Tamara Makar

IFBB Pro Athlete

About L-glutamine

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Tammy

L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the bloodstream.

L-glutamine benefits the body in the following ways:

1. Improves gastrointestinal health because it is a vital nutrient for the intestines to rebuild and repair

2. Helps heal ulcers and leaky gut by acting as a Band-Aid for protection from further damage

3. Is an essential neurotransmitter in the brain and helps with memory, focus and concentration (

4. Improves IBS and diarrhoea by balancing mucus production, which results in healthy bowel movements

5. Promotes muscle growth and decreases muscle wasting

6. Improves athletic performance and recovery from endurance exercise

7. Improves metabolism and cellular detoxification

8. Curbs cravings for sugar and alcohol

9. Fights cancer

10. Improves diabetes and blood sugar

Doing approximately one hour of exercise can cause a 40 percent reduction of glutamine in the body. It can also cause suppressed immune function. This has a negative impact on your resistance training and may lead to overtraining syndrome.

Supplementing with L-glutamine allows your muscles to fight and push a bit further, which boosts your strength and helps repair your skeletal muscles.

L-glutamine supplementation makes it possible to recover quicker from intense weight training sessions because it improves muscle hydration. This aids the muscle recovery process and reduces recovery time for wounds and burns.

L-glutamine also burns fat and builds lean muscle mass by helping suppress insulin levels and stabilize blood glucose. This enables the body to use up less muscle mass to maintain blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in the cells. For this reason, L-glutamine benefits diabetics and those with sugar and carb cravings as well.

About L-Carnitine

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Tammy

Taking L-Carnitine is known to:

Improve high-intensity work capacity
Increase athletic performance
Speed your recovery from intense exercise
Make your brain work better

Carnitine is an amino acid composite that is made of lysine and methionine. It is responsible for the transport of fat into the cells to be used for energy, therefore your body becomes more efficient in processing fuel and it will increase your energy levels.

Elevating carnitine will improve physical performance by burning more fat, sparing glycogen, clearing muscle lactate, and optimizing hormone levels.

For Carnitine to be effective, you need to make sure you have enough Omega-3 in your body. Omega-3s increase metabolic rate by increasing cell activity and fat burning. Carnitine is the delivery system for long chain fatty acids therefore the less carnitine you have in your body, the fewer fatty acids get into the cells, and you don’t burn them for energy. Instead they’re stored as fat. By elevating carnitine fat burning increases, you will have more energy and feel more motivated.

Carnitine fights visceral belly fat, that is known to be the toughest fat to loose. Raising your carnitine levels will fight this visceral belly fat gain because it increases fat burning.

Higher muscle carnitine levels help decrease pain, muscle damage and markers of metabolic stress from high intensity exercise by reducing lactic acid production, therefore you can have a greater work production because it will not feel as physically difficult.

Taking carnitine will also support an anabolic response to exercise by up-regulating the androgen receptors, which will speed up your recovery.

Carnitine can help prevent type 2 diabetes because of how it improves fat metabolism. It can counter the diseases of metabolic syndrome by supporting cardiovascular health while inducing fat loss.

The health benefits of foam rolling

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Tammy

The idea of foam rollers is simple: using your own bodyweight and agility you roll specific muscle groups against a firm foam roller to mimic a deep massage. You can control how much pressure you apply and you can locate and focus on problematic areas.

They improve blood circulation throughout your skin, muscles, fascia and even tendons and ligaments.
More efficient exchange of nutrients and waste products at a cellular level.
Lengthening of short, tight muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Better posture, stronger core.

When we experience pain or stiffness around weight-bearing joints (hips, knees and spinal joints) a very effective approach is to increase the blood circulation around the problematic area through deep pressure work and stretches.

Sometimes short and tight muscles and ligaments are the root cause of pain and stiffness in the joints.

Some foam rollers and softer, others harder. However it is always you, who controls the pressure that you put on a certain area.

How to boost the immune system?

Posted on January 3, 2017 by Tammy

The immune system is an interactive network of organs, cells and proteins that protect the body from viruses and bacteria or any foreign substances. The immune system works to neutralize and remove pathogens like bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi that enter the body, recognize and neutralize harmful substances from the environment, and fight against the body’s own cells that have changes due to an illness.

The cells of the immune system originate in the bone marrow, then migrate to guard the peripheral tissues, circulating in the blood and in the specialized system of vessels called the lymphatic system.

When our immune system is working properly, we don’t even notice it. It’s when the performance of our immune system is compromised that we face illness. Underactivity of the immune system results in severe infections and tumors of immunodeficiency, while overactivity results in allergic and autoimmune diseases.

Give your immune system a boost with these tips:

Supplement with echinacea: Research shows that one of the most significant echinacea benefits is its effects when used on recurring infections.
Supplement with probiotics: Probiotics are good bacteria that help you digest nutrients that boost the detoxification of your colon and support your immune system.
Eat more ginger: It’s believed that ginger helps to break down the accumulation of toxins in our organs due to its warming effects. It’s also known to cleanse the lymphatic system,our network of tissues and organs that help rid the body of toxins, waste and other unwanted materials.
Eat more berries: berries are full with antioxidants, that are excellent for promoting healthy immune response.
Get more rest: restful sleep is absolutely essential for health and recovery. When you sleep certain protective cytokines in your body increase in levels, and inflammatory cells decline, which means that less sleep could result in a deprived immune system.
Have some garlic: it is great to avoid any cold, flu or other viruses. If you don’t like the taste of it, try capsules.
Aerobic exercise boosts immune system: people who are fit and active are less likely to suffer from illnesses and the symptoms are less severe.

About ephedrine

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Tammy

The main ingredient in fat burners or thermogenics is ephedrine, a synthetic version of a chinese herb ephedra, or also known as ma huang.

Ephedrine is a drug, rather than a nutrition supplement. It is also used in low concentrations in flu and cold remedies (pseudoephedrine).

Ephedrine is chemically similar to amphetamines, which act on the brain and the central nervous system.

There is some evidence that ephedrine helps fat loss: partly due to an increase in thermogenesis, partly because it suppresses your appetite and partly because it makes you more active.

When taken as an ECA stack (ephedrine – caffeine – aspirin) ephedrine has a greater effect in terms of weight loss and thermogenesis. However the fat burning effect of ephedrine seems to decrease over time.

Ephedrine is judged to be safe in doses between 18-25 mg, that’s the amount that’s used in cold remedies. Doses more than 32 mg a day may triple your risk of bleeding in the brain. Prolonged use and higher doses combined with heavy exercise increase your risk of side effects, like increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, palpitations, anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, headaches, nausea, vomiting and dizziness.

Ephedrine is addictive, and people can develop a tolerance to it, which means you will need to take more and more to get the same effects.

Benefits of stretching

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Tammy

Stretching is very important for flexibility, range of motion and injury prevention. Stretching also increases blood flow to the muscle.
There are 2 types of stretching:

dynamic stretching
static stretching

Dynamic stretching you do before you start your workout. The purpose of it is to prepare the muscles and your body – and also your mind – for the workout. It consists of putting your muscles through their full range of motion by way of mobilizing the joints they’re attached to. Dynamic stretches will elevate the muscles’ core temperature and ramp up the nervous system so that your body is ready to lift some heavy weights. It will help reduce the risk of injury and over time it improves your performance and maximizes your movements due to the increase of flexibility in your joints.
Static stretching you use during and after your workout. It helps cool down the muscles, prevents injury and makes sure you lengthen your muscles after contracting/shortening them during resistance training.

The benefits of HIIT training

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Tammy

The benefits of HIIT training

There’s an ongoing debate about cardio: which one is more beneficial? HIIT or steady state cardio? It depends on your goal and even your bodytype. Some people can get away with the mind numbing steady state cardio – which is a lot more comfortable, let’s be honest. However it doesn’t work for everyone. If you have been doing that for quite some time it might have stopped working for you – because let’s be honest, your body will get used to most things and will adapt in time. Then it might be a wise idea to step it up to HIIT cardio.

Anyone can benefit from HIIT cardio: elite athletes and everyday people who just want to lose a bit of weight.

So what are the benefits of HIIT?

#1 When you perform high intensity training, glycogen is your preferred fuel that is stored in your muscles. To do more high intensity workouts we need a bigger reserve of muscle glycogen stores. This will allow you to train harder for longer. In addition it will allow for a greater carbs tolerance which means you can eat more carbs and store them as refuel, instead of fat.

#2 Improved aerobic fitness: your body can take in more oxygen and deliver it to your muscles, enabling you to perform faster for longer.

#3 Greater fat burning: some time ago it was the ‘fat burning zone’ on the cardio machine. If you wanted to burn fat, you had to be in the fat burning zone. HIIT burns more fat, because the quicker you deplete your muscle glycogen stores, the sooner your body will tap into your stored fat for fuel. HIIT training depletes muscle glycogen stores because the main fuel for HIIT is glycogen.

#4 Improved capacity for exercise: if you’re doing high intensity – or I could call it metabolic type – weight training, HIIT can increase your capacity for exercise. By increasing our aerobic capacity we can go harder for longer which can help you burn more calories = lose more weight.

#5 Improved insulin sensitivity: One major risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes is reduced insulin sensitivity. If you have normal insulin sensitivity, then insulin can help you shuttle the carbs into your muscles, instead of your fat cells.

#6 You boost your metabolism and get an afterburn: Resistance training has a different effect on your body opposed to endurance training. Resistance training increases excess post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOS). EPOS describes the calories you burn immediately after the training session, also known as the ‘afterburn’ effect.

If you want to step up your training, want to lose weight or just need a change in your training routine, get in touch!

Bespoke metabolic type resistance training plans are available hello@tamaramakar.me

How to step up your training – increase intensity

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Tammy

If you go to the gym on most days and you do the same workouts day in day out, not only you will get bored of it but your body will adapt to it, too. That means you will not see changes from the same workout after a while.

There are different techniques for the advanced athletes to step up their training and shock their bodies.

Go to failure: muscle failure is when you cannot do any more full reps with that weight. Most people don’t go to this extent because this is when the going gets tough. When we say you need to do 8 – 12 reps for muscle hypertrophy that means you cannot do more reps than 8 – 12. So if you could do another 3-4 reps with that weight, increase it.

Drop set: that means you do your regular reps with your weight and when you cannot do any more reps (you reach muscle failure) you drop the weights by 20-30% and continue the set until failure. For eg: you are doing bench press with 100 kg, you rep out to failure and when you cannot do any more full reps you strip off 20-30% of the weight (70-80 kg) and continue the set until failure.

Forced reps: you will need a training partner for this, unless you do certain exercises where you can self spot yourself: for eg one arm dumbbell curl. You do your set to muscle failure and when you cannot do any more full reps your training partner helps you with the concentric part of the lift.

Negatives: again, you will need a training partner for this. You only do 3-4 reps with this technique, not the full 10-12 reps. You load the weight heavier than you normally do. For eg: if you do bicep curls with 15 kg dumbbells for 12 reps, then you will use 17 kg or even 20 kg for this exercise. Your training partner helps you with the concentric part of the lift (ie: curling up) and you lower the weight yourself slowly. We are a lot stronger on the eccentric part of the lift, than on the concentric part of the lift, that’s why you need a partner to help you with the concentric part.

These are just a few ideas you could try, if you didn’t know about them.

For a personalized training plan please contact me:

hello@tamaramakar.me or KIK: tamaramakar

For personal training/coaching/contest prep FOR MEN AND WOMEN: please book an appointment in advance and see me at True Gym Mohandeseen.

#spacefitness #panatta

Hercules Olympia and England

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Tammy

Had a fabulous weekend in England last weekend. It was all rush and not enough time for anything, but it was nice to stand on stage again and meet some of my friends, even only briefly.

Left Cairo Thursday afternoon, my flight was scheduled at 5.30 pm. On the way to the airport there was a traffic jam on the road – what a surprise! I was getting a bit anxious therefore I tried to check in on my phone so that I don’t miss that. When I logged on the application to check in, it told me that I couldn’t because the check-in was not available anymore as the flight was at 4.45 pm. It turned out that because the clocks went back a few weeks ago (in the UK, not in Egypt) therefore they changed the time for the flight – although they don’t tell this to you to warn you. So I was running really late and I was even checking my other options when I could travel if I’d missed this flight. But fortunately I got there in the very last minute and checked in. Going through security I’ve met some lovely people, one of them is Ramy who is training in MMA.

Finally I got to London Heathrow at around 10 pm and made my way to Colchester on the train. I got to the hotel around 1 am, very exhausted. The next day I got up and went for a walk in the town centre. It is a lovely place, I really liked the atmosphere of the town. There was a market on the high street, and all the shops you can ask for. I realized how much I missed all these commodities and the green countryside. Cairo is very hot most of the year, even wintertime it’s only mild, not cold. You see the sun 24/7 almost, and the downside of it is that there’s not much rain, therefore there’s a lot of dust everywhere. It’s lovely to see the sun most of the time, and it truly makes up for most things: your mood is instantly better.

Anyway, so I tried to rest a bit on Friday , put a coat of tan on, had my wine in the evening and was waiting for Saturday to come.

Saturday was one of the longest days in my life. The registration was at 8 am at the venue, then we had a physique check where the judges checked all the ladies’ classes if everyone was in the right class, then we had an orientation meeting. This finished aorund 10.30am and the show started at 12pm. A break was planned to be at 4-5 pm, but when 4 pm came the show had not been even halfway through the classes that they planned on judging before the interval. That was a bit disappointing as my class was the second to the last after the interval. I was told the event was supposed to finish around 8 pm, and if there’s a delay then maybe around 9 pm. Well, eventually I got on stage at 10 pm, very tired and thirsty. Thankfully one of my friends was there with me and tried to distract me from all this.

There were 2 physique classes, open and masters and I entered the masters class, but because the event was running so late they merged the 2 classes and we ended up competing in the open class. In the open class I came 4th, but a few days later they posted the results for all the classes, so in the masters class I came 2nd. All the ladies looked great, really nice line up!

After the competition I went to fill up a bit on some food and water. Enjoyed some sweets and a pizza (only one slice, I don’t know why I keep buying pizzas after a competition when I don’t even eat it 🙂

The next morning we went to Harvester to have an all you can eat breakfast – something that I miss here in Egypt 🙂 the food was fabulous, I really enjoyed the pancakes and toast, although the bacon and sausage was a bit too salty for me after a competition diet.

After breakfast we made our way down towards Heathrow and we stopped in Cheshunt to pay a visit in my favourite gym, Monster Gym. I felt I had to use all those extra calories so I had a wicked back workout there. I was also happy to see that my photos are still on the wall 🙂

After training we headed to Langley to meet some friends and have my long awaited steak at the Harvester – yes, I know, it was my favourite place and I really miss it!

The next day I was flying back to Cairo. I had a lovely weekend there and I’m planning on going back in July or August as I couldn’t get to my stuff I left in London, because of the lenght of time and also because my friend who keeps them safe for me was away for work on that weekend.

Back to training now, preparing for the next competition. Watch this space!

Thank you Space Fitness and Panatta for making this trip possible!

Bye Bye Gold’s

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Tammy

Another year has passed. I arrived to Egypt end of March, started lecturing at Gold’s Gym Academy in April and got a job at Gold’s Gym Egypt in May. It was a very happy period indeed. I felt loved and appreciated. Then the months passed and things have changed. It is not shocking at all that most people are not what they show themselves to be. With time and age you get used to it and you just move on. In the past few months it has escalated to a level where I started feeling stressed and pushed. It will always be beyond me why certain people feel that they have to do things to try and make others feel less or as miserable as they are, although they haven’t got much to show up for themselves. Ignorance? Jealousy? Or just simply bad manners? Not important. It’s not worth any more space in my life or on my blog.

The only thing that is important that I have put an end to it yesterday – and I feel free again. It’s like a breath of fresh air, a big relief for me. Finally I can focus on something that I actually like doing: body building and teaching body building/fitness to people who are interested and want to learn.

Finally I am free to do body building seminars anywhere and I can have my private clients as soon as I sort out a gym to train them. I am also available for any guest posing or guest appearance in any gym in Cairo/Egypt. Please get in touch for more details: tamara@tamaramakar.me

Watch this space because big things are going to happen very soon. I have a few competitions lined up for 2015, and I also have my plan B.

Keep people in your life that truly love you, motivate you, encourage you, inspire you, enhance you and make you happy and get rid of the negative shit – job is done, look forward to a happier chapter in my life.