How Carleton’s Muslim athletes fasted while training during Ramadan

Emad Houache has been fasting for Ramadan ever since he was 11 years old.

A third-year midfielder on the Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team, he is also one of several student athletes at Carleton who fast while performing their sport.

Houache is originally from Algeria, but grew up in Abu Dhabi and moved to Canada when he was 10 years old.

“I grew up with it,” he said of fasting. “All my cousins, my family, my extended family—everyone fasts.”

This year, Ramadan ran from May 6 to June 3. It is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims around the world every year.

Fasting during Ramadan involves not eating or drinking water from sunrise until sundown, when those fasting break their fast with food and water.

For Houache and teammate Tareq Hamad, fasting during this month means a lot to them spiritually, but also presents challenges for them as athletes.

“The biggest obstacle is mental,” Houache noted. “Physically, you can deal with it. You can prepare.”

Hamad is Palestinian, grew up in Gatineau and moved to Saudi Arabia for a few years before returning to Canada to play for the Ravens. He said training during Ramadan is difficult, especially at first.

“You kind of have to make sure you don’t overdo yourself, not do as hard as you can, the first couple of days, the first week, even,” he said.

Then eventually, “you start getting used to fasting” and it seems as though “your body can perform at the same level,” he said.

Both athletes pointed out that nutrition is important. Hamad said he eats right before sunrise “to get as much energy as [I] can for the rest of the day.”

He added that training in the morning is usually the best time because he’s the most refreshed.

Eating the right foods at the right time is also crucial, according to Houache.

“When you’re not eating . . . your stomach shrinks a little bit, so then when you break your fast, you can’t eat as much,” he explained.

Houache said he focuses on pacing when he eats, which typically consists things the body takes longer to break down—such as carbohydrates and protein—in addition to a regular water intake.

Sophie Bernard, a dietitian and an expert in sport nutrition, said while she doesn’t have much experience dealing with athletes fasting for Ramadan, she doesn’t typically recommend that athletes fast.

“If someone comes to me and says they are a true believer of fasting, then I would shift my opinion,” she said.

“I would say ‘okay, then let’s do this right,’ and recommend how to do it properly, but I wouldn’t recommend it firsthand.”

“[Because] as a dietician, I believe that we need to eat during the day to maintain the energy, as well as the nutrients, we need,” Bernard said.

Other than an imbalance between calories consumed and calories burnt, Bernard added that there are other potential health dangers to fasting while exercising, including inadequate nutritional content of food and poorly-timed recovery.

Hamad said he knows there are dangers to training while fasting if an athlete is overtraining or putting too much pressure on themselves.

“I think most of it is mental but there’s a point, seriously, where you can’t do it anymore,” he noted. “You don’t have the nutrition and you’re basically working on nothing.”

He remembers how that happened to him once, after he went for a run and then went to the gym afterwards. “When I was lifting weights in the gym, I started feeling like I was dizzy and I’ve never felt so close to passing out.”

He said he hadn’t had water or food for over 12 hours at the time.

Bernard said that there is “no one size fits all” methodology for timing training well during Ramadan, but generally would recommend training in the evening—”if it’s not a key session”—so that the athlete can recover from training.

Because of these potential drawbacks, some professional and Olympic athletes have taken breaks from fasting while competing. However, Houache said he feels he doesn’t need it.

Instead, he said fasting provides spiritual strength for him and he performs better while fasting because of it.

“I rely on my spirituality, my faith, and that’s what drives me,” he said.

Since he injured his shoulder this past season, Houache’s training schedule has been different than past years during Ramadan. He said it’s his first time fasting while recovering from an injury, and the mental strength from fasting has helped his recovery.

“It’s all faith and spiritual cleansing and everything, so it helped me deal with all that noise,” he said.

There’s also a level of awareness and communication between the players and their coaches and teammates.

“There’s always a great understanding because I’m open about it. I talk about it a lot with my teammates, my coaches, so they know what I’m about to do,” Houache said.

“If they know what I’m going to go through, it’s going to help me because if I make a mistake, they’ll give me a break, kind of,” he added.

Kwesi Loney, Ravens men’s soccer head coach, has known both players from before they even came to Carleton.

Loney said he checks in with Houache on a daily basis. Hamad is currently training by himself in Saudi Arabia.

“A lot of what we try to do is just keep the lines of communication open,” Loney said.

Loney praised Houache’s training and performance during Ramadan.

“You can see his energy levels are a little bit lower in some of the exercises, but he’s never skipping out on any of the exercises. He handles it very, very well in a very mature manner,” the coach said.

Loney said he has had up to five players on the team at once take part in fasting for Ramadan.

As Ramadan came to an end earlier this week, Houache continues to recover from his injury in time for pre-season. Hamad said he plans to re-join the team in Ottawa later in the summer for training before the season begins.

For Houache, the inspiration and spiritual effects of fasting last beyond Ramadan. He said he drew upon the experience while playing at nationals last season, when Carleton won a bronze medal.

“So, once I hit that point of adversity, it’s just a natural state for me to go into the mindset.”

—With files from Tim Austen