Today I would like to write about two massage techniques, which could help you to slow down occurrence of signs of aging- a Kobido massage and Zoga Face Integration. Firstly I would like to shortly write what actually happens when we age? Most of the people think, that aging is related to loss of collagen and elastin in the skin. Although, it is true, one has to understand, that there are much more reasons why our skin looks less elastic when we are older. The fact is, that the main reason for occurrence of wrinkles is loss of structural proteins in the skin. In fact, after 25 year of life we loose 1% of collagen each year. UV light, air pollution and bad life style lead to over accumulation of reactive forms of oxygen (so called free radicals), which are responsible for destruction of skin cell and proteins involved in keeping skin in a good shape. UV light stimulates metalloproteinases– enzymes involved in collagen and elastin degradation. Another reason for appearance of wrinkles is slowing down of cellular metabolism- cells divide slower and produce less of hyaluronic acid and structural proteins. Many people think as well, that gravity is a main reason for occurrence of wrinkles. However, there are many other, much more important reasons why our face age. A very important factor to mention is nourishing of the skin. All skin blood vessels are placed in dermis and subcutis. All of the nutrients have to be ”delivered” to upper parts of the skin (epidermis), as they lack any of the capillaries. Nourishing of the skin can be easily disturbed by facial muscles. Most of the time tension of our muscles is indeed involved in occurrence of wrinkles.

People which are familiar with anatomy of human body can easily notice, that the wrinkles appear perpendicularly to the direction of the muscles. Amazing example could be wrinkles of the upper and bottom lip. Muscle which we can find in this area (musculus orbicularis oris) is situated around the mouth (in line with our lips). How do the wrinkles there look like? Of course they are always occurring as a short lines having their beginning under the nose and reaching upper part of the lip. Tensions of the muscles lead to problems with blood and lymph fluctuation and this can be a severe problem leading to premature aging. Musculus orbicularis oculi (it closes the eyelids)- another muscle involved in occurrence of mimic wrinkles shortens with the age. Its tension gets disturbed, what stimulates appearance of wrinkles in eye area as well. As the last example I would like to write about 2 muscles: musculus risorius, which retracts the angle of the mouth during smiling and involved in smiling musculus zygmaticus. These two muscles due to shortening with a time are strongly involved in occurrence of facial wrinkles. When we get older changes our facial proportion, what has strong impact on appearance of wrinkles on our face as well.

A very good way to slow down aging is massage. It has relaxing properties (it can be combined with aromatherapy). During massage our body produce less stress hormone (cortysol), what has very positive influence on our skin. It improves blood circulation and nourishing of the skin. Skin gets more oxygen, lymph is easier removed what means that all metabolic waste will be easier removed from the tissues. Massage is great as a preparation for different cosmetic treatments as well.

Although we can perform different types of massage on the face, today I would like to focus only on two of them with very strong anti-aging properties- Zoga Face Integration and Kobido massage. First one comes from Poland and is amazing tool to prepare face for Kobido. It is a deep massage of the face muscles and fasciae, which result in deep muscle relaxation. What are fasciae? These are a sheets of connective tissue, which we can find under the skin and around all muscles, muscle fibres and internal organs. Their function is protection and stabilisation of these structures. With this massage type we can reduce occurrence of wrinkles, improve face oval and face symmetry.

Kobido is a very trendy Japanese massage. It is often called ”lifting without scalpel” and combined with right anti-aging cosmetics, it can give us amazing results. Kobido comes from XV-th century, when two best massage masters in japan were asked to compete for japanese emperor to develop the best massage technique. Since nobody could really decide which master was better, they simply started to cooperate and developed Kobido- today’s most popular anti-aging massage in Japan. In Kobiodo we start with very slow, gentle and relaxing moves and slowly move to very fast and strong grips with a very strong lifting effect. Massage is very intense and complex. It involves many complex manual techniques. It acts deep in the skin and strongly influences muscles. Although it is a very strong massage, it doesn’t cause pain. It is a combination of different massage techniques like acupressure and lymph drainage. First part of Kobido is relaxation. After relaxation part, Kobido masseur moves to the neck, what leads to better blood circulation in face area, skin is better nourished and prepared to next steps of massage. Then he performs lymph drainage. After lymph drainage, which is meant to remove access of lymph in the tissues we can start with typical Kobido lifting moves (pinching, kneading and pulling of the skin) and finishes with acupressure.

_{These are results after one Kobido massage. You can see less fine lines and decreased depth of most wrinkles.}

What can we achieve with Kobido?

– elimination of muscle tension and at the same time removal of mimic wrinkles
– better tension of the skin (lifting effect)
– stimulation of cellular metabolism
– faster regeneration of the skin
– deep face muscle massage and younger appearance of the face skin
– stress elimination
– face muscle relaxation can even lead to elimination of bruxism (teeth grinding) due to relaxation of masseter muscle (Musculus masseter).

Contaraindications:

– too short period of time after needle mesotherapy (one has to wait at least 1 week after the treatment)
– too short period of time after Botox treatment (2 weeks break before doing Kobido)
– after some other aesthetic medicine treatments one has to wait up to 6 months before doing Kobido
– viral and bacterial infections
– skin inflammation
– high blood pressure
– rosacea and very sensitive skin types
– injuries
– cancer

A.