Patent Application
20210069541
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to an exercise device that can be used to for muscle strengthening and fat burning.
Nowadays people, especially those at work are always lack of time to work out and keep body in shape. Statistic data shows human body when aging, develops fat more quickly around the areas of abdomen, upper arm (bingo wing), waist and thigh. The effective way for removal of the excessive fat is to train local muscle groups regularly and constantly. The frustration for people to keep this regular training is there is none of a unitary device that is simple yet multi-functional that is dedicated to precise local muscle exercise. The major problem for most relevant products on the market are either ergonomically unfavorable or complex constructed that are not comfort and easy to use, which discourage usage that results in ineffectiveness in body shaping.
Therefore, there exists a need for an exercise device that gives multi-function and is simple to build and reliable to use, while allowing users to perform a wide variety of exercises each provides a different form of stimulation to selected muscles of the abdomen, arms, shoulders, and legs.
In one embodiment, an exercise device includes a first arm and a second arm opposing the first arm. The first arm includes a first arc portion, a second arc portion, and a third arc portion, wherein the first arc portion is disposed between and coupled to the second arc portion and the third arc portion, and the second arc portion and the third arc portion are equal in size and a duplicate image of each other with respect to an axis passing through a center point of the first arc portion. The second arm is coupled to the first arm via a pair of parallel bars. The first arm and the second arm are a duplicate image of each other, and the first arm, the second arm, and the pair of parallel bars form a quadrilateral frame.
In another embodiment, the exercise device includes a first U-shaped arm, a second U-shaped arm, a first linear bar, and a second linear bar. The second U-shaped arm opposes the first U-shaped arm and is a mirror image of the first U-shaped arm. The second linear bar opposes the first linear bar and is a mirror image of the first linear bar. The first U-shaped arm is coupled to the first linear bar and the second linear bar, respectively, and the second U-shaped arm is coupled to the first linear bar and the second linear bar, respectively, and the first U-shaped arm, the second U-shaped arm, the first linear bar and the second linear bar are connected to form a quadrilateral frame.
In yet another embodiment, the exercise device includes a first arm and a second arm coupling to the first arm via a pair of parallel bars. The first arm includes a first member, a second member, and a third member, wherein the first member is in a round-bend configuration, and the second member and the third member are in a linear configuration. The second arm includes a first member, a second member, and a third member, and the first member of the second arm is in a round-bend configuration, and the second member and the third member of the second arm are in a linear configuration.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized with other embodiments without specific recitation.
The U-shaped arm 102 generally includes a first arc portion 103, a second arc portion 105, and a third arc portion 107. The second arc portion 105 and the third arc portion 107 are coupled to the first arc portion 103, which is in a general round-bend configuration. The first arc portion 103, the second arc portion 105, and the third arc portion 107 are formed as an integrated part. The second arc portion 105 and the third arc portion 107 may further include a linear portion extending outwardly in a direction away from the first arc portion 103. In such a case, the linear portion may be in a straight configuration. Alternatively, the second arc portion 105 and the third arc portion 107 may further include a non-linear portion extending outwardly in a direction away from the first arc portion 103.
The first arc portion 103, the second arc portion 105 and the third arc portion 107 are essentially co-planar. The second arc portion 105 and the third arc portion 107 are equal in size and a duplicate image of each other with respect to an axis “C” passing through the center point of the U-shaped arm 102. The axis “C” referred to herein is essentially perpendicular to a tangent line at the center point of the U-shaped arm 102.
The second arc portion 105 has one end coupling to the first arc portion 103 and another end terminating at a distal end 110 that is directly connected to an end 118 of the bar 106. Likewise, the third arc portion 107 has one end coupling to the first arc portion 103 and another end terminating at a distal end 112 that is directly connected to an end 122 of the bar 108.
The U-shaped arm 102 and the U-shaped arm 104 are duplicate image of each other with respect to an axis “D” passing through centers of the bars 106 and 108, respectively. Similarly, the U-shaped arm 104 generally includes a first arc portion 109, a second arc portion 111, and a third arc portion 113. The second arc portion 111 and the third arc portion 113 are coupled to the first arc portion 109, which is in a general round-bend configuration. The first arc portion 109, the second arc portion 111, and the third arc portion 113 are formed as an integrated part. The second arc portion 111 and the third arc portion 113 may further include a linear portion extending outwardly in a direction away from the first arc portion 109. In such a case, the linear portion may be in a straight configuration. Alternatively, the second arc portion 111 and the third arc portion 113 may further include a non-linear portion extending outwardly in a direction away from the first arc portion 103.
The first arc portion 109, the second arc portion 111 and the third arc portion 113 are essentially co-planar. The second arc portion 111 and the third arc portion 113 are equal in size and a duplicate image of each other with respect to the axis “C” passing through the center of the U-shaped arm 102. The second arc portion 111 has one end coupling to the first arc portion 109 and another end terminating at a distal end 114 that is directly connected to an end 120 of the bar 106. Likewise, the third arc portion 113 has one end connecting to the first arc portion 109 and another end terminating at a distal end 116 that is directly connected to an end 124 of the bar 108.
In some embodiments, the ends 118, 120, 122, and 124 may be constructed as an end-cap having one side that can be removably attached to respect ends of the bars 106, 108, and anther side that can be removably attached to respect ends of the second arc portions 105, 111, and the third arc portions 107, 113.
The U-shaped arms 102, 104 may be coupled to the bars 106, 108 by any suitable method, such as welding, soldering, brazing, screw fastening, adhesive bonding, or any of combination thereof to form a unitary structure. Additionally or alternatively, the U-shaped arms 102, 104 can be removably coupled to the bars 106, 108 through, for example, the use of the end cap, by fasteners such as screws/bolts, or other suitable locking mechanism such as snap-fit, twist-lock engagement, or the like.
The U-shaped arms 102, 104 are dimensioned to a suitable length for comfortable human body contact. The bars 106, 108 can be wrapped with a soft form material 130 such as rubber, foam rubber, foam synthetic resin, or other suitable elastic material that can be comfortably grasped by a user. Portions or all of the U-shaped arms 102, 104 can also be wrapped with a soft rubber material, or any suitable compressible material such as elastic rubber. In one embodiment shown in
Referring back to
As shown in
The U-shaped arm 300 is leveraged/modified from a standard coil spring but customized to provide resilient force. The first part 302 is generally consisted of a first arc portion 304, a second arc portion 306, and a linear portion 308. The second arc portion 306 is disposed between the first arc portion 304 and the linear portion 308. The second arc portion 306 may be coupled directly to the first arc portion 304 and the linear portion 308. In one embodiment, the first arc portion 304 is convexly curved and the second arc portion 306 is concavely curved, with respect to the axis “E”. That is, the vertex of the first arc portion 304 is pointing away from the axis “E” while the vertex of the second arc portion 306 is pointing towards the axis “E”. The first arc portion 304 and the second arc portion 306 may have the same or similar curvature. In one aspect, the first arc portion 304 has a radius of curvature “R1” identical to the radius of curvature “R2” of the second arc portion 306.
Alternatively or additionally, the second arc portion 306 may couple indirectly to the first arc portion 304. In such a case, an intermediate portion 350 may be further disposed between the first arc portion 304 and the second arc portion 306. The intermediate portion 350 may be a linear or non-linear portion and can be made of a resilient material, such as those discussed in this disclosure. In one example, the intermediate portion 350 is a linear straight portion coupling the first arc portion 304 to the second arc portion 306.
The second part 305 includes a first arc portion 310, a second arc portion 312, and a linear portion 314. The first arc portion 310 is convexly curved and the second arc portion 312 is concavely curved, with respect to the axis “E”. The first arc portion 310 and the second arc portion 312 of the second part 305 may have the same or similar curvature.
Likewise, the second arc portion 312 may be connected directly to the first arc portion 310 and the linear portion 314. Alternatively or additionally, the second arc portion 312 may couple indirectly to the first arc portion 310. In such a case, an intermediate portion 352 may be further disposed between the first arc portion 310 and the second arc portion 312. The intermediate portion 352 may be a linear or non-linear portion made of a resilient material, such as those discussed in this disclosure. In one example, the intermediate portion 252 is a linear straight portion coupling the first arc portion 310 to the second arc portion 312.
The resilient force is generated from the first part 302 and the second part 305 of the U-shaped arm 300. Each of the first part 302 and the second part 305 consists of double-arc configuration, which can be represented by the imaginary circles “A” and “B”. This special design can be recognized by a modification from dual coil torsion springs that are deliberately integrated in a consecutive connection. The combination of the double-arc configuration allows the U-shaped arm 300 to provide resilient force that is not solely from the material but the double-arc geometry of the U-shaped arm 300, which means even least flexible material, such as wood, can offer resilient force when formed in such double-arc configuration. When compressed, the preloaded resilient force from either side of the U-shaped arm 300 is translated and/or delivered to targeted muscle and joint which results in reinforcement of the muscle and fat burning.
The U-shaped arm 300 can be modified based on any coil torsion springs. For example, the resilient arm can be shaped as O-shaped coil like torsion spring. It is contemplated that additional spring(s) can be attached on the U-shaped arm 300 as resistant force adjustor.
Various modifications can be made to the U-shaped arms of the inventive exercise device. For example, the first arc portions 103, 109 of the U-shaped or C-shaped arm in this disclosure can be plurally formed in consecutive sequence to form a M-shaped configuration.
If desired, a motion sensor, such as an accelerometer, may be integrated within the exercise device to record exercise action/number which can be connected or wirelessly connected to a digital device, such as a smart phone, a tablet, a laptop computer, etc.
The exercise device of the present disclosure features a lightweight, functional, reliable and cost-effective solution to all abdominal or multifunctional training devices known in the market, which often requires complex mechanisms using mechanical torsion spring to provide resilient force. In contrast, the inventive exercise device utilizes unitary resilient U-shaped or C-shaped arms to generate resistance force completely from the arms that are made of resilient material. Therefore, there is no force created from mechanical component or assembly like torsion spring which provides artificial and mechanical force. Benefitting from uniform single resilient arm, when arms pressed the device bends naturally and generate ergonomic, natural and smooth counterforce resistance verse mechanical torsion spring used on other similar devices. The configuration of the exercise device is so simple that it is versatile in both body accommodation and outside body interaction in exercising the different muscle groups. It targets primarily on abdomen, triceps, pectorals, quadriceps (leg). Other parts of body can also be treated when appropriately engaged with the exercise device.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the disclosure, other and further embodiments of the disclosure thus may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.
