Tone your body with just five minutes of exercise a day? Sounds utopian, but it should work with the Japanese fitness trend “Zero Training”. That’s behind it.
Tighten the body, lose fat and strengthen the muscles – the so-called “zero training” aims to do all this in just five minutes a day. The fitness trend that originated in Japan is said to help you lose weight with minimal effort.
The Japanese fitness trainer Tomomi Ishimura is considered the developer of the method and describes in her book “The Zero Training Method” that the training aims to tone the body and fight muscle pain, among other things, by bringing the body back to its “zero position”. According to Ishimura, it is primarily because of poor posture that our bodies sag and accumulate fat as we age.
The workout methods focus on five key parts of the body that don’t always get enough attention: the neck, shoulders, back, waist, and feet. For the exercises you lie on your back on the floor, for example on a yoga mat.
Ideally, you bring your body into a slightly upright position with pillows and place your arms at your sides – this is the neutral position of our body. Much attention is paid to breathing during the exercises, similar to yoga or Pilates. Tomomi Ishimura explains the various exercises in detail on her Instagram account.
Tomomi Ishimura claims that with the “Zero Training” method it is possible to lose weight and lose up to three centimeters from the waist. Whether this method really ensures that you break down fat and lose weight has not been scientifically proven.
Nevertheless, we can benefit from regularly bringing our bodies into the neutral zero position. Good posture reduces back pain and other ailments. Light stretching and muscle exercises also help to be more mindful and thus ensure a better body feeling.