Patent Grant
7670270
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exercising machine for performing muscle training exercises making 5 use of the resistance offered by a load group of a given type.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is known, the execution of a simple articular movement or athletic action is the result of the balanced activity of at least one pair of muscles, more particularly agonistic muscles, or muscles which tend to cause flexing of the articulation, and antagonistic muscles, or muscles which tend to bring the articulation back into its extended position.
The exercising machines which may be used to perform muscle exercises of an anaerobic type are normally provided with levers or cables by means of which the user interacts with a load unit normally of the gravitational type so that the load model most familiar to users may be reproduced. Hereinbelow, for the sake of brevity, the machines by means of which the user interacts with a load of a varying nature will be referred to simply as “weights machines”.
It is likewise known that some weights machines are provided with levers which may be connected to the load directly or indirectly. Leaving aside the former, which are of no interest for illustrating the object and nature of the present invention, the latter very commonly include machines where the user operates the load by means of a cable which is arranged between the load and an operating apparatus with which the user interacts. The cable usually follows a path passing between a plurality of pulleys to each of which a deviation through a particular angle corresponds. Normally the load unit is of the gravitational type and usually comprises a plurality of weights and is normally referred to as “set of weights”. Each weight has a given mass and is mounted so as to be slidable axially in a vertical direction by means of a pair of rods. Some of the problems associated with these machines will be illustrated below, it being the aim of the present invention to examine and overcome said problems.
Firstly it must be pointed out that in these cable operated weights machines a translatory movement is imparted to the set of weights selected between a lowered position and a raised position and that the sensation of resistance offered by the set of weights selected for the exercise gradually diminishes as the movement imparted to the operating apparatus reaches completion. When the set of weights nears its highest point, the user experiences a reduction in the force to be overcome, which becomes—3-very evident whenever the user performs a movement which keeps the set of weights at a constant height. It is obvious that, when there is no movement of the resistive load, the user does not perform any work which, as is known, is the product of a force times movement. Therefore, the user is aware, at least for a moment, of an interruption in the muscular exercise. This is the cause of dissatisfaction for an experienced user who is able to recognise his own degree of effort at all times and wishes to maximise it during the whole of the exercise. Normally this type of user prefers not to use single-function weights machines, which exercise just one particular muscle group, and so-called “functional” machines which exercise several muscle groups at the same time. For the sake of clarity, a functional machine is a machine where the operating apparatus, which is connected to the load by means of a cable, allows the user to perform complex articular movements starting from a free posture and therefore simulate activities/movements which are usually performed during the carrying out of any sporting or working activity. The ends of the cable in these machines may be fixed or adjustable spatially. Examples of these machines may be found in the patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,238,323, 6,387,020 and 6,422,980.
It should be noted, moreover, that, in cable-operated weights machines, be they of the conventional or functional type, the resistive load always acts tangentially with respect to the limb which is to be exercised by raising the load, and this depends on the fact that the articular movements are obtained by means of a combination of rotational movements, while the cable is a member having a mechanical action only when it is subjected to a pulling force acting along its axis. Therefore, in a cable-operated weights machine, the resistive load applied to a limb by means of a cable will be mainly oriented transversely with respect to the said limb, and the resistance which this load will produce to movement of the limb will always exert a pulling force acting on a given side. Therefore, a cable-operated weights machine reproduces only partially natural conditions where the limbs, when they move in space against the thrust of a load, are subject to combined loads, each of which acts in a given direction.
Moreover it is known that, when it is required to increase the resistance to prolonged effort and not so much the degree of explosive power, it is necessary to perform preferably a large number of repetitions with a low set weight. In cable-operated weights machines it can be easily established that the set of weights is imparted by the user a speed such that it exceeds the energy in its current position and therefore continues to move vertically upwards as a result of inertia, even when the user has completed the agonistic phase of the athletic movement. In the worst of cases, the set of weights at the end of its travel movement, due to inertia, strikes against the upper travel stops of the weight guiding rods and in any case the situation arises—albeit for a very short time interval—whereby the apparatus operated by the user is not subject to any load. At the end of this very short time interval, the load acts again on the operating apparatus suddenly, causing an unpleasant sensation of increased load, which could also be damaging from a physiological point of view, in addition to causing discomfort, in the case where the user has set a large load.
In attempt to overcome the problem of inertia, in some cable-operated weights machines a cam has been mounted along the path of the cable, so as to keep constant the variation in energy of the set of weights during the respective operating movement and thus keep constant the amount of energy required of the user during the course of the exercise. Obviously the installation of this cam, which must be varyingly designed for different types of machine, results in a considerably increase in the cost of the machine. Moreover, it must be mentioned that the addition of this cam is difficult to implement in machines where the operating apparatus consists of a handle which must be gripped by the user, as in the case of so-called pulley-type machines. This type of problem has been examined and partially solved in the above-mentioned patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,238,323, by means of the creation of a multiple-transmission hoist provided with a plurality of pulleys arranged between the set of weights and a final pulley which diverts the cable upstream of the operating apparatus. This final pulley is mounted fixed on the frame of the machine. In this way the operating apparatus and the set of weights are disassociated from each other in terms of speed by a cable, the length of which is at least twice the minimum length required to raise the set of weights by means of the operating apparatus. The consequence of this is that the operating apparatus and the set of weights move constantly at different speeds, the ratio of which depends on the ratio between the actual length of the cable and the minimum length required. The reduction in the speed of the set of weights has the effect of reducing the inertia of the load and hence the different sensation perceived by the user when exercising.
However, even by means of this solution it is not possible to eliminate completely the sensation of lack of load in cable-operated weights machines, among other things because the machines which adopt this solution of increasing the length of the cable must multiply the load by the multiplication factor of the length of the cable in order to keep the value of the resistive load unchanged. It can be easily understood that this solution causes considerable problems in the case, for example, of leg press machines where the load in terms of weights is frequently 250 kg in the case of machines without hoists. In this case doubling of the load would result in machines where the single set of weights has a mass of 500 kg and therefore results in positioning restrictions due to the act that it can be installed only in areas where the floor is suitably reinforced.
It must also be added that, as is known, in the case of cable-operated exercising machines where the user operates the cable indirectly by means of a lever, each user must perform beforehand certain adjustments in order to personalise the machine before being able to use it properly, i.e. in order to grip the lever in a given position, at a certain distance from the fulcrum. Otherwise, the user will find the machine unsuitable and, in addition to losing the time needed to set the machine to structural parameters appropriate for his/her physical size, risks suffering, in the event of imprecise adjustment, serious injury as a result of stressing his/her physical/muscular structure in a physiologically inappropriate manner. In addition, these adjustments may not be easy to carry out, both because, in order to perform them correctly, it is necessary to have a clear idea of the notions as to how the muscles and limbs of our body work and because, on occasions, the adjustments may be complicated for users which are not familiar with the mechanisms present on the machine, as, for example, in the case of the functional machines of the type described with reference to the already mentioned patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,387,020 and the PCT application WO 01/66195. These machines have articulated hollow arms inside which the cable passes and terminates in a handle or other apparatus which can be operated by a user. Each of the respective arms supports, at its free end, a pulley which is mounted eccentrically and from which the cable departs in a direction which is constantly tangential to the pulley. This eccentric pulley is mounted rotatably on the arm and is mechanically balanced by means of a counterweight, in order to cancel out the moment of inertia of the pulley and therefore make its presence mechanically invisible for the user. In this type of machine also, which is acclaimed as being simple to use, it is required to perform adjustment of the machine before exercising and this is possible only with a considerable degree of constructional complexity. For example, it is possible to imagine the problems encountered should a broken cable need replacing and the complex operation required to disassemble at least one part of the machine.
Owing to the plurality of problems described above, cable-operated exercising machines both of the conventional type and of the functional type are not easy to operate and the exercises which may be performed on these machines reproduce only partly the physiological movements and load patterns which occur every day during the practice of respective sporting or working activities. Therefore, cable-operated exercising machines may be improved in several respects.
The object of the present invention is to provide an exercising machine in which the operating apparatus to which the user applies force and the resistive load are connected together by a flexible cable, where the above-mentioned problems are no longer present and where the user is provided with a novel and different approach to muscular exercise in both the sports sector and working sector owing to the adoption of an innovative structural configuration.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an exercising machine where it is possible to perform movements in association with an operating apparatus subject to the constant action of a force couple so as to exercise constantly agonistic and antagonistic muscle groups, thereby converting the notion of a repetitive exercising action into the notion of an exercising movement.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a cable-operated exercising machine which allows immediate use thereof, dispensing with settings performed before use, and is provided with at least one user interface/operating apparatus, the physiologically correct position of which can be easily determined.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a cable-operated exercising machine where the position of the operating apparatus may be selectively modified along a section of cable during the course of exercising so as to ensure constant uniformity between the operating condition and the postures assumed by the user in each particular moment.
According to the present invention an exercising machine having the characteristic features described in Claim 1 and the following claims is provided.
As a result of the objects achieved by means of the solution of the present invention, investment in a cable-operated exercising machine becomes an attractive proposition because the exercising movement will be more familiar both to persons exercising in a gym for the first time and to athletes who are able to gain advantage from performing exercises which are as similar as possible to the movements which they perform during their own sporting or working activity, where it is required to exercise a given muscle group.
The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate some non-limiting examples of embodiment thereof, wherein:
In
The operating apparatus 30 may be equally well a handle, as shown in
Moreover, the handle 30 is arranged between the pulleys 25′ and 25″ in a given manner on the basis of the user's requirements. In particular, the handle 30 may be connected to the cable in a freely slidable manner so that it can be gripped from a lowered position, visible in
As regards that illustrated above, owing to the original arrangement of the cable 26 between the two load units 16 and 17, it is possible to keep the cable 26 constantly tensioned by means of the loads selected in the two load units 16 and 17, so as to create a load model which is decidedly original for a weights machine having cables wound around pulleys. These loads may have values which are substantially identical to or different from each other and constant or variable over time, as could be obtained by means of electromagnet load units of the known type, the load level of which could be controlled electrically in a manner definable as required.
The use of the exercising machine can be easily understood from that described above and does not require particular explanations apart from the fact that it differs completely from the cable-operated exercising machines normally encountered.
In fact, when a user of any height approaches the machine 1 and sees the section 29 of cable 26, he/she will be immediately able to carry out an exercising movement by applying a conventional set of movements to the handle 30 adjusted to the height which is most comfortable, without having to perform adjustments beforehand. This has a positive effect on the user, who is able to understand the operating principle of the machine 1 straightaway, without feeling inhibited in any away. For example, the procedure which must be adopted in order to apply to the cable 26 a continuous sequence of pulling and pushing movements using the handle 30 is simple: it is merely required to take hold of the handle 30 in the lowered rest position and move it spontaneously to the height which feels most comfortable from a physiological point of view and then stress the cable as shown in broken lines in
As regards that described above, the operating apparatus 30 is always subject to the action of the force exerted by the user and the resultant of the two forces which the two end portions 27 and 28 of the cable 26 exert on opposite sides of the apparatus 30. Therefore, as can be clearly seen from
From that illustrated above it can be readily deduced that the machine 1 forming the subject of the description provides users with a new and different approach to muscular exercise in both the sports and working sectors owing to its different and innovative structural design. In particular, movements may be carried out on this machine using an apparatus 30 which is constantly subject to the action of a force couple oriented along the cables tensioned by means of the apparatus 30 so as to exercise constantly agonistic and antagonistic muscle groups.
The machine 1 results in the notion of a repetitive exercising action being replaced by the notion of an exercising movement since, with machines of the type described, it is no longer possible to experience an operating condition where no movement energy is required to move the handle 30, and therefore the point of application of the load, unless the frictional component between handle and load is eliminated completely, this being an ideal and therefore unrealisable condition, unless substantially zero resistive loads are set in the two load units 16 and 17.
Moreover, as regards that described above, the machine 1 allows the positioning of the respective handle 30 to be selectively modified by means of sliding along a section 29 of cable 26 even during the course of an exercise, so as to ensure constant uniformity between the operating condition and the postures which the user wishes to assume during various stages of the exercise, so as to be able to adapt to any progression in the exercise when given exercising conditions are achieved.
Finally it is obvious that the exercising machine 1 described and illustrated here may be subject to modifications and variations without thereby departing from the protective scope of the present invention.
Thus it is equally possible for one of the ends 27 or 28 to be kept fixed by blocking one of the respective load units or it may be decided to design a machine 1 in which one of the two ends of the cable is rigidly connected to the frame 10.
Moreover, in the case where it is required for the section 29 to be oriented in a direction other than the vertical direction, it is possible to adapt the path P to this requirement and therefore modify the frame so as to define other pairs of transmission pulleys 25 which are sufficiently spaced to delimit on the cable 26 other sections which are similar to the section 29 of
Each of the transmission members 140 has a bracket 141 which is rotatably mounted on the frame 110 about an axis 142 oriented in a given manner—horizontally in FIG. 2—and which supports two pulleys 125 coplanar with each other. With reference to the articulated transmission members 140 supported by the bottom longitudinal member 11 of the frame 110, the axis 142 is coaxial with a section of the path P so that the cable 126 leaving the transmission members 140 may be gripped and pulled by means of the handle 130, but also freely rotated about the axis 142 as if cable 126, tensioned by the load, were a crank. The same is also applicable to the upper longitudinal member 112 and the associated articulated transmission members 140.
It must be noted that the transmission members 140 mounted on the longitudinal members 111 and 112 in
Obviously, the characteristic features and the operating procedures of the machines 100 and 200 remain unchanged with respect to that described in connection with the machine 1.
For the sake of completeness, again with the aim of minimising the inertia associated with the load, simplifying the adjustment of the latter and providing further ways of applying the notions described above, another four variants of the machine 1 are provided, each of said variants being described with reference solely to the load group, the respective pulleys, the respective user interfaces and the cable or cables which connect the user interfaces and the load group together. Unless otherwise indicated in the description of each embodiment, the reference numbers of the components illustrated in
With reference to
As regards that described above, the load group 315 comprising a single set of weights 318 is able to act on two handles 330 which are independent of each other by means of a double hoist provided with a pair of handles 330 arranged rigidly along the cable 326″ which traces a path P″ in the form of double loop A. In this case, by displacing, during use, each handle 330 transversely with respect to the respective rest position, each handle 330 is subject to a force equal to ¼ of the total load selected, so that, for the same lifting effort applied compared to a direct-transmission machine 1, the user performing exercises with both limbs exerts with each limb a force equal to ½ the load, and this force is balanced in two incidental directions and therefore by amounts which may be identical to or different from each other depending on the conditions of use between the upper portion and bottom portion of the cable 326″ corresponding to each handle 330.
With reference to
Therefore, each cable 426″ is connected to the rod 421 of the respective load unit 416 and 417 by means of a respective hoist 432 arranged in between, and each cable 426′ has one end 427 which is rigidly fixed to the frame 410 and the remaining end 428 connected to the respective cable 426″ by means of a movable pulley 425 which corresponds to the annular path P″. Conventionally, the frame 410 has been represented by three lines inclined on a horizontal line. In this way, the machine 400 may also be regarded as being a combination of two structures substantially identical to each other and able to operate independently of each other, in a similar manner to the machine 200.
In this case, a force equal to ½ the load set in the respective load unit 416/417 acts on each end of a handle 430, so that it is possible to select different loads for each handle 430.
The machine 500 in
From a careful comparison of
According to
As regards that described above, the machine 600 may also be imagined as being a version of the machine 400 where the two load units 416 and 417 are combined as one so as to produce the load unit 615, the two single hoists 432 of the machine 400 are combined into one double hoist 632 and two of the fixed pulleys 425 of the independent loops A are combined into one only so as to define a single loop path P traced by the single cable 426.
With reference to
In this case each handle 330, 430, 530, 630 will constitute a interruption in the respective cable 326″, 426″, 526″ and 626 which will have respective end portions each connected rigidly to one end of the said handle. Therefore, in the case of
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| RA2002A0017 | Sep 2002 | IT | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 931699 | Medart | Aug 1909 | A |
| 4402504 | Christian | Sep 1983 | A |
| 5624362 | Wilson | Apr 1997 | A |
| 5928117 | Vittone et al. | Jul 1999 | A |
| 6238323 | Simonson | May 2001 | B1 |
| 6387020 | Simonson | May 2002 | B1 |
| 6394935 | Lake | May 2002 | B1 |
| 6422980 | Simonson | Jul 2002 | B1 |
| 20030069112 | Williams | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 4207792 | Sep 1993 | DE |
| WO0166195 | Sep 2001 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20040072659 A1 | Apr 2004 | US |
