times, documented her beauty, fitness, and wellness experiences in a column titled "Chronicles of a Spa Junkie [6]," and it was during this time that she visited 57 spas, took part in 32 types of fitness classes, dabbled with 25 antiaging treatments, and participated in 15 detoxes.

After Inge was left housebound following a face-lifting procedure, she knew that there had to be a better way to go about all of this and used her years of research and study to create an amazing concept of her own: FaceGym, a noninvasive facial workout. From there, Inge took two years studying face massage and muscle stimulation, working with an array of different facialists, experts, and doctors along the way to develop what is now known as FaceGym.

As someone who suffers on and off from frustrating hormonal acne [7] and whose face has more dull days than I can count, FaceGym sounds like a gift from above.

How It Works

"FaceGym is a brand new beauty-meets-fitness concept," Inge told us. "Every FaceGym workout follows the flow of a gym workout, from warmup to cardio, sculpting to cooldown. We combine our signature knuckling to warm up the skin, then go into cardio — a fast-paced face whipping, which gets your face to sweat out and 'detox' from a lifestyle of excess sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and stress. Then we get into sculpting with hand-assisted muscle manipulation, hi-tech tools to lift, sculpt, tone, and tighten the 'Forgotten 40.'"

According to Inge, it's all about flexing your facial muscles. The basic workout focuses on promoting lymphatic drainage, stimulating blood circulation, and producing collagen. Once you graduate to more advanced classes, you'll get access to their specialized tool, the FaceGym Pro, "an electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) device that emits mild electrical waves to really stimulate the muscles and restore your skin's elasticity."

Not All Classes Are the Same

FaceGym's menu currently offers an array of different face workouts, with something for everyone — their "Clean and Lift" [8] uses 4D laser technology to deeply clean congested, dull skin with zero pain and no downtime. "The Hangover" [9] is described as "a Bloody Mary for your face" and uses its signature cardio workout to detox and drain fluid buildup, whereas "The Boss" [10] uses an exfoliator to sculpt, tone, and scrub away stress.

"We believe muscle stimulation is the holy grail," Inge shares, "Hence muscle manipulation, whether that be with unique hand-based protocols or technology, is at the heart of what we do. Day in and day out, we see visible lifts in our customers' complexions from increased facial muscle tone. We all know that to improve muscle tone in our bodies we have to activate them — and the face is no different!"

Where to Go

FaceGym currently has locations [11] in London, but will be coming to the States this Spring. FaceGym will launch with Saks Beauty Bar 2.0 in New York on May 22 and will open its NYC flagship store in Fall 2018. Their NYC flagship will have a unique design from their other spaces and be designed specifically for the New York consumer and their needs.

Want more info? Check out their website [12]!