Patent Application
20100240495
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention relates generally to an exercise device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a modular exercise device that provides isometric and speed training in a plurality of embodiments by providing a single sensing core that can be encased in multiple housings.
Isometric exercise is a type of strength training where the practitioner's joint angle and muscle length do not change during the muscle contraction. Isometric exercises are performed in a static position with no movement involved. A classic example of an isometric exercise is to hold your hands together with the palms touching and press them together as hard as you can for ten seconds. The joint and muscle are worked against themselves with no movement. Isometric exercising has a long history and elements appear in yoga and martial arts.
Isometrics has a number of benefits: it is a very safe form of exercising, as it is difficult to inadvertently overload your muscles. Isometrics are frequently used for physical therapy treatment, and it increases maximum strength beyond that achievable while using straight strength training Isometrics strength training helps build fast twitch muscle fiber, the key component for speed, which is important in many sports. Traditional strength training does not. No heavy equipment or weights are required.
Given the known benefits of isometrics it is very noticeable that Isometric exercising is little practiced compared to other forms of strength training and physical exercises. One of the main reasons for this is that there is little or no feedback when doing isometric exercises. It is impossible to know from one exercise to the next whether you are using a similar effort level. During a prolonged exercise regime over a couple of weeks or months there is no way to track improvement except through other forms of exercise. Therefore average exercisers have not adopted isometrics even though the benefits of isometrics have been documented in numerous studies.
The other major advantage of isometrics is they have been shown to increase the ratio of fast twitch muscle to slow twitch muscle fiber of a practitioner. Speed is one of the most difficult things to train for; therefore being able to use isometrics is an important aspect of any serious speed training
A modular exercise device that provides isometric and speed training in a plurality of embodiments by providing a single sensing core that can be encased in multiple housings. The device is modular and consists of a smart core that can be used with a number of physical extensions that expand and build on the device and allow it to be used in a huge variety of ways to exercise different muscles for different sports. The major components of the system are: a smart core which is comprised of a memory, force and time measurement core, power means, visual/auditory tactile interaction component, and a housing or frame.
A force measurement smart core is an electronic piece although a pressure indicator or physical force gauge could be used also. A feedback interface providing visual/auditory tactile interaction could be visual using an LCD or OLED or any other type of visual display or LEDS, audible, or tactile (vibration feedback). In an alternative embodiment, tactic feedback is measured in a similar fashion to that of a torque wrench. When using a torque wrench, a user is not watching the wrench; they are watching the workpiece. When the user reaches the proper torque, there is an audible click and a slight motion of the handle to let them know they are there. The present invention, in some embodiments may use a combination of audio and slight motion to provide visual/auditory tactile interaction and feedback.
The present invention also teaches means to setup the device, which include buttons or dials to set the goal force or change the exercise program. Memory allows the device to be programmed to walk the user through a routine or to allow the user to see previous workouts. A connection means to connect to a computer, the network or other electronic device using standard known architecture would be utilized. This could be wireless, wired or through memory cards.
One interesting use for the device of the present invention is that because there is little or no muscle movement it is possible to be doing other things while exercising. Imagine a force gauge that attached to a steering wheel, allowing you to flex your muscle and receive feedback while stuck in traffic. Or more likely one could use this device while watching television.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate the present invention and, together with the description, further serve to explain the principles of the invention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to make and use the invention.
In the following detailed description of the invention of exemplary embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings (where like numbers represent like elements), which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific exemplary embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, but other embodiments may be utilized and logical, mechanical, electrical, and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it is understood that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and techniques known to one of ordinary skill in the art have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the invention.
Referring to the figures, it is possible to see the various major elements constituting the apparatus of the present invention. The present invention is a modular isometric and speed-training device. The core of the device 100 is where the majority of the cost exists; once that has been purchased the device can be reconfigured with many different inexpensive physical extensions 202, 203, 204, 205, 206. The extensions 202, 203, 204, 205, 206 allow the user to easily alter the device to exercise specific muscle groups or add sport specific extensions 202, 203, 204, 205, 206 that target strength routines that benefit the desired attributes for that sport. No device of this small and portable size can measure muscle speed and reaction time simultaneously and track progress towards a goal. This device is one of the only exercise devices that can help train speed one of the main attributes of an athletes training regime. The device is modular and consists of a smart core 100 that can be used with a number of physical extensions 202, 203, 204, 205, 206 that expand and build on the device and allow it to be used in a huge variety of ways to exercise different muscles for different sports. In the figures, the physical extensions 202, 203, 204, 205, 206 shown are all for use with upper body exercises although it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to replace or include lower body attachments 1400 as shown in
Different shapes and devices to allow a variety of exercises to be performed through connection to a central housing or frame 106 are taught by the present invention. Now referring to
Now referring to
Speed is a key component of many athletic endeavors, however it is difficult to specifically train or measure speed. The three main areas for athletic training are speed, strength, and endurance. Most sports incorporate two to three of these areas, however the majority of training and training equipment is biased towards Strength and Endurance. Isometric training has been shown to positively impact speed in addition to strength, even though no movement occurs during. To measure speed the device measures the force applied over time. In one scenario the user is required to get into position and apply and hold an initial lower force. The device would then indicate by visual, audio or tactile means to rapidly increase the force as quickly as possible. No movement happens, the user is simply increasing the force they apply to the device. The graph of
The basic device could be completely reconfigured to simply be the force and time measurement core 900 and an interface to an existing computer 901, or smart phone 902 as shown in
In an alternative embodiment shown in
One of the main issues preventing success with any exercise programs is that it is hard to stay motivated. Introducing some competition is a great way to motivate people to try harder or to continue doing something. The issue with competition and strength contests is that it is extremely hard to find someone who is local and willing to work with you and who has a similar schedule and then it is even harder to find someone who is at a similar strength level to you. This device solves this issue.
With networked exercise equipment it is easy to find someone who is interested in exercising at the same time as you are given the much larger pool of potential exercise partners. This is very similar to online game playing. Games start throughout the day and people join a server, which places them in a queue where they generally wait only a few seconds before being joined to a game. The users history of exercise will show what their peak performance and abilities are and the software will be able to scale the forces generated so that the users can compete based on their effort compared to their historical performance and not based on actual force measured. This allows the weakest user to compete against the strongest. The time for each user can be altered also. For example, if one of the users can only hold their maximum force for twelve seconds and the other competitor can hold it for thirty seconds the two would still be able to compete to see who was able to hold it closer to their personal record. Additionally the users could compete on speed to see how fast they can apply a force. With a stored history of a users performance, the user would also be able to compete against themselves and see how their performance on a routine differs on a daily basis or to compete in an open competition where the absolute measurements are compared.
The device can be handheld, but it also could be used by the feet or knees or other parts of the body to exercise different muscle groups. It is also imagined that the device could have accessories that mount it to chairs, tables, doorways etc. to facilitate a multitude of different exercises.
The typical way to train for sports is to play the sport itself. This improves coordination, muscle memory and instinct on the playing field. But to excel, the athlete utilizes specialty training to augment. The football player who only plays football would be at a disadvantage to a similarly talented player who also works strength training into his routine. That is because strength training produces muscle forces beyond those that the player would see just playing the game. The body adapts to this training load because it is above a habitual level. This is the theory of super compensation; after a stress period (workout) and a restorative period (rest), the preparedness level (fitness) is higher than it was originally. The weight-training player will become stronger than the non-weight training player. This specialty training typically takes one of two directions: strength or endurance. This is typical and, for some sports, all that is needed. In fact, for the fitness oriented person (as opposed to athletic oriented person), strength and endurance is all that is needed/desired.
However, in order to be more competitive in many sports, the other dimension that is needed is speed. In some sports it is the dominant dimension. There are few if any devices for speed training and even fewer that can measure progress created by the training. The invention presented here can be used to both train for speed and to measure progress. It is generally accepted that muscle fiber types can be broken down into two main types: slow twitch (Type I) muscle fibers and fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibers. These distinctions seem to influence how muscles respond to training and physical activity, and each fiber type is unique in its ability to contract in a certain way. The majority of people have approximately the same distribution of muscle fibers. Studies have shown that sedentary people have about 50 percent slow twitch and 50 percent fast twitch fibers in most of the muscles used for movement. The activity and training that has been undertaken will change muscle type distribution. E.g a distance runner may have only 25% fast twitch muscle fiber, while a sprinter may have >80% fast twitch muscle fiber.
Slow Twitch (Type I).
The slow muscles are more efficient at using oxygen to generate more fuel (known as ATP) for continuous, extended muscle contractions over a long time. They fire more slowly than fast twitch fibers and can go for a long time before they fatigue. Therefore, slow twitch fibers are great at helping athletes run marathons and bicycle for hours.
Fast Twitch (Type II).
Because fast twitch fibers use anaerobic metabolism to create fuel, they are much better at generating short bursts of strength or speed than slow muscles. However, they fatigue more quickly. Fast twitch fibers generally produce the same amount of force per contraction as slow muscles, but they get their name because they are able to fire more rapidly. Having more fast twitch fibers can be an asset to a sprinter since she needs to quickly generate a lot of force. It is obvious how you create the overload conditions for strength and endurance that will produce super compensation? However in most cases for speed training, you can't just do the motion faster in order to get the overload.
If you are a baseball player you can't just swing your bat three times faster in training Currently there is no device on the market that can show conclusively over a training period of days/weeks that the athlete has directly increased the speed of the muscle group that they are training. Training effectiveness is measured through ancillary observations of sport performance, which is extremely difficult to correlate with training. The device is used for isometric exercising. Isometric exercise is a type of training where the joint angle and muscle length do not change during the exercise muscle contraction. As shown in
In the preferred embodiment the device would be provide direct feedback to the user to indicate both force applied but also the time taken to reach a predefined force. There have been a number of studies that have shown that isometrics/resistance training is one of the most effective methods of increasing the percentage of fast twitch muscle and therefore of increasing the speed of the practitioner. The core of the device would have some means of measuring force, torque, pressure etc. that can be correlated to the external force applied by the user. There would be a user interface component that would provide feedback to the user (e.g. When to commence applying force, what level of force they are applying).
To measure speed the device measures the force applied over time. In one scenario the user is required to get into position and apply and hold an initial lower force as shown in
There are two components that affect speed. The first is a neural response—the body's reaction time. The second is the force time curve that your muscles can produce—your explosiveness. Combined, these two components represent the speed of the athletic movement. The device of the present invention is specifically intended to improve the second component, the force time curve of the muscle or muscle group. However, this device has the added benefit of being able to measure the neural reaction time as a separate component of the overall speed, which can be advantageous from a training standpoint.
The explosiveness is correlated to the percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers that exist in the muscle group being measured. The slope of the Force/Time curve as illustrated in
One of the complaints held against isometric exercise is that the muscles do not move and therefore the muscle is only exercised in one position. In yet another alternative embodiment illustrated in
Furthermore, other areas of art may benefit from this method and adjustments to the design are anticipated. Thus, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.
