Looking for an enjoyable way to get back into shape after gaining a few pounds over the festive season? Well, look no further than kabuki — or learning a few moves basic to this traditional Japanese theatrical form, to be precise.
Though it's now becoming increasingly popular, a kabuki-themed workout was in fact developed in 2008 by the well-known sports-medicine expert Kagemoto Yuasa, who that year published "Kabuki Narikiri Taiso" ("Look-Like-a-Kabuki-Actor Exercise"), with illustrations featuring Nakamura Hashigo, a 32-year-old whose career in kabuki spans more than 10 years.
As the book and the workouts are both based on the simple but intriguing concept that practising moves from the 500-year-old performing art helps to enhance health by improving posture and training the body's inner, core muscles, one look at the scales was enough to get this writer to give it a try.