Ruth Ashdown, 43, is a former Muaythai fighter and world champion — she’s also now a qualified yoga and acro instructor. It’s a big contrast, but she is now taking yoga to a group of people who really didn’t think it was for them — athletes, fighters, men, young people. She wants to show them how challenging yoga can be, how it can improve their training, and help them find some quietness of mind. “So any mental health battles that we are all dealing with, I feel I can help them harness their strength in controlling that inner beast, find positivity, quietness and peace,” she says.
Quite a journey for a young English woman who previously ranked WBC Muaythai World Flyweight and Super Bantamweight champion, as well as the former WBC Muaythai International and Diamond champion.
Ashdown started training at 27, with no prior background in either fitness or sport, and competed professionally from 2007 to 2018. In fact, she was once a photographer at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in London and worked for a time as a sports photographer.
