Day 23: Listen to your body

Yesterday afternoon I had a great chat with Glasgow-based PT Sophia Hassan!

Sophia and I covered a range of topics specific to our usual training habits, our coaching journeys, training adaptations during Ramadan and barriers for Muslim women in the fitness industry.

You can see the full conversation here on Instagram TV, but there was something that Sophia said that I wanted to discuss at greater detail (EDIT: interview no longer available). 

As part of our discussion on her training adaptations during Ramadan, Sophia informed me that this Ramadan has probably been the hardest one she has experienced. As a result, she also stated that she has had to split her workouts in to two sections, performed at opposite ends of the day, and "go with the flow" far more when she is feeling a bit more rundown. 

It was interesting to hear that Sophia has had to listen to her body far more than usual during fasting this year. Especially when this is exactly how I've felt for the past few days. Again, last night I was unable to train. Firstly, because of workload after my day job, delivering PT sessions from home and getting Junior to bed! But secondly, I felt absolutely exhausted after breaking my fast and decided to just call it a night, rather than trying to train between 1030PM and midnight. I had to listen to my body and catch up on much needed sleep. 

It was a good night's kip, but it has definitely cost me at least a pint of water in my hydration. This is something I'll have to be careful of with only one week remaining until Eid and the end of fasting this Ramadan.

Thank you so much Sophia for taking the time to speak to me and I'm very much looking forward to speaking to you as your guest, when we catch up after Ramadan on IGTV again, hopefully with more time to speak at length in the areas that interest us! 

The number one thing I learnt from this conversation was that training and expectations around training aren't the most important thing for people who take such pride in their religious practices, as Sophia does. To observe fasting during Ramadan in a way that maximises the religious and spiritual benefits, there will be other areas of a Muslim person's life that need to be sacrificed. 

Being satisfied snd pleased with anything that you achieve on top of observing your fast to the best standard, should probably be more important mentality, as opposed to being disappointed at not achieving the greatest results during this challenging 30-day period. Ramadan is about living more minimally, and that is something I'm going to keep at the forefront of my mind, rather than criticising myself for sleeping, rather than training, when I need to.

Thank you for helping me learn that yesterday, Sophia.

You can follow Sophia on Instagram, here!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 2: Eat, Train, Eat, then Sleep?

Image
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...
Read more

Day 13: Fasting cramps, muscle injuries and electrolytes

Image
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...
Read more

"James, the moon hasn't been sighted yet!"

Image
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? ...
Read more