Hip gyrations; crawling across the floor; pole dancing: It's not necessarily the workout you'd expect a 53-year-old grandmother to be doing — or teaching.

But that's only if you don't know Ilana Fernandez.

Fernandez teaches Fit For a Goddess, a workout that incorporates sensual dancing — and the use of a dancer's pole — with stretching and strength-building moves.

This style of dancing, made popular by Carmen Electra's "Aerobic Striptease" workout DVD in 2003, is the latest fitness craze to hit the Islands.

The workout is based on moves more commonly associated with strip clubs than health clubs. But, as Fernandez will quickly point out, it's still a total-body workout, one that she credits for getting her into the best shape of her life.

"Oh, you feel it," said Fernandez, who's been dancing — although not with a pole — since age 4. "The first time you do it, you get home and you feel all those muscles that connect to your spine ... I'm definitely using my body in ways I've never used it before."

Growing up in Southern California, Fernandez took up every kind of dance form, from ballet to tap, from jazz to hula. But dancing was more of a hobby than a potential profession.

Instead, Fernandez pursued acting. From 1956 to 1970, she appeared in episodes of "My Three Sons" and "Leave It to Beaver." She also had a role in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and starred as Burt Lancaster's daughter in "Airport."

But by the time she turned 17, Fernandez was disillusioned by Hollywood. "I didn't buy into the whole scene," she said, "and at 17 I had to make a decision whether this was really the life I wanted."

The summer before her first year in college, in 1970, Fernandez took a two-week vacation to Hawai'i.

"I went home and was, like, 'What the heck am I doing here? I hate this place,' " Fernandez said, laughing. "It took me just 12 days to get everything I owned, including my car, sent to Hawai'i."

Fernandez enrolled at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, where she earned a degree in nutrition.

Just before graduation, however, Fernandez was hit by a car while riding her 10-speed bike on Kona Street near Ala Moana.

At first it didn't seem like she had anything to worry about. She had no broken bones or suffered a concussion. But after she was released from the hospital, she started to feel unbearable pain.

She was suffering from fibromyalgia, a common condition characterized by widespread pain in joints, muscles, tendons and other soft tissues. An estimated 3 million to 6 million Americans suffer from this condition, also known as fibromyositis.

"I couldn't hold a pencil without wrapping it in a tea towel," Fernandez said. "And I had such terrible muscle spasms, I had to wear a neck brace."

This went on for nearly a year. The once-active Fernandez could barely perform daily tasks without pain.

"It took almost a year before I could move my body again," she said.

When she regained her ability to exercise without disabling pain, Fernandez decided to become a professional Polynesian dancer.

"I was given the gift of being able to move again," Fernandez said, "and I was going to move it."

As a dancer, Fernandez met her husband, to whom she was married for 21 years before divorcing in 1996. The couple raised nine kids together — two of theirs and seven from his previous marriage.

At that time fitness went on the back burner as Fernandez tried to balance her role as mother with her ambition to pursue a career in psychology.

While working toward a doctorate in clinical psychology at Argosy University, Fernandez put on 50 pounds.

"I just couldn't do it all," Fernandez said. "I felt terrible."

So she decided to turn things around.

Fernandez put herself on a strict regime: small meals, walking during her lunch breaks, gym workouts in the evening, salads for dinner. Within a year — and just in time for her graduation — she had lost the extra weight.

Divorced and armed with a doctorate degree, Fernandez still felt a void, one she figured needed to be filled by a man.

That is, until she started learning — and then teaching — sensual dance eight months ago.

"What got me through that phase was the movement," she said. "I felt like a sexy, healthy person, but I had no place to actualize that. The movement really did that for me. I went from feeling pretty depressed to having a relationship with myself and filling that void.

"It's not like I needed a man for that," she added.