Nutrition, supplementation & exercise rules for Ramadan

Don’t use Ramadan as an excuse to not exercise.  It is crucially important that you do some gym work over Ramadan as without it, and in the absence of a regular eating pattern, your metabolism will go on strike quicker than a British Airways cabin crew. 2)    The best time to hit the gym during Ramadan is either early in the morning (after your first meal of the day) or after sunset  (after your first meal post fasting). 3)    Ensure that both your Ramadan “breakfasts” (by breakfast I literally mean the two meals following a fast, one following sleep or opening the fast, the other following the day’s fasting) contain easily digested protein and, depending upon body composition goals, some complex carbs and essential fats.  If you are due to follow one of these meals with a hard workout something like a whey shake with essential fats, an apple and a handful of nuts would be great.  I personally would wolf down 6 eggs, some coffee, and then go bang the weights – but not everyone could digest that and then train hard. 4)    Unless you are feeling on top of the world I wouldn’t go seeking new personal bests in the gym during Ramadan.  My advice would be to switch up your routine from the norm, so that you don’t feel down in any way about a noticeable decrease in physical performance, and try to make the workouts as fun and varied as possible. 5)    Workout duration during Ramadan should be kept very tight.  Get in and out of the gym in under one hour and preferably aim for 45 minutes of hard work.  If you normally take much longer don’t worry, you can still get an awful lot done in 45 minutes and for those of you who are looking to gain muscle Ramadan is more about anti-atrophy workouts than super mega blasting hypertrophy! 6)    During the time that you are allowed to drink you should be thinking “hydration, hydration, hydration!”.  In past periods of Ramadan I have seen hardcore Muslim bodybuilders at Muscleworks Gym in Bethnal Green almost pass out as they tried to push themselves without drinking water.  A good goal for a 200lb man should be to try to down 3litres of water between sunset and sunrise. 7)    Some people get into a little panic before Ramadan thinking that they will lose all their hard earned gains as it is impossible to benefit from good nutrition, supplementation and exercise during Ramadan.  This isn’t so, and with a bit of organization and thought there is no reason to take a big step backwards.  4-5 meals over a 24 hour period are very possible, and this alone should be enough for maintenance, and maybe for the very lucky ones, even some small improvements.  For example (and I may be slightly off in daylight times here so please forgive me), one could eat a large pre Ramadan fast meal at 5.45am, then break the Ramadan fast at 7.30pm, eat again at 9.30pm, and finally have a supper at 11.30pm.   It isn’t ideal, but it does show you that your physique doesn’t have to come crashing down.  If minimising fat accumulation (or fat loss for the super ambitious) is your goal the  mainstay of my macronutrients would be from protein and “good fats” (think unprocessed, natural fats and you won’t go far wrong). 8)    There are also a few supplements that would definitely help ease the metabolic challenges of Ramadan.  My top ten Ramadan supplement picks would be: Acetyl L Carnitine (3gms upon awakening) Essential Amino Acids (snack on these as much as possible during the hours of darkness) Greens Powder (add several tablespoons to a large bottle of water and sip constantly) Casein Protein Powder (for supper) Whey Protein Powder Multi Vit / Mineral Magnesium (at night to aid sleep) Omega 3s A good digestive enzyme complex Phosphatidylserine (at night before sleep to reduce any extra cortisol production caused by daytime fasting / and to aid sleep) In summary, the discipline of Ramadan need not prevent proper nutrition, supplementation and exercise.  Yes, it will be challenging and require both discipline and moderation, but that is obviously what part of the whole process is about.( kuwait times)