My exercise routine during Ramadhan month

Now that you've learnt what I'm eating during the fasting month, as promised, here's what I've been doing for my exercises routine during this period.

I've been thinking myself - how should I do my exercises? how do I incorporated my routine and keep my fitness and overall muscle mass intact? My worst fear is.. I shall lose the hard-earned lean muscles mass that I've been developing for the past months, and worst, my overall fitness plummeted.

During this month, my major concern for exercise is .. TIME. You see, I normally do my exercises just after I came back from work, and that's generally around 7:30pm'ish. As soon as I reached home, I shall hit the dumb-bells and treadmill for a solid 30-45mins... just nice for my dinner typically by 8:30pm'ish (i try to complete my dinner before 9pm, and leave me about 3 hours before I hit the bed)

During the Fasting month, I try to reach home by 6:45pm'ish, and hit it immediately. I typically managed to do about 15-20mins max, sometimes for just as short as 10mins... my point is.. I do make sure I still do my exercises! though not as long or not as frequent, but i tell you, about the same intensity as normal days (to maximise the time) . So far, I manage to squeeze about an average of 3-4 exercises per week.

So what kind of exercises I've been doing? due to the short period of time, I tend to focus on circuit training or supersets..

I tend to do various bodyweight workouts, if I've 10mins, I try to do a quick one such as this one below on youtube by Vince..




or try Craig's chest superset, or abs superset. OR if that's too hard for you, watch a simple bodyweight for beginners (i used to do this myself back then..). Go on and search on youtube to see more body weight exercises variations - pick the one most suitable for you. (another good one here if you've 30mins).

I tend to focus more on strength training rather than pure endurance cardio (running, biking, etc) - main reason is I feel my body contains less nutrition (esp towards the evening), and when the glycogen stores has been depleted, it shall start to generate the energy by breaking down my most precious asset.. the muscle. That's the first thing our body shall do, before it hits into the fat stores. Therefore, I make sure I build more muscles, while keeping my heart rate up (try doing heavy weights, and focus on speed - I bet you'll gasping for breath! - who said strength training is not cardio? it's pure anaerobic..!!). see aerobics vs anaerobics

Having said that, last weekend, I ran a few laps on a local stadium track for just about 30mins (finished at about 7pm). Surprisingly, after close to 2 weeks without hard runs, that session feels invigorating!

It's safe to say now that exercising has become a part of me... I feel something is not complete if I don't do exercise. (check my earlier post on how sedentary my lifestyles were)

till then.. be healthy!
and how is your fasting doing so far?


Sher Khan.