THE NEXT FITNESS-ACTION HERO? : BLANKS FILLS IN WITH POPULAR NEW WORKOUT.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

The windows in Billy Blanks' gym are foggy from the heat of 75 bodies jammed in for his morning class.

At the fore, there is no pert instructor in spandex. Only Blanks, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound karate black belt with a shaved head, gray sweats and no-nonsense demeanor.

Blanks, 41, seven-time World Karate Champion and action-movie actor, is in demand these days. Not only are his classes packed with the fit and even famous - Sinbad, Shaquille O'Neal, Sugar Ray Leonard and Paula Abdul are among his regulars - Blanks is traveling the country to teach tae bo aerobics, his hard-edged fitness regimen that combines hip-hop music, kick boxing and dance moves for one knockout workout.

For the next hour, the class grunts and grimaces, ripping uppercuts and roundhouse kicks until they're dripping with sweat and groping for their water bottles.

``The reason I started tae bo was to get more women involved in martial arts and self-defense,'' Blanks said. ``I want people to learn to become their own bodyguard - meaning nutrition, self-awareness, discipline and self-confidence.''

Outside the gym, Blanks' publicist and manager are talking on cell phones, and a middle-age man is waiting for a personal training session. Soon a camera crew will arrive to interview Blanks for a pay-per-view martial arts special. After that, he'll teach a youth karate class.

``I don't blow it out of proportion,'' Blanks said. ``Kids tell me I'm their idol. I tell them, `I'm only a man who likes to work hard. Discipline is what it's all about.' ''

Growing up poor, the fifth of 16 siblings in Erie, Pa., Blanks said he learned early on that success wasn't going to come easy for him.

He was dyslexic, and teachers mistook his difficulty reading for being ``slow.''

His brothers were the neighborhood's football and basketball stars, but a hip defect and paralyzing shyness kept Blanks from even going out for a team.

When he was 12, the dangers of the neighborhood pushed him to try martial arts.

``I saw people getting stabbed and shot,'' Blanks said. ``Most guys were boxing, but I didn't need to know how to punch someone in the nose. I was getting in fights just running home from school. I used to get beat up every day. I knew, to survive, I was going to have to be disciplined.''

Even so, the complicated kicking and punching progressions confused him so much that his first instructor nearly gave up on him.

``He said that I couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time,'' Blanks said. ``He go so frustrated with me because I couldn't follow his movements. He said, `You want to learn karate? Go in the corner and practice.' So I did, for six months.''

To increase flexibility and body control, he studied ballet and danced in local productions, including ``The Nutcracker.'' By 1975, Blanks had won his first World Karate Championship, a title he held until 1991. He was captain of the U.S. National Karate Team the first year karate was to be in the Olympics as an exhibition sport; but that was 1980, the year the United States boycotted the Games.

Blanks came to Los Angeles in 1990, when Catherine Bach - Daisy Duke on the

1980s television show ``The Dukes of Hazzard'' - hired him as her bodyguard.

In his garage in a rented house in Reseda, Blanks started experimenting with kicking and punching moves for an aerobic workout that he used with his children and clients.

The following year, he sunk his savings into Billy Blanks' World Training Center in Sherman Oaks. Gradually the clientele grew as Blanks won converts from people bored by step aerobics.

``Step aerobics was just up and down, up and down,'' said Tamara Bane, 36, of Los Angeles. ``There was no sense of having to use your mind or learn a technique. This is so much more stimulating, mentally and physically.''

Matt Beebe, 14, is one of Blanks' most dedicated tae kwon do students. Beebe has been paralyzed from the waist down since he was in a car accident at the age of 4 months. Last month, he earned his blue belt, an intermediate karate designation.

``I used to not feel as much confidence. I know I can do anything because of Billy,'' Matt said. ``Not only can my parents trust me if I'm out alone, but I can trust myself.''

Blanks, who has appeared in more than a dozen of action movies, has plans to continue his movie career and maybe become ``the black Arnold Schwarzenegger.'' He also appears on an exercise show, ``Crunch,'' on ESPN.

Some of Blanks' large family has moved from Erie to help out with the business. Blanks' sister Irene, 30, and brother Michael, 24, are both karate black belts and trainers at the gym. So are his daughter, Shellie, 22, and son, Billy Jr., 19. His wife, Gayle, who Blanks met in a karate dojo when they were teen-agers, handles the business side.

Because of his dyslexia, his wife also reads movie scripts aloud until he memorizes the lines.

A year ago, he and his family moved into a posh neighborhood in West Hills.

``We built a million-dollar home, 41,000 square feet, from the ground up,'' Blanks said. ``I thank God for it every day,'' Blanks said. ``I ask my wife, `Can you believe this is our house?' I don't ever want to take it for granted.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Turbo tae bo

Billy Blanks takes hybrid sport from his garage to TV screen

(2) Karate champion Billy Blanks, 41, leads a class in tae bo aerobics, a fitness regimen combining hip-hop music, kick boxing and dance moves. Classes at his Sherman Oaks studio draw an array of celebrities.

(3) `Kids tell me I'm their idol. I tell them, ``I'm only a man who likes to work hard. Discipline is what it's all about.'' '

Billy Blanks

Seven-time World Karate Champion

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News