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During Ramadan an archer's fatigue is concentrated in the first two weeks

2 studies · 24 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2010201220142016201820202022202420262023, context, n = 132011, for, n = 112011, context, n = 11
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

The only study that looks at how the month unfolds is built on memories. Eleven archers from the Malaysian national team, interviewed two or three weeks after Ramadan 2010, describe the first two weeks and the last two separately: eight of the eleven, 73 per cent, mention fatigue, and only for the first half, and the same goes for dizziness. In the second half the body does not drop out of their accounts altogether, because sleep, thirst and exhaustion come back across the whole month and the physical themes fall only slightly, from five to four; what disappears is general tiredness, and several archers say they had got used to it. These are recollections gathered afterwards, with no measurement at all, and the percentages say how many people named a theme, not how much it weighed. The only measurement arrives in 2023 and does not look at the course of the month: in thirteen Malaysian archers with a mean age of sixteen, fatigue reported on a mood questionnaire goes from 4.6 before Ramadan to 6.1 during it, a difference that is not significant, and the score over 36 arrows at 70 metres does not change. What can be said today is that the start of the month is the part archers remember as the hardest, not that measured fatigue follows the same pattern.

Also phrased as: "fatigue during Ramadan"; "archery while fasting"; "training through Ramadan"; "getting used to the fast"; "the first week of fasting"

In practice

Among archers who fast, the saying is that the first week is the hardest and the body then adapts, so the advice is to lighten the load at the start of the month and return to normal volume in the second half.

Evidence

Status history

  1. 2011 Reported Eleven archers from the Malaysian national team describe Ramadan 2010 in interviews, separating the first two weeks from the last two. Eight of the eleven, 73 per cent, mention fatigue, and only for the first half; dizziness also appears only at the start. In the second half sleep, thirst and exhaustion remain in their accounts, the physical themes fall only slightly, from five to four, and several say they had got used to it. These are recollections gathered two or three weeks later, with no measurements, from eleven people on a single team: reported.
  2. 2023 Reported The first measurement on fasting archers arrives: thirteen Malaysian boys with a mean age of sixteen fill in a mood questionnaire a month before Ramadan and during the fast. Reported fatigue rises from 4.6 to 6.1, with no significant difference, and the score over 36 arrows at 70 metres does not change. The study measures only once during the month, though, so it says nothing about when the fatigue is concentrated: the pattern remains the one recalled in 2011, and the status does not move.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). During Ramadan an archer's fatigue is concentrated in the first two weeks (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/ramadan-fatigue-archers

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_ramadanstanchezzaarcieri,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {During Ramadan an archer's fatigue is concentrated in the first two weeks},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/ramadan-fatigue-archers},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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