What You Don’t Know, May Kill You

Why the NCAA, and other athletic governing bodies, have banned Jack3d, and why many industry veterans won’t touch it…

Last week yet another story was published about an athlete who had failed his NCAA-administered drug test because of Jack3d, and was consequently ruled ineligible for the entire year. If you happened to miss the article, here’s the link titled: Banned supplement has Grand Valley State football standout sidelined.

Posting the link on Twitter prompted a wide array of responses, but many of our followers asked, “If I’m not an NCAA or high school athlete, why should I care if Jack3d is legal or not?”

Valid question. One we’re hoping to answer now. Look, the NCAA and WADA don’t outlaw products for the sheer sake of simply outlawing products. For example, you’re welcome to take as much protein and fish oil as you’d like, because even if you go a little overboard, you’re not going to wind up harming yourself in the process.

The same thing can’t be said about products like Jack3d, or any other preworkout supplement or fat burner loaded with caffeine and/or Methylhexaneamine. Those jitters, shakes, and sweating you feel when you’re taking one? That’s not you getting “jacked up” for your workout, but rather your heart working inexplicably harder to produce a feeling that’s unnatural, and frankly unsafe.

Yeah, this could be construed as 1R tooting its own horn about selling only NCAA legal supplements, but it’s important to note that when asked about these products, industry veterans we work with on a regular basis take a pass. One strength coach called Jack3d, “complete garbage,” while an industry expert (who started and sold his own supplement company) said he’d, “never take Jack3d because it could literally make your heart explode.”

That’s just real talk and the reason we don’t feel comfortable selling Jack3d, or any other product that isn’t NCAA compliant. It’s not 1R trying to be good for the sake of being good. It’s 1R actually caring about the people who shop with us. It’s us valuing your long-term well being over a bullshit 30 minute “pump” that does absolutely nothing for your long-term body progress.

Will GNC and Vitamin Shoppe sell you these products? Of course they will. Are these retailers the reason why so many athletes have unknowingly tested positive for a product that was purchased over the counter? Of course they are. But that should come as no surprise, as these are the same people who sold you Andro in 1998 and Ephedra in 2003.

We don’t sell Jack3d today because we decided not wait until somebody dies from one of these products to stop selling them. And whether you’re an NCAA athlete, a weekend warrior, or a guy/girl that just wants to look better on the weekends, that logic should be good enough for you to take a pass on Jack3d, and all of the other products that have landed in the Not 1R Approved section.

It’s not just an effectiveness thing. It’s a safety thing.