Before making any significant changes to your diet, supplementation, or exercise routine during Ramadan, consult with your doctor or a qualified healthcare professional. Training while fasting places additional stress on your body. This is especially important if you have any pre-existing medical conditions, take prescription medications, or have a history of dehydration-related issues.
The information provided in this plan is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or religious advice. Always prioritise your health and your fast.
THE RAMADAN TRAINING BLUEPRINT
Goal: Maintain strength & muscle at caloric maintenance
Caloric Strategy: Maintenance Calories
During Ramadan, shift from a surplus to caloric maintenance. Your goal is to preserve the strength and muscle you've built while training in a fasted state. Use the same Mifflin-St Jeor formula from the main Nutrition Blueprint but do not add the surplus — simply eat at your maintenance level. This will keep you fueled without compromising your fast.
This plan is designed to be used alongside the main Pulling Mastery Nutrition Blueprint. Refer back to it for the full plate-splitting method, carbohydrate strategy, and herbal recommendations — all of which still apply during Ramadan with the modifications below.
↑ Back to IndexThis meal must sustain you through the entire fasting window while you train. Focus exclusively on slow-digesting foods that release energy gradually over 6–8 hours.
Best choices: Oats, barley, buckwheat, whole grain bread, sweet potato with skin. These digest slowly, providing steady energy throughout your fast and preventing blood sugar crashes that would leave you drained by midday.
Best choices: Eggs (scrambled or boiled), Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, slow-digesting casein protein. Eggs are ideal — they're nutrient-dense and digest slowly. Boiled eggs are convenient; scrambled eggs cooked with olive oil add healthy fats for extra satiety.
Best choices: Avocado, olive oil, nut butter, chia seeds, flaxseeds. Fats further slow digestion and keep you full throughout the day. Add avocado to eggs or stir chia seeds into your oats for sustained energy release.
Best choices: Water + electrolytes, herbal tea, coconut water. Drink at least 1–1.5 litres slowly with your Suhoor meal. Add electrolyte powder to maximize retention throughout the fasting hours ahead.
Begin with 3–5 dates and 1–2 glasses of water. Dates rapidly restore blood sugar and provide quick energy. The tradition of breaking fast with dates is scientifically validated — they're packed with fast-absorbing sugars, potassium, and magnesium. Sip water slowly with your dates. Do not guzzle.
After dates and water, go and pray Maghrib. This 10–15 minute pause allows your body's hunger signals to regulate. You will return to the table with a calmer appetite and better digestive readiness.
Follow the same plate split from the main Nutrition Blueprint — ½ vegetables, ¼ protein, ¼ carbs, with a drizzle of healthy fat.
↑ Back to IndexBest for: Those who prefer eating a moderate Iftar and training later in the evening.
Best for: Shorter eating windows where two full meals aren't practical.
Discontinue Creatine draws water into your muscle cells, which can increase your risk of dehydration while fasting. Since you cannot drink water during the day, this creates unnecessary strain. Resume creatine supplementation after Ramadan when you return to normal eating and drinking patterns.
Useful for hitting your protein target in a compressed eating window. Have a shake between Iftar and Suhoor if needed.
Take with your largest meal for better absorption. Continue as normal — it does not affect hydration.
Do not take before training while fasting. It is not permissible to consume anything during fasting hours. Instead, since you will be training after Taraweeh (after breaking your fast), you may take citrulline malate during the last rakats of Taraweeh as described in the meal structure options above. If you train before Iftar, skip it entirely.
Absolutely critical. Add to your water throughout the entire eating window. This will prevent cramps, headaches, and performance drops during tomorrow's fasted state. Since you won't have creatine helping with water retention, electrolytes become even more important.
Drop sets push muscles beyond failure, creating excessive metabolic stress and muscle damage. In a fasted, dehydrated state, your recovery capacity is severely limited. The extra fatigue will accumulate and compromise subsequent sessions.
All intensity-extending techniques demand more from your nervous system and muscle tissue. While fasting, your body cannot repair this damage efficiently. Training to failure is sufficient stimulus — going beyond it is counterproductive.
The Armour Tempo's 3-second eccentric is a cornerstone of the Pulling Mastery program — but during Ramadan, eccentric-emphasis work causes significantly more muscle damage than concentric-focused training. In a fasted state, this damage accumulates without adequate repair. Switch to a 1-second up, 1-second down tempo for all exercises.
Leave a rep or two in the tank on every set. True failure training while fasted can lead to dizziness, nausea, and excessive fatigue that spills into the next day's fast.
Cut your total sets per session. If you normally do 5 sets of an exercise, do 3–4. Your goal is preservation, not progression. Less volume done consistently is better than more volume that buries you.
Think of this as a skill-preservation block.
Eccentric work is the primary driver of muscle soreness and damage. While it's essential for hypertrophy and strength gains under normal conditions, during Ramadan your recovery resources are too limited to handle it. Removing eccentrics, drop sets, and intensifiers isn't taking a step back — it's being smart. You will return to full intensity after Eid with your strength intact rather than burnt out and overreached.
↑ Back to IndexThis timing allows you to train with full pre-workout support and proper hydration — something impossible when training before Iftar. You go straight from worship into your session with no wasted time.
Warning: Explosive pulling movements like clapping pull-ups require significant energy. If you feel lightheaded, dizzy, or excessively weak, stop immediately and wait until after Iftar to train.
This is a month of spiritual discipline, not peak performance. Your goal is preservation, not progression. Maintain your strength, focus on form, and trust that any minor losses will return quickly once you resume normal eating and training. Strip out the eccentrics, drop the intensifiers, reduce the volume. The bar will still be there after Eid. Train smart, stay hydrated in your eating window, and prioritise your worship.
↑ Back to IndexPULLING MASTERY — RAMADAN EATING PLAN
Caloric Maintenance → Strategic Hydration → Preservation