More importantly, I wanted to express my appreciation for what you and your company has done for me over the years. This may help explain to you guys why I so love MASS and their people/products:
Circa 1993
Couldn't have been long after MASS opened its doors. I saw a small black and white ad in the back of Muclemag International
"Who else wants to gain 5, 10 up to 15lbs from Zebutol?" - A simple 1-800# was listed.
Zebutol? What's that? Never heard of that one. Heard of this internet thing but never seen/used it. MASS? Who the hell are they? MASS wasn't online anyway. No pro-bodybuilder before/after pictures attributed to "Zebutol"? Something caused me to pick up the phone. Glad I did. Best decision I ever made..
First package never arrived. "I knew it" I remember thinking "You're so stupid, all of these mail order places are shady". Subsequently called John and what was his answer? "Says the carrier delivered it. No problem though, I can see you're a first time customer so I'll make it right". He sure did.... within a day or two there it was, sitting at my doorstep. And the claimed 5-15lb increase from one bottle? That was there too!
Subsequently ordered a lot of stuff from MASS and John spent a lot of time with me on the phone. I mean a LOT of time. I noticed in some cases, he recommended NOT purchasing some of his supps I was inquiring about. WTF?
Circa 1995
Later batches of Zeb kept changing. So did the results. Some bottles worked like gangbusters. Others I got ZILCH from. I never asked for a refund b/c here was this guy, helping me out so much... how could I? Now we know why; it wasn't made by MASS but by someone else. John/MASS subsequently dropped it and for good reason; nobody wants an unreliable product.
Circa 1996
Subsequently "Adaptogen N" was introduced. I took a look at the formula and noticed "Suma Extract" (same active as listed in ZOE's Zebutol) was listed. OK I'm in...
While I didn't gain quite as much weight as the "real" bottles of Zeb, I for sure noticed a difference. I then called to tell John and he said something along the lines of "You sound fairly knowledgeable about this stuff, would you consider writing an article for my newsletter?". I did so and in 1996, it became my very first "published" work I guess you could say. Yep, John/MASS gave me my start writing.
John, do you still have that article?
Circa 1997
Unbeknownst to John, I ran bloodwork in 1997 to see if there were objective measurements to validate what I was "feeling". Imagine my surprise when I saw a 30% increase in Testosterone in 60 days... That again was the original formula without the stronger Trib Extract, Longjax (which replaced Pantocrine in the one I was using), etc. I called John to inform him and needless to say.... yep, I began writing another article. Here's the link to that article from 13 years ago. It was titled "Passing The Testosterone Test". I memory serves, I came up with that one all my own! Undoubtedly due to the ephedrine I was also ordering from MASS:
https://bodybuildingsupplements.com/testosterone_test.html
Circa 2003
All of a sudden I noticed the Pantocrine was gone and replaced by Eurycoma Longifolia. This time I discussed at length with John his reasoning. "Makes a lot of sense" I remember thinking. We agreed to run another test. This time I opted for saliva testing, knowing it had come a long way (now rivals blood tests in it's accuracy). Result = mind blown!
A full 55% increase in JUST 27 days! Here's a link to the subsequent article I wrote after getting those labs back!
https://bodybuildingsupplements.com/adaptogen.html
Keep in mind the formula today is even stronger. While the actual herbal extracts are from the same source material, they're now stronger (much stronger) and the Eurycoma Longifolia that was used in the 2003 version is now the more potent Longjax Extract.
This wasn't a surprise to me any longer; MASS is, was and always will be a very modest yet cutting edge company devoted to innovating and refining its products. Adaptogen N is but one example. You can say the same about Kre-Anabolyn, Burn It Up! etc..
He went through a similar evolution with MassPro. When AST decided to cut corners with their then excellent VyoPro whey concentrate, MASS wouldn't stand for it. Looooong story but the end result? MassPro, a category killer if there ever was one.
Circa "After That" - My memory gets fuzzy
I honestly don't know where I was MASS wise after 2003. I still ordered here and there but rarely called. I was soooo focused on my insurance "career". I even invented yet another alter ego, dubbing myself "The Franchise" after one of my favorite wrestling personalities at the time.
Stupidly, I began to attach my self identity/self-worth to my job and career. BIG MISTAKE so please don't make it! I found out the hard way a few years later that no matter how good you are, it takes but ONE person to rip the rug out from underneath you. Ooops, Rob's out of a job. I also lost by self-worth/identity because I invested in something that was outside of my control (unlike your training, your job/career isn't in your hands - unless you're self-employed).
I lost my way man. I lost touch with MASS and someone who really cared about me, John Drake. Please don't let this happen to you. You may never speak or do business with John/MASS but know the people in your life who REALLY have your back! Everyone else who you "think" has your back? Watch them melt away when the tough times come.
You never know who's swimming naked until the tides goes out...
There was a period of time not long ago where like all of us, John hit a difficult stretch of time in his life. Regrettably, he didn't hear from me much during this time. A time where I could have been there for him. John, I still feel terrible about this to this day. Here's the thing though: after that long period of time I called John and it was as if nothing ever happened. "So happy to hear from you Rob, how have you been"? Had no idea I called to place an order and I subsequently found out about all of the bad things that took place while I was gone.
I felt awful but the whole episode illustrates just what kind of person John is and keep in mind; this man built that into the fabric of his company - Muscle and Sports Science.
It just evolved from there. Over the years I kept bugging him about doing an Ecdy product (beyond the custom Ultra Suma 25:1 extract found in Adaptogen N). He never did it and now I know why; there was a dearth of quality RCE available during this time and virtually all the rest were offering cheap Cyanotis Vaga, if anything. Pro-hormone hysteria was sweeping our little world so no need/interest in Ecdy.
Mark Thierman? Didn't know who he was but turns out he was in the federal pen for distributing GHB. Only found that out by reading "Steroid Nation" years later. GREAT read BTW. If you haven't picked this up yet you MUST do it now! In fact, here's a link!!
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=us
The book goes WAY beyond steroids and illustrates how the murky world of MANY of today's supplement companies were STARTED by former steroid convicts that dreamed their companies up while still in jail! That's right, MANY of these companies today were funded by money made by these guys from selling steroids!!
In the book, you'll read the UNBELIEVABLE story of the guy who owned OSMO, the FIRST company to distribute "Andro" and how he made more money sitting in jail than he did on the outside! I won't spoil the whole story but I'll drop this clue; do you remember when some reporter snapped that picture of "Andro" St. Louis Cardinal Slugger Mark McGwyer (or however you spell it) slyly slipped into his locker? Yep, that was OSMO's.
Do the math on what that did for OSMO's Andro sales!!!
Back on point: "Hey John, why not still carry Zebutol/Laxogenin? Long gone and I found out why after reading "Steroid Nation" - Mark Thierman was the chemist who made (but didn't sell) them and he was in jail during this time!! How do I know he made them? Because I called him and he told me!! How did I get his #? I reached out to Josh Peter.. the former Yahoo Sports columnist who wrote this expose' on Tim Couch.
FASCINATING read and it's FREE!:
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=j ... ouch082807
I saw that graphic of Laxogenin and recognized it immediately. It was the very same graphic used in Amino Discounters "Mesobolin" ads back in the day.
John, believe you have this somewhere. Can you put a picture up?
Then, buried deep in this 5 part article I saw mention of "Anabolica". "Hey, I still have some of that in the lock box" I thought. "I think..." checked the label and yep, 5-alpha hydroxy laxogenin. All of a sudden, this started to add up in my mind so I contacted Josh Peter. He flipped me Thierman's phone # and I ran with it. Thierman subsequently confirmed that he was the chemist behind the following products:
1.) Mesobolin (Amino Discounters - his company)
2.) ZOE Discoveries Zebutol, Hexandrolone and DCP*
*DCP or Dicyclopentanone is unrelated to Ecdy yet it too, was found in the former Soviet literature Thierman was scratching around in. In fact, I think MASS carried this one too!!
3.) Maxwell Research's "Anabolica"
Here's the link to pictures of ZOE's Zebutol, Ecdysterone, Anabolica and the lab results that were found!
https://bodybuildingsupplements.com/phpB ... +anabolica
And how did I come across Zoe's Zebutol/Ecdysterone and get them tested? Blueprint Believers gave back, that's how! A VERY generous man named David N. contacted me on the nolinksplease.com boards via PM. We struck up a friendship. He mailed me the bottles and asked for NOTHING in return except I return the bottles for nostalgic purposes. In return, I flipped him a copy of The Blueprint.
Later, another BP Believer contacted me after I posted pictures on nolinksplease.com of said products. Turns out he worked at a FL University and had access to a GCMS (Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry) machine. He offered to test them in an effort to see what was REALLY in there and did so without asking for so much as a dime.
Lesson for all of us: Sometimes all you need to do is ask!
Back on point: I contacted John about something I was writing circa late 1998. "Another article"? he asked. I laughed and said "it's a little bigger than an article". I emailed it to him and yep, that was The Blueprint.
John read it once and said, "I'm going to have some local athletes here in Athens, GA (college town) run it. I'll call you sometime later on to discuss". The phone rang about six weeks later...
"I think you have something here" he said. "Tell you what, I have a spare domain name bodybuildingsupplements.com I'm not really doing anything with. I've wanted MASS to have a forum for the longest time so it makes sense to build something like that. Maybe even devote it to this Blueprint thing. I'll throw the ad page up....let's see what it does".
I was so excited. I was sitting in Dunkin Donuts with my son (he loves donuts) the day it went "live". I remember rushing home in case an order came across. Ha ha. NOTHING for months. These forums? John and I used to spend our days talking to each other. Hell at one point (September of 2009) I was begging people to ask me something, anything! Look no further than this post:
https://bodybuildingsupplements.com/phpB ... light=bite
A LOT different today, yes?
Needless to say, I was discouraged. John was right there to lift me up, explained Rome wasn't built in a day and does so every day I get down, offering his counsel/advice both as a friend and a businessman. Something that I'm sure has shaved YEARS off of my learning curve.
My very first "order" was placed by AskMass as a way of testing PayPal to see if it worked! To add insult to injury, I still haven't refunded the poor guy! Shortly afterwards, my first REAL order came across again, thanks to John. For the record, it was Eric Halvonik on Mar 17, 2009.
Eric, where are you today? Here to help as I was back then!
Why was Eric the first? Because John plugged it in one of his newsletters! I got something like 6 orders that month. I was elated!!!
Today, I get emails and PM's almost daily from guys who say the nicest things about how this book - this little book - changed not just their workouts but their lives. You know who you are... Today, my phone rings and it's Dr. Scott Connelly on the other end. Today I'm speaking with athletes, trainers, doctors etc. that I never dreamed I'd be speaking with. And why again? Because of a guy named John Drake took a few extra minutes out of his day to answer Rob's pesky questions. Later answered his email questions and encouraged him to do his best, never give up and never stop helping others.
Now you know why I am... the way I am.
In short, The Blueprint, these forums and all the good The Blueprint has done for you, me and all the future good it will do is due to John Drake and MASS. It's that simple...
John, I can't say this enough: THANK YOU for everything you've done for me over the years. God put you in my path and man, was there ever a reason for that. Look at all the people we've helped!!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!
God bless,
ROB
