Our Story
Back in 2013 my wife and I decided that it was time to give a personal trainer a try as we had plateaued with our training. Our trainer was a 19-year-old young man that introduced us to the use and value of resistance bands. He had us utilizing them in conjunction with our weight training at every session to stretch, to increase our mobility and functionality. Shortly after starting with our Personal Trainer, my wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She had a double mastectomy in December of that year and was cleared to train again in February 2014. It is no doubt that the resistant bands helped her to regain her strength, allowing gentle stretching of the muscles that were affected by her surgery. It was also during this time that if I wanted to bench with anything over 135 lbs. I was unable to because of shoulder pain. Our trainer rectified this problem as well by means of the resistant bands working through mobility, flexibility, and functionality training for my shoulders. I invested in some resistance bands for home use.
Prior to our experience with the personal trainer I was the guy that believed that barbells and dumbbells were the only way to strength train. As much as I had come to appreciate resistance bands as a legitimate piece of exercise equipment, I felt that they were lacking one thing, an anchor point with varying heights that didn’t leave you stuck in a single plane when working out., and gave you the ability to basically be able to perform any exercise that you could with weights.
In 2017, while vacationing in Maine with my family, my son and I wanted to get in a resistance band workout in before heading out to dinner. Since there were not any gyms in the area, we would take a couple sets of resistance bands, a couple of sandbags with us on vacation for working out. We headed out to the rear parking area of the B&B and searched for that anchor point to be able to get the work out in. When we realized that there was not anything suitable for use, I remembered I had a hitch tongue, and ball in my truck and decided to use that. While working out I mentioned to my son that I should try to make something that will work with a hitch receiver that we would have for our own use personal use to be able to work out no matter where we were, and be able to hit all muscle groups at varying angles and heights. We got a decent workout in but knew it could have been even better with some type of “tower” to hook the bands up to. It was during his drive back to NY the next day that our son called us and told me that I needed to create this piece of equipment and make it available to the public.
We love being outdoors and always loved the idea of having an outdoor gym, now we have “The MOG”.
From that day forward I took his suggestion and ran with it. There were many steps taken to get where we are today that included a welding course to freshen up my welding skills, working with a business mentor, Onondaga Small Business Development Center, Intellectual Property Department at Syracuse University for patent research work, marketability, hiring a trademark, and patent lawyer, and so on. In 2018 I had my own personal battle with Prostate Cancer, and some complications, but I overcame that, and got right back to what was now, even more so, my passion. In the fall of 2019, I decided that this dream needed my full attention and decided that I would leave a secure well-paying federal government job to pursue it. It was at this time and with the help of my 78-year-old father, brother in law, and nephew we built my workshop in the fall of 2019 and I officially left employment with the government in April 2020. My two extremely talented sons have been instrumental as well. Colten designed and maintains our website, and Brett has provided the photography and has been a trusted business advisor. They are both self-employed and have provided me with so much insight. It is an amazing feeling to finally introduce to the world, The MOG, your very own Mobile Outdoor Gym, and easily convertible home gym.
It is our wish that you find the idea of being able to have a high-quality resistance band workout wherever you go as appealing as my family and I do. We love being outdoors and always loved the idea of having an outdoor gym, now we have “The MOG”. It transforms any vehicle into an outdoor gym, and it is so versatile that there is even a home adaptor kit so you can have the luxury of the same workout at home.