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A special thank you for John Drake/MASS

Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 5:47 pm
by RobRegish
First, my apologies for AGAIN not getting a real Christmas card in the mail. I fail every year. Miserably....

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

Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 2:01 pm
by RobRegish
One more note on Christmas (Eve) in particular...

Nicholas Maximus was so excited he spun himself in circles yesterday afternoon and got dizzy! No worries....I calmed him down by explaining NORAD interceptors forced Santa down upon piercing North American airspace.

Blamed it on the Canadians.

Afterwards, I felt bad. Canada gave us Thebuffer, beefcake and many, many other BP Believers. Prior to that, Canada bestowed both Pam Anderson and Shania Twain upon us. NOTHING screams "legit" louder more than a country western singer..... from Canada.

Pam Anderson? She did more good for this country than any of those hockey players we lure away from Canada with big money. So yes, I'll need to switch the story up next year.

I'll blame it on someone. Anyone from Libya here? My friend Mo'mar Quadaffi is still kickin' around...

Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:48 pm
by askmass
I am so proud of you as a father, Rob.

Nicholas Maximus will carry with him such a fine tradition.

Lots of tradition on these pages... Lots.

OSMO. Wow. We sold so many cases of that Andro, and it was a good one. We then did the sublingual Androstene Supreme. All of that was PA's material, but sublingual was our idea. Guys still ask about it, once in a blue moon.

Rob Regish and I have known each other since before my son was born, and Chris is 16 now. I am a very proud father, and a very blessed one, too. Rob and I used to trade ECW tapes in those days. Next thing you know, RVD is on the phone saying he'd heard about ADAPTOGEN N and wanted to try it...

Maybe someone told him at the gym, or he saw a small ad in Muscle & Fitness. Or, did ROB REGISH tip him off?

RVD works at TNA now, with another guy I know from the TV production side of things. Both of them met last year for the first time, but I've known both for 10 or 15 years separately.

It's a small world, fellas.

Send blessings to all you know.

The tradition.

It carries on.

Rob Regish has a hunger and drive that I see in a whole bunch of other guys I know here. Athletes like Steve "Dr. Draco", Hani/BigJ and my fellow journeyman Jason from just up the road.

Near or far, it's a small world.

I'm not one to preach, but it is all about giving and sending blessings, guys - and gals! I am convinced of it.

Blessings to you, Beefcake. You are The First Lady of the BP!

Send blessings, people... in your own way.

It is the wisest investment a person can make.

Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:53 pm
by dracotdrgn
Family and REAL friends are huge in my book and I've found both here. I had to do a little digging but this is what I found. I thought it was earlier but it all started with a little back and forth but...

Feb 28th 1999 John Drake sent me a free copy of "Fast Mass" A Guide To Muscle Gain. I have the original e-mail and the original printed copy I carried around reading. More followed, Intensity Factor, Pre-Dianabol Training, and a Masspro Technical report.
GET THIS I just realized right now today going through my old stash of paperwork I have an undated copy of "Anabolic Revolution" by Rob Regish. When did this come out? It had to be that same time frame to be in this folder. NICE!
In my stash I also have original pages printed from the website advertising Adaptogen N, Androstene Supreme, DHEA, Gamma GH, Glutamine Supreme, and Yohimbe.
I also have an old product sheet printed on yellow paper with Androstene for $34.95....MassPro for $22.95 case price of $79.00.
This is what we call "The good 'ol days." I was getting support from John and apparently Rob too back then. I was coming of an achillies rupture and nothing could stop me from progress in the gym. (So I thought)
Life happens....the wrong friends and the wrong women can and will get you off the path. Stay on the path brothers...as Forest says "That's all I have to say about that."
Back on the path... things going well... plateau. Not sure why I got a profile on BB but I did. Had already been back with Mass and was actually talking up his products when I ran into Mixelflick, another Mass supporter. This was 8/09 the bond was formed the BP started in 10/09. I am currently in week 3 of my 5th or 6th run.

Wrapping Up
The economy has found me away from my profession and following my heart. I work at a not for profit gym, and am a certified personal trainer( for a bit of profit.) I love what I do and help people like I was helped. I tell people daily about John and Rob and how the trainer needs a trainer sometimes too. Everything from a business model, professionalism, personal attention, and a wealth of informtion, you guys have taught me alot. My two older brothers that I hope to meet and shake hands with. Thank you both for this awesome year and I welcome another year of success.

Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:18 pm
by RobRegish
WOW man, thanks for the trip down memory lane :)

THAT was fantastic stuff and YES, I remember much of that. Anabolic Revolution... forgot when that was written. Remember what it was though and some of the positive feedback John shared with me. Made me feel good inside.. :)

Pre-Dianabol training I always heard about but don't think I ever read. I'll have to check it out!

"The economy has found me away from my profession and following my heart. I work at a not for profit gym, and am a certified personal trainer( for a bit of profit.) I love what I do and help people like I was helped".

God works in mysterious way, yes? So happy for you Draco and big $ or not, NOTHING can replace that feeling you have. Know it well...

For the record, when I hit a rough patch not long ago Draco was the very FIRST guy that reached out to speak with me on the phone. Man, I can't put into words how much that helped me.

We are in a positive place here. A place the big man would be proud of (and I'm not talking about AskMass :)). Why?

Because we're sharing our collective gifts with each other in the interest of helping our brothers out. That doesn't stop with your training BTW, as Draco's gesture so eloquently illustrates.

Why people hate on BP is beyond me. I don't spend much time thinking about it though. They're loss. Stick to nolinksplease.com and debating how many rounds of "Pink Magic" it's going to take to break that plateau man.

Some people, you just can't help. I'll take one Draco any day of the week for every wingnut that believes debating whether 5000 or 6000 IU of Vitamin D is going to make or break him :)

Thanks again man. You have so much to be proud of and more importantly, so much more to look forward to. Undoubtedly, you too will make a positive difference in sharing your knowledge with others. In fact, I'm quite certain you already have....

Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 12:44 am
by JlCh
Wow, I generally ignore this sub-forum but there are some good reads (posts) in this thread. Pretty inspiring to reach out and be a "better" person from reading the past 3-4 posts.

Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:23 am
by RobRegish
The chronological history is something I've wanted to outline for the longest time. I've been accused of being in bed with MASS since day 1. Well, I suppose that's partially true. Almost from the moment he opens his doors John and I struck up a friendship.

To be clear: John offered me compensation in return for my articles MANY times. I always declined, instead asking only for a free bottle here and there of an existing or prototype product he's had in the works over the years. That's as close to being "comped" as it's ever come.

I paid out of my own pocket for those blood, saliva and other diagnostics. I buy MassPro, Kre-Anabolyn etc. every month just like you guys do. Hell, I'll post the receipt from my latest BP Mass Stack purchase if you want to see it as the proof.

Funny thing, nobody wants to believe this and other relationships I've built with companies has been done so on nothing more than trust, mutual interests and keeping one's word. Too good to be true?

That's what they said about 2.0 too....

Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:12 pm
by askmass
I've tried to hire Rob or line him up as a distributor several times, and I know he has strongly considered it a time or two.

It's been a standing offer for, forever.

For those of you who are new and might like some more insight from a 3rd party, this is a decent overview of MASS that touches on Rob's unpaid affiliation later in the thread- https://bodybuildingsupplements.com/phpB ... .php?t=212

Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:53 pm
by RobRegish
John, after today' adventures in my full time job, I just may be taking you up on it :)

Seriously guys, if you've ever thought of making some extra income... I can think of no better way than turning someone onto MASS's products. If I could turn back time, I would have done this years ago.

BONUS: You will learn much yourself insofar as to how people respond to MASS's products. The vast, vast majority will be very pleased. Even the ones who have issues you can learn from. Hell John solicits feedback from me about what I like/don't like. Result?

In some cases it's meant a better product for you! Do the same and earn some cash doing what you love. Like this story so perfectly illustrates, you'll never know where things might wind up!

https://bodybuildingsupplements.com/phpB ... php?t=1017