Ramadan and weight training

Ramadan mubarak! I've been too tired and busy to update this recently. The holy month of Ramadan began on August 1st 2011. During this month, muslims fast from dawn 'til dusk, abstaining from any food, drink, medicine, smoking or sex.

My training has been going fairly well up until now - I hit a few personal bests in the last weeks of July. I was not sure what to do during Ramadan. My gym is insanely busy in the evenings which is why I normally train before work. There was no way that I was going to be able to train and then not refuel on food or water until the evening!

Several people on the interweb had suggestions such as Nick Mitchell:
http://www.nickmitchellblog.com/ramadan-nutrition-supplements-exercise/

Unfortunately, his advice is not very useful for me. He suggests eating at 545am and breaking the fast at 730pm. Either he has no clue what he's talking about, or perhaps those are the timings for the USA. In the UK this year, fasting has been starting around 330am and ending close to 9pm. In theory I could train in the gym around 8pm and break fast straight after, but my gym is too busy at that time to get anything meaningful done. Also, I would prefer to be at home, break my fast with my family and perform the sunset Maghrib prayers, than be stuck at the gym.

Similar advice from another US trainer, which is again not applicable because I don't at the moment go to a 24hr gym

http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/worship/fasting-ramadan/the-ramadan-nutrition-and-workout-plan-for-success-by-rehan-jalali-the-protein-shaikh/

Mehdi off stronglifts seems to think fasting is similar to intermittent fasting, but I'm guessing IF people usually pick their 8 hour feed window to be something convenient like 12-8pm, not 9pm-3am. Honestly, you don't have a clue!

http://stronglifts.com/ramadan-weight-lifting-training-build-muscle-lose-fat/

So my solution? Try to eat as best I can, and train once a week on sunday afternoons. I've noticed about 20% drop in strength already. I'm hoping that's just glycogen depletion and dehydration and not all genuine strength loss. Hopefully I can pick up again in September and not be too far off where I started.

There are threads on bodybuilding.com where several muslims seem to be carrying on training just fine. Maybe because they're mostly American and the fasts are shorter there in the US, or they're students and not working full time, or *whispers* most people on there are roid junkies!

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=136878153

In any case, I think for a month it's more important to devote yourself body and soul to God, and come back to the mundane when it's over.