Fight Your Belly With Nelly

Your monthly dose of Health!

Ramadan is an annual opportunity to cleanse and change our life style and get closer to Allah. I truly believe that Ramadan can be a great time to improve our health and overall wellbeing, if we manage to stick to a few things.

Here are some of my Ramadan recommendations for good health:

1. Adapt your training program. Shift the timings, change up the intensity to low and moderate, and try different styles of training.
2. Sleep well. Although for many, working-hours change, and almost everything shifts from day to night, you should still prioritize sleep over late night socializing!
3. Workout smartly. Engage in low intensity workouts like yoga or brisk walking before iftar. Post iftar, you can kick it up notch, bearing in mind that you feel energetic and well. Avoid high intensity exercises during fasting hours as it can cause joint or muscle injuries and also lead to complications such as low blood pressure and dizziness.

Staying in shape all boils down to how you feel. The priority is the spiritual journey and then comes our fitness programs and everything else.

If time constraints don’t allow you to go out for a walk or to the gym, don’t worry! A decent workout is possible at home:

1. Five minutes of going up and down the stairs, or running back and forth down the hallway to warm up.
2. Body weight squats, back extensions and sit ups, with one minute off between each set.
3. Five minute workout with 10 units of burpees, push-ups, y-ups and crab reaches with a minute between each set.
4. Five minutes of broad jumps. Take a minute off after each one minute set.
5. 3×8 sets of extended inchworms, single leg free deadlift and side lunges.
6. Five minutes of cool down with brisk walking and stretching.

Wishing you all a wonderful month!