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Medical Video: Best Time To Train During Ramadan Fasting
Fasting is not a reason for you to be lazy to exercise. If your body is too weak in the morning and afternoon so it is not energized to exercise, then exchange your physical activity routine at night. Night sports during fasting can help you relieve stress and clear your mind of everything that happens during the day. And not only that. A study in 2011 reported that people who exercise for 35 minutes before going to bed, then sleep better.
What type of nighttime fasting exercise is best for your body?
If you want to exercise during the fasting month, there are several types of exercise that you can do at night after breaking the fast or even after performing Tarawih prayers. Note it carefully!
1. Yoga
Yoga teaches you to harmonize the rhythm of the breath with its movements, as well as the body with the mind. This is the reason why yoga can cause feelings of peace and happiness for those who do it
When you go yoga, you increase serotonin, oxytocin, and GABA levels in the body. All these hormones are chemical reactions that are responsible for making your body and mind happy. Practicing yoga can also reduce blood pressure, cortisol in the body, and stress hormones.
2. Mild cardio
Cardio exercise before bed can burn calories and cut fat. The research team at Duke University even concluded that the effectiveness of aerobic activity to lose weight far outperformed strength training - such as push-ups, squats, or lifting weights.
Some light cardio exercises that you can do at night before going to bed, including night biking, aerobics following the instructor's instructions on TV (via Youtube or gymnastics DVD), jumping rope, up and down stairs, to the burpees. For example, try to do the burpees for one minute and 30 seconds rest, and repeat five times. You can also continue to run in place for 60 seconds and rest for two minutes.
Cardio is cumulative, so you can do a short cardio session at night before going to bed and then continue in the morning the next day, rather than doing a long training session that makes you tired quickly.
3. Strength training (strength training)
Strength training is a type of physical exercise that specializes in the use of endurance to trigger muscle contractions to build strength, anaerobic resistance, and the size of the body's skeletal muscles. There are many ways to do strength training at home, from utilizing your own body strength (push-ups, squats, planks, pull-ups, etc.), to using weight relief (barbells, dumbbells, or paint cans) to train your biceps.
Experts recommend that we do 8 to 10 types of strength training for 2 days a week or more, if you can. If you are unsure where to start, you can follow this simple guide:
- 20 push ups
- 20 seconds elbow plank
- 20 seconds plank sideways to the left
- 20 seconds plank sideways to the right
- 20 squats
- 20 lunges, alternating sides
- 20 jump squats
4. Walk
Routine walking three times a week can burn 350 calories. Walking for 15 minutes after eating can increase the body's metabolism, thus helping to improve your digestion and prevent digestive disorders such as ulcers or constipation.
Walking is also able to increase endorphins in the brain that make us feel better. So it's not surprising that walking can help fight depression. And not only that, walking as an alternative to night sports when fasting is also good for heart health. The reason, routine walking proved to help improve blood circulation throughout the body.
Don't forget about adequate food intake and cooling of the body
For night sports when your fast is effective, there are a number of things you should not miss. First, night sports should not be done close to bedtime so as not to disturb the quality of sleep. If you want to exercise after tarawih prayer, set aside free time two to three hours before going to bed to exercise and give about one hour to recover from physical activity before you go to bed.
Second, make sure to recharge the exhausted energy after exercising with high nutritious food. If you exercise and then go to sleep without eating anything, your body will not have enough nutrients to repair damaged muscle tissue.
Finally, don't forget about cooling after exercising. Stretch your body well after night sports during fasting, and combine it with meditation sessions and deep breathing techniques before going to sleep so you can sleep faster.
Also make sure to sleep at least seven or eight nights for optimal body recovery. Irregular sleep patterns inhibit the body's ability to burn fat and build muscle. Not to mention, lack of sleep will drain your energy the next day, especially if you are fasting.
