FIREFIGHTER SABRINA COHEN TOUGH AT THE TOP BY JOHN PLUMMER TIRED OF SELF-DEFENCE CLASSES THAT DON’T WORK? PERHAPS YOU NEED SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE HARDCORE… The explosion in popularity of mixed martial arts over the last decade is great news for people who are serious about fitness as well as fighting. ° The sport, which fuses the best bits of traditional combat sports such as kick-boxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling into one total fighting system, has revolutionised martial arts. Hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide watch spectacular fights between the best of the best at events like Pride, the UFC and K-1. But, at the other end of the spectrum, equally vast numbers of people, many of them women, are trying the sport for the first time. FEMALES ARE PARTICULARLY WELL SUITED TO MIXED MARTIAL ARTS because the emphasis is on technique rather than brute force. And, unlike those six-week self-defence courses and dodgy fighting styles that bear little relation to what happens on the street, this one actually works. Firefighter Sabrina Cohen, 22, is proof. A petite 5’-1” tall and 54 kg in weight, she could hardly look less like a bruiser, but the skills she has learned have got her out of trouble on more than one occasion. Now she hopes they will catapult her to the top of the British fighting scene. “This is by far the most effective martial art I have done,” says Cohen, who did traditional martial arts for nine years before switching to mixed in 2004. “You get a real feel for what it’s like to be in a fight plus it gets you really fit. It’s ideal for women.” Cohen is hardcore. She has trained in the United States with the legendary Gracie family, strength trains with a pro bodybuilder and earlier this year fought 101 consecutive rounds against men to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Relief. She is now turning professional after winning eight amateur fights out of eight since her transition to mixed martial arts. Her long-term goal is to become the first British woman to fight in Japan, home to the world’s toughest female fighters and events such as Smack Girl. But women don’t have to aspire to such heights to benefit from the sport. In fact they don’t even have to get into the ring. What cross training fighters do is enough to sculpt a great physique. “A couple of girls come to the gym I train at purely for the fitness benefits and they are in great shape,” says Cohen, who is sponsored by Vydex Nutrition. “They get a great workout from the classes.” As the name implies, mixed martial arts combines stand-up fighting skills used by boxers and kick-boxers and ground fighting skills, such as learning to apply chokes and locks used by wrestlers and jiu-jitsu experts. Besides practising five times a week Cohen also does twice-daily cardio sessions usually skipping and circuit training, to build her stamina. Her 101-round charity fundraiser, which lasted five-and-a-half hours, shows she isn’t short of energy. She decided to do it in memory of her father who died of cancer. “Every round was two minutes long and I had one minute rest in-between,” she says. “When I took my clothes off the next day I looked like a Ribena berry. I was black and blue.” On top of her skills and endurance work Cohen lifts weights twice a week under the supervision of IFBB pro bodybuilder Alex Georgijev. Cohen wants to look lean and muscular, but has to be careful not to overdo it because she has to carry all the extra weight around with her in the ring, therefore she trains primarily for strength rather than mass. “Weight training is important but you have to be careful not to put on too much muscle that it affects your performance,” she says. “It’s a fine balance.” Her stats suggest she is achieving it pretty well: she can bench press 60 kg at a body weight of 54 kg for 15 reps. She trains every muscle once a week using medium weights, working in the 12 to 15 rep range for three sets per exercise. Her first session works chest, upper back and shoulders and the second targets legs, lower back and arms. For chest she does bench presses and incline bench press, using a barbell each time, then cable crossovers. After that it’s on to shoulders, which involve seated machine presses followed by a movement that combines both front and side lateral raises. “I used to do front and side raises separately but this seems to work better,” she says. For back she does seated pulley rows and lateral pulldowns. Leg sessions begin with seated leg presses. Cohen has a strong lower body that can push up to 200 kg. Then it’s on to leg extensions and hamstring curls before she works her calves with standing and seated raises. She does good mornings for lower back before moving on to arm exercises, which consist of barbell and cable curls for biceps, with pressdowns and overhead dumbbell extensions for triceps. Strong abdominal muscles are essential for fighters so she trains them with exercises such as hanging leg raises and hanging side twists after both weight sessions. The result is a tight and toned physique that looks as impressive in a skirt as it does in fighting gear. When she isn’t choking out guys at Cardiff Mixed Martial Arts Club, the biggest mixed martial arts club in Wales, she’s knocking them out around town with her toned physique. “People are surprised when they find out that I’m a fighter,” she says. “But I get the same reaction when I tell them I’m a firefighter. People have an idea of what firefighters and fighters should look like and I’m not it.” She looks so unthreatening that some men just don’t know what they are messing with. “Once when I was out two men tried to push me into a toilet,” she says. “I laid one out and the other one started saying ‘we don’t want any trouble’. Another guy once tried to put a camera up my skirt to take a picture so I floored him.” Such incidents prove how effective her training is, but Cohen is quick to point out that whenever possible the best way to avoid conflict is to walk away. “I know most guys are a lot bigger than me and could knock me flying with one punch,” she says. “The best recommendation I would give to a woman in a difficult situation is to give a swift knee to the nuts then run away.” Self-defence and fitness are great by-products but Cohen’s real dream is to make it to the top of her sport. “I’ll never give up firefighting because I love it, but I really want to fight professionally alongside it,” she says. M&F