Karen Fukuhara is dancing up a storm in her two-piece workout gear. In a new social media post The Boys star shows off her flat abs in a summer look, celebrating one of her pals. “Friend’s rave themed Bday ✨🪩🦄 @spirithoods,” she captioned the series of Instagram snaps. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
Karen is experienced in martial arts. “I started karate in middle school when my parents wanted me to babysit my younger brother. He was a little troublemaker, so they wanted me to make sure the class was going okay. I ended up being way more into it than my brother. I did competitions; I’ve flown to Japan to compete in the worldwide championships as well. I ended at a brown striped belt but then went off to college,” she told Vogue.
Karen maintains that when she got cast in Suicide Squad she wasn’t in shape and had to get back into fighting and strength training. “Yes, it had been years; I lost a lot of the right kind of muscles. David really focused on the actors doing their own stunts because he wanted to create reality, and that’s the best way to do it. So we had a month and a half of preproduction [to train]. For me, I did sword fighting, martial arts, and fitness, but all of the training worked together. I would do the right kind of weight lifting so that I could lift the sword—and sword fighting is actually a lot of core,” she told Vogue. According to the Mayo Clinic, strength and weight training help reduce body fat, preserve and increase lean muscle mass, and burn calories more efficiently. Strength training may also help you:
- Develop strong bones
- Manage your weight
- Enhance your quality of life
- Manage chronic conditions
- Sharpen your thinking skills
As for her diet, Karen balances carbs with protein. “Well, I love food and I love carbs: Pasta, rice—that’s my thing. But for the movie, a lot of your physicality comes from not only training but your diet, too. I ate a lot of quinoa, greens, chicken breast. There wasn’t a nutritionist, but we did have meals that were specifically made for us,” she told Vogue.
In her latest post, Karen looks ready to dance. Dancing is a great workout for many reasons. Not only does it build strength and promote flexibility, but helps you lose weight and even promotes cardiovascular function. A 2016 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine determined that people who engaged in moderate-intensity dancing were 46 percent less likely to develop heart disease or die from it than non-dancers. In comparison, moderate-intensity walkers were just 25 percent less likely to suffer heart health issues.
When she isn’t training for a role, Karen still makes sure to exercise. “I try to go to the gym. I either go on the rower or watch a TV show on the treadmill, and then I do some weight lifting. Having a trainer changes your life, it really does. I want to get back into that groove. And I just got back to the same karate dojo that I used to do in high school. Right now, the little kids are doing way better than I am!” she says.