If anyone is going to get guys off the couch and whip them into shape, it's Kiana Tom. Plenty of aspiring starlets try to raise our pulses on TV workout shows, but Kiana's Flex Appeal has surfed the fitness wave and become the highest-rated show on ESPN2. "I created Kiana's Flex Appeal for people who want to be in shape for life," she says. "Everybody can watch the show and incorporate a part of it into their lives to make themselves healthier and stronger." The energetic, sweat-inducing program, which debuted in 1995, just wrapped its final season on location at Orlando's Walt Disney World. "I'm developing a new series for the Fox Sports Network in which I work out with professional athletes and celebrities so viewers can learn their exercise routines," she says. Kiana is a dominating force in the fitness world, so will she discipline her guests if they do something wrong? "Just a light spanking -- if they're cute," she says, laughing.
She tells us Kiana means "island princess" or "calm water" in Hawaiian, and more than 250 couples have joined the Kiana Baby Club by naming their daughters after her. The Maui native gets her athletic skills from her mother, a physical education teacher, and her acting ability from her father, Layne Tom Jr. "My dad starred in many Charlie Chan movies and inspired me to get into acting," she says. Kiana has made guest appearances on The Drew Carey Show and Family Law, and starred in films such as Cyber Bandits and Universal Soldier: The Return, opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme and wrestler Bill Goldberg. "Bill seems about seven feet tall and seven feet wide," she says. "I weigh 110 pounds, and in one scene I had to jump on his back, kick the gun out of his hand and ride him down the stairs like a sled." Kiana is also committed to working on the other side of the camera. "I have written a couple of scripts and would love to produce and direct a movie -- then enter it in a film festival."
Here is a woman who has sculpted her body into a sinewy work of art, so we asked her to teach us how to get a taut stomach like hers. "There are three simple things to remember: Increase your abdominal exercises to strengthen the muscles in the midsection, increase your cardiovascular activity so you shed excess body fat and can see your new abs, and consume fewer calories than you expend," she says. So she doesn't deprive the body beautiful, Kiana forgoes fad diets and uses the "cheat-day method." "Six days a week I eat extremely well -- clean proteins that include grilled fish, chicken and egg whites, along with complex carbs, steamed veggies and lots of water. On the seventh day I can have whatever I want, like pizza or chocolate cake." If you want Kiana's advice on your workout, visit her website, kiana.com, and email her a question.
Kiana was recently married in Maui and lives in California with her husband, Dennis, and their two dogs, Flex and Crunch. "Once I met Dennis, I dropped the other guys I was dating fast!" she confesses. To unwind, Kiana enjoys playing the piano, painting and writing poetry. "Being on camera requires you to be up all the time, so I play the piano or write because it's quiet and peaceful." Here is an excerpt from her poem Sunset: "You are my constant, yet you are never the same/ You are exciting and vibrant like a palette of watercolors, wet, blending together into one/ Looking at you makes me feel warm, like the soothing caress of the calm ocean over my body on a white powdery beach on a hot summer afternoon/ You always make me smile/ Home is where you are/ Sunset." Poetry clearly does the body good.
To see Kiana's exclusive pictorial, buy the May 2002 issue of Playboy magazine.
