Patent Application
20250186832
The invention relates generally to therapeutic and exercise devices and equipment, designed for use in a training or therapy environment, gymnasium, or the home.
Generally, the exercise chairs disclosed herein are designed to focus specifically on the midsection, known as the groin muscles of the body. This area is between the lower abdominal muscles and upper thigh area. The groin muscles are a major contributor to core strength. These muscles are a major contributor to a person's ability to transition from a seated position to a standing position. The groin muscles are also a major contributing factor in sitting, standing, squatting, running, sprinting, and jumping.
As people age, it becomes more and more difficult to stand from a seated position without using one's arms and hands to push, slide, or pull themselves up and out of a chair or couch. Generally, muscle deterioration can begin in a person's early 30s, and a significant amount of muscle mass could be lost by the mid-40s. Many people over the age of 50 have a difficult time standing up without using their arms or hands.
Further adding to these difficulties, many seating options are taller, such as, for example, bar and restaurant seating. The average office chair height is approximately 16 to 21 inches. The average chair, stool or bench height is approximately 18 to 23 inches. These heights can make standing from these seating options difficult for some people.
Therefore, there is a need for a solution to the above problems.
The aspects or the problems and the associated solutions presented in this section could be or could have been pursued; they are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches presented in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their presence in this section of the application.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key aspects or essential aspects of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, this Summary is not intended for use as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The exercise chairs disclosed herein allow a user to improve their ability to stand up from a seated position. The exercise chairs disclosed herein may also allow a user to learn how to stand up from a seated position if they have lost the ability to do so for any variety of reasons.
In some embodiments, the exercise chairs disclosed herein are designed to address the need to rehabilitate muscles in the groin that primarily help in the standing up motion (that is, standing from a seated position motion), but also other muscular functions of the human body. The exercise chairs disclosed herein can aid and increase the range of motion of users who have experienced surgical hip and knee replacements, or other similar procedures. The exercise chairs disclosed herein can aid and increase the strengthening of the lower extremity muscles of a user after having had hip or knee surgery, or other similar procedures. The exercise chairs disclosed herein can help aid in the prevention of and possibly reversal of bowel and bladder incontinence in users, by aiding in straightening of the targeted muscles, such as, for example, muscles in the groin and other lower body parts.
In some embodiments, the exercise chairs disclosed herein are provided as full gym-style exercise chairs, having an adjustable chair, weights, shoulder press arms, and a handlebar. In some embodiments, the exercise chairs disclosed herein are provided as partial home-style exercise chairs, having an adjustable chair, and a handlebar.
In some embodiments, the exercise chairs disclosed herein provide an easy-to-use mechanical exercise station.
In some embodiments, the exercise chairs disclosed herein provide a station with a chair with adjustable height as low as approximately 6 inches off the floor or base of the station.
In some embodiments, the exercise chairs disclosed herein provide an exercise system that permits the user to stand up against weight-limited resistance and repeat the motion.
In some embodiments, the exercise chairs disclosed herein provide a low-cost, durably constructed gym-based machine that is easy to set up and take down.
The above aspects or examples and advantages, as well as other aspects or examples and advantages, will become apparent from the ensuing description and accompanying drawings.
For exemplification purposes, and not for limitation purposes, aspects, embodiments or examples of the invention are illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:
What follows is a description of various aspects, embodiments and/or examples in which the invention may be practiced. Reference will be made to the attached drawings, and the information included in the drawings is part of this detailed description. The aspects, embodiments and/or examples described herein are presented for exemplification purposes, and not for limitation purposes. It should be understood that structural and/or logical modifications could be made by someone of ordinary skills in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined by the accompanying claims and their equivalents.
It should be understood that, for clarity of the drawings and of the specification, some or all details about some structural components or steps that are known in the art are not shown or described if they are not necessary for the invention to be understood by one of ordinary skills in the art.
For the following description, it can be assumed that most correspondingly labeled elements across the figures (e.g., 105 and 205, etc.) possess the same characteristics and are subject to the same structure and function. If there is a difference between correspondingly labeled elements that is not pointed out, and this difference results in a non-corresponding structure or function of an element for a particular embodiment, example or aspect, then the conflicting description given for that particular embodiment, example or aspect shall govern.
The extension of the frame that holds the support arm assembly 103 and the adjustable swivel chair 105 may also be constructed from rectangular tube steel. In some embodiments, the frame uses 2″×2″ cross section steel tubing for all the frame 101 components. The frame 101 may also comprise V-base supports 136 for reinforcing the stability of the frame. Generally, the base supports 136 can be provided on any suitable portion of the frame basea in order to add stability to the frame.
The support arm assembly 103 can comprise a horizontal shoulder press frame bar 104, and two shoulder press arms 106 that are rigidly attached to horizontal shoulder press frame bar 104. The shoulder press arms 106 each possess soft pads 109 near their ends. In some embodiments, the full gym-style exercise chairs disclosed herein comprise one or more adjustable arm bar stops 110 adjustably attached to the frame 101. The arm bar stops 110 may be used for adjusting how far outwards from the frame 101 the shoulder press arms 106 extend, such that a user can position the arms 106 at a suitable distance for their needs. In some embodiments, the arm bar stops 110 could prevent the horizontal shoulder press frame bar 104 from moving beyond a designated point in the upright frame section 113.
In some embodiments, the pulley system 102 comprises one, two, three, or four separate pulleys, each of which is removably connected to the support arm assembly 103 such that lifting the shoulder press arms 106 lifts the support arm assembly 103, which in turn pulls on one, two, or three pulleys 102 via one or two or three cables 108. Generally, the action of this exercise motion can raise the support arm assembly 103 and then lower the support arm assembly, as a user stands and sits down, in the directions indicated by the double headed arrow 199.
In some embodiments, the full gym-style exercise chairs disclosed herein comprise one, or two, or three, or four, or more cables 108. As an example, the system depicted in
Generally, the exercise chairs disclosed herein can be used as a training/therapy system for sitting squats, where the chair 105 can be set at any suitable height in the range of heights that are available in the system. For example, the chair 105 may be set to a height within the range of approximately 6 to 18 inches above the floor or frame base 112 of the system. In some embodiments, the chair could be adjusted to be about 22 inches above the frame base. This range of adjustability allows the user to practice standing up from a seated position at a range of extensions of the groin area muscles, and can also be used by a variety of users having different range of motion, abilities, and body sizes. Further description of the adjustability of the chair is described herein when referring to
The user may stand up with or without the shoulder press arms 106 pressing down on their shoulders as they sit in the chair 105. Said arms possess soft pads 109 which can be positioned over the user's shoulders as they stand up from the seat of the chair 105. In order for the user to comfortably position the soft pads 109 onto their shoulders, the chair 105 may be adjusted. The chair 105 can be set at a suitable distance from the upright frame section 113, along the chair distance adjustment bar 121. In some embodiments, such as the example shown in
Sufficient repetitions of the motions described above, at increasing depths of travel down to approximately 6 inches above the floor, can strengthen the groin and allows the user to stand up more naturally from a seated position in all sorts of chairs.
The exercise machines disclosed herein may each be provided with a frame base, and an upright frame. In some embodiments, the exercise machines only include the frame base, such as the examples depicted in
It may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used in this patent document. The term “couple” and its derivatives refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether or not those elements are in physical contact with one another. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and/or. The phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like.
Further, as used in this application, “plurality” means two or more. A “set” of items may include one or more of such items. Whether in the written description or the claims, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of,” respectively, are closed or semi-closed transitional phrases with respect to claims.
If present, use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., in the claims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence or order of one claim element over another or the temporal order in which acts of a method are performed. These terms are used merely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain name from another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish the claim elements. As used in this application, “and/or” means that the listed items are alternatives, but the alternatives also include any combination of the listed items.
Throughout this description, the aspects, embodiments or examples shown should be considered as exemplars, rather than limitations on the apparatus or procedures disclosed or claimed. Although some of the examples may involve specific combinations of method acts or system elements, it should be understood that those acts and those elements may be combined in other ways to accomplish the same objectives.
Acts, elements and features discussed only in connection with one aspect, embodiment or example are not intended to be excluded from a similar role(s) in other aspects, embodiments or examples.
Aspects, embodiments or examples of the invention may be described as processes, which are usually depicted using a flowchart, a flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may depict the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. With regard to flowcharts, it should be understood that additional and fewer steps may be taken, and the steps as shown may be combined or further refined to achieve the described methods.
If means-plus-function limitations are recited in the claims, the means are not intended to be limited to the means disclosed in this application for performing the recited function, but are intended to cover in scope any equivalent means, known now or later developed, for performing the recited function.
Claim limitations should be construed as means-plus-function limitations only if the claim recites the term “means” in association with a recited function.
If any presented, the claims directed to a method and/or process should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Although aspects, embodiments and/or examples have been illustrated and described herein, someone of ordinary skills in the art will easily detect alternate of the same and/or equivalent variations, which may be capable of achieving the same results, and which may be substituted for the aspects, embodiments and/or examples illustrated and described herein, without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of this application is intended to cover such alternate aspects, embodiments and/or examples. Hence, the scope of the invention is defined by the accompanying claims and their equivalents. Further, each and every claim is incorporated as further disclosure into the specification.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/607,084, filed Dec. 6, 2023, which is hereby incorporated by reference, to the extent that it is not conflicting with the present application.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63607084 | Dec 2023 | US |
