It’s all about the energy

Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has developed a fitness program that helps keep him grounded in a busy film schedule

An actor can't be 56 years old and continue to execute his own martial arts fight scenes without staying fit, centered and injury-free.

30-minute workouts From Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Water: Go into neck-deep water (Tagawa prefers the ocean) with paddles on your hands and bodyboarding fins on your feet. The basic position is treading water/running in place, and moving the arms in a figure-eight motion, like a bee flapping its wings. The movement works every muscle in the body and will increase flexibility and aerobic capacity. "Polynesians knew water was life," he said. So what better way to gain physical awareness and challenge the muscles? Sand: Walk through soft sand, shuffling your feet, carrying a 1-gallon milk bottle refilled with water in each hand. Unlike static bulk, the water weight shifts, forcing your body to adjust, stretching the ligaments in the feet and legs and strengthening the core. Tagawa cautions that it's easy to overdo this exercise, which defeats the purpose. His philosophy is "no pain, all gain," critical to promoting positive energy in the body. In all workouts: The most important aspect, he cautions, is deep, controlled breathing, something we often forget to monitor.

Despite a grueling schedule that included plenty of international travel to shoot five movies last year, part-time Hawaii resident Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has managed to stay strong and motivated no matter where he is. But he confessed he likes nothing better than exercising in Hawaii's natural environment with minimal accessories.

It's all about energy and how you channel it, Tagawa said. Staying grounded in every way has helped him navigate Hollywood, "one of the most chaotic places."

Best known for his roles in "Memoirs of a Geisha," "The Last Emperor" and "Pearl Harbor," Tagawa has created a system that includes unusual workouts with little structure. It also focuses on increasing awareness about how you stand, sit and walk.

Tagawa starts by wearing geta, the ancient wooden Japanese slip-on shoes that "basically look like sushi plates," he said. "The feet are everything," and these "allow your feet to rock. How you use your feet determines the delivery of chi. So that's why stance is so important."

When people ask how they can stay fit when they sit at the computer all day, he answers, "there's a way to sit." In other words, every body position matters. As though balancing on a ball, people should sit with straight backs and firm abs, and breathe properly throughout the day -- even at a desk.

His program is called Chuu-Shin. It's the Japanese pronunciation of Chinese characters, and it means "to be centered in the heart and mind." At its core are principles of martial arts, but essentially, it's a cross-training system that involves coordinated motion, unlike lifting weights, for instance, which Tagawa considers antiquated.

Contrary to the programs we usually follow at the gym or in exercise classes, this is energy-oriented and athlete-driven. Two examples of his workouts (see box) take about 30 minutes each. He doesn't believe it's necessary to spend hours working out, especially when you pay attention to exercising your core while sitting and standing the rest of the day.

"Everything in my system has been developed to make the athlete aware of his body," he said. "I've always worked to develop a body to have to train less."

TAKING CARE of his body -- and its energy -- is critical to his longevity and success. On the verge of what he calls the second half of his career, Tagawa is now creating projects "instead of waiting for the phone to ring," he said. "It's like being let out of prison."

One of those movies, "By the Will of Genghis Khan," has taken a winter break from shooting in Siberia. Of the films he completed last year, one or two diverged from his typical bad-guy-dies-at-the-end-role. "Julianna and the Medicine Fish" with Rob Schneider is based on the eponymous children's book. It was Tagawa's first children's film since the made-for-TV Disney movie "Johnny Tsunami" in 1999. He also begins shooting the sequel to "Johnny Tsunami" in New Zealand on Jan. 20. In an effort to remain sensitive to the victims of the tsunami in Indonesia, the studio has renamed it "Surf and Turf," Tagawa said.

Other films he shot last year included "Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter" and "Balls of Fury" with Christopher Walken, set for release early this year. He also produced and starred in "Duel of Legends," an independent martial arts movie in which he choreographed and performed his own fight scenes.

"I haven't lost any of it," he said. "I'm going to come back and show a whole side of fighting that's never been seen before." This includes playing the hero -- finally.

Though Tagawa is pure Japanese and fluent in his native language, his ties to Hawaii run deep. Reared in Los Angeles and Texas by a father who was raised in Hawaii, Tagawa had what he called an "old school local upbringing, and part of that is humility."

While humility is generally considered an asset, Tagawa said it left him with "very little self-concept" as a youngster, which he had to discover as he aged. Martial arts and general fitness helped him accomplish that.

Now busier than ever and content in his work, the father of three tries to incorporate his fitness not just into daily workouts, but also into an awareness about how he moves and holds his body when he's not exercising. The result is an overall sense of strength and well-being.