About Sabrina Mistry

I started my fitness journey in 2007. This was a time where I was young but very unfit and overweight having not really exercised before.  In fact, I’d always struggled with my weight and had never found exercise enjoyable at school.  

However, one day at the age of 18, I realised that I needed to really take my health seriously in order to reduce the risk of future long term issues.

And so, I joined a gym.

It was very hard for me at first – mentally and physically.  Feeling like the biggest in the room made me very self conscious along with already struggling to do the exercises.  However, I was very grateful to meet a friendly gym instructor, Pete, who gave me gentle encouragement. 

In the following few years, I started to find some routine for working out where I’d mix gym sessions with fitness classes, but I still had very limited understanding about how to optimise my workouts and struggled increasingly with plateaus as a result.  

During 2012, I was beginning to get bored of the gym routine.  I wanted more variety to fitness and more depth to my journey.  And so knowing that consistency was the key to becoming a fitter and healthier person, I began to look for ways to sustain my motivation so that I could achieve my fitness goals.

And that’s when I discovered the traditional Korean martial art: Soo Bahk Do in the World Moo Duk Kwan organisation.

Very quickly, I realised that martial arts training could be used to see fitness progress in a more exciting way than increasing reps, sets and duration at the gym.  The progression with the belt system also gave structure for advancement.

Another benefit with martial arts training was the mindset development.  I found that the soft skills of focus, discipline and perseverance were enhanced, together with developing a new form of confidence in myself.

It was with this confidence and increased curiosity that I began to fuse fitness and martial arts in different ways to improve my training  performance and how I handled things in life.  The result was that my fitness levels began to accelerate and I started to achieve a greater sense of wellness.  

And so, I not only achieved my 4st weight loss transformation, but also obtained my black belt.  In 2021, I became a certified Personal Trainer to support others on their fitness journey, whilst continuing to explore how martial arts and fitness can be used to improve our overall health.

After all, without our health, what can we do?