Patent Application
20140296035
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structure of a simple harmonic motion exercise device, and more particularly to the exercise device having an elastically stretchable member for always providing a natural restoring force to pull upper and lower limb exercise modules back to their original positions after they are moved by external forces, so as to allow users to select their motion stroke and its swing amplitude. Such device not only meets actual user requirements, but also ensures the safety to prevent sports injuries and improves the practical values of the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The so-called “simple harmonic motion” generally refers to a motion of swinging forward, backward, leftward or rightward to a certain extent based on circumferential curvature. Compared with a full circle exercise of a general fitness bike or bicycle, the simple harmonic motion exercise is very different, and the advantage of sports equipments of this kind is to reduce the risk of mechanical sports injuries, so that such equipments are more suitable for users of different ages (particularly for elderly users) or patients with physiological illness (particularly for users having difficulties with lower limb exercises or patients with lower limb joint diseases).
Although sports equipments of this kind are continuously introduced to the market and most of them are products (such as fitness gliders) that just provide lower limb exercise only, these sports equipments are unable to meet the user requirements for those who seek for exercises of four limbs. In addition, most conventional products of this kind do not come with an automatic elastic resilient component for the exercise components, so that users have to apply forces or skills to the exercise components in order to repeat the swinging exercise successfully, and such arrangement is unfriendly to beginners or patients with physiological diseases. Obviously, the conventional design has a serious drawback that requires improvements.
Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to engage and link a plurality of pivoting components and a plurality of special gears, so that upper and lower limb modules can be linked synchronously to allow users to do a whole-body exercise for four limbs. In the meantime, an elastically stretchable member is provided for always providing a natural restoring force to return related exercise modules to their original positions after they are moved by external forces, and thus the users can decide a motion stroke and its swing amplitude on their own. On the other hand, the elastic restoring force is equivalent to the an auxiliary force to help the users to change the upper limb exercise direction and the alternate swings of the lower limbs and improve the smoothness of the upper limb rotation and lower limb swing exercises.
According to the invention, a simple harmonic motion exercise device includes: a base having a front stand, a rear stand and an oblique stand; a handle module with a transverse gear; two longitudinal gear linkage rods, each having a longitudinal gear installed at the top; two pedal linkage rods, each having a pedal; two swing linkage rod pivotally coupled to rear ends of the pedal linkage rods; two stretch linkage rods pivotally coupled to top ends of the rear stand, and the other end of the stretch linkage rod being pivotally coupled to the swing linkage rod, and then an elastically stretchable member being installed between the stretch linkage rod and a hinge portion of the swing linkage rod, and a holder being installed at the other end of the elastically stretchable member and mounted onto the oblique stand of the base, so as to achieve an expected simple harmonic motion exercise.
The accomplishment of this and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and its accompanying drawings of which:
With reference to
The base 10 includes a front stand 11, a rear stand 12 and an oblique stand 13.
The handle module 20 includes a transverse gear 21 installed at an end of the handle module 20 and pivotally coupled to a first pivot pin 111 at a front end of the front stand 11 of the base 10, and a handlebar 22 installed at the other end of the handle module 20.
The gear linkage rods 30 are pivotally coupled to a second pivot pin 112 disposed on both sides of a corresponding position of the front stand 11, and a longitudinal gear 31 is installed at a top end of each gear linkage rod 30 and engaged with the transverse gear 21 to define a linkage relation.
The pedal linkage rods 40 are respectively and pivotally coupled to the gear linkage rods 30, and the rear end of each pedal linkage rods 40 is pivotally coupled to each respective swing linkage rod 50.
The swing linkage rods 50 are respectively and pivotally coupled to the rear ends of the pedal linkage rods 40, and the rear end of each swing linkage rods 50 is pivotally coupled to each respective stretch linkage rod 60.
The stretch linkage rods 60 are pivotally coupled to the top end of the rear stand 12, and the other end of each stretch rod 60 is pivotally coupled to the respective swing linkage rod 50. An elastically stretchable member 70 is installed between the stretch linkage rod 60 and a hinge portion 61 of the swing linkage rod 50, and a holder 71 is disposed at the other end of the elastically stretchable member 70 and mounted onto the oblique stand 13 of the base 10.
With the aforementioned assembly and the pivotal linage relation of the linkage rods as shown in
When the two pedal linkage rods 40 are swung and displaced, the two corresponding elastically stretchable members 70 will pull and stretch the two pedal linkage rods 40, so that the elastically stretchable members 70 can always provide a natural restoring force to return the two pedal linage rods 40 to their original positions (when no force is applied onto them). Therefore, the users can decide a motion stroke and its swing amplitude on their own. On the other hand, the elastic restoring force is equivalent to the an auxiliary force to help the users to instantaneously change the upper limb exercise direction and the alternate swings of the lower limbs and improve the smoothness of the upper limb rotation and lower limb swing exercises.
With reference to
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a support shaft 121 can be installed at a top end of the rear stand 12 of the base 10 and pivotally coupled to a transverse gear 90 to achieve a linkage relation of the two pedal linkage rods 40, and then a longitudinal gear 91 can be installed at a corresponding position of the top end of the stretch linkage rod 60 and engaged with the stretch linkage rod 60 to achieve the expected linkage easily.
Many changes and modifications in the above-described embodiments of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
