Men and women obsess over the most obscure features of their face these days. Getting a dimple-chin, hunter eyes, positive canthal tilt, and clean stubble. Every facial feature is an important part of the final masterpiece. But why aren’t more people talking about the jawline?
There’s more articles, videos and information about bellybuttons than their is about jawlines! How many people even see your bellybutton compared to your face? One for every hundred? One for every thousand?
A chiseled jawline is one of the most attractive traits a man can have. It’s also important for women, but not as much. So why aren’t more people talking about it? Why aren’t there more tutorials and information about how to improve your jawline?
I think I know why. It’s because people don’t think there’s anything you can do about your jawline:
“Sure, you can lose weight- but that’s about it. You can’t change your genetics.”
I get so annoyed when I hear that. Mewing and Orthotropics have shown how much your lifestyle choices affect your facial bone structure and appearance. Having a strong jawline is mainly due to having developed masseter muscles. It’s a muscle, why couldn’t it be grown just like any other? Apparently it’s just because there isn’t a lot of information on how.
Do Those Rubber “Jawline Exercisers” Work?
You’ve probably seen the rise of jawline exercisers over the years. You may have even tried them. In any case, these rubber squash ball type things are popping up all over everybody’s Instagram feeds. It seems there is demand for effective ways to get a better jawline. And some companyies are taking advantage of it by supplying products. Even if they don’t work…
They don’t work in my own personal experience. There are before and after photos floating around the internet that show mixed results. It’s hard to know how legitimate they are because the differences could be due to weight loss (more on that later) or from using an actual effective jawline exercise (also more on that later). I don’t doubt that they give your face a workout… just whether it’s the type of workout that you actually want.
The problem is: it’s not a natural movement. Our jaw structures weren’t designed to bite down with our incisor teeth repeatedly with our mouth wide open- that’s essentially the range of motion these things simulate. It places a lot of stress on the jaw hinge and will ultimately lead to TMJ. Not only that- it doesn’t even train the right muscle!
Chewing with your mouth wide open like that puts more stress on the temporalis muscle, than it does the masseter. The temporalis is higher up on the side of your head, and not particularly “aesthetically pleasing”. You don’t exactly want to build it, because it contributes to a “round face” look.
You want to solely emphasize the masseter. It’s stimulated when your teeth are closer together and you’re chewing and grinding something like tough meat. That’s the motion you want to repeatedly simulate to stress the masseter into growing.
The SAFE Jawline Workout That Actually Works
Believe it or not, chewing gum is a great way to improve your jawline. It’s a natural movement (just like chewing food) and you don’t have to dedicate part of your day to doing it. You can chew gum while you’re working, driving, or training. Apart from actually being effective, it’s a far more convenient way to workout your jaw muscles than any rubber tool.
But obviously chewing gum doesn’t provide much of a workout. You could chew for hours and hardly stress your muscles. It’s like trying to build muscle by running a marathon. You’ve got to add weight and increase the resistance.
You’ve got to chew a harder type of gum. Natural tree resins and saps are the best you’ll find. Mastic chewing gum for example, is 10x harder than regular gum. It’s sugar and calorie free. And it’s 100% natural. It’s literally a sap picked from a tree on the Greek island Chios. It’s had wars fought over it and it was even once more valuable gold- but that’s another story.
10x harder means 10x more resistance for your masseter. It turns the chewing movement from cardio to a powerlift. I’ve seen first hand how effective it can be. And I’ve yet to hear of anyone complain about TMJ or a clicking jaw. It seems to be safe and there hasn’t been a backlash against it from the Orthodontics community like there was with the other jawline exercisers.
If you want to workout your “sexiest” muscle, then chewing mastic gum is a good bet. It’s one I’m taking, and I’ve seen newbie gains even though I’ve been lifting weights for 10 years. That seems to be common because it’s a muscle most people haven’t trained before.
Get Lean & Stay Lean
Just because you’ve built the muscle, doesn’t mean you can see the muscle. You know how much more defined and chiseled your face is when you’re lean.
Chewing mastic gum (or whatever hard gum you like) will build mass in your masseter. The next step is to get lean so that all your hard work is visible. It’s worthless having a strong, muscular jawline if it’s covered in fat and invisible. How you do that is up to you. I don’t have any new innovative tips or concoctions to help. What works for me might not work for you.
All I know is: every time I get lean I get compliments on how defined my face is. Even if you’re not too concerned with improving your jawline- don’t forget that losing weight is the best thing you can do to improve your entire appearance. Period.
Conclusion
Building and sculpting the jawline is still in the experimental phase. It’s not like building other muscles where the path is clear. I think many of the current jaw exercisers will be revealed to be dangerous for the jaw joint in the long run. Perhaps chewing hard gum will be too. But if you want to build your jaw muscles, I’m betting that it’s at least a lot safer than anything else. It’s already proven to be more effective.
BIO
Matt Phelps is an Australian YouTuber and Blogger living in Sweden. He’s done 100’s of experiments on himself in the facial aesthetics space over the last 12 years. He shares his learnings online and promotes the idea that your appearance is determined far more by your lifestyle than your genetics. Read more about Matt’s research over at https://steeljawlinegum.com
