Do You Need to Train Your Face?

If your arms are a little flabby, you do some bicep curls and tricep extensions. When you notice some blubber in your booty, you add in more squats. But if your face starts looking soft and saggy, aside from watching what you eat, is there anything you can do?

The no!no! FaceTrainer is designed to work your face back into shape, combining "facial exercise with resistance training to give your face a natural looking lift." According to the website, facial exercises have long been proven to reduce sagging and wrinkling, and the FDA-approved FaceTrainer takes this to a new level: "Clinical studies have shown that a 10-minute daily routine over 30 days will result in 71 percent reduction in sagging, 42 percent reduction in wrinkles, and a noticeable improvement in skin tone and color."

But does it really work? I put the mask on (and my pride aside) to test it out just so I could answer that question for you.

And, my answer is ... maybe. Sorry.

Here's the deal -- the mask, with its tight fit and rubbery texture, creates a serious amount of resistance, and the exercises definitely work the muscles (you do the workout -- the mask simply provides resistance). You know that feeling of exhaustion in your jaw after a day of smiling for pictures or laughing nonstop? Apply that to your whole face, and that's how I felt after just three minutes of doing the Surprised Puppy Dog move (yes, really). From there, you build up to doing 10 minutes of facial exercises daily wearing the FaceTrainer.

After three weeks of following the program (more or less -- I've been traveling, so I haven't followed it perfectly), my face doesn't get tired nearly as quickly. I'm not noticing a huge difference in how my face looks, but, then again, I don't have a ton of wrinkles or sagging. If I'd started with more issues, maybe it would be a different story.

One thing that made me more than a little nervous was this line from the instruction manual: "Make sure your skin is flat underneath all contact points. Do not allow your skin to bunch up, as this may cause lines to appear." So, basically, do it right or you could end up with more wrinkles. Yikes.

At $199, this is far from a cheap solution, and experts are split as to whether facial exercises are beneficial or not. However, if you're considering a facelift or another pricey and invasive procedure, this might be worth a try. It looks ridiculous, I'm not going to lie. But I do plenty of other exercises that don't look all that sexy, either.

Want to see how to use it for yourself? Find videos on that and some testimonials on the no!no! website.