Training and June/July 2013 Training Video with music by Khumariyaan

My Ramadan Resources

Resources from Fit Muslimah & Amna AlHaddad

Resources from Stumptuous and BreakingMuscle

General articles for female athletes

Ramadan Embaraksha! (or Ramadan Mubarak/Kareem/Happy)

I wanted to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan. In this post, I have links to some resources, and information that I hope will help.  I always like to post photo-journalist photos, here are Photos of Ramadan 2013 – from The Atlantic, and something humorous 20 Memes to Get You Through Ramadan This Year.

Training

I have changed my training this year, going down to 4 days a week maximum for training. For Ramadan, I might do 3, or see how I feel and what my schedule allows. I will go with lighter reps unless I feel OK going for heavier rep attempts. I will start working out before iftar (fast break/ sunset), but I will be able to break fast/Maghrib then finish the rest of my work out.

As I am working towards finding a full time job (see more on my research projects here) and need to focus on other aspects of my life, I am not spending as much time and resources on weightlifting during 2011 and 2012. I still like to train, and I will compete when and where I can.

Here is a video I put together. I continue using video to help my training, so I have a compilation of clips from June till now. My training has changed a little bit. Travis Cooper, over with Team Muscle Driver USA in South Carolina, is writing my training programming and I am still working out at Coffee’s Gym and getting feedback there too.

Here is a link to the video on Youtube. For those with Youtube bans, here it is from Facebook:

The background instrumental songs are Tamasha & Qataghani by Khumariyaan.

Khumariyaan was born in the age of Talibanisation, sectarian violence, military operations and neo-imperialist expansions, in the region which is a gateway to Central Asia, in the city of Peshawar.

A band of musicians whose tunes are based on their native music, with a tinge of other native music of the world as well, our audience is the educated youth of Pakistan, and our mission is to enlighten the youth with all encompassing aesthetics and performing arts. Our focus is to elevate music to medium of peace of being, and musically, break the tradition of the South Asian vocal based musical culture, thus we are an instrumental band.

Centered on the concept that vocals should complement music, we compose with little fragments of vocals to compliment the overall harmony. We are group of individuals that came together, as on soul, to experience the trance that is live, acoustic music.

To us, music is the best sublimated form of art, and we leave its interpretation to the one who experiences our attempt at being artists. In our journey, we hope to entice musical ‘goose bumps’, and become a moving philosophical experience.

Art for religious fundamentalism is, like water for fire, mere existence, is a form of resistance.

Ramadan Resources

Here are all posts related to Ramadan and training:

My Ramadan posts from 2012 and 2011:

• Ramadan 1433AH/2012 Fasting & Diet with Weightlifting & Crossfit
• Ramadan (Fasting) & Weightlifting 2011/1432AH 

 Stay tuned!

I have an article in the works with Fatima of Friniggi Sportswear for Muslim Women.   We plan to write about female athletes, and fasting. All of the research, except one article, has studied male athletes. **UPDATE** Any females, fasting & sports training or exercising in RAMADAN? PLEASE contact Friniggi for some passive research for an article, thanks!

Fit Muslimah

Fit Muslimah is a health and fitness revolution among Muslim women lead by founder Mubarakah Ibrahim. We give health and fitness information, advice and motivation. In addition we hold several internation health and fitness retreats for women throughout the world.

Here is a link to her webinar on Ramadan eating and exercising.  Here are some posts she has written on Ramadan.   Finally, her article Why Ramadan is the Worst Time For Dietary Changes.  Check out her Facebook page for the latest.

Amna S. AlHaddad

Amna S. AlHaddad is an Emirati weightlifter.  Here are articles she has written on Ramadan.  Check out her Facebook page for the latest.

From Krista over at Stumptuous, recommends the article Ramadan Improves Body Composition of Young & Older Men, Young Women Don’t Benefit and Women >37y Become Fat During the Fast – Implications for Intermittent Fasting?

She writes that:

We typically find that calorie restriction differs by sex and age.  Younger men do relatively well with fasting, while older folks and women seem to do worse.

Women of reproductive age in particular seem to be more sensitive to potential starvation and disrupted energy balance, so their systems are more eager to compensate with things like down regulation of thyroid, etc. I think also that older folks and reproductive-age women tend to have less of a “reservoir” in terms of hormonal stress resilience, particularly if folks are also fasting while doing things like training, working, family responsibilities, etc.

Ramadan is a little different in that the fasting period is usually somewhat shorter than typical intermittent fasting, and folks do tend to get enough calories by waking early and then of course eating at night.

There is some research that shows that calories consumed in the dark phase / normal sleeping phase have a different effect than calories consumed in the light phase / normal activity phase. When we eat during our normal sleeping phase (i.e. later at night), we tend to put on more fat than if we consume our calories during our normal daytime phase, particularly early in the day (i.e. breakfast) even if the calorie intake is the same. I would guess that this has to do with circadian hormonal rhythms.

So this could mean that a large post-fast meal is not the way to go if folks are concerned about metabolic effects and keeping a healthy body fat level, and that a larger pre-fast meal might be a better option.

However, much of this is still somewhat speculative.

Thanks Krista! Also check out her Facebook page

From Becca over at Breakingmuscle.com says: We have some articles on our site regarding studies that have been done on fasting during Ramadan. Mostly using Ramadan as a way to see how IF impacts athletes. Of course, they were all done with male athletes. Here are articles on their website dealing with Ramadan.

Hearing this and going over many journal articles on Ramadan, particularly  its affects on athletes, 99% of them have only studied males, motived myself and Fatima to write an article which we hope to post soon.

General articles on being female, athletic, and dieting like men is not the same or safe (as it mentions Intermittent Fasting):

Hormones, Homeostasis, and Why You (Probably) Need Carbs – by Krista Scott Dixon

The Female Athlete Triad by Robb Wolf

Hopefully, this will be useful.  Please make dua for me and my family.  Salaam (Peace)

Kulsoom