Day 9: Researching the effects of Ramadan fasting on physical performance (Part 1)
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 performance. Running and sprinting are both off the menu! Thankfully, much of the research which I have been able to find online has been quite specific to sprinting and running.
Even though I am only nine days in, I am sure that most Muslims who have been observing fasting for half or most of their lives would agree that the physical effects of fasting during Ramadan would often include reduced calorie intake, reduced body mass, poorer hydration, and depending on your job or education status, some sleep deprivation (Abaïdia et al, 2020). During our Instagram Live, Jas made it clear that he managed his training levels during Ramadan and would not be working towards a fight in or around the month of fasting. Jas went on to suggest that it simply would not be possible to perform at his top level during Ramadan.
However, there are plenty of professional athletes around the world who do not have an option but to train and perform as normal during Ramadan. If we consider a Muslim footballer playing in Britain for example, you could safely say that these athletes would be training in the morning/afternoon and performing at least once a week in the afternoon or evening. If I pick out the highest profile name I can think of, we could look towards Liverpool FC's Mohammed Salah.
During Ramadan in May 2019 Salah was preparing for the Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur, a match which was being played in Madrid. It is suggested in an article published by the Liverpool Echo in the build up to that match that Salah would not be fasting during the journey to Madrid (Prentice, 2019). It is permitted in the Quran for fasting to not be followed during specific circumstances; including but not limited to, travelling, illness, pregnancy and menstruation. More loosely, fasting should not be observed if it is going to damage a person's health. It is more than reasonable to suggest that competing for the most prestigious competition in world football would be an adequate reason to not fast for a few days to ensure that performance levels, or the physical health of the athlere involved, were not negatively affected.
As it happens, it was made clear in the same article that Salah would not be fasting the day before and on the day of the final (Prentice, 2019). As you can see in the photo above, Liverpool did win that competition and Salah himself scored the opening goal from the penalty spot and played the fulll ninety minutes. If it is true that Salah chose not to fast during those days around the final to ensure his performance was not negated, this would support what Jas said to me about never fighting, or preparing to fight, during Ramadan. It can be suggested, despite these very different examples, that some athletes feel that their performance during Ramadan would be negatively impacted whilst adhering to fasting.
Could Salah have still performed to his best and played such a pivotal role during that final if he had maintained his adherance to fasting? We will never know, but there is plenty of academic material for me to review to help us find out more.
We'll continue this discussion tomorrow!
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