Patent Application
20200069990
This invention relates to a wearable exercise suit. More particularly, the invention relates to the field of wearable exercise suits which improve overall health by resisting the natural movement of the human body.
People all over the world are finding less time throughout the day to work on their physical fitness. Consequently, those wishing to fit exercise into their daily routine must use methods which are both convenient to use and provide an efficient calorie burn. In some cases, a well-designed wearable exercise suit would serve both needs.
Consumers today have several different variations of the wearable exercise suit from which to choose. In some instances, the exercise suit may have a system or method located inside its fabric as a means for resisting the natural movement of the wearer. The built-in system or method may be tension straps or resistance bands. It is well known how resistance bands function. Particularly, tension in resistance bands may be created when the force of the wearer's movement stretches the resistance band out of its resting/relaxed position. The wearer must also exert force to prevent the resistance band from returning to its relaxed shape. The tension in the resistance bands necessary for an efficient exercise experience may be appropriately correlated to the force and direction the user exerts on the resistance band.
In a typical sense, when totally included with an exercise suit, the resistance bands may be anchored to the resistance suit at its respective ends. For example, the resistance band may be fixed at each of its ends. In use, the tension straps are stretched as the user exercises. In a typical case, when the user exercises, the movement of the user's appendage stretches the resistance band creating tension in the band as the resistance bands move away from each other. The degree of force required by the wearer to stretch the resistance band can be translated to calories burned and muscles toned. In other cases, the means for resisting the natural movement may be a weighted material (“weights”) that requires the wearer to exert additional effort to move his limbs.
Unfortunately, prior art exercise suits have shortcomings that work against the need for convenience and efficiency. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,441 (“the '441 Patent”), issued Aug. 17, 1999 to Raines, is of the variety of exercise suits using weights. The '441 Patent teaches a weighted exercise suit used in athletic training, physical therapy, and muscle toning. The suit in the '441 Patent includes weights attached thereto. The suit in the '441 Patent is highly inconvenient to the wearer because he/she must interrupt her exercise to change the weights before continuing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,802 (“the '802 Patent”) is typical of another exercise suit that uses a plurality elastic bands to exercise each human appendage. The '802 Patent teaches an exercise suit that uses elastic bands (“resistance bands”), wherein the tension in the band is adjusted by way of buckles. The '802 Patent suffers from the same problem as the '441 Patent in that the wearer must interrupt their exercise routine to adjust the tension of the suit. Additional, since the suit in the '802 Patent uses buckles, it is prone to breaking from normal wear and tear.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0067628 A1 filed May 9, 2012 by Harb (“the '628 Application) is another example of an exercise suit incorporating elastic bands. The elastic bands are removable and include loops that loop around the thumbs of the wearer's hands. The loops serve as a resistance band anchor from which the band is stretched when the wearer moves. Unfortunately, the teaching in the '628 Application may interfere with the natural movement of the wearer because it is typically not natural to have a loop between the thumb and forefinger. Additionally, the use of the loops promote an unorthodox improper footing/stepping resulting from the looping anchor of the feet of this suit. Such unorthodox stepping can severely interfere with the smooth motion needed for some exercise routines.
Prior art suits that use resistance bands also have the additional problem that the placement of the bands points of restraint often pull at the seams of the garment, thereby weakening the integrity of the garment. For example, where the resistance band is anchored nearer to the wearer's deltoid, the resistance band pulls at the shoulder seam of the garment weakening and compromising the seam and interfering with the wearer's workout. Consequently, when the garment is compromised, so is the wearer's exercise routine.
Although the above noted suits may be effective in one respect, they have shortcomings in that, as mentioned, the suits are inconvenient to use, don't provide the proper calorie burn because of the integrity of the suit is compromised because of the design. The present invention solves both of those shortcomings and provides advantages not found in the prior art exercise suits.
The present invention teaches an exercise shirt configured to be worn on a human torso. that provides resistance to the wearer's natural movement for exercising the wearer's muscles. The exercise shirt of the present invention comprises a raglan shirt. The raglan shirt may be shaped or configured like a tight-fitting shirt. In an exemplary embodiment, the raglan shirt may be configured as a compression shirt. The raglan shirt of the present invention may be a long-sleeved shirt.
The raglan shirt may include narrow passageways therein at predetermined locations, wherein at least one of the narrow passageways has a resistance band included therein. The resistance bands may be fixed, or substantially fixed at at least two locations within the passageway. For example, according to the present invention, a resistance band may be fixed at the first end and second end of the resistance band by respective resistance band connectors. Additionally, the resistance band may be substantially fixed at a third or additional connectors located in between the respective connectors for the first end and second end of the resistance band. In one embodiment, the resistance band may be affixed above the wearer's trapezius. In another embodiment, the resistance band may be affixed substantially midway between the wearer's levator scapulae and the wearer's trapezius.
In one particular embodiment of the invention, the tension necessary for efficient exercising may be predetermined by selecting a resistance band having a predetermined tension or resistance to stretching. In one example, the bands may include light, medium, heavy or very heavy resistance. A user may select a resistance band suitable for high repetition low tension (i.e., resistance) to tone and maintain his physical fitness. On the other hand, the user may select a high-tension band if the intent is to do low repetitions to build muscle. In yet another embodiment, the tension necessary may be chosen according to a method which selects the resistance bands based on some predetermined criteria related to the wearer's physical fitness goals.
In yet another embodiment of the invention, the tight-fitting shirt may be comprised of at least one raglan sleeve. The raglan sleeve includes a sleeve that does not have a seam on the topside of the wearer's shoulder. Instead, the topside of the sleeve is conjoined with the collar of the shirt. The raglan sleeves of the present invention further include narrow passageways for receiving the resistance bands. A first narrow passageway may traverse from a first location at the wrist of the sleeve to a location substantially midway across the trapezius area of the shoulder location of the sleeve. A second passageway may further traverse from the location substantially midway across the trapezius area of the shoulder and progress to a second location at the wrist of the sleeve. As used herein, the trapezius area of the sleeve, or the trapezius area of the shoulder may mean the area of the raglan shirt which would rest substantially above a wearer's trapezius when the shirt is worn. The trapezius area of the sleeve, or the trapezius area of the shoulder may mean the area substantially midway between the wearer's levator scapulae and the wearer's trapezius.
According to various aspects of the invention, one or more of the resistance bands may be included in the passageways. In one embodiment, a single resistance band may be fixed at the first location at the wrist, traverse through a location substantially midway across the trapezius of the shoulder and terminate at a second location at the wrist. In another embodiment, two resistance bands may be included in the narrow passageway to provide resistance when the wearer's arm is bending and unbending at the elbow. In this embodiment, a first resistance band may be fixed at a first location at the wrist and fixed at a first location substantially midway across the trapezius of the shoulder. A second resistance band may be fixed at a second location at the wrist and a second location substantially midway across the trapezius of the shoulder. In another embodiment, the first and second resistance bands may be of the same or different resistance.
In yet another embodiment, the raglan shirt may be configured so that multiple bands may exercise one side of the wearer's arm. The raglan shirt may include a first lower arm resistance band within a narrow passageway, wherein the lower arm resistance band may be fixed at a location at the wrist, and wherein the lower arm resistance band traverses over a first side of the wearer's forearm, and wherein the lower arm resistance band is fixed to a first location below the wearer's elbow location and further affixed a first location above the wearer's elbow location.
In yet another embodiment, the present invention includes an exercise shirt including a first and second raglan sleeve that are similarly constructed as herein described with respect to the first raglan sleeve.
A more complete understanding of the present invention may be derived by referring to the various embodiments of the invention described with respect to the drawings and figures in which like numerals denote like elements, and in which:
The brief description of exemplary embodiments of the invention herein makes reference to the accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments by way of illustration and its best mode. While these exemplary embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, it should be understood that other embodiments may be realized, and that logical and mechanical changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the description herein is presented for purposes of illustration only and not of limitation. Indeed, for the sake of brevity, the connecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical couplings between the various elements.
Furthermore, for the sake of brevity, traditional constructions of raglan shirts will not be described herein. The raglan shirt of the present invention may be textile. The raglans shirt may have portions that are customary for raglan shirts. That is, the wrist, shoulder, neck and waist locations, of the raglan shirt are at the conventional locations for raglan shirts. Raglan shirts do not include a seam running laterally along the wearer's shoulder. Further still, by shoulder location what may be meant is the location substantially midway above the trapezius. Additionally, by shoulder location what may be meant is the location midway between the wearer's levator scapulae and the wearer's trapezius. All of the portions and locations of the raglan shirt as described (e.g., wrist, elbow, shoulder, levator scapulae, and trapezius) may be connected each to the other by textile material that is configured to be adjacent to the corresponding portions of the wearer's body.
By tight fitting what may be meant is that the raglan shirt of the present invention (either shirt, pants, or both) fits closely to the wearer's body such that the wearer's physical outline may be easily seen by the casual observer. The suit may be tailorable to a particular wearer's body composition (e.g., shape, size, fat composition, etc.). The suit may also be configured in accordance with the wearer's desired workout goals. For example, the length, thickness and resistance of the resistance bands included in the suit may be chosen according to the wearer's physical fitness goals. For example, the wearer may choose the level of tension/resistance of the resistance band according to his workout. A resistance band with more resistance or a higher resistance rating may provide a more rigorous workout than a resistance band with a lower resistance/tension rating. A thicker resistance band may be chosen to further increase the resistance bands resistance/tension rating.
In particular embodiments of the invention, the resistance bands are anchored at at least two locations to ensure that tension is created in the resistance band when the wearer of the exercise suit moves. By “anchored” or “connected” what may be meant is that an end of the resistance band is immovably fixed to the raglan sleeve by a suitable connector. A suitable connector is one that may immovably fix the resistance band by conventional means such at sewing in or to, riveted in or to, gluing in or to, coupled in or to the raglan sleeve, or any suitable means of connecting a resistance band to a sleeve.
In other particular embodiments, a portion of the resistance band may have restricted movement. That is, the movement of a portion of the resistance band is slowed or retarded by, for example, a restrictive connector that permits restricted movement of the resistance band. The restricted movement does not totally immobilize the resistance band, but does restrict movement due to the friction experience between the restrictive connector and the resistance band when the band expands. In another exemplary embodiment, the restrictive connector alters the direction in which the resistance band is stretched.
The resistance band may be anchored by a first connector at a first end of the resistance band and also anchored by a second connector at a second location of the resistance band. In some instances, the second location may be the second end of the resistance band. In another embodiment, anchored may mean that although the resistance band is not immovably fixed by the connector, a portion of the resistance band experiences sufficient friction to ensure that the entire resistance band may be stretched and tension created. At least one point of the resistance band between the first and second ends of the resistance band may be immovably fixed or substantially immovably fixed by the connector. By substantially immovably fixed what may be meant is that the movement of the resistance band is substantially restricted by a resistance band connector.
Furthermore, various embodiments of the invention make reference to parts of the wearer's body when discussing the locations of the resistance band connectors. This is done to indicate where, on the raglan sleeve, the connector may be found, relative to the wearers' bodies. For example, where the connector is described with reference to the shoulder location (e.g., a shoulder resistance band connector), the connector may be connected on the portion of the raglan sleeve which rest on, is in communication with, or is adjacent to the wearer's shoulder, such as, when the raglan shirt is being worn. Similarly, where the connector is described with respect to the wearer's wrist or elbow (e.g, resistance band connector at the wrist location), the connector may be connected to the portion of the raglan sleeve which is in communication with, rests on, or is adjacent to the wearer's wrists or elbow location, such as when, the raglan shirt is being worn.
As described more fully with respect to
In another exemplary embodiment of first raglan sleeve 102, as depicted in
Resistance band 124 may be immovably fixed at first resistance band connector 112 at the wrist location 104 and further immovably fixed at resistance band connector 122 in proximity to shoulder location 115. Resistance band 126 may be included in a narrow passageway 128 from resistance band anchor 123 in proximity to shoulder location 115 to second resistance band connector 118 at the wrist location 114. Resistance bands 124, 126 may be attached at distinct and separate resistance band anchors 122, 123 respectively, where the distinct and separate resistance band anchors are both in proximity to each other and to shoulder location 115. Alternatively, resistance bands 124, 126 may be attached to a common resistance band connector (not shown) at shoulder location 115.
A resistance band 134 may be affixed to a resistance band connector 136 in proximity to or below a wearer's elbow location 138. Resistance band 134 may be further affixed at a resistance band connector 112 at a first wrist location 104. A first upper arm resistance band 142 may be affixed to a resistance band connector 140 in proximity to or above wearer's elbow location 138. By “elbow location” what may be meant is the area is proximity to the anatomical structure joining the ulna and the humerus, or the radius and the humerus.
First upper arm resistance band 142 may be further affixed a first shoulder resistance band connector 144 in proximity to raglan sleeve shoulder area 116. A second upper arm resistance band 148 may be connected to a second shoulder resistance band connector 146, wherein first shoulder resistance band connector 146 is in proximity of first shoulder resistance band connector 144. Resistance band 148 may be further affixed by a resistance band connector 150, wherein resistance band connector 150 is in proximity to the wearer's elbow location 138. A resistance band 154 may be affixed to a resistance band connector 152 in proximity to or below a wearer's elbow location 138. Resistance band 154 may be further affixed at a resistance band connector 118 at a second wrist location 114. Resistance band 154 may be affixed to a resistance band connector 152 in proximity to or below a wearer's elbow location 138. Resistance band 154 may be further affixed at a resistance band connector 118 at a first wrist location 104. As noted, the shoulder location 116 may mean the location midway between the wearer's levator scapulae and the wearer's trapezius.
It should be appreciated by one skilled in art, that the present invention may be realized in exercise garments having a full shirt (e.g., long sleeve shirt), or in a short sleeve shirt, so long as the shirt includes raglan sleeves. Other variations that use short sleeve exercise shirts, but include resistance bands fixed at the wrist area and the shoulder location, and wherein the resistance bands are fixed in a raglan construction are within the scope of this invention. Further, the above description makes reference to parts of the wearer's body when referencing where the resistance bands may be located on the exercise shirt. Additionally, when discussed herein, the resistance bands may be included within narrow passageways. Further still, the passageways may be adjacent to the resistance bands connectors described herein. Even further, as described herein, the connectors are the means for connecting resistance bands to the raglan sleeve.
The foregoing description has been directed to specific embodiments of this invention. It will be apparent; however, that other variations and modifications may be made to the described embodiments, with the attainment of some or all of their advantages. Therefore, it is the object of the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
