Patent Application
20170197110
The present invention relates generally to exercise treadmills having a deck supporting a movable treadmill belt, and more particularly, to a novel treadmill having a tilting deck feature that reduces stress and/or wear on the anatomy of a user of the treadmill, and thus tends to avoid joint and other physical injuries, and to an accessory to conventional treadmills for causing lateral tilting of a treadmill deck.
Exercising treadmills of various configurations are in widespread use. Generally, such treadmills permit walking or running “in place” indoors to maintain a program of physical fitness or for medical testing purposes. Generally, exercise treadmills include a frame extending lengthwise of the treadmill that supports a treadmill deck. The deck generally includes a pair of laterally spaced apart side rails supporting a pair of longitudinally spaced apart (front and rear) rollers interposed therebetween and journaled with respect to the side rails. These rollers extend generally horizontally, and an endless treadmill belt is entrained around the rollers and the upper reach of the belt is supported by a bed or the like to provide surface that will support a user of the treadmill while walking or running thereon. The treadmill belt is driven by an electric motor or the like such that the upper reach of the belt moves from front to rear over the bed, thus permitting a user of the treadmill to walk or run in a forward direction on the moving belt so as to remain stationary with respect to the frame of the treadmill. Typically, the speed of the treadmill belt can be varied.
For a general description of such treadmills, reference may be made to our U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,822, issued Oct. 14, 1986, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
In addition to increasing or decreasing the speed of the belt to vary the amount of physical exertion expended by a user of the treadmill, it is common for the treadmill to have an elevation system that selectively raises the front of the treadmill belt/deck relative to the rear of the treadmill belt/deck, thus inclining the jogging or walking surface such that a person walking or jogging on the upper reach of the treadmill belt will, in essence, be required to walk or run uphill, thus expending additional energy. Examples of such an elevation system are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,643,943, 3,731,917, 3,826,491, 4,344,616, and in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. 270,555 and 273,029.
Common to these and many other prior art treadmills is that the treadmill deck, belt and walking/running surface remain neutral, flat, horizontal, or otherwise are not adjustable in the lateral direction. Despite the incline provided in the fore/aft direction (analogous to “pitch”), the consistency of the horizontal/orientation (analogous to “roll”) leads to excessive repetitive motion, and resulting excessive repetitive wearing on a limited portions of the anatomy, and in particular, limited portions of the joints of the foot, ankle, need, and hip that correspond to the limited (neutral) roll position of the deck.
What is needed is an exercise equipment arrangement that lessens or avoids such excessive repetitive motion, and such resulting excessive repetitive wearing on limited portions of the anatomy.
The present invention provides exercise equipment arrangements that lessen or avoid excessive repetitive motion, and resulting excessive repetitive wearing on limited portions of the anatomy. More specifically, the present invention provides a treadmill arrangement that allows for lateral tilting of the deck, from side to side (laterally, analogous to “roll”), without, or in addition to, any elevation or incline of the deck from front to rear (longitudinally, analogous to “pitch”).
In one embodiment, the present invention provides a lateral tilting system for conventional exercise equipment, such as a treadmill, exercise bicycle, elliptical machine, stair climber, or the like. The conventional exercise equipment may or may not have incline functionality. The lateral tilting system comprises one or more lateral tilt assemblies configured to laterally tilt the conventional exercise equipment. The lateral tilting system may be configured to be a part of, or to couple directly to or support the conventional equipment on a tiltable support surface, and thus tilts the entire conventional equipment, such as a treadmill, including the conventional treadmill's deck.
In another embodiment, the present invention provides a novel treadmill that includes generally conventional components, but further includes a lateral tiling system in accordance with the present invention a treadmill deck that is supported in a fashion providing lateral tilting, e.g., to raise or elevate a left lateral edge relative to a right lateral edge, and/or to raise or elevate a right lateral edge relative to the left lateral edge. Further, the treadmill is configured to cause such tilting to vary during the course of operation.
By varying the lateral tilting of the treadmill's deck (or corresponding portion of other exercise equipment), the lateral tilting system causes a corresponding varying in the use and/or loading of the user's anatomy, which tends to vary loads over a broader range or portion of the joints, etc., and accordingly leads to reduced wearing on a limited portions of the anatomy, and in particular, less wear on limited portions of the joints of the foot, ankle, need, and hip that correspond to the limited (neutral) roll position of the deck etc.
An understanding of the following description will be facilitated by reference to the attached drawings, in which:
For non-limiting illustrative purposes, the present invention is discussed herein with reference to a treadmill-type exercise equipment. It is within the scope of the present invention, however, to adapt the tilting mechanisms described herein to other types of exercise equipment.
Consistent with the present invention,
Lateral tilting system 300 is mechanically coupled to the deck of a treadmill in a fashion that permits the deck of the treadmill to tilt laterally, from side to side, e.g. to roll about a longitudinally extending axis in the Y-direction, as shown in
Drive hub 406 is coupled to a first end of crossbeam 404 and receives drive shaft 306. In one embodiment, drive hub 406 is coupled to crossbeam 404 at a distal location along crossbeam 404. As shown in
Lateral tilting assembly 304 is illustrated in
Drive hub 506 is coupled to a first end of crossbeam 504 and drive shaft 306. In one embodiment, drive hub 506 is coupled to crossbeam 504 at a distal location along crossbeam 504. Drive hub 506 may be coupled to a support brace (e.g., 312) passing through base member 508 of lateral tilt assembly 304 through a connecting link arm. Alternatively, drive hub 506 may be coupled directly to base member 508 of lateral tilt assembly 304 through a connecting link arm. Drive hub 506 may be coupled to crossbeam 504 in a fashion that permits that drive hub 506 to transfer motion to crossbeam 504, pivoting crossbeam about pivot member 502. Drive hub 506 may transfer motion driven onto drive shaft 306 by drive motor 308 to crossbeam 504, causing the end of crossbeam 504 coupled to drive hub 506 and drive shaft 306 to rise and fall. In one embodiment, a pin is eccentrically mounted to drive shaft 306 and is coupled to the connecting link arm, such that axial rotation of draft shaft 306 causes eccentric motion of the pin. The eccentric motion of the pin causes reciprocating motion of the end of the connecting link arm connected to support brace 312 or base member 508, such that reciprocating lateral tilting of the crossbeam 504 is provided. Lateral tilt assembly 304 may further comprise at least one support component configured to be in contact with the ground or floor. Each support component may be adjustable to level the treadmill. Further, each support component may comprise a wheel, such that the treadmill may be moved.
In one embodiment, lateral tilt assembly 302 and lateral tilt assembly 304 are each individually coupled and driven by separate drive motors (e.g., drive mechanism 308). The drive hub of each lateral tilt assembly may be coupled to a respective drive motor by a different drive shaft such that each lateral tilting assembly may be individually driven. Each drive motor may drive a respective drive shaft and, in turn, a drive hub in a manner as described above. In one embodiment, a single drive shaft is driven by each drive motor such that each lateral tilting assemblies are simultaneously driven.
A drive mechanism 308 is provided for driving the tilt of the lateral tilting system 300 and may be referred to as a drive motor in one or more embodiments. In one embodiment, the drive mechanism includes an electric motor, rotary actuator or linear actuator operable to drive draft shaft 306. As shown in
As shown in
In accordance with the present invention, the lateral tilting deck 620 is further supported for lateral tilting movement, relative to the frame. More specifically, the lateral tilting deck 620 is supported on and mechanically coupled to the frame 604 in a fashion that permits a support table to tilt laterally, from side to side, e.g. to roll about an axis in the X-direction shown in
A drive mechanism, e.g., drive mechanism 308, is provided for driving the tilt of the tilting accessory 700. In one embodiment the drive mechanism includes an electric motor or linear actuator operable to extend or retract a drive member, and the drive mechanism is mechanically coupled, e.g. via bosses, yokes or other structures 716, 726 to each of the frame 704 and the lateral tilting deck. In this manner, operation of the drive mechanism 740 to extend an actuator causes tile in a first (e.g., clockwise) direction, and operation of the drive mechanism 740 to retract an actuator causes tilt in a second, opposite (e.g., counterclockwise) direction, as well be appreciated from the exemplary drive mechanism shown in
Control system 314 is provided for supplying power and/or other controls signals to the drive mechanism to cause operation of the drive mechanism. In one embodiment, control system 314 is configured to be responsive to user input, e.g., to tilt the deck of the treadmill in accordance with tilt instructions provided as input by a user. In another embodiment, control system 314 is configured to operate automatically and/or programmatically. For example, in one mode, control system 314 causes tilting of the treadmill deck according to a predefined program/profile, or according to passage of predetermined time intervals, and/or to cycle tilting at a predefined, or user-specified rate. In a preferred embodiment, control system 314 is provided to cause the tilt to be varied in cyclical fashion between a prescribed tilt in each direction. Control system 314 may provide control signals to drive mechanism 308 to drive the lateral tilting assemblies to laterally tilt the treadmill by +/−3°. In other embodiments, treadmill may be laterally tilted by +/−5° or more. Further, control system 314 may provide control signals to vary the rate of lateral oscillation, e.g., between one to three cycles per minute. In other embodiments, the lateral oscillation may be greater than three cycles per minute. In this mode, the tilting varies the loading of the joints/anatomy during walking/running, and tends to better distribute wear/stress over a relatively larger area of joints, etc. In another mode, the control system causes provides a relatively static tilt—e.g., one that does not vary during an intended exercise period. In this mode, the tilting causes loading of the joints/anatomy in a prescribed fashion according to the provided tile, for example to favor one side or another of the body, to accommodate arthritic or pathologic conditions. By way of non-limiting example, these conditions may be present as medial knee arthritis, lateral knee arthritis or in any other joint or bone that would benefit from deviation of the mechanical axis of the body.
In one or more embodiments, lateral tilt system 300 may comprise an adjustable elevation system 310 that may be coupled to lateral tilting assembly 302 to horizontally raise and lower one end of the deck of treadmill, longitudinally inclining the treadmill or another type of exercise equipment. In other embodiments, elevation system 310 may be coupled to other aspects of lateral tilting system 300 or of the treadmill in a fashion that allows elevation system to adjust the incline of the treadmill deck in a conventional fashion. For example, elevation system 310 may be configured to cause an upper reach of the belt of the treadmill to be adjustable between a first position, in which it is substantially horizontal, to a raised or inclined position, in which the forward end of belt inclines upwardly at an elevated angle. Further, elevation system 310 may comprise a conventional treadmill deck incline mechanism, such as a rod component that is inserted into a housing component. As the rod component is driven into or extracted from the housing component, the treadmill is longitudinally inclined. In one embodiment, the rod and housing components are threaded and the rod component is threaded into and out of the housing component to raise and lower the deck of the treadmill. In one embodiment, as the rod component is driven into the housing component, elevation system 310 moves away from a first end of treadmill, lowering the first end decreasing longitudinal incline, and as the rod component is extracted from the housing component, elevation system 310 moves closer to the first end of treadmill, raising the first end of the treadmill and increasing the longitudinal incline. Elevation system 310 may comprise one or more wheels that allow elevation system 310 to move closer to or away from the treadmill, raising and lowering a first end of treadmill, longitudinally inclining the treadmill.
In various embodiments, control system 314 provides control signals drive mechanism 308 to drive to lateral tilting system 300 and/or elevation system 310 to laterally and/or longitudinally incline the treadmill at the same time. In one embodiment, control system 314 instructs drive mechanism 308 to drive lateral tilting device 300 to laterally tilt the treadmill during a first period and elevation system 310 is configured to longitudinally incline the treadmill during a second period, where the first period and second period are at least partially overlapping in time.
In one embodiment, lateral tilting system 300 laterally tilts the treadmill from side to side while maintaining the treadmill deck at a constant longitudinal incline. In other embodiments, the longitudinal incline may be adjusted by elevation system 310 while the lateral tilt remains constant. In other embodiments, the lateral tilt and longitudinal incline may be adjusted at the same time.
In accordance with an one embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in
Frame 902 further comprises deck 910 that is disposed between the rails. Deck 910 may be an elongated deck. An endless belt, as generally indicated by 908, is entrained around a front and a rear roller interposed between and journaled with respect to side rails 904 and 906, with the upper reach of the belt overlying deck 610 such that the upper reach of the belt slides on deck 610 and is supported by deck 610.
Treadmill 900 may also comprise one or more handrails, not shown. The handrails may be disposed along the side rails of the deck extending away from the deck of the treadmill in a fashion such that they can be held by a user. In one embodiment, as treadmill 900 is laterally tilted, the handrails do not move in relation to the deck, 910, of the treadmill. The deck of the treadmill may be configured to slide over the handrails such that treadmill may be laterally tilted while the handrails remain at a constant position relative to the deck. Further, the handrails may tilt longitudinally as the deck is longitudinally inclined. In such an embodiment, the handrails may remain at a constant position relative to deck 902 when the deck is longitudinally inclined.
In one embodiment, lateral tilting system 300 may be coupled to a support table (e.g., 720) that is configured to support conventional exercise equipment. For example, the support table may support a treadmill or a stationary bicycle. However, the support table may be configured to support other types of exercise equipment. In accordance with the present invention, the support table may tilt laterally, from side to side, laterally tilting the exercise equipment. Any suitable structure may be used to support the treadmill in a fashion permitting lateral tilting, e.g., to raise or elevate a left lateral edge relative to a right lateral edge, and/or to raise or elevate a right lateral edge relative to the left lateral edge. For example, one or more lateral tilt assemblies (e.g., 302, 304 and/or 630) may be used to laterally tilt the table.
Consistent with the present invention,
As is illustrated in
In one embodiment, the support table comprises clamp members that are arranged to provide support at the front, rear, and both sides of a treadmill. The clamp members are configured to extended above a surface of the support table to abut and brace portions of the treadmill's structure, to support the treadmill during tilting. In a preferred embodiment, each clamp member is configured to define a slot for receiving a bolt of other fastener for fixing the clamp member to the support table. Preferably, each of the slots is elongated to allow for lateral or longitudinal adjustment of the clamp member relative to the fastener, to allow the clamp members to be adjusted and fixed in various different positions to abut and brace treadmills having base structures of differing sizes and lengths.
In accordance with the present invention, the support table 720 is mechanically coupled to the base 710 in a fashion that permits the support table to tilt laterally, from side to side, e.g. to roll about the x-axis shown in
The support table 720 further includes clamp members 728. In a preferred embodiment, the clamp members are arranged to provide support at the front, rear, and both sides of a treadmill, as shown in
Optionally, side skirts 760 may be joined along the sides of the support table or treadmill frame, and extending downwardly therefrom to cover a gap between the base and support table, and to reduce the likelihood of hands, feet, or other objects being pinched therebetween during tilting.
Each of the braces preferably includes transversely extending bores permitting each brace to be screwed, bolted, or otherwise joined to one of the base 710 and the support table 720, as best shown in
A drive mechanism (e.g., 308) is provided for driving the tilt of the tilting accessory. In one embodiment the drive mechanism includes an electric motor or linear actuator operable to extend or retract a drive member, and the drive mechanism is mechanically coupled, e.g. via bosses, yokes or other structures 816, 826 to each of the base 710 and the support table 720. In this manner, operation of the drive mechanism 308 to extend an actuator causes tile in a first (e.g., clockwise) direction, and operation of the drive mechanism 340 to retract an actuator causes tilt in a second, opposite (e.g., counterclockwise) direction, as well be appreciated from the exemplary drive mechanism shown in
During operation, a conventional treadmill may be placed on the support table 720 and be supported stably, e.g., by adjusting the clamp members 728 to abut and brace a base structure of the treadmill. The conventional treadmill may then be operated in a conventional fashion, which may include adjustment of the belt speed and/or adjustment of the incline of the treadmill's deck. During operation of the treadmill, lateral tilting system 300 may be operated to cause sideways/lateral tilting of the support table and resulting sideways/lateral tilting of the treadmill's deck. As noted above, the control system may permit various modes of user input and/or cause various modes of tilting, but in any event varies the tilting, and preferably automatically varies the tilting over time, in cyclical fashion.
Varying the lateral tilt of a treadmill during use varies the impact and loading of an upright treadmill user's anatomy, and by varying the tilting over time, results in spreading of the impact and loading over a broader range of the anatomy and joint surfaces that is broader than the limited portion of the anatomy and joint surfaces that are impacted and loaded in a static (non-tilting) arrangement, which in turn reduces repetitive motion/wear on the joints/anatomy, reduces injury, and presently less strain on previously-injured anatomical structures.
Having thus described a few particular embodiments of the invention, various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements as are made obvious by this disclosure are intended to be part of this description though not expressly stated herein, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only, and not limiting. The invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and equivalents thereto.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/278,076 (Attorney Docket No. 368321.00002) filed on Jan. 13, 2016, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62278076 | Jan 2016 | US |
