How Poor Posture Causes Skin Sagging & Wrinkles, According To This Pro + What To Do About It

When it comes to signs of facial aging—wrinkles, sagging, sallowness—we often consider the major culprits: unprotected sun exposure, smoking, poor sleep, lack of skin care routine. Certainly, that's all true and not to be overlooked when it comes to habits that might affect your skin. But according to facial rejuvenation expert and licensed massage therapist Krista Buccari, poor posture (and its residual tension) contribute a great deal to facial aging. 

"Like 80% of all facial issues that I see [in my practice] all step from neck posture and tension," she says in this week's Clean Beauty School. "Basically what we think of as tech neck—upward shoulders, forward head posture—it creates a locked jaw and tightens the front of the throat. This creates a lot of tension and will pull and drag skin down in the face." 

The first step to relieving tension from bad posture is to simply acknowledge that it's happening. Once you're more aware of how you're holding your body, you can ease the areas in which stress is accumulating. 

She explains that this may mean being more mindful of how you hold your phone (at eye level, she advises) or reworking your desk setup to something more ergonomic. But as we all know: Life happens and none of us are perfect at how we position our bodies during work, I type as I'm hunched over my laptop and sitting on my sofa. 

So it's not about holding perfect posture throughout the day but rather having exercises to check the tension in your body throughout the day. One go-to for Buccari is so easy, no tools required, totally free, and can be done at any point throughout the day. 

"Make an L-shape with your arm and place it behind a doorway, then allow your body to move through the doorway slightly—so you feel that expansion across your chest muscle," she says. "This is so important because it helps correct that forward rolling that happens in the shoulders throughout the day. When your shoulders are forward, it crunches the back of your neck—or what we call the 'gate of vitality.' Keeping this open is so important." 

The point is to make this as easy as possible to remember throughout the day: "It doesn't have to be anything fancy. It doesn't need to be a practice that feels overwhelming to you," she says.