Dubai : In a quiet corner of Safa Park, eight hardy souls are being put through their paces with moves more commonly seen in the fighting ring.
However, none of the people taking part are going to be competing in the ring nor do they want to be fighters - they only want to get in shape the MMA (mixed martial arts) way.
British Scott Feasey, a 36-year-old, who works in advertising and marketing, was taking part in his first session. He decided to give the sessions a go after enjoying his Christmas and New Year celebrations a little too much.
Back into shape
He said: "Like most other people, I overindulged during the Christmas break and I needed something to get back into shape again. This course is very good. The trouble with the gym is that it gets boring very quickly. But with MMA, you are constantly being challenged in new and different ways and that makes it fun. I've seen the fitness levels of the people who take part in the MMA and it is pretty amazing."
Neha Jamani, 25, an Indian expat, who works in logistics, also takes part in weekly fitness boot camps and is aiming to run the Dubai half-marathon in February.
She said: "I used to go to the gym a lot, but after a while running on a treadmill became a chore.
"But these sessions are a lot of fun and you do lots of different exercises for the whole body. It's intense but it's more about building up fitness than being super fit to begin with. I'm definitely going to recommend this to other people and I'll probably drag a few of my friends with me the next time."
The sessions are the idea of Corey Oliver, an Australian expat who set up the Original Fitness Co, which has branches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The MMA course is one of several his company runs in the UAE that also include ‘kick fitness' based on kick-boxing and ‘punch fitness' which follows boxing principles.
MMA craze
He said: "We decided to do something with MMA following the huge popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship [a US-based MMA event]. It's designed for people of all fitness levels and it's aimed at being fun. This is not about training people to become MMA fighters, it's about getting to the fitness levels of MMA fighters."
The four-week course runs every Monday and Wednesday from 7.30pm at Safa Park.
The first session tests what level of fitness people are at and then the following weeks aim to improve on that. Each session lasts 40 minutes, which is split into eight five-minute "rounds", with 10 minutes of warm-ups and warm-downs.
The rounds separately focus on upper and lower body, a combination and core exercises.
Zaid Gerber, the MMA course instructor, said: "The beauty of this course is that it is great for conditioning because of all the cardio work we do."
The sessions run every month and cost Dh600. People wanting to take part can join at any time.
