Twenty women stand behind waist-high drums, sticks poised. As Michelle Unrau yells out instructions, they strike their drums en masse, beating out an energizing rhythm. Gradually Unrau ups the pace, and then adds side-steps, V-steps around the drum, squats, twists, and leg-tucks between beats. Patterns change, the tempo increases, and arms rise to the sky and pound down. By the end of the hour, everyone's sweating and laughing.

If the secret to a satisfying fitness class is that you're having so much fun you forget you're working out, then TaikoFit is bang on. Created by Unrau, who is Fit-City for Women's director for group exercise, Taiko-Fit combines the principles of Japanese drumming with aerobic movements. "Traditional taiko is not an exercise program; it's an art form," Unrau explains to the class at FitCity's Hemlock Street location. But anyone who has seen a taiko performance knows that drummers must have serious physical strength and stamina to pound out music on the huge drums.

Unrau was inspired to create the class after a friend from Victoria's Uminari Taiko ensemble introduced her to the form in 2002. After taking a series of taiko workshops, she got the idea to turn it into a fitness class, something new to keep people interested in working out. Kids also love it, and it gets them moving.

She now offers her nine-hour training program free to qualified fitness professionals, as well as to schoolteachers and music therapists who want to help others get fit. She also shows how to make inexpensive drums for the class.

And quiet ones. "We had to do a bit of work so that you would get the feel of the program without going deaf," Unrau admits, laughing. To begin with, she ordered one made from a wooden cylinder with a faux-leather surface; when hit with a wooden dowel, it makes a satisfying but muted "whap". However, half of the students in the FitCity class use the same dowels with "drums" fashioned from a step bench topped with a fitness ball held in place by two inverted step risers. Unrau also makes gomibako ("garbage can") drums by cutting off the bottom of a plastic garbage bin and fashioning a drumming surface out of duct tape. It yields a very Stomp-like urban band.

TaikoFit's benefits? According to Unrau, it's a full-body workout, challenging legs, arms (especially triceps), wrists, shoulders, and upper back. She works the core as well, having participants lie on their backs and beat the drum between their knees. The cardio portion gets the heart pumping, and can be adapted to a low- or high-impact workout. The mind-body coordination that is required challenges the neuromuscular system–but only to the extent you can handle. "The nice thing about TaikoFit is that if you get lost on the legs, you can still do the drumming," Unrau says. And then there's stress relief: banging on a drum releases untold frustration.

Besides, it's just plain fun.

FitCity's Vancouver location offers TaikoFit classes the third Sunday of the month, and community centres in Richmond and Coquitlam offer ongoing sessions. For more info, see www.bodybeyond.ca.