Patent Application
20170043206
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to exercise equipment, and more particularly relates to a portable exercise device for building abdominal strength.
Description of the Related Art
Businessmen and working fathers often lack to the time to exercise at commercial gymnasiums and find it more convenient to exercise at home. Standard exercise equipment is prohibitively large, expensive and cumbersome for home use. Many and varied types of compact exercise devices are available to help replace cumbersome gym equipment in home settings and assist individuals in their efforts to improve general strength, endurance and/or to mitigate specific health issues that need physical therapy.
The prior art includes complicated apparati comprising weight machines and pneumatic or spring compression devices used for a large variety of conditioning activities such as cardiovascular and physical therapy, as well as increasing core strength, and strengthening abdominal body muscles. Some exercise devices employ elastomeric resistance as a means of developing or measuring strength. Often they are designed with numerous moving parts, and are constrained by their own components and design to a very limited number of types of exercises. Certain muscles groups, such as the core muscles, have very few simple portable devices designed for their exercise or strength measurement, due to the difficulties in designing a simple apparatus that can correctly resist the varied angles of contracting abdominal muscle motions leading to such development and measurement. Many patented portable devices that target difficult areas of the body to exercise such as these are complicated and difficult to find on the market.
There are no new extremely simple devices in the art which target the muscles of a user's core, which a focus on the abdominals, which can be stowed in a space as compact as a drawer. Thus it would be highly beneficial to provide a simple, compact portable device that targets the abdominal region.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an improved portable abdominal muscle exercise device. Beneficially, such an exercise device would overcome many of the difficulties with prior art by providing a more functional apparatus to consumers. The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available apparati and methods. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to provide a portable abdominal exercise device comprising a legless seat for doing sit-ups, crunches, and body twists; wherein the seat comprises a bottom surface base plate for engaging a ground surface; wherein a top surface of the seat is from 0.25″ to 7″ above the bottom surface; and wherein the seat comprises at least one of the following additional features: fixed handles on each side to assist the user to pull himself up during sit-up type exercises; and a rotatable seat plate on the stationary seat base disposed centrally on the seat base, whereupon the user places his buttocks during exercise, whereupon the user can twist his body in either direction about a z-axis while holding onto the fixed side handles, while exercising the oblique muscles of the torso.
The device wherein the seat comprises a waist belt-strap connectable to the sides of the seat base to wrap over and secure and stabilize the waist and thighs of the user in relation to the base, to increase leverage and enable the user greater leverage to more efficiently pull the body up during sit-up type exercises;
The device wherein the seat comprises a knee belt-strap connectable to the sides of the seat base to wrap over and secure and stabilize the knees in relation to the seat base, to increase leverage and enable the user greater leverage to more efficiently pull the body up during sit-up type exercises;
The device wherein the seat comprises a raised cushion on its surface for supporting the tailbone and buttocks of the user.
The device wherein the seat comprises raised cushion sections on its surface for supporting the rear lumbar and front gluteus regions of the user.
The device wherein the seat base is constructed of at least one of the following: a rigid polymer material, an elastic polymer material, a combination of polymers, metal, wood.
The device wherein the cushion pad is comprised of at least one of the following materials: a single molded polymer material, an inflatable polymer bladder, a combination of elastic polymers such as a gel and elastic foam, elastic foam core covered with polymer skin.
The device wherein the device is employed by a user to do sit-ups, crunches, and body twists and rotations to strengthen muscles and tendons in the abdominal region.
Also disclosed is a portable abdominal exercise device comprising a circular base plate for engaging a ground surface, the circular base plate having a planar top surface and a planar bottom surface; a circular top plate whereupon the user places his buttocks during exercise, the circular base plate having a planar bottom surface, the circular top plate rotatable affixed to be able to rotate on a central axis point on the base plate; and fixed handles on each side to assist the user to twist and lift his legs and torso during exercises;
The device wherein there is a plurality of cushions affixed to the top surface; and a belt for securing a body of a user into the seat.
These features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.
In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which:
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.
The exercise seat 100 comprises a handle 101a, a handle 101b, a seat plate 102a, which in this embodiment is rotatable, and a stationary base plate 103.
The handles 101a-b may be fastened as independent pieces to the stationary base plate 103 or molded all as one unit with the base plate 103.
The handles 101a-b may be fastened as independent pieces to the seat plate 102 or molded all as one unit with the seat plate 102a-b.
The handles 101a-b will protrude from the device sufficiently to allow the user to get hands around them for gripping purposes.
The handles 101a-b may consist of metal or plastic or any form of polymer.
The stationary base plate 103 may be round or of any other shape, and consist of metal, wood or polymer materials.
The seat plate 102a-b may be round or of any other shape and consist of metal, wood or polymer materials.
The seat plate 102a may rotate on an actual axis pin at its center or rotate on a virtual central axis point but not be actually fastened to the stationary base plate at that center point; it may be kept in place by some other means such as by being contained at its perimeter in a manner that still allows it to move freely in rotation around the virtual axis.
The “waist belt strap” or “knee belt-strap” 105 can be attached to the sides of the stationary base plate or the seat plate, be adjustable in length, and be removable.
The “waist belt strap” or “knee belt-strap” 105 may use a standard buckle mechanism, a “Velcro” type mechanism, a clipping mechanism or any other type of mechanism to attach around the user's knees, waist or thighs.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61/999,994 by Daniel Vaughan Wilson for “Three Resistance Exercise Devices” filed on Aug. 11,2014.
