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Introduction to retraining

When multiple muscles pull at the same time in different directions they eliminate movement or create unwanted movement. This series will help you

Don’t think of these as exercises, they are too gentle to be called that. Think of them as coordinated movement patterns.

Relaxing the affected side

  • On the synkinetic side, more muscles are activating on movements than on the unaffected side. You need to learn to relax the affected side.
  • Relaxing the affected side will not make it drop.
  • Touching muscles can help dampen down movement in the wrong areas as they help your brain tune in to better relax those areas.
  • Looking in the mirror is less effective than just concentrating on what you can feel moving as the mirror makes you focus on the moving skin not the muscle itself.

Quality over quantity

  • You will find you lose concentration quite quickly so it can be best to do just a couple of minutes at a time whenever you can.
  • Increasing muscle strength in the face does not improve movement in fact it can worsen movement – gentle, graceful precision is the focus.
  • The face makes small, subtle movements so this is what should be practiced.
  • Practice has to be slow so the brain has time to learn.
  • Attention to detail is important – a 1% change in movement can completely change an expression.
  • You must release your muscles regularly as a stiff tight face cannot move smoothly and effortlessly.

Learning facial muscles again

  • Your brain needs to learn the address of each facial muscle again.
  • The only way to improve movement is to learn what not to move and focus the brain on turning off these unhelpful muscles. We need to teach the brain to keep the unhelpful muscles quiet.
  • The accuracy needed for good facial movement requires you to think carefully about which muscle you should be using for a movement and make sure that unwanted muscles are less involved.

Synkinesis retraining exercises are complex and ideally should be done under the supervision of an experienced facial therapist. Not all exercises are suitable for all patients and if you do not have synkinesis you should not be doing the exercises in these videos.