The season of Ramadan is here and you may be already sweating about your gains. You may be thinking to yourself, "how do I keep making gains during this month?" or "am I going to lose all my gains during Ramadan?"

Gaining muscle may be a difficult thing to do during this month as your strength, recovery, food, sleep, etc. may be compromised during this month. But this does not mean you have to lose all your gains.

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If you do things smartly, which I am going to discuss here, you can protect your gains during this month.

Here are a few practical tips and a free workout sample that you could follow during Ramadan:

I know many people promote the idea of training before Iftaar and then getting on with the celebrations, but I am not a fan of that.

The idea sounds great logistically but training when you have fasted without any fluids for 16 to 18 hours is not a good idea.

I suggest my clients have a small meal for Iftaar, like three dates, a protein shake and half a litre of water and get a small training session in.

If you still feel lethargic, a carb drink could be added intra-workout, though it is not needed in most cases.

The training has to be short and sweet and done intentionally. Once done, you have the rest of the evening.

The goal for you this month is to maintain muscle.

Gaining can be quite difficult as you may not eat enough calories, or be able to progressively overload, or get adequate sleep or all of these things.

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For maintaining muscle, you need to provide adequate stimulus to your muscles. Keep your sets within the 8 to 15 rep ranges and rest for 1-2 minute between sets. You can workout on alternate days (3 sessions a week) as you are doing full body splits.

Session 1

Squat - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Romanian Deadlifts - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Decline Bench Press - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Lat Pulldowns - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Session 2

Bench Press - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Seated Rows - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Lunges - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Tricep Pushdowns - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Session 3

Barbell Rows - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Incline Bench Press - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Reverse Grip Pull-ups - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Bicep Curls - 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps

Unless you are preparing for a marathon or a Spartan race, which you should not be doing ideally along with 18-hour fasts, cardio could be a bad idea. It can be taxing, fatiguing and hampering your recovery.

If you love doing cardio, go on light walks after your dinner instead. This is how you can maintain your gains during Ramadan and change gears once the fasting is done and move to your next goal.

Author bio:

Pratik Thakkar is the co-founder and director of GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company and the founder of Mars Nutrition, a nutrition supplement company. Both his companies are geared towards providing you with the right information and products without any false or fake claims. You can reach out to him at pratik@getsetgo.fitness and follow him on Instagram.