“It was just all instinct to react to it,” Nashali Alma tells Inside Edition.
The brave young woman known across America as ‘wonder woman’ after fighting off an attacker inside a Florida gym is now helping other women learn self-defense.
Nashali Alma, 24, was working out at the gym in her apartment complex when an assailant tried to grab her. Alma was chased to the other side of the gym, where she hit the man with her phone.
“I wasn’t fearful. It was more like I won’t let this man touch me,” Alma tells Inside Edition. “It was just all instinct to react to it, fight back, be vocal.”
Alma says when she and her attacker were out of the security camera frame, the man tried to put her in a chokehold. She says she was able to wiggle out and elbow him in the face.
Alma grabbed the man by his beard, got up, and ran out the door, she says.
Alma is now teaching other women self-defense.
She teamed up with Youfit Gyms and instructor Jason Bleistein, an expert in Krav Maga, an Israeli martial art.
“When you’re in these situations, you know, a lot of people freeze. But if you take these classes, you get to gain the confidence, to gain the empowerment to fight back,” Alma says.
“When she ran she put a bench between, you know, her and the attacker and used obstacles which we teach all the time,” Bleistein tells Inside Edition. “She was making it very clear ‘get off of me.’”
A woman who saw the footage of the attack says she was inspired to sign up for the class.
“I appreciate all that you did and I’m sorry for what you went through,” she tells Alma and hugs her.
