Anyone who reads this website, or who saw our STRONG documentary, knows about the “love-hate” relationship that I – along with everyone else in the gym – have with Mike “The Asshole” Guadango. You see, Mike is a hard-working, great kid…and he’s also one of the most loyal people you will ever meet. BUT, he can also be a royal pain in the ass! You see, six years ago Mike signed up for 24 sessions…and…well…he NEVER left! He LITERALLY never left! Whether you come by our gym in the morning, afternoon, evening, weekends or holidays; it doesn’t matter…Guadango will be there! And he doesn’t just “mind his own business” and “blend” with the crowd, either. When he’s there, he’s there. For the past six years, he’s been in my ear asking question, after question, after question…after question. He has asked me every training, nutrition and supplementation question known to mankind. Besides asking me, he’ll ask every other trainer in the gym the same question…then he’ll ask my dad…then he’ll ask our nutritionist…over and over and over. You get my point.
You see, Guadango isn’t just an athlete who comes to our gym to improve his performance. He is also studying Exercise Science and Nutrition in college; that is why he has always been so interested in the “why’s” and “how’s” of what we do. Because of his interest in the “why’s” and “how’s” of our program, we have made him our gym “lab rat” on many occasions. From box jumps to dextrose supplementation, Guadango has about as much “real world” experience as you can get for someone his age. The “human experiment” has definetly worked. Mike went from getting cut from the baseball team his freshman year to becoming an All-American a few short years later. This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that Mike has below-average genetics! And I’m not calling his genetics “below average” just to bust his balls, either. At my gym, we tell it like it is; and the fact of the matter is that Mike’s genetics kinda suck (athletically speaking). In fact, our brutally-honest nutritionist, Tom Bilella, once asked Mike if his “ancestors were pygmies” LOL! (True story.)
Not bad for a decendant of pygmies!
Ok, you’re now probably wondering what’s the point to this blog post, aren’t you? Well here’s the deal…
The point of giving everyone a little background on Guadango was because I’m proud to announce that all of the countless hours that Mike has spent at our gym may now benefit YOU!
I kind of feel like a “proud dad” when I tell you that Mike has taken all of his nutrition/supplementation knowledge & experimentation and he partnered with two business-savy guys to form “Grecian Ideal Nutrition“ – a supplement company dedicated to providing athletes (and “regular” people) with supplements that WORK, without the addition of fillers or any of the other fake crap that lines the shelves of most “Health Food” stores. The reason why I’m “endorsing” their supplement line is because I have tried their products – they work – and I was extremely impressed with their business model and professionalism; especially for a start-up company. After “dabbling” in the supplement industry myself; I know how hard it is and I know how much time, effort and money must be spent in order to make it work. This was one of my concerns when Mike told me that his friends were starting a supplement company; I wanted to make sure he knew that a supplement company isn’t something that you can “do on the side”. This was a mistake that I made and I didn’t want them to make the same mistake. But, Mike’s partners are in this thing FULL-TIME, they have solid business backgrounds and money behind them for research and development. This enables Mike to continue to be a “lab rat” at our gym and focus 100% of his attention on providing his partners with information on how athletes are responding to their products, as well as what we are looking for in future products. To me, this is a perfect combination for a business partnership; let the “business guys” focus on the “business” side of things and let the “technician” continue to test and research the products. As a reader of our website, YOU benefit because you will be able to purchase supplements from a company that has been influenced by our gym and is “DeFranco-approved”, without having to spend endless hours talking to “The Asshole”!
GI Nutrition unveiled their product line at our ‘World’s Strongest Athlete’ Contest
Some people may be thinking that I’m endorsing these guys because I am a partner or I have some kind of stake in this company. The fact of the matter is that I am in no way, shape, or form a partner in this company. I’m endorsing these guys because, as I stated above, I believe in the quality of their products because I’m able to see (first-hand) what’s going into them. It’s also a “win-win” relationship for my company if I can provide first-hand feedback to these guys and “have a say” in what I feel needs to be improved with their existing products; or what I would like to see in future products. To me, this is almost like having our own supplement company, without having to deal with all the BS! Who knows, if GI Nutrition continues to grow, maybe they can bring the “DeFranco Energy Bar” back to life??
As of right now, the GI Nutrition product line consists of 3 products – Ideal Whey, Ideal Pump and Ideal Recovery. You can learn all about the specifics of these products at www.GINutrition.net, so I won’t repeat the info here. What I will do is provide you with a quick story of my very first “experience” with each of the three products…
Ideal Pump Pre-workout supplement
If you follow this website, as well as the athletes that train here, you may know the name, Adam Triglia. Adam is a long-time client of ours and he was the winner of our Strongman Contest two years ago with his epic prowler push in overtime! His strongman performance was so gutsy, we had a banner made of him that still hangs in our gym to this day.
The one thing that Adam hasn’t been able to accomplish is the elusive 405 bench! The 405 bench has been Adam’s nemesis for a year now. Then, Adam tried Ideal Pump before a max-effort upper body workout and this is what happened…
I don’t know if that was a coincidence or not, but it was impressive!
Ideal Recovery Post-workout drink
Anyone who trains at our gym knows that Brian Markowski loves to bust Mike Guadango’s balls! Anyway, I was talking with Markowski in the office a couple days after he broke our bench press record in the ‘Washed-Up Meathead Division’ with this 475-pound press…
Here’s how the conversation went:
Markowski: “Have you tried that recovery shit Guadango is giving to everyone?”
Joe D.: “Yeah. It’s actually really good, man. Although I know you’ll never take it because it’s Guadango’s LOL!”
Markowski: “That’s the thing…I DID take it…it’s awesome! I took it after my max-effort workout the day I benched 475. I wasn’t sore at all the next day.”
Joe D.: “See, I’m telling you…it’s legit.”
Markowski: “Man, I wanted it to suck so bad because I hate giving Guadango credit for anything! But I’m definetly getting more of that stuff.”
Ideal Whey Protein Powder
The day that Ideal Whey came out, Guadango brought a container to the gym and asked me to give it to my dad. I stopped by my dad’s condo after work and gave him the protein. Before he even looked at the container he said, “Why the hell would you let him waste a container on me? You know I don’t drink any of this shit anymore! Bring this back to him.”
You see, my dad will not eat or drink anything with any artificial colors or flavors anymore. The only protein powders he has used over the past couple of years have been Jay Robb’s products and Sun Warrior Protein. My dad knows that 99% of the protein powders out there add artificial colors and flavors to them so he just assumed this product was no different.
You don’t look like this at 62 by putting just anything in your body
Before my dad handed the container back to me, I asked him to read the ingredients: Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate), Cocoa, Dextrose, Natural Chocolate Cream Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Stevia, Natural Vanilla Flavor. He read the ingredients and then looked at me and said, “DAMN! They did good!” That brief statement is a HUGE compliment coming from my dad…he is the toughest critic there is. He now drinks it every day.
So there you have it; a new supplement company is born. In a very sleazy, deceptive business; it’s refreshing to see some young talent take the stage!
Please note that the point of this blog post wasn’t to “sell” you supplements. The point was to inform everyone of a new company with a quality line of products that now provides you with another option when you do your supplement shopping. If you do decide to shop at www.GINutrition.net, the boys at GI Nutrition have been kind enough to give 10% off to all of our readers. All you have to do is write DEFRANCO (all caps) in the promo code section of the checkout process to receive your discount.
And to think it all started by jumping on a box…
P.S. If you have any specific questions that you would like to ask Guadango regarding the GI NUTRITION product line, leave your questions/comments below and I will tell him to check and respond here daily.
-Joe D.
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