Slow down to keep fit in Ramadhan

By Tri Hafiningsih

JAKARTA (JP): Fasting during the holy month of Ramadhan means no food and drink from dawn till dusk, but this does not necessarily have to have a detrimental effect on your physical fitness. You can still do the religious fasting services and maintain a regular workout routine to keep yourself fit at the same time.

If you do regular workouts or sports, you can continue your fitness routine, but you need to slow down. Reducing the frequency, intensity and the length of time of workouts during the fasting month, is recommended by most sport and fitness experts.

The principle applies to all people with average "good" fitness levels who are involved in a range of sports. These include the less stressful cardiovascular exercises of brisk walking and jogging to the more demanding game-sports of tennis, badminton or basketball.

"You have to slow down. Regular work outs and playing sport are just to maintain the fitness level you have already achieved," said Dr. Sadoso Sumosardjuno.

An expert in charge of several health and fitness columns in sports reviews, has said that people could not improve their fitness level while conducting the religious fasting.

A person who is used to an hour workout session, three times a week, could reduce it to a 45-minute session, two times a week routine during Ramadhan. The intensity of the work out should be reduced by avoiding the high impact cardiovascular workouts and replace it with low-impact exercises.

Another fitness expert said that people should not stop the regular workouts during Ramadhan services. Their fitness level would drop down to its lowest if they did so, said dance and fitness expert Maya Tamara.

"It would be difficult to start again after Lebaran," she said, adding that all the effort to keep fit that had been achieved before the fasting month period would be lost.

Lebaran is the end of the fasting month celebration. Due to the festive atmosphere people tend to over eat and temporarily abstain from their activities with respect to their fitness and health.

The artistic director of the Namarina Dance Academy said that any person with a regular workout routine should pay attention to the intensity and the kinds of exercises he or she does during the Ramadhan fasting month.

She suggested that those concerned about their fitness level should try a workout routine usually carried out in the fitness classes in Namarina. It includes mild cardiovascular exercises or low-impact aerobic exercises without jumping or running, combined with weight training for large muscle areas on the stomach, back, upper arms and thighs. This routine is the most suitable set of exercises for those who are conducting the religious services.

The lighter weight training sessions for the large muscle groups requires a dumbbell or weight not more than 500 grams for each hand.

She said that after the two-week fasting, the body stamina would eventually go down due to less nutrition. "People tend to pay less attention to the food they eat. Not all of this food was healthy or nutritious. The exercises should be adjusted to account for this," she said.

Best time

Both experts agreed that the workout routine should be ideally carried out close to the time to break the fast.

Sadoso said the best time for a Ramadhan work out would be around 4 to 5 p.m., during which time the body is at its lowest metabolite level.

Another important reason of doing the exercise at that particular time is because after such an activity one should have a drink, to replace the decreased body fluids due to the work out, he said.

He said that the body temperature would increase during a work out and should be cooled down immediately after that.

"We can't do that if we work out in the mornings," Sadoso said, adding that the drink should be cool water and not a hot drink as the body needs to cool down.

Leaving the body temperature high too long would not be good for one's overall health, he said.

Fitness instructor Maya Tamara said one could avoid dehydration by conducting the work out in spacious, uncrowded rooms with appropriate ventilation, and having a routine which includes a less stressful cardiovascular routine but with more stretching and body conditioning exercises.

"So we won't perspire too much, or become too tired," she said.

She said that body fluid could also be maintained by having a good habit of drinking eight to ten glasses of plain water daily during the break of the fast and pre-dawn sahur meals.

Sadoso said that the work out should not be done after the break of the fast meals.

"After dinner we need to wait at least two hours before we can do any exercises and we have to finish any exercise at least three hours before bedtime," he said.

Before or after sahur would not be a good time for working out either, said Sadoso. "The air in the pre-dawn hours is full of CO gas. This is not good for anyone attempting to exercise."

The usual workout routine could be resumed after the long "rest" right after the end of the fasting month celebration. "But you should remember to start slow," he warned. "You should not work out as hard as you did before Ramadhan."