Uncensored

By Scott Welch, Owner MUSCLE INSIDER

1996 was the year I first broke into the business side of the fitness industry. I was still a student at Ryerson University where I was studying Nutrition. I had delusions of one day becoming a pro bodybuilder and thought that learning everything I could about nutrition would be one of my “secret weapons” to rising up the ranks. At the time, I didn’t know that the real “secret weapons” the pros had were found in tiny glass bottles with images of little horses on the sides with strange names like Winstrol-V and Equipoise. University was great but I wanted to find a part-time job that would allow me to network with people on the business front of bodybuilding.

Scott Welch Gets A Job At MuscleMag International

So in the spring of 1996, after bugging and bugging I finally landed a part-time job working for MuscleMag International. I was hired by Robert Kennedy himself (or “Bob” as everyone called him) and I must say, it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had! I worked at his flagship retail store where he put the magazine together upstairs, while downstairs he sold supplements, training equipment, weights, workout clothes, books, videos, gym chalk, posing trunks, posing oil and basically all things bodybuilding! In fact, they even had a tanning bed right in the store. In the background, bodybuilding training videos played over and over on an old TV set right above a fridge packed with RTDs! Store clerks worked out right in the store during their shift. It was a hilarious sight to see customers ask a clerk for help, only to have the clerk continue his set of barbell upright rows while talking them into a purchase!

What Went On Upstairs?

Like I said earlier, right upstairs from where I worked was where they actually put the magazine “MuscleMag International” together. Yes, right above the retail store, graphic designers were putting editorial spreads together, photoshoots were going on, phones were ringing with various bodybuilding journalists and show promoters, pro bodybuilders and hot fitness skanks were always strutting around looking to get “discovered” or at least get a pic in the next issue! You name it, those walls likely saw it. Bob Kennedy and the Editor-In-Chief Johnny Fitness would venture “downstairs” through the store from time to time. Johnny Fitness (real name is Gino Edwards) would come down to see if we were working and not just sitting around and Bob Kennedy would come to just see how things were going or grab a prop or supplement that he needed for a photoshoot. Bob Kennedy was really nice to everyone that worked for him and was very welcoming to any customers that happened to be in the store at the time. Of course to help promote myself, I always made a point of asking Bob and Johnny about one pro or another. Each time I tried so hard to come across as anything but another stupid bodybuilder because deep down, all I really wanted was to work “upstairs” where the magazine got put together!

Who Did I Meet While Working For MuscleMag?

Top pro bodybuilders, powerlifters, football players, WWE wrestlers and other stars were always coming from “upstairs” down into the store to buy their supplements and training gear. Truth be told, I took the job because I wanted to one day be a columnist for MuscleMag and be seen as their in-house nutrition and supplement guru! I read every book Bob ever wrote and owned every issue of MuscleMag in existence! I was a huge fanatic to say the least. Oh ya, back to the fitness “celebrities” I met while working there! Here they are:

• Ronnie Coleman (shared an assorted Subway sub with him)
• WWE Star Trish Stratus (spoke with her many times)
• WWE Star Triple H (talked over the low carb, high fat diet he was on at the time)
• Monica Brant (ate lunch with her)
• WWE Star Stone Cold Steve Austin (had him phone my high school friends right from the store)
• WWE Star Goldust (sold him a tub of Designer Whey protein)
• WWE Star Mr. Perfect Curt Henning (sold him a bottle of Thermadrene and ephedrine)
• WWE Star The British Bulldog (sold him Beverly Vitamin paks and tons of HotSkins clothing)
• IFBB Pro Greg Kovacs (too big for most clothes we carried but always had his wife buy him Pro Tan and lifting straps)
• Other notable fitness “stars” that popped into the store from time to time included: Henderson Thorne, John Simmons, Art Dilkes, Amy Lynn, Stacy Lynn (she managed one of Bob’s retail stores), Anthony “Wolf” Williams, Denise Paglia, Paul Dillett, Astrid Falconi, ”Big” Lou Tsuramus, Bob Weatherill, Nimrod King, Scott Milne (was a big EAS supplement user), Jason Marcovici, Scott Abel (top Canadian trainer), “Freaky” Freddy Antwi (the Candian version of Flex Wheeler), Greg Zulak, Jason Mathas, and many others.

Meeting Bob Gallop From HYPERTECH

While working at MuscleMag, I met a guy named Bob Gallop. He and his wife Suporn owned an ugly clothing line called HYPERTECH. Some would say the two of them made a living by copying well known workout clothes and offering them at a lower price. Unfortunately, the quality of the clothes was poor and the styles were a complete laugh! Anyway, Bob Gallop decided to start a supplement company called “Venice Beach Muscle Research”. He told me he saw how much money MuscleTech was making and wanted a piece of the action!

1997 - The Birth Of Venice Beach Muscle Research

Bob Gallop immediately teamed up with bodybuilding contest prep guru Scott Abel who had a great network of people to tap into. Scott Abel told Bob how much I knew about supplements and I was then hired to be a product formulator! On the Venice Beach Muscle Research team included WWE Superstar Trish Stratus (who Scott Abel discovered, whipped into shape and then first introduced to Bob Kennedy yet never got the credit), Laura Binetti, Dr. Ken Kinakin, Anthony “Wolf” Williams, Pro Jon Simmons, Dr. Lonnie Lowery, Dr. Tracy Olrich, Trevor Timmons (of the Ottawa Senators), “Freaky” Freddie Antwi and several others. I still kept my part-time job at MuscleMag which I did on weekends, but now getting my school assignments done was even harder! But I was FINALLY working in the supplement industry…

My First Supplement Formulations
My first job was to formulate an advanced creatine product, a cell volumizing/anticatabolic product and a fat burner.

“This stuff’s gonna be the REAL deal. No hype or other bullshit claims we can’t back up. This stuff’s gonna really work.” Bob Gallop insisted.

Remember, at this time I was still just a student and had no previous formulation experience! So as instructed, I put together my first formulas on paper. I did this simply by looking through bodybuilding magazines, popular supplement books and by looking at what was already on store shelves. I then went to the library and looked up the medical journals on each ingredient (remember folks, we didn’t have much of an internet back in 1997) to see if the science matched what these companies claimed their products did. Of course, it never did! So after sifting through the journals, I put some basic formulas together for each product, ran them by my biochemistry professors and then submitted them to Scott Abel. Scott then faxed them to Bob Gallop who called me up to discuss the formulas.

Did Someone Dial The Wrong Number?

When Bob Gallop called me, I was amazed at how little he knew about the supplement industry and the formulas he was about to bring to market. He looked over my formulas while shuffling through the fax pages and said:

“Although the formulas you came up with are really terrific Scott, they’re just way too expensive for us to sell. Let’s face it. None of us have any money but if we can make this work, we’ll all be rich. Now we need to just look at what doses of each ingredients other companies are going with and just do what they do. Besides, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel here Scott. Besides, it’s gonna cost a lot of money for all those ads we’re gonna need to get the products selling.”

Now I was VERY confused. I thought they wanted to make supplements that actually worked? I thought we were supposed to be all about “Research” I mean it’s in our fucking logo? I thought they wanted to be different from many products on the market? I was already in articles that ran in MuscleMag posing as their “scientist” that worked with one of their athletes named Scott Milne to ensure his supplement stack was just right. So of course being a stubborn, juiced up bodybuilder I got angry and insisted that the doses of each ingredient must stay the same and not be compromised. Bob Gallop kept insisting that he had to lower the doses of what I recommended to stay priced well with the competition. In some cases, this dose was less than 10% of the level that was in the actual research!

Scott Abel & Bob Gallop Fallout

A fallout then occurred between Scott Abel and Bob Gallop. Scott’s side of the story was that Bob Gallop said he now wasn’t going to give Scott any ownership of the Venice Beach Muscle Research supplement company. Instead, he was going to help promote Scott’s personal training business by recommending that customers hire Scott for the training system that would work best with “his” supplements. Scott Abel was furious. He insisted that Bob Gallop knew nothing about supplements and had none of the connections to the team that he had assembled. Scott called me up to tell me this and made it clear by the end of the call that he was OUT!

Can You Handle The Truth?

I now wasn’t sure what was going on anymore with Venice Beach Muscle Research. Then one Sunday afternoon, Bob Gallop showed up at MuscleMag with the products I formulated to show me how they looked. When I looked at the labels, the dosages used were a complete joke! There was not nearly enough of each ingredient to do what the research showed. I was devastated. When I brought this up with him, Bob Gallop taught me one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned in the supplement business. Bob explained that there were 5 key people that needed to make money off the sale of all supplements:

1. The factory that made the products had to make their money.
2. The distributors that sold the products to the stores had to make money.
3. The retail stores had to mark up the price of the supplement to make their cut.
4. The magazines that ran the ads for the products had to make their money.
5. Lastly, he said he had to make “his cut for doing all this work!”

He then explained that if he used the dosage that the research supported for each ingredient, he would go broke in no time. He added that there was only so much money a person was willing pay for a supplement when they see it in a store. He relayed that my formulas were indeed very effective, but they were way too expensive to sell.

“The fat burning formula you came up with is way more expensive than Ripped Fuel. It’ll cost people over 10 bucks a day just to use it!” Bob explained.

This was a valuable lesson to learn, especially at the mere age of 23! Of course, the costs for ingredients has come down quite a bit now and the research backing many ingredients is far more available than it was in the 90s. The regulations on supplements and the claims you can make are more policed than they were when I first broke into the industry. Of course, the supplements of today are far more effective than they were in years past.