Dear FAZ
Dear Spiegel
Dear BILD
Dear Stern
Dear ZEIT
Dear WELT
Dear Sonntagszeitung
Dear Blick
Dear NZZ
Dear Tagi MAGAZIN
Dear Republik
By Benita Cantieni
I’ve been waiting in vain for so long for a call from your best interviewer (BI for short) that I’ve decided to interview myself here. This way, I can ask myself the interesting, relevant, arrogant, and amusing questions that I’d like to answer. If you do end up changing your mind: Sandra Cantieni, my PR representative, would be happy to set up an appointment with me for you.
Best Male Interviewer, Best Female Interviewer (BI): What exactly is it that you do?
Benita Cantieni (BC): I’m developing an instruction manual for the body that everyone can understand. I’m inventing a new language for what doctors and anatomists have made seem foreign through Latin. I name the bones and muscles according to their function, in a way that every child can understand what is meant and how it works.
BI: Could you be a little more specific?
BC: I make suggestions to the owner of the body. Stand like this—straighten up, lift yourself off the ground. Stop being a root vegetable. Reclaim your upright posture. Move your arm like this, pull your navel in that direction, move your tongue there, and say what you’re feeling.
BI: That sounds very simple.
BC: It is . And it isn’t. Most people are very disconnected from self-awareness, from sensing, from feeling. Only when the body sends signals in the form of pain is it noticed.
BI: Isn’t that just human nature?
BC: Physical well-being, physical lightness, feeling good physically—that is human nature. Any pain is a sign that I have strayed from this path of natural lightness. Initial pain is an alarm, a signal from the body saying, “Don’t do that; it’s not good for me.” If I respond appropriately, the pain disappears immediately. If I continue, the pain intensifies, may disappear briefly, returns, and becomes chronic.
BI: Examples ?
BC: Back pain . I tilt my pelvis because I think that’s the “right” posture. I probably picked that up from my parents. That’s how it was taught to me in school, and I was praised for it in physical therapy. So I happily tilt my pelvis—I don’t even notice the tilt anymore. The small but important transitional joints between the sacrum and the lowest lumbar vertebra rub against each other day in and day out. Eventually, the joint surface gets damaged. Alarm. Pain. I avoid the pain, tilt a little more, shift my pelvis slightly to the right—and the pain is gone. I settle into this compensatory posture; avoiding the pain becomes a habit. After a few weeks, the pain resurfaces in a new place: my right hip joint.
Here’s another example. My left foot hurts when I walk—on the front part, near the transverse arch. I try not to put weight on that spot as much as possible. It works pretty well if I shift my weight more to the right and pull my left knee slightly toward my right leg, so my legs are in an X-shape. This works fine for a few weeks, but then the outside of my left knee starts to hurt, and I have pain on the right side of my lower back.
Another example: My right shoulder hurts …
BI: That’s enough, that’s enough—I know what you mean. So, my right shoulder really does hurt. What should I do?
BC: I notice that you’re resting your right elbow on the table, your hand is pressed against your chin, and your right shoulder is raised up to your right ear …
BI: Habit …
BC: Exactly . With this posture, you’re pushing the head of the upper arm into the acromion. Cartilage is rubbing against cartilage. A nerve is probably pinched as well. Sooner or later, the cartilage will wear out. Bone will rub against bone. The doctor will diagnose osteoarthritis and prescribe medication. And in three years, he’ll implant an artificial shoulder joint. “Routine,” he’ll reassure you, “I do this every day.” The surgery is declared a success. Six months later, the pain returns. Worse than ever. You can no longer move your shoulder and can only keep it still. This time, the doctor diagnoses Sudek’s disease; muscle tissue is dying off, and there’s nothing that can be done…
BI: Wait . That’s a nightmare scenario! That sounds awful! You’re painting a grim picture.
BC: I know a lot of these “wall devils” very well.
On the left, a sad figure seen in profile. Head tilted forward, shoulders hunched, ribs sagging, pelvis floating aimlessly in space. The sacrum and lumbar vertebrae compressed. The body hanging over the feet.
On the right is the ideal position for balancing on the heels. The foot can rest relaxed, and the knee joint is unweighted. The pelvis is upright, with the tailbone fairly straight, its tip positioned behind the heels. Pointing downward, stretching upward. The sacrum is elongated, the lumbar vertebrae are unburdened, the thoracic spine is upright, and the ribcage is positioned above the pelvis. The shoulder joints are ideally aligned, and the cervical spine is extended. The head (foramen magnum) is perfectly aligned above the atlas and axis, with the crown of the head above the perineum. In this model, all structures—front, side, and back—are of equal length: the periosteum, the fascia, the ligaments, the tendons, and the muscles. In that order. Nothing comes at the expense of anything else; nothing is shortened; nothing is overstretched. All structures can interact seamlessly—in our unique chain reactions “starting from the ground up.”
BI: Okay , what do you think I should do?
BC: Sit up straight on your sitting bones, as far forward on the edge of the chair as possible—yes, that’s good. Rest only your hands on the table, letting your elbows hang as if filled with liquid gold. Let go even more on the right side—let go even more. Now rotate your shoulder sockets forward and upward—yes, great—how does that feel?
BI: My shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore. My chest feels wider and more open—it’s amazing.
BC: Now align your feet and knees so they’re parallel; your feet should form a slight V—perfect.
BI: But… wait… that can’t be right… just fill a little bit of your elbow with gold, relax a little, and that’s it—you’re “cured”?
BC: In addition, stretch your spine, align your pelvis and chest, and keep your head up …
BI: Hypnosis . It only works as long as I’m sitting in front of you. It’s just a cheap trick.
BC: You can achieve this posture anytime, anywhere.
BI: What if the pain comes back?
BC: Just stretch it out again, release the head of the humerus from the acromion, align the glenohumeral joints, and rotate the upper arm muscles outward. Again and again and again.
BI: So it’s not rocket science. What’s so special about it, then?
BC: That I can explain to you in simple, easy-to-understand terms what you need to do to move your arm so that it moves smoothly and pain-free.
BI: What is the difference between this and physical therapy?
BC: It depends on the physical therapist. Many physical therapists learn and pass on my method. When I ask why they’re willing to try my “unconventional method,” they reply: Because it works. Many physical therapists have major shoulder problems themselves because they wedge the heads of their humeri against their upper ribs, because they lower their sternum toward their body, because they’ve been taught that the pelvis should tilt …
BI: … as if only you have a monopoly on true knowledge of the body!
BC: I advocate a strictly vertical view of the body. The prevailing view is based on horizontal body axes.
BI: You’ll have to explain that to me.
Sit with your forearms at arm’s length from the desk: knees over your heels. Feet in a V shape, aligned with your sitting bones.
Straighten your spine. Keep your head up.
Place your fingertips on the edge of the tabletop. Relax your wrists, just as Tamara is doing in the photo Let your elbows hang loosely. Release your upper arm bones from the acromion.
J ust let it go.
Relax the upper arm muscles toward the armpits and, starting from the center of the armpit, as if with Unscrew it with an Allen wrench. At the same time, alternate the direction, starting slowly and then picking up speed.
BC: It’s my greatest pleasure. If my feet hurt, I go to the orthopedist, and he examines my feet. If my hip joints hurt, he focuses on the hip joints. Back pain? He looks for clues in the back. My method focuses on the vertical axis and always considers the whole picture: What happens to the foot—the knee, the hip joint, the back—when I align myself, when I arrange and align the bones and joints so that none of them touch, hinder, or damage the others? If this alignment is achieved, problems and pain in the cartilage, bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia disappear almost instantly.
BI: Will the pain stay away?
BC: As long as this new, proper alignment—that is, posture—which corresponds to the body’s natural structure is maintained: yes.
BI: If I lose this attitude again, will everything go back to the way it was?
BC: As long as the axial skeleton isn’t permanently damaged or injured, you can restore proper posture anytime, anywhere. The pain will “disappear” again. You just need to understand the pain as a friendly warning system—then it’s a wonderful thing.
BI: If it’s that simple, why do 65% of people over 50 suffer from more or less chronic back pain? Does this trend increase with age? Just to give one example. Men suffer from a wide range of knee problems and foot deformities; women suffer from shoulder pain and headaches.
BC: That’s because, in our culture, we’re convinced that gravity weighs us down, makes us small, and causes us to shrink as we age. Because everyone believes it, we do too. And just like that, evil, evil gravity takes over and makes us small. So there’s our proof: Old age makes us small and sick.
BI: An unbroken chain of evidence. What’s wrong with that? I’ve already backed down 2 centimeters; I’m sure you have, too.
BC: No , I’ve grown more than 4 centimeters since I turned 45.
BI: That can’t be true!
BC: Yes, that’s true. Everyone grows when they stand up straight again. I had scoliosis, which is why I was able to gain so much height. Back to gravity: It supports us. It is our nurturing medium. We owe our bones and muscles to gravity—to the resistance it offers us. That’s what makes us strong. That’s what enables us to walk upright. Every child grows into gravity, straightening up against it. And as soon as we’ve reached adulthood, having grown to our full height, is the same principle supposed to flip and turn against us? Growing up with gravity—by age 25 at the latest, it’s over—and from then on, it’s our enemy, weighing us down? How illogical! How nonsensical!
BI: That sounds kind of plausible… there might be something to it…
BC: Gravity lives in the mind. No pain, no gain. Success comes to those who work hard. Those who put in the effort will be rewarded. These are the values our culture believes in. In our work, we talk about “light force” and “centrifugal force,” and people immediately feel lighter. And they’re usually startled. The fear of lightness is just as strong as the longing for it.
BI: Some of your descriptions of exercises sound quite unusual. In school gym class, we were told to “tighten your glutes and press your back into the floor.” It’s that simple …
BC ( interrupting): That’s why most people already experience back pain more or less frequently by the time they’re 35 …
BI (also interrupting): With you, I first have to locate your ischial tuberosities, align your feet, align your pelvis, and get your sacrum to flutter. The tongue does somersaults; a butterfly lives behind the belly button. The feet are breathed into diagonally and in three dimensions; the diaphragm becomes a parachute; sunflowers frolic in the ribcage. Who can stand that?
BC (laughs): You did your homework—kudos. I have two comments to make about imagery-rich language. First, we humans think best and most naturally in images. Because images trigger emotions. And these emotions run deeper than mere mechanical instructions like “relax your shoulders,” “let go of your abdominal muscles.” Through these emotions, the posture can become something I can recall—I remember how the sunflowers bloomed behind my ribs and stretched their heads toward the sun, and just like that, I straighten up and slip into that positively remembered posture. Incidentally, that’s the topic of the book *EMBODIMENT*, which I had the privilege of co-authoring with renowned German scientists.
Second, I believe that this very transformation of austere anatomy into vivid visual imagery is my artistic achievement. Every now and then, yoga instructors, tai chi experts, and qigong teachers tell me that they’ve mentioned my work to their masters, and the masters then asked how I knew this—since it’s considered secret knowledge, passed down orally. That makes sense to me. I find perfect tension in Buddha statues. Shaolin monks embody the relaxed tension I’m referring to. In China, I watched people practicing Qi Gong and was moved to tears.
A CANTIENICA® colleague pointed out to me that the truly great and early masters of these physical arts were illiterate, and so could only pass on their work orally …
BI (interrupts): … interesting …
BC ( interrupts): That was also a huge advantage for the master. Back then, the students served their masters—they cooked for them, cleaned for them, and organized their daily lives. I find that appealing, and I’m seriously considering becoming illiterate. All my students demand more from me: even more books, even thicker manuals, even more descriptions. I’ve become, so to speak, a slave to my talent.
BI ( laughs): I can understand that—everyday life can be very mundane at times. What do you like about your work?
BC: Think in new ways . Rethink the old. Approach the matter beyond all assumptions. Let go of preconceptions. Become open—be open to intuition and spontaneous ideas. I enjoy working with people. It’s wonderful to playfully and effortlessly take apart a worldview filled with pain and reassemble it into a worldview without pain. I enjoy training and mentoring students. However, I’ve become increasingly impatient over the years.
BI: Oh , impatience. That socially sanctioned pseudo-weakness!
BC: What do you mean?
BI: In every personality questionnaire, “impatience” appears under “personal weaknesses.”
BC: Not for me—for me, it’s listed under “my strengths.” Without my deeply ingrained impatience, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I’ve created and accomplished. And I love it when people tackle transforming their bodies with impatience. The patient ones are quick to settle for a small success, saying, “I already feel so much lighter.” The impatient ones want it all—and preferably right away. That’s what drives them.
Impatience combined with discipline is unbeatable. I’m 75 now, in the best shape of my life, and I still enjoy working full-time.
BI: How long will it take before I see or feel the first results?
BC: When I work with you, you’ll immediately feel muscles you didn’t even know were there. Within two hours, I can guide you—like a sherpa—on a journey that creates tangible, visible changes: you’ll grow, the pain will disappear, and your figure will transform. What fascinates me is the fact that this journey lasts as long as I want it to. I’ve been working intensively with my body for 30 years now. And it’s as if I’ve figured out how to turn the wheel of time: My body is becoming more and more flexible, lighter, and more beautifully shaped. Unfortunately, the skin and tissues don’t quite keep up with the rejuvenation of the bones and muscles, and so I’m sometimes startled by my reflection—what, is that really me? After all, I feel 30 years younger than I look. The shock passes quickly, though, because I feel better, younger, and stronger than I did at 25.
BI: So what would you recommend for me to get started with your method?
BC: I’ve just updated all the books in the TIGERFEELING series. One book is a good place to start; it explains the CANTIENICA® Vivatomy in words and pictures. Over the past 30 years, working closely with my sister Sandra, we’ve created hundreds of illustrations that give you an idea of what the perfect body looks like.
If you want to transform—or rather, restore—your body as quickly and safely as possible, find a CANTIENICA® specialist and let them guide you. After all, the way my method is taught is also extraordinary.
> Books
BI: You tell me whether I’m doing it right or wrong, and correct me …
BC: Not at all . Each of us is unique by nature. Our individual stories make us even more unique. We respect this uniqueness; we make suggestions that you can accept or reject, and only if it feels right for you—if it feels good and comes easily—then it’s right for you. Because you are the only authority on yourself.
BI: That all sounds well and good, but on the other hand, you claim that your logical vivatomy is indivisible and that all bodies must submit to it.
BC: The body always follows the mind. If you optimize this mental image, you will find your own personal, highly individual, perfect posture. This perfect posture is perceptible and recognizable as a sense of well-being. Through your sense of well-being, you can identify what is good and right for you.
BI: Your books give me a sense of what you mean. They’re motivating and written in a captivating style, and that’s probably what makes them so successful.
BC: And the exercises really work. If you’d rather watch than read, there’s a series of great online courses and a platform with videos on demand. Everything is also available as audio files. There are workshops on specific topics—live, hybrid, and livestream. Nearly all 450CANTIENICA® licensees have also been offering their programs online since 2020. You’ll find links to these offerings at the end of this interview.
BI: You sometimes face hostility as well.
BC: I’m copied quite often. My bestseller *TIGER FEELING* has inspired about 65 imitators. It’s gotten to the point where my publisher, Südwest, has stamped the revised series with“CANTIENICA® – The Original,” much to my delight.
BI: That’s probably true about the copies: Every publisher of self-help books has a few books on the pelvic floor in its catalog. Hostility—how do you deal with it?
BC: There isn’t really that much hostility anymore. On the contrary. More and more doctors and institutions are recommending CANTIENICA® Körper in Evolution. More and more therapists are integrating modern Vivatomy into their work. There are also interesting studies in the works. Only the health insurance companies are still dragging their feet, even though this form of comprehensive prevention has already saved millions and could save billions—on surgeries, therapies, and walking aids.
Right at the very beginning, I was once booed at a conference of physical therapists in Berlin—it was an all-women’s event. It was an organized chorus of boos, even before I had begun my presentation. They shouted that nothing I was saying was new, that they already knew it all, and that my theories were abstruse and dangerous—that I had to be stopped. I looked at the women; they all had terrible postures—stocky and short, with misaligned pelvises and thick necks, tense shoulders, and twisted feet. No, these women didn’t have the same body image as I did. I gave a lecture, fueled by that extra dose of adrenaline. The applause was thunderous; the group of hecklers demonstratively walked out of the hall. I walked off the stage with my head held high, forcing myself from then on to be more diplomatic and to develop a thick skin—because if you dish it out, you have to be able to take it. Meanwhile, the CANTIENICA® method is so well established in German-speaking countries that for every critic, there are a hundred fans. I’m perfectly fine with that.
BI: Are you living your dream?
BC: When I was a child, no one ever asked me about my dreams. I don’t know what I dreamed of. I somehow slipped into this line of work through my own story. I have the sometimes unpleasant tendency to want to see whatever I take on through to success. This success demanded a great, great deal from me. I poured my entire fortune into the company; I worked more than was good for my health; I put my personal life on the back burner. Dreams—if I had any—would look different.
BI: How so?
BC: Work a little , earn a lot. Do research. Travel the world. Write for three hours a day in a beach house in Hawaii. Spend the rest of the day swimming, surfing, snorkeling, and sailing.
BI: What isn’t yet may still happen.
BC: May God hear your words. Thank you for the conversation …
BI ( interrupts): … but that’s actually my line!
BC: … I forced you to do this interview.
BI: It was my pleasure.
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