The invention relates to support belts and buckling for support belts that may be used by persons lifting large weights, or loads.
Body builders and weightlifters may use various lifting techniques to lift barbells. These lifts include the ‘Bench Press’, ‘Squat’ and ‘Dead Lift’ and may be employed by body builders working in the gym or by weightlifters in competition. In either case, the lifter's abdominal region may be put under considerable stress, particularly when lifting very heavy weights. To avoid damage to the lifter's body, it is known to wear a heavy duty weightlifter's belt to contain the torso between the ribcage and pelvic girdle. A similar need for support may arise in other sports or disciplines in which weight lifting is involved.
In order to provide the necessary containment, weightlifter's belts need to be stiff and relatively wide and when worn are secured tightly about the lifter's abdomen to pre-stress the abdominal region. The tightness of the support belt generates internal pressures in the abdomen that assist in preventing damage to the abdominal muscles and spine when they are subjected to the stresses imposed by a heavy lift. The stiffness and tightness of weightlifter's belts makes them uncomfortable to wear. This makes it desirable to be able to easily tighten the belt shortly before a lift takes place and then release it shortly afterwards. It may also be desirable to release a lifter's belt quickly in the event of a medical emergency.
The invention also includes a support belt as specified in claim 24.
The invention also includes buckling as specified in claim 34.
In the following disclosure, reference will be made to the drawings, in which:
The belt 12 has a length defined between the ends 20, 22. The belt length is selected to enable it to extend circumferentially around a designated waist size, or sizes, with some overlap at the dead and live end regions 14, 16 when the support belt is in its tightened closed position(s). The belt 12 has an inwardly facing side 31 (
The dead end region 14 of the belt 12 is provided with a plurality of apertures 28. The apertures 28 are arranged to allow securing of the support belt 10 in a plurality of tightened closed conditions. While not essential, in the illustrated example the apertures 28 are arranged in two rows of aligned apertures disposed in parallel spaced apart relation to define pairs of apertures that are aligned in the widthways direction of the belt 12.
Referring to
The second anchor portion 26 of the buckling 18 comprises a generally rectangular body 46. A pivot mounting 48 is disposed on the outwardly facing side 50 of the body 46. Although not essential, in the illustrated example the pivot mounting 48 is a generally rectangular projection. The pivot mounting 48 is provided with a transverse through-hole (not shown) to receive a pivot pin 52 by which the over centre locking mechanism 30 is pivotally connected to the second anchor portion 26.
The first anchor portion 24 is fixedly secured to the live end region 16 of the belt 12 by securing means 54 (
As shown in
The locking mechanism 30 is pivotally connected to the first and second anchor portions 24, 26 and may be a toggle mechanism operable to draw, or pull, the first anchor portion towards the second anchor portion so as to reduce the spacing between the first and second anchor portions and draw the live end region 16 towards the dead end region 14. The locking mechanism 30 may be an over centre locking mechanism.
As best seen in
The lever arm 80 has a first end 84 and a second end 86. The first end 84 of the lever arm 80 is pivotally connected to the second anchor portion 26 via the pivot mounting 48 and pivot pin 52 so as to be movable between a first position (
The connecting arm 82 has a first end 88 that is that is pivotally connected to the first anchor portion 24 via the pivot pin 44 housed in the sidewalls 42 of the recess 38. The second end 90 of the connecting arm 82 is pivotally connected to the lever arm 80 by a pivot pin 92 that passes through the lever arm at a position intermediate its first and second ends 84, 86. The second end 90 of the connecting arm 82 is provided with a recess 94 that defines a yoke in which the first end 84 of the lever arm 80 is received.
As best seen in
In use, a lifter may prepare the support belt 10 for wear by separating the second anchor portion 26 from the dead end region 14 of the belt 12 and moving the dead and live end regions 12, 14 apart to allow the belt to be wrapped around their waist. Then with the buckling 18 in the open condition shown in
When the lifter wishes to lift a load, the second end 86 of the lever arm 80 is gripped and pulled to the right (as viewed in
Once the lever arm 80 has been moved to its fully closed position, as shown in
In a One-size′ version of the support belt 10, there may be just four apertures 28 to receive respective pins 64, 66. In the illustrated example there is a series of apertures 28 extending along the length of the dead end region 14 to provide a series of size adjustment steps. This means that the support belt 10 can be quickly and easily be moved through a series of progressively tighter tightened closed conditions by releasing the buckling 18 disengaging the pins 64, 66 from the apertures 28 in the dead end region 14 of the belt 12 and moving to apertures that are disposed further from the free end 22 of the dead end region 14 of the belt 12 so as to reduce the diameter or circumference of the belt without detaching the first anchor portion 24 from the live end region 16 of the belt. A benefit of this is that in preparing for a lift, the lifter does not have to go straight from a loose relaxed tightness condition to a tightened closed position that would be used for lift. Instead, the lifter can move up through a series of steps in which the support belt 10 is used to induce progressively greater internal pressures in the lifter's abdomen so that the lifter can get used to relatively lower internal pressures before arriving at a relatively high level pressure required for performing a lift. A further benefit is that the support belt 10 is not One-size′ making it susceptible to sharing. This also makes it easy to accommodate any reduction in waist size that may result from a lifter cutting weight for a competition.
In the illustrated example the apertures 28 are arranged in two rows extending in the lengthways direction of the belt 12 and there are respective pin sets 64, 66 to engage the two rows. In other examples, there may be just one row of apertures or three or more rows with a corresponding number of pin sets.
It will be understood that the provision of the connecting arm 82 makes it possible to configure the buckling 18 so that when the lever arm 80 is operated to change the tightness condition from the relaxed tightness condition to a tightened closed condition, the first anchor portion 24 and live end region 14 of the belt slide smoothly towards the second anchor portion 26 and dead end region 16 in a movement that is essentially circumferential with respect to the belt 12 or lifter's waist. Due to the relatively short range of the movement, it will often be essentially a straight line sliding movement. A benefit of this may be that the support belt 10 is less likely than known support belts to pinch the lifter's body or clothing during tightening. A further benefit is that the support belt may be tightened up to a maximum the lifter can withstand and be secured in that condition. With known belts, such as those that have a generally rectangular frame carrying one or more pivoting prongs that is fitted to one end of a belt so that the prongs can be inserted through holes in the other end of the belt, the belt passes through maximum tightness condition during the tightening process before finally arriving at a lower tightness when securing is complete.
The buckling 18 may be made of any material having sufficient strength to secure the belt 12 and cope with the loads imposed during lifting. Generally it is desirable that the buckling be kept as light as possible and so a suitable lightweight metal such as an aluminium alloy may be used. Alternatively, in other examples at least some parts of the bucking may be made of an engineering plastics material. When manufacturing from suitable metals, the parts of the buckling may be produced by a casting process, such as die casting.
In the illustrated example the lever arm pivots about a pivot axis carried by the anchor portion that releasably engages apertures of the dead end region of the belt to draw the anchor portion fixed to the live end region of the belt towards the dead end region of the belt. In other examples, the lever arm may pivot about a pivot axis provided on the anchor portion fixed to the dead end region of the belt to draw an anchor portion that releasably engages apertures of the live end region of the belt towards the dead end region.
In this specification parts of the support belt have been designated as a dead end region and a live end region. During tightening operations the dead end region tends to remain immobile against the wearer's body while the live end region is moved towards the dead end region by operation of the buckling. It is to be understood that this does not mean the dead end region remains fixed and incapable of movement. It simply means that at least the majority of the movement is made by the live end region moving towards or over the dead end region as the first anchor portion is drawn towards the second anchor portion.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1416050 | Sep 2014 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/GB2015/052395 | 8/18/2015 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2016/038330 | 3/17/2016 | WO | A |
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Entry |
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Machine Translation of CH700607B1 by Lexis Nexis Total Patent on Mar. 13, 2017. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20170245601 A1 | Aug 2017 | US |