Five minutes a day, no expensive equipment and visible results in just a few weeks. Born in Japan, this exercise, without sweat or pain, has conquered the whole world.
Social networks have adopted it as an almost mystical ritual: a five-minute exercise supposed to transform the silhouette, straighten the back and ease tension. A Japanese practice which is based on a concrete anatomical principle: the link between the alignment of the pelvis, breathing and the distribution of body weight. The creator of this method, Doctor Tokushi Fukutsudzi, is a specialist in reflexology. He spent more than a decade studying how small postural corrections could improve physical health.
Initially, his goal was not to invent a new fitness challenge, but to understand why so many people suffered from lower back pain, muscle fatigue and abdominal sagging. According to him, these imbalances did not necessarily come from a lack of exercise, but often from chronic poor posture. By looking at the structure of the pelvis and the role of the deep muscles, he concluded that a simple repositioning of the body could correct many disorders, provided it was repeated daily. This is where his famous method was born, which has now become viral.
What Tokushi Fukutsudzi offers is not to lose weight visibly nor to sculpt a magazine body. It’s putting the body back in its place. Literally. He explains that when the pelvis tilts forward or backward, the entire posture becomes unbalanced: the abdominals relax, the back hollows, breathing becomes shorter and the center of gravity shifts. This misalignment ultimately leads to an accumulation of tensions and often, this famous “little buoy” which resists all regimes. The exercise he recommends then makes it possible to realign this base of the body, restart abdominal breathing and restore tone to the center.
Contrary to what one might imagine, it is neither sheathing nor complex ventral breathing. All you need is a towel. Yes, a simple bath towel rolled into a cylinder. You must then lie down on the ground, preferably on a firm surface, and place the towel at back level. The legs are straight, the feet together so that the big toes touch. The arms stretch above the head, palms facing the ground, little fingers in contact. By maintaining this posture for five minutes, without moving, breathing slowly, gravity acts for you. The towel supports the back, the rib cage opens, the abdominals readjust.
After a few sessions, the body remembers this alignment, the silhouette is more slender and breathing more fluid, the winning recipe for a flatter stomach. Inspiring!
