Claims
- 1. A treadmill for exercising the upper body and lower body of a user, comprising: a substantially stationary support frame, an endless belt longitudinally encircling the support frame, a pair of substantially upright arm members astride the belt extending upwardly to a corresponding pair of handles for gripping by the hands of the user, the upright members being displaceable by forward and rearward arm movements of the user to move in a reciprocating motion, a drive roller coupled to the belt, a transmission system linking the drive roller to the arm members such that displacement of each of the arm members drives the belt to rotate in one direction around the support frame, a linkage coupling the reciprocating motion of one arm member to the reciprocating motion of the other arm member such that the displacement of each of the arm members in both forward and rearward directions drives rotation of the belt.
- 2. The treadmill of claim 1 wherein the transmission system includes a pulley system.
- 3. The treadmill of claim 2 wherein the pulley system includes at least one drive pulley coupled to the drive roller for rotation thereof and at least one displaceable pulley coupled to one of the upright arm members for displacement thereby, and further comprising a cable connected between said pulleys such that displacement of the displaceable pulley is translated by the cable into rotation of the drive roller pulley.
- 4. The treadmill of claim 1 wherein the ratio of arm movement distance to belt movement distance is approximately between 0.6 and 2.
- 5. The treadmill of claim 1 further comprising means for controllably adjusting the angle of inclination of the treadmill.
- 6. The treadmill of claim 1 further comprising a braking device for opposing rotation of the belt.
- 7. The treadmill of claim 1 further comprising a braking device for opposing rotation of the belt, wherein the braking device is motorized and controlled by a switch proximate one of the handles.
- 8. The treadmill of claim 3 further comprising means for adjusting the length of at least one of the upright members.
- 9. The treadmill of claim 8 wherein the means for adjusting the length of at least one of the upright members comprises telescoping sub-members.
- 10. The treadmill of claim 1 wherein the transmission system includes a flywheel for storing the kinetic energy of the reciprocating motion of the upright members and for steadily releasing the stored energy to smooth the rotational movement of the belt.
- 11. The treadmill of claim 10 including means for rotating the flywheel at three times the speed of the drive roller.
- 12. The treadmill of claim 4 wherein the upper ends of the upright members are angled relative to the lower ends.
- 13. A method of assisting the rotation of a treadmill belt, comprising the steps of: inclining the front end of the belt such that gravitational force on a user frictionally coupled to the belt urges the belt rearwardly; providing a pair of arm members for gripping by the hands of the user, each of the arm members being displaceable by rearward and forward arm movements of the user to move in a reciprocating motion, coupling the reciprocating motion of the arm members to a one-way rotation of the belt for transferring the kinetic energy of arm movements of a user to rearward movement of the belt to assist the gravitationally induced rearward movement of the belt, wherein the transfer of the kinetic energy occurs in both directions of the reciprocating motion of each of the arm members.
- 14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of providing a belt roller connected to the belt for rearward rotation thereof, and wherein the step of transferring the kinetic energy of arm movements comprises the step of rotating a pulley coupled to rotate the drive roller rearwardly.
- 15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of storing the energy of arm movement, and releasing the stored energy at a more constant rate than stored to smooth the rearward movement of the belt.
- 16. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of applying a braking force to impede movement of the belt.
Parent Case Info
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/591,768, filed on Jan. 25, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,209.
US Referenced Citations (25)
Foreign Referenced Citations (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
966865 |
Apr 1975 |
CAX |
235488 |
Dec 1994 |
TWX |
395334 |
Oct 1908 |
GBX |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
591768 |
Jan 1996 |
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