Why It’s Important To Focus On Strength Training While Fasting!
It’s healthy and generally considered to be safe to exercise daily during Ramadan, as long as you don’t get severely dehydrated (see bottom of this blog post for advice on this). Getting physical activity throughout the day, can help you preserve muscle mass if you lose weight during Ramadan. Daytime exercise can also help improve your sleep quality. It is important to mention that you need to consult your doctor if you have diabetes or prediabetes, as you may be at higher risk of hypoglycemia or low blood sugar during or after fasted exercise.
In this 10 min read I am going to cover why you should be training and focusing on strength training during Ramadan.
Training is an amazing tool, for so many reasons:
Sense of accomplishment.
Check something off the todo list, that is moving you closer to your goals and who you want to be and feeling that sense of achievement.
Better sleep by burning off physical energy and stress, that tends to build up for us with normal desk jobs and disrupted our sleep.
Makes you more happy, it´s like a mini holiday, happy hour, a window of time, where just you matter and you get to sync in with your body and feel it a bit more.
Training can also help you achieve the body that you want, some might say but I usually lose weight without training during ramadan. But most people who lose weight while fasting during Ramadan, end up regaining this weight shortly after.
This is partially due to loss of lean body mass, and a slow down of metabolism that follows and usually results in a quick rebound in body fat % after Ramadan. However, there are things you can do to minimize the loss of lean mass and maximize the health benefits associated with Ramadan fasting and I have designed a Ladies Only Ramadan Bootcamp to help you implement these and give you hassle free training. Find out more about the bootcamp HERE
My top 3 tips if you want to maintain your lean mass to avoid getting on the weight loss rollecestor.
Prioritise resistance training with weights commonly called strength training through Ramadan. I recommend 3-4 sessions per week, focusing on resistance that allows you to do 4-12 rep of each movement with at least 7 RPE. See more about RPE here.
2. Focus on your protein intake to limit muscle break-down during fasting. Evenly spread this out over iftar and Suhur meals. This as reference For females, 50-75 kg 3-4 palm size protein pr 24/h for males 70-100 kg 5-6 palm size protein pr 24/h. You can also find more nutrition hacks for Ramadan here.
3. Sleep, getting 7-9 hours of sleep or 6 sleep cycles (see info on multiphase sleeping in this post) will help recover our muscles, and build them only when we are sleeping. The lack of sleep can result in decreased lean mass on its own so there is a lot to gain, while just resting effortlessly.
Troubleshooting,
And things you can experiment with before you write training during fasting off as not for you. And don't be afraid to move your training schedule around to fit your needs so you feel and can perform your best. Some of the common issues are following:
If you live in a hot climate, and sweat through the day, the timing of your training is something you can play with if you tend to lose fluid and feel dehydrated. For many, prioritising training just before iftar or after iftar can help tremendously. So does dialling in your hydration during this month.
Some people are nervous about the energy levels during the fast, however most people found that it actually felt great and experienced having plenty of energy to engage in exercise during the day. As long as you are looking after your nutrition, portion sizes and getting the appropriate fuel, you should be fine. You can find more information and Nutrition Guide during Ramadan HERE.
Hope You Find these tips Helpful, please let me know if you have anything to add to this or feedback.
