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t was 3 pm, the sun was still scorching and Nurul Aisyah Rahmadani had not drunk or eaten anything since dawn. However, wearing a hijab and climbing equipment, the 12-year-old girl stood at the base of a climbing wall in Kuningan, South Jakarta, preparing for her third climb that day.

For many years, Nurul’s parents have taught her to fast during Ramadhan and despite her long-awaited national wall-climbing competition being less than two months away, she still does not see any reason why the fasting must be skipped.

“This is my first competition and I want to secure a gold medal for the kids category,” she said on Sunday, “I know fasting and training will be hard, but no Muslims want to skip Ramadhan.”

Ramadhan, Muslim’s month-long fast, is a physically challenging period for Muslims, who are expected to abstain from food and drink for more than half of each day. For many Muslim athletes, the holy month comes as a dilemma as it makes things more difficult for their training and reaching fitness goals.

However, for Nurul and other young wall climbing athletes that train in Kuningan, fasting is not a showstopper.

While during regular months she and other junior wall-climbing athletes have morning and afternoon training sessions on Sundays, during Ramadhan they skip the morning session.

The trainer made the adjustment so athletes could maintain their physical fitness as the competition is just around the corner.

Nurul said she was struggling to maintain her eight-second record in the 15-meter wall climb, and a lack of training would make it even harder.

“It’s kind of hard at first, but once you get used to it, training actually makes your fasting days shorter and easier,” she said.

Ade Andriani, another young wall-climbing athlete, secured first place at last year’s wall climbing national championship in the younger category and says that she will train harder this year, hoping to retain the gold medal.

Growing up in a family with a passion for wall climbing, Ade said her father, who always shows up for her Sunday training, always motivated her to do her routine training despite the absence of food and water.

“I think my rivals in the competition will be fasting as well, so why shouldn’t I?”

The fasting month has not stopped hundreds of people from doing their regular Sunday exercises at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) sports complex in Senayan, South Jakarta, either.

Cahyadi Putra, a private company employee, said despite fasting he and his friends planned to run for over an hour and continue to run past fast-breaking time.

As someone who snacks and looks forward to meals, he acknowledged that Ramadhan was a challenge for him, but said that afternoon running had been a hobby for him for years.

“Many people stop running or other exercise during Ramadhan, but we don’t see any problem,” he said.

Sports medicine specialist Rachmad Wisnu Hidayat stressed the importance of continuing exercise during Ramadhan, saying that although the impact was not significant, the fitness of people who stopped regular exercise for three or four weeks would drop.

He added that it would be much harder to pick the routine up again after having abandoned it for a month.