Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Improving Strength, Power, Muscle Aerobic Capacity, and Glucose Tolerance through Short-term Progressive Strength Training Among Elderly People
Published on: July 5, 2017
[Effects of Ramadan fast on weight, performance and glycemia during training for resistance]
1Laboratoire de Physiologie de l'effort musculaire, Institut National Supérieur de l'Education Populaire et du Sport, BP 3256 Dakar, Senegal.
Introduction:
Pysical activity and sports training can be proved exhausted for the organism during normal alimentation period. These sensations may go on more pronounced during Ramadan, period of complete fast marked by an absence of energetic and hydroelectrolytic supply. Our propose was to evaluate the impact of Ramadan on weight, performance and glycaemia during a training for resistance.
Materials And Methods:
Ten Senegalese males 200 and 400 meters runners aged 24.4 +/- 6 years old had two training sessions, one during the Ramadan and the other during normal non fast time. The 200 meters runners had executed each one two series of 3 x 150 m, and the 400 meters runners executed one serie of 3 x 250 m. These parameters have been measured respectively by a SECA scales, a PC 70 A chronometer, and a capillary glycaemia reader.
Results:
During Ramadan the weights a nd performances of our athletes decreased significantly (0.01 > p > 0.001) with race intensities equal to or slightly higher than those of competition, requiring anaerobic glycolysis. We found severe hypoglycaemia mainly before the training session, 10 hours after the last meal. We found no severe hypoglycaemia in normal non-fast time. Therefore all differences in average glycaemia rates in each testing case (except between the morning and after training in time of complete fast) a nd between them, a re significant. The performance fall is the conjugation of the blood sugar rate collapse a nd recovery.
Conclusion:
A balance diet with high content of carbon hydrates is a dvisable to prevent h ypoglycaemia that c an a dversely affect the health of fasting sportsman training for resistance.
Related Concept Videos
Exercise and Muscle Performance
Endurance exercises
Endurance exercises involve running, swimming, or cycling, which require repetitive movements with low force output. When a person engages in endurance exercise, a few noticeable changes occur in their skeletal muscles. For instance, the number of capillaries...
Exercise and Cardiovascular Response
Light to moderate physical activity initiates a series of interconnected responses in the body. The heart rate modestly increases in anticipation of the workout, followed by widespread vasodilation as oxygen consumption by skeletal muscles increases. This results in decreased peripheral resistance, increased capillary blood flow, and accelerated...
Overview of Carbohydrate Metabolism
Glucose transport into cells is facilitated by a family of transport proteins called GLUT (Glucose Transporters). GLUT4 is the primary glucose transporter for insulin-stimulated glucose...
Metabolic States of the Body: The Postabsorptive State
Initially, glycogen stored in the liver is broken down to release glucose into the bloodstream, while glycogen in the muscles is broken down to supply glucose for energy directly within the muscle cells. As glycogen stores diminish,...
Metabolic States of the Body: Fasting and Starvation
Hyperglycemia

