Fasting: Workouts on empty

“Guess my age?” Mariam Gathuo asks after arriving two minutes late for our interview at the Alpha Fit Gym off Ngong Road.

“Thirty-seven,” I place a bet as we stride across the lawned front yard away from the gym noise for a spot to get candid.

The weight lifter is rocking a black hijab, an oversized white t-shirt branded ‘Uzani Weight Lifting’ conceals her blue gym tights.

Her face glows like a molten iron rod even with the sweat dripping from her brow.

“Mmh! Nice guess. I am actually 42,” the mother of five says as we pick our spots under some shade.

Gathuo is training for a weightlifting competition Uzani Power Weekend 5 scheduled for August 19, 2023.

It’s been a year since she started weightlifting. The happily divorced -as she puts it, is also a fitness instructor at Alpha Fit.

Despite the competition being miles away, Mariam's training schedule never stopped during the holy month of Ramadhan which came to an end last Friday.

“Everybody else is training for the competition, why would I stop? Fasting can never be my excuse not to train or work out. It’s all about how you fine-tune your mindset. Once I lock it, I am good to go” she says.

I point out to her that staying away for a month to observe the holy month wouldn’t do much damage considering the dates of the competition.

Read: From skinny to chiselled body in three months
“It’s different with me, I have so much to prove. First I am a Muslim woman and as you know we face a lot of stigmatisation from society. Another reason is that I am a ‘Master’ (40-year-old plus fitness gurus/athletes).”

Most of her Muslim clients shunned the gym when Ramadhan began but she is now expecting them back much heavier than they left.

Ramadhan is the most sacred month in the Islamic calendar in which Muslims restrain themselves from food and drink from dawn to dusk.

The restrictions on eating and drinking during Ramadhan pose a challenge to Muslim athletes and those who keep fit if they want to continue pounding out the weights.

Mariam must eat her Suhoor (meal eaten early in the morning before dawn) before 5:45 am. Iftar (a meal taken at sundown to break the daily fast) comes nearly 13 hours later.

“You must eat the right foods during Suhoor to sustain your body during the day. Another important measure is, you need to keep hydrating between Iftar and Suhoor because when you train during the day, you lose the water and won’t be replenishing it anytime soon.”

During Ramadhan, her days began like any other, kicking the blanket at 3:55 am after six hours of sleep.

“Immediately I wake up I drink a litre of lukewarm water to help cleanse my gut and replenish my electrolytes. At a quarter to five, I will do tea and bread, a meal I love so much. The most I can do is have leftovers, mostly when it's rice.”

Mariam will then wait for the Alfajr prayers and by 5:30 am she is out of the house. It takes 30 minutes from where she resides to Alpha Fit situated at the tail end of Ligi Ndogo playing ground.

“My first client always gets to the gym by 6 am.”

She will see more clients up to around 11:30 am and then start her individual workouts which last for an hour or two.

Despite fasting, her sessions are always intense, especially when there is a competition involved such as the August one.

“The first week of Ramadhan, you do moderation as your body adjusts to the unexpected stress it’s being subjected to. Once it settles in, you pick the rhythm and go hard.”

During Iftar, Mariam will start again by hydrating and gulping half a litre of water.

“Drinking that much water at ago makes one too full and unable to eat. I sip slowly, continuously over a period of time. This way, I drink up to a litre and a half and still eat. ”

Her balanced diet consists of a lot of vegetables.

“Vegetables are very important because the body needs those vitamins more than anything to function so I consume a lot of those. Chicken, rice, ugali are also my favourites but I would also encourage people to eat lots of dates, for energy and fibre.”

She has also been taking multivitamin supplements during Ramadhan to supplement those that are fetched from whole meals.

“I used to belong to the school of thought that supplements are harmful and shouldn’t be taken, but not anymore. If you are doing intense workouts your body will always be deficient in minerals and that’s where supplements come in. Besides, how often do you eat chicken or meat, this is where supplements come in to ensure your body never lacks the required proteins and minerals.”

The fitness instructor doesn’t eat junk of any nature, not even in small quantities.

“Those are toxins that will only ruin your body. There is an entire buffet of organic whole meals to choose from. There is also no such thing as cheat days, that’s rubbish.”

The sweat has now dried up and after 20 minutes of talking, Mariam shows the urge of going back to finish her sets.

How did she start her fitness journey?

“Do you work out?” She catches me off-guard.

Of course, I do, albeit not as consistently as I should. I told her of how an ex-girlfriend dumped me because I was fat because I couldn’t do many things and that’s how I ended up paying for my first gym subscription.

Read: Here's how to keep your weight in healthy range

“That’s sad. My situation is different. Twelve years ago I fell ill and it was found out that I had a problem with my liver which ended up affecting my gall bladder and it had to be removed. To help me improve my health, exercise was then prescribed by the doctor and that marked my journey to fitness which was a struggle in the beginning”.

When she gave birth to her firstborn daughter, now 21 years old, arthritis attacked her and exercise was prescribed.

→ [email protected]