The 40+ Muscles in Your Face, Why They Need Training and How EMS Helps
Medically reviewed by
4 independent reviewers
Andrew Conrad Barile, PT, DPT
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) | Licensed Physical Therapist (PT) | CEO and Founder, Xtreem Pulse LLC
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Dr. Andrew Conrad Barile is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the CEO and Founder of Xtreem Pulse LLC, the engineering company behind PureLift. He earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Daemen College and is a licensed physical therapist.
He brings over two decades of clinical and entrepreneurial experience across physical therapy, craniosacral therapy and medical device innovation, built on a working knowledge of human anatomy and muscle physiology.
For PureLift LAB he reviews how current is delivered across all ten levels, from sub-sensory nanocurrent and skin-level microcurrent to motor-level EMS, and how the Infuse pass fits into the same ten-minute routine.
Bertica M. Rubio, M.D.
Board-Certified Physician, Dartmouth Medical School | Medical Director, Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic
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Dr. Bertica M. Rubio is a board-certified physician and Medical Director of the Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic in Redlands, California. She earned her Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School and completed her pediatrics residency at UC Irvine Medical Center.
With decades of clinical experience, she specialises in age management medicine, regenerative medicine, wound healing and growth factor therapies, and her practice integrates evidence-based medical science with advanced aesthetic treatment.
For PureLift LAB she reviews articles for medical accuracy across the whole dial, from the gentle nanocurrent and microcurrent settings through to muscle-level EMS and the Infuse pass.
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS
Board-Certified Otolaryngologist | Head and Neck Surgeon | Fellow, American College of Surgeons | Mount Sinai
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Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS is a board-certified otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at ENT and Allergy Associates in West Nyack, New York. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He completed his otolaryngology residency at New York University Medical Center, serves as Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and is a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
For PureLift LAB he brings a wider clinical lens, connecting at-home facial stimulation from microcurrent to EMS to the anatomy underneath, with the same rigour we apply to every device specification.
Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann
Chair of Angiology, Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg | Clinic Director, University Clinic for Angiology
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Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann is Chair of Angiology at the Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane and Clinic Director of the University Clinic for Angiology at the Brandenburg University Hospital.
He trained at the University of Hamburg, was a Max Planck Society Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, and held senior consultant posts at the Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin before his appointment as Chair in 2016.
One of Europe's leading authorities on arteriogenesis, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications and US and EU patents, he reviews for PureLift LAB how the evidence on electrical stimulation is read and where its limits lie.
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Your face carries more than forty muscles, and almost nobody trains any of them.
This guide maps the muscles that actually shape how your face looks, such as:
- Frontalis, the forehead muscle that holds brow position
- Zygomaticus major, the cheek elevator with the most research behind it
- Orbicularis oculi and oris, the rings around the eyes and mouth
- Platysma, the broad sheet running from jaw to collarbone
- Masseter and buccinator, the working muscles of the jaw and cheek
and many more!
It also sets out what the randomised evidence on facial EMS shows, and just as importantly, what it does not.
Key Points:
Most facial muscles attach bone to skin rather than bone to bone, which is why their condition shows on the surface.
Kavanagh 2012 randomised 108 women over 12 weeks and reported increased zygomaticus major thickness after facial NMES.
That is one muscle, one protocol, one trial, and it is still the strongest facial evidence anyone has.
Facial ageing is muscle, fat pads, bone, ligament and skin together, so muscle work addresses one contributor and not the whole picture.
All five PureLift models run nanocurrent, microcurrent, EMS and Infuse, with a maximum of three minutes per side.
Why facial muscles are built differently
Your face contains over forty distinct muscles, with some anatomical sources counting as many as forty-three, split between the muscles of expression and the muscles of mastication.
Most muscles elsewhere in the body run from one bone to another, so when they contract, a joint moves and the skin above simply comes along for the ride.
The majority of facial muscles instead run from bone into skin, which is why a contraction moves the surface directly and why every expression you make is visible rather than internal.
That same anatomy is why the condition of these muscles shows, when they change, the surface changes with them.
The muscles worth knowing by name
Frontalis is the broad sheet across the forehead that raises the eyebrows and creates horizontal forehead lines, and brow position depends heavily on it.
Zygomaticus major runs from the cheekbone to the corner of the mouth and lifts the cheek when you smile, and it is the muscle Kavanagh measured, which makes it the best-documented target on the face.
Orbicularis oculi encircles the eye and closes the lid, while orbicularis oris encircles the mouth and purses the lips, and both are ring-shaped rather than strap-shaped.
Platysma is the thin, wide sheet running from the jawline down across the front of the neck to the collarbone, and its behaviour is closely tied to how the jawline and upper neck read.
Masseter powers chewing and sits at the angle of the jaw, buccinator forms the muscular wall of the cheek, and levator labii superioris lifts the upper lip.
What actually changes with age
It is tempting to blame the visible changes entirely on muscle, and that would be a much simpler story than the true one.
Facial fat is arranged in distinct compartments that lose volume and shift downward at different rates, so the midface can hollow while the lower face fills.
The underlying bone remodels too, orbital openings widen and the jaw angle changes, which alters the scaffolding everything above it sits on.
Skin loses collagen and elastin and the retaining ligaments loosen, and muscle changes sit alongside all of that rather than driving it single-handedly.
Understanding the full list matters, because a device that works on muscle is addressing one contributor honestly, whereas a device sold as reversing facial ageing is promising something no muscle work can deliver.
What the EMS evidence supports
Kavanagh and colleagues ran a randomised controlled trial of facial neuromuscular electrical stimulation in 108 women across 12 weeks, and under that protocol reported a mean increase in zygomaticus major muscle thickness (10.1111/jocd.12007).
That is a measured structural endpoint on a facial muscle from repeated electrical stimulation, which is genuinely more than most home beauty devices can point to.
The limits are equally clear, one muscle was measured, no PureLift device was used, no PDM waveform was tested, and no promise about a jawline or a wrinkle was made or supported.
Twelve weeks is also the timeframe that produced the result, so anyone expecting a structural change from three sessions is measuring against the wrong clock.
Why electrical stimulation reaches muscle when creams cannot
A topical product works on the skin, which is the correct place for a topical product to work, and it has no route to the muscle layer beneath.
Electrical stimulation crosses that gap because current passes through tissue, and once the motor threshold is reached the nerve fires and the muscle contracts whether or not you asked it to.
Below that threshold no contraction happens, which is the honest dividing line between microcurrent devices and EMS devices, and it is why output figures on a spec sheet actually matter.
Where PureLift sits
All five PureLift models run four current types from one probe, nanocurrent at level one, microcurrent at level two, EMS from level three upward, and Infuse for electroporation-assisted serum delivery.
Maximum output rises across the range, 7 mA on Face and Pro, 7.7 mA on Pro Edition, and 9 mA on Pro Plus and GLOW, which buys headroom rather than a different mechanism.
The waveform architecture, PDM, varies frequency across 361 points between 1,370 and 1,730 Hz, changing frequency only and leaving amplitude and pulse duration untouched.
Every model is built in Japan in facilities operating to ISO 13485 and carries FDA 510(k) Class II clearance.
How to actually train
Three minutes per side is the maximum on every model, roughly ten minutes for a full session once Infuse is included, and that ceiling is not a target to build up to.
Work at the lowest intensity that produces a clear, comfortable contraction, because the trial evidence came from modest protocols repeated consistently rather than from anyone pushing to the top of the dial.
Use a water-based conductive medium, keep the probe moving, and judge progress across weeks rather than mornings.
Forty muscles is a lot of anatomy to have been ignoring, and giving them regular, sensible stimulation is a reasonable thing to do, provided you know exactly which part of the ageing picture you are addressing.