It begins in the
body
Everything within you works together.
tsar views the body as a whole. The way we hold ourselves, move, and respond to life provides insight into our familiar patterns—and into the possibilities that still lie within us.
THE IDEA BEHIND TSAR
Movement does not begin with movement.
Our bodies perform countless tasks every day. They keep us upright, move us, respond to stress, and process our thoughts and feelings.
No muscle works on its own. The body functions as a whole. Some areas stabilize, while others move. Some take on more, while others take on less. When the situation changes, this interaction also changes.
To do this, the body needs tension. Muscles become active to support us, move us, protect us, and transmit force. The key is whether the body can adapt this tension to the situation at hand and then adjust it again.
Adaptability is one of our body's greatest abilities.
It becomes difficult when a temporary solution turns into the default solution. The body then falls back on a familiar pattern of tension even in new situations. Some areas constantly take on a heavy load, while others are barely involved at all. As a result, movement can become more strenuous, even though there is actually enough strength available.
This is not only evident physically. The body, perception, and inner experience influence one another. Chronic tension can also be accompanied by a feeling of inner constriction. A physical change, in turn, can be experienced as greater calm, clarity, or space.
This is exactly where tsar comes in. Through targeted movements, traction, pressure, breathing, positioning, and supportive tools, we alter the conditions under which the body organizes itself. Areas that are constantly overburdened are relieved. Others are engaged more fully. In this way, the body can learn that a task can also be accomplished differently.
It's about freedom of choice.
For us, balance means being able to respond to life’s ever-changing demands: building up tension and releasing it, maintaining stability while remaining flexible, and being active while also recharging.
That is why, at tsar, regeneration and performance go hand in hand. When less energy is tied up in unnecessary tension, more of it becomes available for movement and training, precision, and expression. This involves both changing what is stressful and further developing existing abilities.
THE INVENTOR – SONJA RUPRAH-WEIHS
Change starts with you.
“I’ve never been interested in movement just because it looks beautiful or is performed correctly. I wanted to understand how it comes about—and what the body needs so that it can truly be free.”
Sonja’s journey to tsar began long before tsar even existed. Even as a child in ballet, she was less fascinated by performing than by understanding and refining movement. Later, she added yoga, Pilates, dance, fitness training, and many years of working with a wide variety of people to her repertoire.
Time and again, she found herself faced with the same question: Why does the same exercise come easily to one person, while another shrugs their shoulders, holds their breath, or compensates in some other way?
Step by step, this observation gave rise to a new approach. Sonja began to change the conditions of a movement: providing support, adjusting positions, and facilitating different physical experiences. She was interested in what answers the body itself could find.
After many years of observing, teaching, experimenting, and refining, tsar was finally born. Today, Sonja’s work combines her love of precision with a conviction that has stayed with her to this day:
Movement should arise from within a person.
THE TEAM
Different strengths. A shared direction.
tsar is the result of diverse perspectives and skills. Sonja and Karin work together to develop and represent tsar to the outside world—with support from Christoph and Bernd, who work behind the scenes to make many of these things possible in the first place.
Sonja Ruprah-Weihs
Developer at tsar · Movement researcher
Sonja shapes the professional work at tsar. She develops exercises, programs, and new physical approaches, and works directly with people—through assessments, treatments, coaching sessions, workshops, and training programs.
People's concerns and goals continually give rise to new questions, which she explores in her work. These experiences contribute to the ongoing development of tsar.
Her particular strength lies in her ability to see the bigger picture—and to recognize what a person needs at any given moment to bring about change.
Karin Haberleithner
Strategic Partner · Development & Connections
Karin learned tsar directly from Sonja over many years and now applies this knowledge in her own work with people—in workshops, coaching sessions, bodywork, and various tsar formats.
At the same time, she connects tsar with additional perspectives from the fields of emotion, language, organization, and technology. She structures, analyzes, and interprets complex interrelationships and, together with Sonja, develops new ways to make tsar’s knowledge understandable, applicable, and visible.
Her strength lies where different worlds come together—in people as well as in systems.
The Team Behind the Scenes
For ideas not only to emerge but also to work in everyday life, we need people who support them behind the scenes.
Christoph Weihs
Organization · Technology · Operations
Christoph takes care of many of the things that need to happen behind the scenes: organization, technical and practical tasks, maintenance, and the many little things that ensure ideas are turned into a smoothly running day-to-day operation.
Bernd Fröhler
Customer Service · Accounting & Finance
Bernd is one of the reliable go-to people behind the scenes. He handles customer inquiries, invoices, and bookkeeping, and makes sure that everything runs smoothly, both organizationally and financially.
THREE VALUES OF TSAR
Unity · Truth · Love
Three Sanskrit terms that express an attitude we embrace at tsar: seeing people as a whole, perceiving what is truly there, and facilitating change with respect and appreciation.
Unit
Sanskrit: Ekam
Everything works together.
For us, the body and mind are not separate realms. Posture, breathing, movement, and tension influence our perception and experience—just as thoughts, emotions, experiences, and our environment can influence how we organize ourselves physically.
That is why, at tsar, we don’t just focus on individual muscles or body parts. We view the person as a whole and the interplay between body, mind, and experience.
Truth
Sanskrit: Satya
Perceiving what is really there.
For us, truth begins with taking an honest look and tuning in: What’s happening in my body right now? How do I feel? What comes easily, and what takes a lot of effort? Where does tension arise—physically or internally?
We want to understand what is happening right now—with an open mind, curiosity, and without jumping to conclusions. This also involves questioning our own assumptions and allowing room for observations that we cannot yet explain.
Love
Sanskrit: Prema
Not against you. With you.
People develop ways to cope with stress, experiences, and changes—both physically and emotionally. Some of these strategies help us for a long time, while others eventually no longer meet our current needs.
For us, change begins with mindfulness, respect, and an openness to new possibilities. We don't need to judge ourselves for how we've lived our lives so far.
For us, love means seeing ourselves as people who are constantly changing and capable of growing in new ways.
FROM PRACTICE TO FREEDOM
When skill becomes second nature.
Whether in sports, music, dance, or martial arts: What is initially practiced consciously can, through repetition, become so second nature to the body that it is readily available at the crucial moment.
You no longer have to control every single step. Your attention is freed up—and movement, perception, and action can interact more directly.
Bruce Lee is known for his spontaneous, adaptable movements. In sports, complete immersion in the activity is often experienced as “flow.” Musicians practice individual sequences until they no longer have to think about every move and can devote themselves to expression.
Yoga and meditation explore the interplay between the body, breath, perception, and mind in different ways. In yogic traditions, samadhi describes a deep state of concentration and unity.
What fascinates us about this is the possibility that conscious practice can lead to something that comes naturally: You trust what you've learned and are fully present in what you're doing at that moment.
With tsar, too, the point is that new possibilities become available in life that go beyond the individual exercise. The less attention and energy are tied up in unnecessary attachments, the more space there is for presence, expression, and free action.
Your body can make better use of what it has to offer—and you’ll have more freedom to express it.