The Genesis Behind Force of Habit (FOH)

I received my first vinyl weight set at the age of twelve (12) and I was immediately hooked on weightlifting. I focused a lot of my training on my upper body, chest, shoulders, biceps and abs. I focused very little on developing my lower body. The strength and size came quickly, inspiring me to push even more.

Over the decades I noticed the gradual reduction in the range of movement in my shoulders due to bench press and other related chest exercises. Eventually I developed what is commonly known as, rotator cuff condition (rotator condition), a tightening of the shoulders. The pain related to the condition affects every aspect of your life, for instance, combing one’s hair, waving at someone, driving, sleeping, reaching for an overhead item, putting on and taking off a shirt or jacket, throwing a ball, etc. At its peak, I had to use one hand to assist the other hand out of bed in the morning.

In December 2012 I wanted to return to weight training after a long layoff. As I went to do a back squat warmup set on the squat rack, I realized that I couldn’t get under the bar in the traditional way by placing the barbell on my shoulder with my head in front of the bar and my hands behind the bar. My feeble attempt to get under the bar resulted in the bar resting on my spine and upper neck instead of my shoulders. I had to abandon the squat exercise altogether as my shoulders were too stiff to allow the squat exercise. To make things worse, I bruised my spine in the process.

Immediately I went online in search of a solution and discovered a specialty weight bar called a, “Cambered Squat Bar”, also known as the off-set bar. I had never heard of a cambered squat bar. It’s a uniquely constructed bar that allows you to do the back squat free from the shoulder pain associated with rotator condition. Its odd shaped design allows the user to still do back squats with heavy weight as they did prior to sustaining the shoulder injury or rotator condition.  The secret is in the positioning of the hands.  The unique design drops the hands from shoulder height down to a ninety (90) degree angle reducing the stress on the wrists, elbows and torque on the shoulders, tendons and joints.

At the time there were a limited number of companies in the United States selling the cambered bar. Unfortunately, the over $200.00 in shipping cost to the receive the bar made getting it prohibitive. 

Undaunted, I went down into the basement and started to take measurement from some of the weight bars I already owned with the intention of making my own cambered bar. I took my drawings to a local welder and he said he could have the finished product in an hour. When he told me the price to make it, it was so reasonable that I told him to make two (2). I intended to keep one unit and sell the other. He did make two units but I never sold the second one.

Without any R&D, I knew that my rotator condition wasn’t unique to me and must be affecting thousands of fellow weightlifters. Immediately I began to consider starting a company to manufacture and sell the cambered squat bar. I mused about original vanity licence plates for the cambered bar and names for my future company. I found the photograph below and guesstimated what the measurements of the cambered bar might be. All this in a couple of days. After months of trial and error I came up with the product that we offer to the public today.

I was completely consumed with starting a company and selling these bars so that other weightlifters could benefit from the relief I found from the use of the cambered squat bar. One day I was hustling to catch the regional GO Bus in downtown Toronto to take me home. I couldn’t stop thinking about making these bars. As I was running for the bus, I said to myself, “Just buy the bar from the United States and be done with it, why do you want to start a company?” At that point I said to myself, “Force of Habit”. I was forty-six (46) at the time and I had been lifting weights for thirty-four (34) years and I realized that I was driven to do this by, “Force of Habit”. It didn’t matter that I was a nobody in the fitness industry who had only won a bench press contest at a bar in Markham, ON in 1986, this is what I wanted to do!

Now that I had the name, “Force of Habit Barbell Company (FOH)”, I ran the idea by my closest friends. One friend who I will refer to only as, “Tina”…, because that’s her real name I began bouncing catch phrases off of her. She said, “Curl up with the cambered squat bar”. I told her that phrase wouldn’t work because there is already an exercise called, “curls” and it has nothing to do with back squats. We went back and forth and joked that we were like ad executives, Darrin Stevens and Larry Tait from the TV show, Bewitched. Finally, Tina said, “Others Don’t Know SQUAT!” Immediately I knew this phrase was going to be a hit as well as the company name, Force of Habit.

From this point forward, it was all hands-on deck with friends and family assisting me with ideas and steering me towards welders (fabricators), powder coaters, printing companies, photographers, male and female models, accountants, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines, establishing an HST number, etc. I launched Force of Habit Barbell Company in Mississauga, ON Canada in July 2013. 

The following month I hosted a Force of Habit appreciation dinner at The School Fine Dining in Unionville, ON. I deliberately didn’t tell anyone, except the restaurant the reason for the dinner. As a result, many of my guests thought that they were there to witness a wedding ceremony. The dinner was a hit and the guests received Force of Habit gifts including custom t-shirts, toques and watches. The rest as they say is history. 

We believe that we are the only company to provide both Olympic- 2" and Standard- 1" cambered squat bars. Because the Standard one inch weights that you used in the 70s have the same value as the weights sold today. As we have grown, we have expanded our product line to include fitness products used for strength training, weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman, bodybuilding, and for conditioning athletes in MMA, hockey, football, rugby and CrossFit. We are proud to have sales across North America and throughout the world.