The Minor Muscles

Underneath the skin of the face lie approximately forty-three muscles, organised in groups, each named in the anatomical literature. They are responsible for every expression, every movement of the jaw, every blink, every articulated word. The major muscles are well-known; the minor muscles do disproportionate work and are correspondingly important to the stewardship of the face. This page names them and gives the simple disciplines for each.

The masseter

The masseter is the principal muscle of chewing. It runs from the zygomatic arch (the cheekbone) down to the angle of the jaw, where it inserts on the mandibular ramus. When well-developed, it gives the lower face the sharp angularity the canon reads as structural completeness; when underdeveloped, the lower face appears soft and the gonial angle indistinct.

The modern diet — high in processed soft foods, low in tough fibrous matter — chronically underloads the masseter. The result is a generation of jaws that have never been required to do what jaws were built for. The simple discipline: chew harder food, deliberately, every day.

The older provenance: the medieval Catholic peasant ate dense rye bread, dried meats, raw vegetables, and hard cheeses for centuries. The modern reader can approximate this with: dense whole-grain bread (sourdough rye, German pumpernickel); raw carrots, celery, and apples eaten as snacks rather than juiced; dried meats (biltong, jerky, prosciutto); hard cheeses (parmesan, aged cheddar); raw nuts and seeds. The masseter requires no special exercise programme if the diet contains what jaws were made for.

If supplementary work is desired: mastic gum (the dried resin of the mastic tree, used in the eastern Mediterranean for thousands of years; available online) is dense enough to give the masseter a real workout. Twenty minutes of mastic chewing, once or twice daily, develops the masseter measurably in 60–90 days. The older Greek and Levantine tradition used mastic for this purpose long before modern aesthetic dentistry rediscovered it.

The temporalis

The temporalis is a broad fan-shaped muscle covering the temple (the side of the head above and in front of the ear). It assists the masseter in closing the jaw and contributes to side-to-side jaw movement. Well-developed temporalis muscles give the temples fullness; underdeveloped temporalis muscles allow the temple to appear hollow.

The same dietary discipline that develops the masseter develops the temporalis. They work as a team.

The buccinator

The buccinator is the deep cheek muscle that compresses the cheek against the teeth, holding food in position for chewing and moving it back toward the molars. It also assists in blowing, sucking, and the production of certain consonants. A well-toned buccinator supports the cheek and contributes to the cheekbone’s visible definition.

The discipline for the buccinator: deliberate articulation. Reading aloud, for ten minutes daily, with attention to the consonants. Latin prayer aloud is particularly good for this — Latin’s consonant density forces the buccinator to work. The Catholic tradition of reading the breviary aloud, or the Rosary, or simple morning prayers in Latin, has incidentally been a buccinator exercise for centuries.

The orbicularis oculi

The orbicularis oculi is the ring-shaped muscle that surrounds each eye and closes the eyelids. It is responsible for blinking, for squinting, and for the “crow’s feet” lines that develop at the outer corner. Well-toned, it gives the eye its bright, alert appearance; weakened, it allows the lower eyelid to slacken and the upper lid to droop.

The discipline for the orbicularis oculi:

1. Deliberate hard blinks. Twenty hard, full blinks (closing the eye completely with mild force), once or twice daily. Trains the muscle to its full range.
2. Reduced screen squinting. Squinting at screens chronically overuses the muscle in its half-closed position. Read at proper screen distance (arm’s length), with appropriate font size; use reading glasses if needed.
3. Cold water on the face on rising. Tightens the orbicularis and lifts the lower eyelid. Old folk-Catholic practice, still effective.

The platysma

The platysma is a broad thin sheet of muscle that runs from the lower jaw down across the front of the neck to the collarbones. It is responsible for the visible “cords” in the neck when the face shows tension or strain, and for the appearance of the jawline-neck junction.

A well-toned platysma defines the jawline and prevents the neck from appearing to merge with the chin. The discipline:

1. The platysma stretch. Tilt the head back, look at the ceiling. Press the tongue against the roof of the mouth. Pull the corners of the mouth down and back, exaggerating a frown. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 3–5 times. Once daily.
2. Posture. The forward-head posture of the chronic screen user shortens the platysma. The corrective: see The Discipline of the Temple on cervical and shoulder posture.

The orbicularis oris and the levator anguli oris

The orbicularis oris surrounds the mouth. The levator anguli oris pulls the corners of the mouth upward, producing the smile. The depressor anguli oris pulls them downward.

The chronic frown — the resting-screen-face the present generation lives in — trains the depressors at the expense of the levators. The corrective is mechanical: several times daily, deliberately, lift the corners of the mouth in a small private smile, hold for a few seconds, release. The face you wear at rest is the face the muscles have been trained to assume. Train them to a different rest.

The frontalis

The frontalis raises the eyebrows and wrinkles the forehead. Chronic worry, chronic squinting, and chronic screen-strain over-train the frontalis. The corrective: conscious relaxation of the forehead several times daily, particularly during screen use. The older Catholic discipline of the brief glance away from work for prayer or rest, three or four times a day, is incidentally a frontalis-relaxation discipline. The older monastic schedule built it in by structure; the modern reader has to build it in by intention.

The tongue, and tongue posture

The tongue is technically not a facial muscle but it has profound influence on facial structure, particularly the mid-face and maxilla. Proper tongue posture — the tongue resting against the roof of the mouth, with the tip just behind the upper front teeth, throughout the day — supports the maxilla from beneath and influences the mid-face development over time. The orthodontic literature (the work of Dr. John Mew and Dr. Mike Mew, the broader field of orofacial myology) treats this as established.

The discipline: at intervals during the day, check the tongue’s position. If it is resting in the floor of the mouth, lift it to the roof. Repeat until it becomes habitual, which typically takes 60–90 days. The older yoga tradition (the khechari mudra) and the Chinese qigong tradition both prescribed the same tongue posture for unrelated reasons; the modern orthodontic literature confirms its effect on facial structure.

The standing discipline, in brief

The reader who applies the following short list, daily, will see measurable change in the muscles named above within 90 days:

1. Tongue to the roof of the mouth, throughout the day.
2. Chew real food — dense, fibrous, requiring work — at every meal.
3. One short session of mastic gum, if desired, for accelerated masseter development.
4. Ten minutes of reading aloud, daily.
5. The platysma stretch, once daily.
6. Twenty hard blinks, once or twice daily.
7. Cold water on the face, on rising.
8. Conscious relaxation of the forehead, periodically.

None of this requires equipment, payment, or surgery. All of it has provenance in older traditions. The face the reader is given at birth is the face the reader stewards in adulthood. The disciplines maintain the temple.

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