While most people choose to engage in regular workouts for improved health, increased energy, and a more toned physique, daily gym sessions can have certain drawbacks, including leaving you with resting gym face.
In fact, a number of aesthetic experts believe that extreme exercise makes you look older and contributes to premature signs of aging such as sunken cheeks, wrinkles, and skin laxity.
Continue reading to learn what exactly causes “gym face” and how you can rejuvenate your appearance without surgery or giving up your favorite physical activities.
Why Exercise Leaves You With ‘Gym Face’
Extreme workouts can result in fat loss throughout the body as well as the face. This subsequent decrease in facial fat and volume is one of the main reasons why exercise makes you look older, especially for anyone over the age of 35.
What’s more, high-impact exercises, like marathon running, can be particularly aging due the constant up and down motion and force at which skin is pulled from underlying muscles and bones.
As a result, women and men can develop sunken cheeks, deepening folds, and under eye hollows – a look that has been dubbed “gym face.”
Who’s at Risk for ‘Gym Face’?
If you are concerned that exercise makes you look older, you may be wondering who is most vulnerable to premature signs of aging.
Gym face is most commonly observed in individuals between 40-60, who engage in rigorous workouts several times a week and have a low percentage of body fat. Of this group, long-distance runners are at an increased risk due the high-impact nature of the activity.
How to Rejuvenate Skin Without Surgery?
There are a variety of ways that patients can rejuvenate their face without surgery, including Botox injections, dermal fillers, laser resurfacing, and non-invasive skin tightening treatments.
Lifestyle modifications can also help, including:
- Increasing water intake
- Decreasing mileage of runs
- Wearing a broad-spectrum sunscreen and hat during workouts
- Introducing a lower-impact activity like cycling
Learn More About Non-Surgical Anti-Aging Treatments
If you’re concerned that your fitness regimen is making you look older, please call our office today to schedule a comprehensive consultation with board-certified dermatologists and leading injectors Dr. Dale Isaacson and Dr. Marilyn Berzin.