Patent Application
20240139574
None.
The present invention relates to weights used for weight training, and specifically to weights that can be filled with sand or other loose materials to adjust their weight.
Weight training is a popular athletic activity, and many people like to work out at home by lifting weights. While some people use small weights to do so, the more advanced forms of weight training require a barbell and large weight plates. Usually, these plates range in weight from 1 pound to 100 pounds, and are made of cast iron. As an athlete gets stronger, they add more weight plates or put larger weight plates on their barbell.
While it is easy to store large numbers of heavy weight plates at a gym, it is harder to store them in a home setting, because they are bulky and heavy. Furthermore, even purchasing such weights is complicated. If the customer goes to the sports supply store in person, this will involve hauling large numbers of cast iron plates (and those weights are less and less available at these stores at all). If the customer orders them online, as is increasingly common, this will involve huge shipping fees that often cost as much as the weights themselves. This renders cast iron weights undesirable for home gym setups.
Adjustable weights that can be filled with sand or water are available for the home gym setting. Such weights are typically made of hollow plastic and include a hole through which the weight can be filled.
Unfortunately, these adjustable weights are typically not strong enough to stand up to the kind of use that an advanced weight trainer might require. Typically, an athlete using a barbell might drop it on the ground from waist height, which would seriously damage a typical hollow plastic weight, and would repeatedly put it on and take it off a barbell, which would quickly damage the plastic. Also, 100 pounds of sand would be heavy enough to break a typical plastic adjustable weight, since their plastic walls are not strong enough to stand up to the load. There is nothing on the market that provides an adjustable weight that can be used with an Olympic barbell.
Finally, an adjustable weight is typically completely hollow inside. This leads the sand to shift during use. On a barbell plate, this would lead to an unbalanced weight, which may be harder to use or even cause injury.
A need exists for an adjustable weight plate that can be used with a standard or Olympic barbell, that can easily be filled with large quantities of sand or other filler to make it usable for serious weight training, that can be shipped easily without huge shipping fees, and that can stand up to the typical use required for advanced weight training.
An object of the present invention is to provide an adjustable weight plate for barbell or dumbbell weight training that is strong enough for the typical use required for advanced weight training.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an adjustable weight plate for barbell or dumbbell weight training that is easy to fill and to empty.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an adjustable weight plate for barbell or dumbbell weight training that is well-balanced.
The present invention is a hollow weight plate that may be used with a standard or
Olympic barbell or dumbbell for weight training. The hollow weight plate may be filled with material, such as sand or lead shot or other loose material, to adjust its weight. The hollow weight plate comprises a main body that has a flat, circular bottom side with a circular hole in the middle. An outer cylindrical wall extends from the outside of the circular bottom side to form the exterior of the hollow weight plate. An inner cylindrical wall extends from the edge of the circular hole to form the inner side of the hollow weight plate. At least two dividers extend from the inner cylindrical wall to the outer cylindrical wall to separate the interior of the hollow weight plate into at least two separate interior compartments. In other embodiments, there may be four, six, or more interior compartments. The outer cylindrical wall, inner cylindrical wall, and the at least two dividers are approximately the same height. The hollow weight plate also comprises a top side that may be formed out of the same piece of material as the main body or may be a separate piece of material. The top cover comprises a larger hole that exposes at least a portion of each of the interior compartments.
The hollow weight plate also comprises a center collar cover, which comprises a collar flat portion and a circular hole from which a collar cylindrical wall extends. The collar cylindrical wall is of a size that fits inside the inner cylindrical wall. The center collar cover is fastened on the top side of the main body so that the collar flat portion covers the top hole and the collar cylindrical wall is inside the inner cylindrical wall.
The present invention may also include a funnel for filling the hollow weight plate with sand or other filler material. The funnel comprises a larger opening for pouring the sand and a smaller opening through which the sand goes into the interior compartments. The smaller opening also comprises a cover located in the middle of the smaller opening to prevent the sand from pouring through the inner cylindrical wall.
The center collar cover may be made of metal and the main body may be made of plastic or rubber.
In an embodiment, the interior surface of the top side is slanted so that the distance between the bottom surface of the top side and the bottom side is greater near the center than it is at the outer edge.
The filler material may be sand or any other loose material. In an embodiment, the filler material may comprise a cementing agent to bind it into a solid.
In an embodiment, at least one of the interior compartments comprises at least one internal stiffener, shaped in such a way as to minimize movement of the filler material inside the weight during use. The internal stiffener may have a honeycomb structure.
The hollow weight plate may have an inner diameter of 1″, to fit a standard barbell or
dumbbell handle, or an inner diameter of 2″, to fit an Olympic barbell handle.
It is to be understood that while only one hollow weight plate is shown on each side of the barbell 200, any number of weight plates may be used on each side in order to increase the weight, as is standard practice in weight training.
An aspect of the present invention is a hollow weight plate intended to be filled with loose filler material, such as sand, gravel, or lead shot. The amount of loose filler material may be adjusted to make the weight heavier or lighter as desired by the user. In an embodiment, the loose filler material may solidify after it is poured into the hollow weight plate—for example, concrete may be used. The present disclosure is not meant to be limiting as to the type of filler material may be used; however, for purposes of the below description, the use of sand is implied.
As can be seen in
As can be seen in
Returning once more to
The funnel 300 is shaped in such a way that it can direct sand into the opening in the top side of the hollow weight plate (with the center collar cover taken off), in such a way that the sand is guided into each interior compartment and not into the center hole of the weight plate.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the hollow weight plate comprises a sloped top surface to make it easier to empty out the sand if desired, and/or a sloped bottom surface to make the sand flow all the way to the outside of the hollow weight plate when it is being filled.
In an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in
The hollow weight plate of the present invention may be made in different sizes to account for different desired weight ranges, as long as the radius of the inner hole on the weight plate is suitable for placing on a barbell or dumbbell. There are several standardized weights for Olympic barbell training, namely 45 lbs., 25 lbs., 10 lbs., 5 lbs., and 2.5 lbs. The standard 45 lb. weight plate has a diameter of 17.5″; the other standard weight plates have varying diameters and thicknesses, depending on brand. In an embodiment of the present invention, several sizes of plates are offered to accommodate the above listed weights of sand, and the 45 lb. plate is 17.5″ in diameter. The thickness of the 45 lb. plate preferably is such that it accommodates 45 lbs. of sand; the dimensions of the other plates are also such that they accommodate the listed weights of sand.
In other embodiments, different weights or sizes of the hollow weight plate are provided, and the present invention is not limited to the standardized weights described above.
The opening in the top side of the hollow weight plate is preferably wide enough to enable the hollow weight plate to be easily filled or emptied. Preferably, the opening is not too wide, since that would necessitate a larger collar flat portion, which is made of metal and therefore heavier than the plastic main body of the hollow weight plate. However, if the opening is too small, it will be difficult to fill or empty the hollow weight plate.
Exemplary embodiments are described above. It is to be understood that the present invention encompasses other embodiments that form reasonable equivalents to the above described embodiments, and that it is limited only by the appended claims.
