My Non-Muslim Ramadhan

It's Thursday evening and I am definitely feeling fatigued. My working week and parental duties have taken their toll and I am ready for 24 hours rest at the weekend after my coaching sessions are complete on Saturday morning. I can only imagine how much harder this is for professional muslim athletes in Britain who have to engage in training as normal in sports such as football, basketball and athletics. Even writing this post was a real struggle that took me at least two hours longer than it should have done. My research in to the sub-topic of fatigue as one of the main effects of fasting on physical performance is going to be specific to the disruption to sleep experienced by everyone who fasts during the holy month. I am going to address the following questions in the remainder of this post; how much sleep do athletes need? How does Ramadan impact on sleep? What can athletes and coaches do to manage the potential impact of reduced sleep quality during Ramadan? It has previously...

Today marks the half way point in my Ramadan journey and I a very proud to have made it this far! I can  be brutally honest, it has actually been far easier than I was anticipating. I was really worried beforehand, especially at the prospect of not being able to share my birthday cake with my family on the 13th. Since that day, when the start of Ramadan was delayed by Glasgow Central Mosque's Imam's, I've been on to a winner. The only negative I have experienced was the muscle cramps that I discussed earlier this week and I have not experienced any problems since upping my salt intake. Even during tonight's workout, I progressed in my performance again and there wasn't a sniff of a cramp developing anywhere in the body.  With my potential sodium defficiency out of the way and under control again, my plan for Day 15 was always going to be a physical check-in. I have been monitoring my body weight and selected body measurements since January this year, after clocking ...

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a real turn around compared to the day before and I am still quite surprised by it. Having experienced frequent and uncomfortable muscle spasms/cramps throughout Sunday and Monday, this completely stopped yesterday! It was a less active day, as far as PE at school is concerned, but I had two sessions to deliver in the evening, one of which being my most active session of the week; BodyHIIT. I started the day off with a full body stretch, which is something I'm going to work hard to reestablish for the remainder of Ramadan. Even just walking around throughout the day my legs had lost that heaviness and sluggish feeling that made me feel so weak on Monday. My right hamstring is still tender after Saturday evenings awful cramp during Iftar at Zenab's, but I was able to stretch it out really well.  Performing the splits is something I'd love to work towards one day, but I'm not anywhere close to it yet! Maybe next Ramadan... So how did I sort myself...

I may have said this a few time already, but I suppose every time it happens has to be the "hardest day of Ramadan" so far...today has been the hardest day of Ramadan so far.  I knew from my first PE lesson this morning that something wasn't quite right. I was trying to enjoy some leisurely 3v2 basketball, boys vs staff, but my legs were absolutely dead. I felt like I had run a half-marathon before coming to work. Muscles all over my body were entering in to cramp spasms under hardly any exertion and I started to feel quite weird in the head; like brain fog. I still played on having fun with the kids though, and in a few subsequent lessons too, but it was definitely taking it out of me significantly more than it had done last week when it was sunny and quite warm (for Scotland at least). My favourite part of the morning was trying to put down 80 cones in a rectangular with straight lines for a problem solving game I call minesweeper. It genuinely took me 20 minutes! There...

What a glorious Sunday we have just enjoyed! The only things missing for me were a BBQ and a bucket of ice cold Bud Lights to finish off a pretty productive day all round. I've washed cars, cut grass, sunbathed, read books and eventually  finished my work out. I say eventually  because it literally took me all day. I don't know what it is about Sunday's during Ramadan but I feel like the day takes an eternity to get to Iftar. As a positive, I gave myself loads more to do today to keep me going, but I still managed to feel sluggish and demotivated to complete my muscle-up workout. It's not even the toughest workout of the week, or the longest to complete. But some of the moves are the most energy-sapping in the moment, and I had to battle myself to keep going.  Eventually , I got all reps and sets done and could pat myself on the back, having not worked out at all last Sunday whislt feeling quite low all day. The prolonged workout, inbetween garden and household chores, ...

Taking a break from my continued discussion and research in to the effects on peformance during Ramadan, I am excited to say that tonight my family was invited in to the home of our friend Zenab for a long overdue catch up, and to break fast together. I have been trying to wangle an invite to dinner at Zenab's for years! I didn't realise at the time that I would have to participate in the full month of Ramadan to earn it, but earn it I shall! Ok, it isn't just about the food, my family loves to spend time her family and during the pandemic these catch ups have been far too few.  As a rare treat we kept James Junior awake well past his bedtime so that he could play with Zenab's beautiful daughters as we broke fast. It was lovely to break fast in such in a more authentic fashion and enjoy such wonderful food prepared by Zenab. Maybe this decision will come back to haunt us tomorrow, but he has had so few occassions to play with other children away from nurser...

In the discussion specific to Liverpool FC's Mohamed Salah, we considered examples of elite athletes breaking fast for a few days around performances to ensure they are able to perform at the right level, and not harmed in the process. Research specific to athletes performing at the highest level seems scarce at best, so within this post we will look at research to athletes who aren't yet operating at an elite level, who have been actively chosen to participate in scientific research. In the conclusions of a systematic review by Abaïdia et al (2020) of eleven studies completed by other researchers, it was stated that "the majority of physical parameters were not affected" by fasting during Ramadan. However, it was shown in the results presented by Abaïdia et al (2020) that peak power was significantly affected, especially during sprinting; other parameters such as aerobic performance, strength, fatigue and total work were not affected. Specific to football players, Ch...

After speaking with Glasgow MMA fighter Jasim (Jas) Beg last week, I have been actively trying to track down another Muslim athlete to speak to, especially a female athlete. This has not been a fruitful search as of yet, so I have decided to expand my research in to more academic areas to see what more I can learn about the effects of Ramadan on physical and athletic performace.  Whilst I have been fasting myself for the past nine days, and working out really well without much disruption, I am not fully able to assess what effects Ramadan is having on my performance as there is insufficient data for me to do so. All of my workouts that have data specific to time and repetitions of exercises have improved, in line with what I could have predicted. However, I am not training maximally, or anywhere close to 100% effort in any of my sessions. Unfortunately, with a double knee operation pending to replace my right ACL for the second time, I am more limited in how I can measure my perfo...

What a day today has been! I've spent nearly two hours playing football and basketball with students at school, completed my handstand training (90 minutes ish) and then delivered a sprint session before/whilst breaking my fast!  I won't lie, I was very, very thirsty today. Especially in the last hour before Iftar. I prepared myself a little Iftar-picnic to take down to Glenboig Park so that I could break fast on the move. I took some food I'd prepared too but it wasn't really practical to eat it during the session. Dates, nuts and ice cold water were sufficient.  This was without doubt my thirstiest day during Ramadan. My water intake for the past two days has been approximately 5.5 pints,  and that may be a contributing factor. I'm going to make sure I get over the 6 pint target this evening! Another knock-on effect I am finding more difficult now that I'm back at work is my need for sleep. I have never been a brilliant sleeper and always perform m...

Today marks a full week since fasting for Ramadan began and I have to say it's been unexpectedly straightforward for me so far. I know I was boasting a bit on day one about how simple it seemed, but deep down I did have some anxiety that there were so many days still ahead of me. Now that my working week is underway and I'm handling it really well, I have complete confidence in my ability to not just survive during Ramadan, but thrive.  Exercise has been slightly lighter in the past seven days, but tonight I stepped it up again and delivered my most challenging session of the week, BodyHIIT. This session involves high-intensity interval training, with 60 seconds work and 20 seconds rest for about 30 minutes. It's very challenging under normal circumstances, but I definitely had to limit my intensity to deliver this safely - thank you to my six participants on Zoom who worked so hard themselves and excused my lower intensity. I am not sure that I could have delivered that se...

Before I started fasting, this was the day on the calendar that I thought would really be the making or the breaking of my Ramadan experience. Today I went back to work after the Easter holidays, including the nursery run et al.  My sleep had been quite poor during Ramadan so far, so last night I took heed of the advice from my fasting friends and went to bed much earlier! I had an alarm set for midnight to consume my seocnd meal, and another alarm for 3AM for water. This plan was very successful and I felt much more rested today.  The school day wasn't exactly a smooth affair either, but fasting did not hinder me at all. I played sport throughout the day with the young people and managed my efforts accordingly. It was good to be back and it felt great to be handling fasting so easily again after Sunday's dip in feelings and motivation.  I also found time to catch up with 'R', the student who inspired my interest in fasting for Ramadan. He told me that his fasting was g...

If yesterday was my strongest day yet observing fasting during Ramadan, today was certainly my weakest.  I'd been feeling for a few days that I was really having to rush my evenings between getting two meals, drinking six pints of water and getting to bed before 1AM! So, quite foolishly, I decided to stay up even later last night and 'enjoy' my evening with a movie inbetween meals - 'The Fellowship of the Ring', if you want to know what I watched.  On one hand this was a nicer way to ensure my food and water intake targets were hit, without rushing it all down. On the other hand, I'm absolutely shattered today. This unnecessarily added fatigue has had a significant impact on how hungry I feel. After only getting six hours sleep a night since fasting began, and then only four or five last night, I'm feeling it quite a bit. Beyond feeling hunger since around 9AM, I've also been quite demotivated throughout the day and have decided not to train ...

Today was a busy day!  I've been enjoying the Easter holidays for the past two weeks, but today I had five sessions to deliver between 830AM and 330PM. Having let my part-time business run a bit quieter as part of a period of rest during Easter, I was looking forward to making myself busier again. However, I won't lie, I was a tad nervous to be working most of the day and fasting. I definitely managed my efforts and intensity during my first session of the day delivering a HIIT class at Glenboig Park, but the rest of the day was absolutely fine. I had a great time delivering and coaching in the sunshine. A shout out to too to my new Glenboig family of clients who enjoyed my company for almost three hours in their garden this afternoon! Under normal circumstances I would have loved a cup of tea for my efforts after spending so much time with one household, but I didn't even think about having a drink. I just got on with my work and enjoyed my time with my new ent...

Last night went really well as far as eating and drinking is concerned. Getting my work out done before Iftar was definitely the right way to do it. This has been reinforced by speaking to others who have stated they also choose to workout in the last few hours before breaking fast.  I had a target of drinking six pints of water before fasting resumed. I managed five-and-a-half, falling asleep again before finishing my last pint before Sehri ended at 331AM. This morning I felt very 'normal'. As if fasting from water was something I do all the time. Bar the usual mouth dryness immediately when waking, I wasn't thirsty at all.  Throughout the day too, thirst and hunger just weren't all that prominent in my mind today. I felt very comfortable no matter what I was doing. The only time I really started to feel hunger was planning how I'd break my fast, but this passed when I started my handstand workout - which went amazing! Improvements again in all areas, the same as I...

Last night was a really enjoyable first Iftar for me!  I cannot stress enough how precious the water felt when I was drinking it for the first time after 18.5 hours without consuming anything at all. The dates, yoghurt and fruit were obviously a sweet benefit, although I did feel slightly high  after I'd snaffled four dates back-to-back. I even struggled to eat much of my main meal of roast duck to start with! It was weird, I'd expected myself (someone who'd happily order '2 For Tuesday' and eat both myself) to be ravenous and just devour everything in sight. But, I didn't. I felt really calm. Unusually calm for someone of my appetite. My training came next and it was my second Handstand workout of the week. I normally do these workouts in the mornings, starting as early as 5AM on school days. It's fair to say that I was lacking a bit of motivation and then developed a touch of anxiety that I'd take too long and not get enough sleep. I'm umm'd an...

Today got off to a bit of a dry start... Last night I went to bed at midnight, having eaten a fat and meat heavy second dinner at 1130PM. I set an alarm for 3AM to help me get up and drink as much water as I could before 'Sehri' ended (and my fast began) at 339AM today.  Sehri, or 'Suhoor' as it is also known, is the meal eaten during Ramadan before fasting begins. For those who practise prayers, this meal is eaten before 'Fajr', one of the five mandatory prayers in Islam. However, my alarm went at 3AM and I must have swiped it off as quick as possible and gone back to sleep! Luckily I had finished a pint of water at 2AM before topping up again, but I was still a bit annoyed when I woke up that I'd missed a chance for more valuable hydration. I actually got very little sleep throughout the night. I think I had been experiencing some anxiety and doing some overthinking about whether or not I was going to cope with my first fast. When I woke up properly at 7A...

Has anyone seen the moon yet? Last night, as I read and responded to an array of positive and encouraging messages in response to ' Why am I fasting for Ramadan ', my friend Zenab got back in touch... Huh?! "Have I written something wrong", I anxiously thought. No-no, James, read it again. The actual moon hadn't been sighted yet - and I can be honest, I wasn't sure at this stage by who or from where the moon would be sighted. As became clear very quickly, Glasgow Central Mosque (amongst plenty of others around the world I imagine) had announced via social media that Ramadan would not start until the following night. Cue great excitement and I immediately asked Zenab what was now the most pressing question... In what was now an incredible change in events the birthday cake that my wife had slaved over all evening could be enjoyed as a family - with breakfast, lunch and dinner! Everyone has cake for breakfast on their birthday, right? ...

My name is James Donaldson and I am an aspiring calisthenics athlete that trains seven days a week, having previously played rugby and football as an amateur player, before my body took on too many injuries. I work full-time as an Education Instructor for an *independent school in Paisley for young people with additional support needs, and I also work part-time as a Wellbeing Coach and Personal Trainer with my small sport and fitness business, JCD Coaching . * I'll point out here that all views and opinions expressed in this post and on every subsequent post on this page are my own and not the views of my employer or anyone that I work for/with. I have no religious affiliation whatsoever, despite being christened by my parents and attending Christian-associated schools throughout my years in primary and secondary education. I am not Muslim, or seeking to convert to Islam, and probably know very little about it to be honest, although I am interested in learning more now that I have ...