The present invention relates to exercise equipment, and more specifically, to multi-functional exercise equipment that address the challenges associated with spatial constraints, user safety, and the cost of acquiring separate exercise machines for various aerobic and anaerobic exercises.
Exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle. An individual may exercise for any number of reasons, such as to improve strength and/or speed, to rehabilitate an injury, to improve overall physical and/or mental health, and/or the like.
Conventional in-home exercise equipment offers individuals flexibility to engage in a wide variety of exercises to enhance both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. An individual may use in-home equipment, such as a treadmill, exercise bike, or related equipment, to perform aerobic exercises. An individual may use in-home equipment such as weights, a bench press, a pull-up or chin-up bar, a dips bar, a weighted sledmill, and/or the like, to perform anaerobic exercises. However, purchasing separate exercise equipment for different exercises not only strains the financial resources of individuals, but poses space challenges, making it impractical to maintain a comprehensive array of exercise machines at home.
Additional safety concerns are also inherent in exercise machines that offer a wide variety of functionality and/or features. For example, an exercise machine known as a weighted sledmill combines the traditional motion of walking or running on a treadmill with the added element of upper body exertion. With hands firmly placed on handlebars of the sledmill, the user can exert force against the resistance offered by the track of the sledmill. Such machines may be bolted to the floor to allow resistance to force placed between the treadmill and handlebars. However, such a machine is difficult to store, or even to move in and out of storage locations. Consequently, there remains a need for a multi-functional exercise platform that overcomes the above-mentioned limitations by offering a comprehensive set of features for various aerobic and anaerobic exercises while protecting user safety and minimizing the spatial footprint of the equipment.
An exercise platform is disclosed that allows a user to perform different types of aerobic and anaerobic exercises on a single piece of equipment. The exercise platform includes a frame, a base, a treadmill, a torso support structure, a pull-up bar, and dips handles.
Exercises that can be performed using the exercise platform include a sled push, a sled pull, dips, and chin-ups and/or pull-ups, and/or the like. Other exercises that can be performed include push-ups, hip thrusts, Nordic curls, split squats, forward walking and/or running, L-sits, hanging abdominal exercises, hip flexor raises, step aerobics, and more.
The sled push involves an individual placing his or her shoulders into two round pads (which are part of the torso support structure) and pushing with his or her legs against a belt of the treadmill. The exercise platform includes a magnetic resistance system, where magnets that are connected to two flywheels provide adjustable resistance. In some embodiments, twenty-two magnets are used to permit multiple levels of resistance adjustment.
For backwards walking a user may lower the treadmill deck to an incline by appropriate placement of pins in a foldable track support member. The user can then set a back support bar at the height of his or her lower back. Next, the user can walk backwards pressing against the treadmill and pushing his or her back against the back support bar and pad.
The handles used to perform dips can be adjusted to various heights which can allow some variance in range of motion when performing dips or other exercises. The height of the handles is adjustable, using adjustment pins that fix the handles to the frame, with the adjustment pins including knobs to permit movement of the handles. In some embodiments, one or both handles may be fixed by a pin that includes a twist pull quick detach knob. Additionally, or alternatively, one or both handles may be fixed by a pin that includes a screw knob. In some embodiments, the handles may be padded to provide comfort and additional support while doing dips. Dips can be performed with the track of the exercise platform in a horizontal position (i.e., horizontal relative to the ground) or in an upright vertical position (i.e., vertical relative to the ground), depending on the user's preference.
In some embodiments, pull-up bar is placed at the top of the exercise platform, and there are five different grip angles on the multi-grip pull-up bar. The height of the pull-up bar may be adjusted to be sufficient to provide clearance for the user's head while using the treadmill, but low enough for the user to reach and mount the pull-up bar to perform pull-up exercises. The user can perform chin-ups and/or pull-ups with the treadmill in the horizontal or vertical position, depending on the user's preference.
In some embodiments, a computing device is implemented to track miles, feet, time, and/or the like. The miles may be used to measure distance traveled forward or backward on the treadmill. Feet traveled may be tracked for sled pushing, in which there is a relatively large amount of resistance, and the user typically travels a shorter distance. In some embodiments, an audible alarm may sound to alert the user when an exercise routine has completed.
A user may perform Nordic curls using the treadmill and using an adjustable foam roller that may be positioned to secure a user's ankles, using the holes on the upward-extending frame of the exercise platform.
The treadmill frame has been implemented such that the weight of the user and the treadmill frame bears upon the base of the device, keeping treadmill and base secured to the ground. Specifically, in the exercise machine described herein, the treadmill track rests on metal tabs. This ensures that the treadmill and base are both secured to the ground when a user applies force to the exercise platform while performing the sled push or sled pull exercise. This feature prevents the base from lifting in response to torque applied by the user in a sled push or sled pull exercise, and avoids the need to bolt the treadmill frame to the base or bolt the base to the floor, either of which would prevent the exercise platform from being easily moved or stored (or require disassembly to do so).
In some embodiments the frame is fully equipped with adjust holes to provide a large range of adjustment options. In some embodiments, four guide rods (sometimes referred to herein as connecting support members) are positioned underneath the treadmill track to ensure proper belt tracking. In some embodiments, upgraded commercial bearings and rollers are implemented.
The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention shall be made apparent from the accompanying drawings and the description thereof.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with a general description of the invention given above, and the detailed description of the embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Referring to
Each of support members 24, 26, 30, 32 is connected to the topside of the base 14. For example, a fastener assembly may be used to connect each of support members 24, 26, 30, 32 to the topside of the base 14. The connection for support members 24, 30 can be seen in
Support member 30 is attached to the support member 24. For example, the top portion of the support member 30 may be attached to the support member 24 via welding or another connection method known in the art. Support member 32 is attached to the support member 26. For example, the top portion of the support member 32 may be attached to the support member 26 via welding or another method known in the art. Stabilizer bars 34 provide additional support between support member 24 and support member 30 and support member 26 and 32, respectively.
Still referring to
In some embodiments, the pull-up bar 20 may include a different number of handle bars. For example, the pull-up bar 20 may include only two handle bars, four handle bars, six handle bars, etc. Additionally, or alternatively, the pull-up bar 20 may include handle bars with a different shape and/or degree of separation between them.
While not shown, one or more handle bars may be implemented using grips. In some embodiments, grips may be placed in other locations. For example, two grips may be placed on the connector bar 56, such that each respective grip is equidistant from a corresponding endpoint of the bar 56. This allows the user to perform a chin-up and/or pull-up at a different angle than would be possible via the handle bars of handle bar pair 46.
Still referring to
In some embodiments, a height of the dips handles 22 may be adjustable. For example, a knob and pin may be placed into each mounting plate 58 and a user may twist each respective knob in a counter clockwise direction such that each mounting plate 58 is no longer securely fastened to the respective support member. The user may then move the dips handles 22 higher, or lower, by sliding the mounting plate 58 up or down along the respective support member, and may turn each respective knob in a clockwise direction to securely fasten each mounting plate 58 to the respective support member.
Still referring to
In some embodiments, the exercise platform 10 may include a back support bar 72. In
In some embodiments, a computing device 76 may be attached to the torso support structure 18. For example, a computing device 76 may be attached to the upper member 60 as can be seen in
Still referring to
In some embodiments, wheels 86 may be installed onto the support member 82. In some embodiments, a handle 88 may be installed onto the topside of each of support members 78, 80. In this way, a user may lift the exercise platform 10 upward using each handle 88 and may use the wheels 86 to roll the exercise platform 10 between storage and usage locations.
In some embodiments, the bottom side of the base 14 may include an array of feet 90. The array of feet 90 prevents slippage and prevents movement of the exercise platform 10 while the platform 10 is in use.
Referring to
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When a user performs a sled push or pull exercise, the treadmill 16 is designed to provide opposition to the to the force exerted by the user while exercising. For example, because the treadmill track rests on the base 14 (e.g., on the foldable track support member 92 which is mechanically integrated into the base), the base 14 will remain grounded when force is exerted by the user to the frame 12, and as a result the entire exercise platform 10 will not tip over when force is exerted by the user between the treadmill 16 and the frame 12. Specifically, the weight of the user on the treadmill bears on the base 14 of the treadmill 16. When the user places his or her shoulders onto the pads 68, 70, or back onto the pad 74, and begins a sled exercise, force is created between the upright frame 12 and the treadmill 16. However, instead of this force being delivered directly to the floor, the force from the user's exercise is delivered to connecting support bars 98, and the connecting support bars 98 deliver the force to the base 14 which is resting on the ground. Thus, the force applied by the user is opposed by the base 14 and frame 12, without creating torque on the exercise platform 10 relative to the ground. Were the treadmill to be directly placed on the floor, such that the force applied by the user to the frame 12 is between the frame 12 and the floor, that force would create a torque between the floor and the frame 12, tending to cause the base 14 and frame 12 to pivot. To prevent this the frame 12 would need to be bolted to the floor, which would prevent the exercise platform 10 from being easily moved or stored (or require disassembly to do so).
As noted, the exercise platform 10 includes a treadmill 16. The treadmill 16 can be used to run, walk, or when used with the torso support member 18, can be used to perform a sled push or pull exercise. As can be seen in one or more of
The treadmill frame 106 may include two primary support members that extend a length of the treadmill 16, and may include connecting support members, where each connecting support member is located between the primary support members. In the cross section shown in
As can be seen in
The mechanical resistance system 114 may include two sets of magnets (referred to individually as a magnet 116, or collectively as magnets 116), where each set of magnets 116 is placed in the vicinity of (e.g., below, or near) a flywheel 112. Each set of magnets 116 may rest on a braking surface 118 which is held in place by fastener 120 and bracket 122. Each flywheel 112 may have a flywheel cover 124.
In some embodiments, the number of magnets 116 used may impact the amount of resistance provided by the treadmill 16. In a preferred embodiment, twenty-two magnets 116 are used to permit multiple levels of adjustment, thereby allowing the user to adjust the difficult of the treadmill feature, the sled push feature, and/or the sled pull feature, to his or her liking.
In some embodiments, such as that shown in
Additionally, or alternatively, and as can be seen in
A user may use the exercise platform 10 to perform a variety of different types of exercises. To provide a specific example, the user may use the exercise platform 10 to perform a sled push exercise. The user may use the computing device 76 to select the sled push exercise, may select or configure the desired amount of resistance, and may stand such that the user's torso rests on the torso support structure 18. Next, the user may begin to exert force in a forward direction. This will cause the belt 108 to move in a backward direction (e.g., a direction opposite the direction of the force applied by the user's pushing motion). In this case, the magnetic resistance system 114 will be activated to resist the displacement of the surface of the belt 108. For example, one or more permanent magnets 116 will produce an Eddy current that impedes the rotation of the rollers 110, thereby adding resistance to the displacement of the surface of the belt 108.
In some embodiments, a user may use the exercise platform 10 to perform a backwards-facing push exercise. The user may use the computing device 76 to select an exercise, may select or configure the desired amount of resistance, and may place the treadmill 16 into the inclined position. Next, the user may walk backwards while pressing his or her back against the back support bar 72 (and cushion 74). This will cause the user to exert force in a forward direction, resulting in the belt 108 moving in a backward direction. In this case, the magnetic resistance system 114 will be activated to resist the displacement of the surface of the belt 108. For example, one or more permanent magnets 116 will produce an Eddy current that impedes the rotation of the rollers 110, thereby adding resistance to the displacement of the surface of the belt 108.
As can be seen in
While the present invention has been illustrated by a description of various embodiments and while these embodiments have been described in considerable detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications will readily appear to those skilled in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and method, and illustrative example shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of applicant's general inventive concept.
This application is a non-provisional of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/611,359 filed Dec. 18, 2023, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63611359 | Dec 2023 | US |