Pain and Gain – Staring Dwayne The Rock Johnson & Marky Mark Wahlberg

Physique Bodyware is featured in the Michael Bay blockbuster movie Pain and Gain staring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Mark Wahlberg due out the spring of 2013. Now read the real story behind the movie.

It was the mid 1990’s. The Miami Beach club scene is dominated by designer drugs, designer clothes and Boy bands. Seinfeld was the hottest show on TV while prescription free steroids found at the local GNC ruled the world of  baseball. Also during the mid 90’s Physique Bodyware was the best selling line of American made Workout Clothes on the planet! Featured on TV shows, Movies and worn by Fitness Celebs and bodybuilders at Muscle Beach. Meanwhile at the other end of the country, Miami Beach Florida’s Sun Gym was the best place to workout. Their Pro shops were loaded with all the hottest fitness gear and the Juice bars kept the cash flowin’. Times were good. The Gym business was (to quote our man Arnold) “Fantastic!” During this era Miami Beach real estate was booming! Nightclubs, bars, restaurants and ocean front property worth millions were your ticket to fame and fortune. Plus knowing all the right people didn’t hurt. Not to mention the exotic line of over the top cars featuring Porsche’s, Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s that all the shiny people changed like their shoes. Miami was that hot!

It just so happens during one of those Miami heat waves back in 1994 that I, the CEO of Physique Bodyware, call me Mr. G. was in town on business along with a little bit of pleasure. I was in town hooking up some new Gyms in Miami with International distributorships plus local wholesale accounts. One of those meetings was with Daniel, the owner of Sun Gym. He was a nice guy with a charming personality and pretty good physique. Dan had a great attitude towards everything love, life and business. Later on that night a deal was struck, Physique Bodyware was going to supply the all the Juiced Up Freaks of Sun Gym with a ton of gear plus a full line of exclusive workout clothing for the grand opening of their new Gold’s Gym franchise. Sun Gym, located north of Miami Lakes was “the gym” a place where bodybuilders “hung out”. Not for Geek’s, they preferred hardcore freaks, the bigger the better! With about 600 members, the gym featured a pro shop, equipped with the latest line of Free Weights, Hammer Strength, Nautilus, Treadmills and more not to mention the full line of anabolic steroids, AKA “The Juice Bar” for sale in the bathroom… and business was booming!

Over the next few months Daniel, his partner John and Physique Bodyware were all best friends. Fancy cars, a Villa, private parties with singers, “A”- list movie stars, endless champagne, beautiful women… then suddenly the money stopped rolling in. Daniel liked the life too much to slow down and chill for a while. Smart? Maybe I gave him too much credit. He was greedy. Suddenly he decided that he wanted to renegotiate his distributorship terms, now he wanted exclusive sales rights for the entire state of Florida with a much longer, net 90 term payment plan with Physique Bodyware. Big mistake! After I received his belligerent voice mail telling me the new terms, that same day I was on the “red eye” From NY to Miami to pay Dan, John the Sun City Gym gang as they would later be called a little visit. Being a former bodybuilder myself at five foot nine and 260 lbs. I was not easily impressed or intimidated by of a couple of gym rats. Besides I figured on the surface that they were reasonable businessmen who wanted to keep a good reputation in the Gym World and would reconsider especially since they had to put up a one million dollar bond to get these gyms rolling. Who would take a chance of losing it all for making stupid threats anyway? Guess again.

It must have been around midnight when I pulled into the gyms dimly lit parking lot. By chance, John, the other owner was pulling in at the same exact time, what are the odds I asked myself. I walked over to him, still sitting in his white Porsche Carrera convertible and said quietly in a soft voice “if Sun City is unable to pay Physique Bodyware according to terms of their contract then” …but before I could finish my sentence John, looking very nervous, confused and sweating profusely, insisted that everything was cool! He assured me that Physique Bodyware would get paid soon. Me realizing that something was off, especially since this guy had a crazed look in his eyes, like a wild animal who has not slept for days maybe he was on something. I encouraged John to pay now and he would receive a 5% discount for both his Sun City and Gold’s Gym accounts. After what seemed like a 10-minute pause, John said, “sure, you bet lets go upstairs and see Daniel he should still be here, he’s got your money, cold hard cash”. We proceeded to the main office inside Sun City gym.

The office was dark, cold as ice with an odd smell of burnt grilled steak. There was Daniel holding a filthy orange duffle bag that looked pretty heavy even for him. He knew why I was there so he proceeded to reach into the bag and pulled out a block of $100.00 bills around 6-8 inches thick and said, “this should cover it, and you’re welcome!” I Replied boldly without hesitation, “your welcome? Whose money is this in the first place?” Yours, but I stopped this guy from keeping it” said Daniel looking over at John. I replied, “thank you, now I gotta catch the next plane back to NY”. Daniel yelled, “what’s your rush? We’re going to party at the club! Besides what’s in NY that can’t wait a few more days? We have a big score that’s gonna make us all rich enough to buy 10 Gold’s Gym franchises around the world and Physique Bodyware is going to supply them all with gear so Lets talk!”

Sensing things were going from bad to worse I did my dead on impression of James Caan from the movie classic Thief. “Do I look like dear Abby to you? If you wanna talk to somebody join the lonely harts club. Me, I’m gonna stay home feed the pigeons, watch day time TV, what the hell do you care?” Not even a chuckle. Then I tried my best Arnold from The Terminator and said “I’ll Be Back”. They looked at each other confused, laughed then suddenly got up and walked into the gym to make a smoothie. Yelling hasta la vista baby, I ran down 3 flights of stairs and managed to get the hell out of their fast! Going straight to the airport I caught the next available flight back to New York.

Days later the Miami Herold broke a story about a gang of bodybuilders and personal trainers from Sun Gym in Miami Florida who killed people in a botched robbery attempt. Rumor has it that the suspects were bodybuilders seen wearing stringer tank tops with the words “Physique Bodyware Go Hardcore or Go Home” across the chest. They were easy to identify. After being drilled for 2 days by the Miami Police regarding Sun Gym and Physique Bodyware’s relationship, I was cleared of any/all charges. ‘Till this day many unconfirmed sources say the money from the dirty orange duffle bag was from an earlier heist that took place, maybe that same night that we first met in fact. Also, the smell of BBQ chicken was really that of human flesh? All involved were eventually captured and put to death under Florida’s death penalty law.

I heard that The Sun Gym Gang heist was recently made into a movie titled Pain and Gain by director Michael Bay of the Transformer franchise staring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Mark Wahlburg, Ed Harris and Tony Shelub due out in the spring of 2013. Keep this in mind, the one story you will not hear about or see in the movie Pain and Gain is how I, Mr. G. almost joined the long list of victims killed by the Sun Gym Gang. You might think some or my entire story is BS? You decide, go see the movie!