Exercise devices – User manipulated force resisting apparatus – component...
Patent
1993-08-04
1995-03-14
Apley, Richard J.
Exercise devices
User manipulated force resisting apparatus, component...
482112, 482113, A03B 21008
Patent
active
053972872
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an exercising device comprising a moving unit, a motion-transferring mechanism connected to said moving unit, and a hydraulic system connected to the motion-transferring mechanism for controlling the motions of the moving unit.
More precisely, the invention relates to a double-acting, hydraulic exercising device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,955 discloses an exercising device as described above. The hydraulic system of the device is also designed for individual control of the kinetic resistance thereof. This is effected by means of a pair of adjustable throttle valves, which does not give the handle a constant speed at different loads. Further, this prior-art device produces a guided, arcuate motion, since the rod is attached to the end of a pivotably mounted arm. However, this motion is no real or natural motion and besides is quite incorrect in certain exercising programmes, such as when doing presses. Finally, the setting of the device must be changed for different exercises by moving the arm along an upright, said exercises necessitating different heights for the rod.
Exercising devices are used by sportsmen who wish to improve in their kind of sport, persons practising a profession which involves strenous work, e.g. nursing staff, body-builders and persons doing physical exercise to maintain or develop a good physique. The device is also advantageously used by disabled persons and persons tied to their wheelchair or confined to bed. Thus, there is a need of such devices in places of work, hospitals, at physiotherapists, at health farms, at home and in gyms.
A good exercising device should enable motions of exercise which alternately stress the agonist or antagonist. In each exercise, a muscle or a combination of muscles is working. In the compulsory return motion, the counteracting muscle or group of muscles is working. One-sided training resulting in uneven distribution of the muscles is counteracted by means of devices having a double-acting function. For optimum results, the muscle is to be exercised under maximum load during the entire movement. The training should be effected entirely on the exercising person's conditions and not on the conditions of the device, which applies both to sound persons and to those with reduced functions, the device preferably being settable in the range 1 kP-300 kP.
Double-acting training of groups of muscles counter-acting each other produces a flow of blood to the working muscles, which is constantly high during the exercise. By alternatively contracting and stretching the muscles they are made smoother and more flexible. The double-acting function, which is desired in an exercising device, is used by physiotherapists, inter alia for relieving the patients' muscles of tension and for increasing the patients' muscular strength. The physiotherapist's manual and strenuous can in many cases be taken over by a well-functioning exercising device by means of which the patient can exercise on his own according to instructions, without the physiotherapists's assistance. Finally, a well-functioning exercising device should permit exercising of all large group of muscles, but most of the exercising devices available on the market are not designed for this, but only for separate exercises.
The object of the present invention thus is to provide an exercising device having a double-acting function, for exercising all large groups of muscles in the body.
A further object of the invention is to provide an exercising device by means of which an optimum speed of motion can be obtained, which is settable in both directions and independent of the load.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an exercising device which permits natural motions of exercise and which is readily adjustable for different exercises.
One more object of the invention is to provide an exercising device which, in its unloaded state, is immovable in every position and which is automatically adapted to the user's varying force and to the geometry of the motion of exercise, is
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Apley Richard J.
Mulcahy John
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