The old-school Thai

Do a search for 'Muay Thai' and you'll come to the conclusion that it's not so much a good way to get fit, as a good way to get dead. Muay Thai is the brutal sibling of kickboxing; but with elbows, knees and kicks to the limbs permitted - nay, encouraged.

Its signature look is facial lacerations, a punch-drunk stagger and cracked ribs. Its official guardian, the Royal Thai Army. It's inelegant and lethal. So why is it sweeping the gyms of Scotland and suddenly class du jour for London ladies?

Muay Thai, it would seem, has been civilised. It's dropped some of the combat, added more cardio, upped the aerobic training and relabelled attack skills as self-defence.

Years ago, Shelley Safari was mugged by an assailant coming home from work. Her defence was to curl up into a ball and hope they'd go away. They didn't. Today - a Muay Thai blackbelt and wife of former European Champion Karim Safari - she shows me how her response might differ. In a heartbeat she's broken my grasp with a headbutt, dropped down to deliver a scissor-twist punch to my ribs, pinioned my arm behind my back, sent me kneejuddering to the floor and is primed to throttle me. Muay Thai doesn't play nice.

Self-defence doesn't require strength - Muay Thai is about ingraining the techniques for disarming someone twice your size and strength using deft moves and confidence - but strength will be an unavoidable side-effect. Classes start with skipping drills - the jumping of playground days replaced with the intermittent high kicks and double jumps of pro-boxing warm-ups - keeping you on your toes, agile and darting while driving your cardio rate skyhigh. Next Muay Thai takes you through a shadowplay of requisite punches and kicks, adding gloves and punchbags for a punishing combat circuit.

The most noticeable departure from kickboxing is intimacy to your attacker. In kickboxing you might be jabbing or kicking from a safe limbs-length, in Muay Thai it's an intimate clinch - pulling him by his shoulders whilst kneeing the groin, pushing him away to better line him up for a shin slam. It's fun, functional and you will get fit.

But civilise something, remove the combat and up the cardio, and inevitably you loose some of the colour. Even if, in this case, that's a corpuscle, claretblood red.

We trained at The Chelsea Club, 020 7915 2200, www.thechelseaclub.com For other London classes, call 020 7603 3800.

For UK-wide referrals, contact the Amateur Martial Association on 01332 663 086, www.amauk.co.uk