Patent Application
20100050477
Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
This invention pertains to weight lifting, specifically to a device that improves the quality and number of exercises that a person can do with their legs. It is a pair of shoes that enable the user to easily pick up and put down weights with their feet and to change weights quickly and they do not interfere with the user's ability to walk or to do other exercises.
While exercises for the upper body have always been easy to do and plentiful, exercises for the legs have been fewer and much more difficult to coordinate. One of the reasons for this discrepancy is the simple ability of a person to pick up and put down weights with their hands, while no such ability exists for leg exercises.
This problem is normally addressed by the use of large expensive weight lifting machines. Machines called leg curl and leg extension machines take up a lot of room in the user's house and are only good for a couple of exercises. Other weight lifting machines such as donkey kick machines are more expensive and for most people require a gym membership.
Many devices have been invented for attaching weights to the user's ankles or feet to increase the number of exercises that can be done. Weighted shoes have been invented which don't hurt the ankles like ankle weights do but they make changing and removing weights difficult, and they hamper walking and other exercises because they remain heavy. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,517,928 to Shanahan; 3,785,646 to Ruskin; and 6,052,924 to Sabat are examples of such shoes. Methods of adding weights to normal shoes include weights that tie into shoelaces U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,709 to Walsh and a sort of sock that fits over the shoe U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,032 to Glass. In both of those inventions changing weights is time consuming and difficult. All of these inventions are hampered by the limited amount of weight they can employ.
Closer to the mark have been devices that attach to shoes and which in turn receive various amounts of weight. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,114,790 to Venables; 2,849,237 to Simithis; 3,343,836 to James; and 6,196,950 to Emick are all examples of such devices. All of these devices are excellent while the user is actually doing the exercise. They all accommodate heavy weight and in one case the ease of changing weights rivals my own invention, but all have the same drawbacks, namely that they interfere with walking and doing other exercises.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,114,790 and 3,343,836 mentioned above both use a very thick sole plate through which a dumbbell passes to add weight. The thickness of the sole plates makes walking awkward and makes other exercises awkward and dangerous as the user could easily “fall off their heels.” They would have to be removed when the user is switching between upper body and lower body exercises. U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,237 uses a thick sole plate as the actual weight and carries with it the same problems as above. U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,950 uses a thin sole plate but changing weights requires the user to fumble with individual weight plates instead of trading out the entire weight or weight holding device. The sole plate is very rigid and flat and not at all conducive to walking.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,927 to Catanzano describes a similar device in which the sole plate is made up of a plurality of weights which can be thin but it is rigid and still awkward and is limited in the amount of weight it can incorporate. U.S. Pat. No. 2,214,052 to Good refers to an exercising boot “preferably made by casting suitable metal in a shaping form or mold.” It is intended to be worn in place of shoes and not over shoes and therefore will be difficult to fit properly. Its rigid design again makes walking and other exercises difficult and dangerous.
The only invention heretofore that is suitable for heavy weights, allows quick and easy changing of weights, and considers the user's ability to walk and to perform other exercises as well as the user's safety is U.S. Pat. No. 757,983 to Vaile, which discloses a shoe of substantially normal fit and construction with some parts added to accommodate the addition and quick removal of weights, even heavy weights, just like the shoes of my own invention. The mostly normal construction of Vaile's shoe provides comfort, safety, and convenience because it can be worn throughout the user's workout and walking and performing other exercises is still possible, and it provides a solid dependable base for a person who is standing on one foot while exercising with the other foot.
Vaile's shoe however still carries with it some drawbacks that need to be addressed.
The first drawback of Vaile's invention is that the structural support for the parts that attach to weights comes in the form of a steel toe section in the front of the shoe. This steel toe completely eliminates all flexibility in the shoe from the ball of the foot forward, which interferes with the ability of the user to bend his or her toes back as would be necessary to for instance run on a treadmill or perform any other exercise that involves standing on the toes of either foot.
A worse drawback of Vaile's steel toe design is that it prevents the user from pushing their toes down, which may be necessary to keep from falling over forward when the user is lifting heavy weights with their upper body, or doing squats with a barbell on their shoulders.
Vaile's design also has the drawback of having the weight over the toes of the user's foot. This weight forward design forces the user to exercise their ankle and lower leg muscles and upper leg muscles at the same time. During lateral leg raises for instance the weight will put a twisting force on the user's ankle. Being forced to exercise too many muscles at the same time reduces the effectiveness on the target muscles because the user will get tired before the target muscles have been fully worked.
Consequently there remains a need for, and it is the object of the current invention to provide a means for a person to quickly and easily pick up and put down heavy weights with their feet that is supremely safe, that does not hurt, does not hamper walking or other exercises, and that allows the user to switch back and forth unimpeded between upper and lower body exercises.
The current invention is a shoe that is normal in every way except for the addition of a small amount of hardware added for the purpose of attaching to weights, and a small amount of structural support for that hardware embedded in the sole of the shoe where it would be unnoticeable to the user, and weights and weight holding devices with hardware for attaching to the hardware of the shoes. A sturdy heel cup for the shoe is desirable.
A preferred embodiment of the shoe of the present invention is illustrated in
The shoe 40a is substantially normal in every way but further consists of a sturdy heel cup 5 hidden in the heel of the shoe to help to keep the shoe 40a on the user's foot and a means of tightening the heel cup 5 comfortably around the user's heel, in this case the shoe lace 44.
The shoe 40a further consists of hardware in the form of tabs 6 protruding from the sides of the sole of the shoe which are designed to attach to corresponding hardware that is permanently attached to a weight or a weight holding device such as a special dumbbell, enabling the wearer of the shoe to quickly and easily pick up and put down weights with their feet and to exercise by lifting the weights with their legs.
The tabs 6 in this case are an integral part of an assembly, in this case a tab assembly 116, shown in
The concavity 22 is made by the addition of an ordinary metal washer 20 with a notch cut into it but it can also be made by drilling directly into the base material if the tabs are thick enough to accommodate that.
The tab assembly 116 shown in detail in
In the preferred embodiment the distance between the notches 24 in the tab assembly 116 would remain constant over several shoe sizes so that the distance between the posts 64, 90 on the weights 100 and the weight holding devices 61a, 61b can remain constant. This would enable different members of a single household to share weights and weight holding devices or a single person to use the same weights while their feet grow and their shoe size changes, and retailers would not have to stock the weights in a large variety of sizes. About four sizes of tab assembly 116 should be plenty even if the main body 114 of the tab assembly changes with every shoe size
The bar 62 is of a standard diameter for accepting normal barbell weights 68 that are available at most sporting goods stores.
The shoes and weights of this invention work by the user wearing the shoes 40a sliding the tabs 6 under the wing nuts 66 so that the notches 24 accept the threaded posts 64 and the concavities 22 are directly under the wing nuts 66. The user then tightens the wing nuts 66 into the concavities 22 until they are pressing firmly on the tabs 6 and are mostly surrounded by the washers 20. The weight 100 or weight holding device 61a is now locked firmly to the shoe 40a because the notches 24 will not allow the threaded posts 64 to move left, right, or back; the washers 20 reach around the wing nuts 66 and will not allow them to move forward; and the wing nuts 66 will not allow the tabs 6 to come up off of the platform 60. Additionally, the thin rubber laminate 31 on the bottoms of the tabs 6 is being pressed firmly to the platform 60 which creates friction preventing any horizontal movement of the shoe on the platform. The user is now free to lift his or her foot and hence the weight in any manner they desire.
After performing the desired number of repetitions of a given exercise the user can quickly and easily remove the weight by loosening the wing nuts 66 and sliding their foot back off of the platform 60. The user can then attach the weight to their other foot or attach a different weight to the same foot and continue exercising, or they can leave the weights off and do some upper body exercises with no weights attached to their feet. The shoes 40a will not interfere in any way with push ups, sit ups, walking, or almost any other exercise. The wing nuts 66 never need to be removed from the threaded posts 64, only loosened enough to provide clearance for the washers 20.
The locking clamps 94 work in the same way as Visegrip® locking pliers and use most of the same components. With the locking clamps open as is shown in
The locking clamps 94 can be adjusted by means of the threaded rod 84. With the locking clamps 94 open as in
The hole 96 has to be deep enough to keep the smooth post 90 from hitting the top of the hole 96 because that would prevent the plunger 82 from fully descending into the concavity 22. There should always be some air space above the smooth post 90 when the locking clamp 94 is closed.
The peg assembly 115a is also built into the shoe 40c in basically the same manner as the tab assembly 116. The peg assembly 115a is passed through a void in the sole of the shoe so that a peg and spacer protrude from each side. The peg assembly 115a is glued into that place using a suitable glue and like the tab assembly 116 may be further secured to the shoe sole with short deep thread screws. The main body 114 is again shown as a small and nearly square piece of material but as in the tab assembly 116 described in paragraph 0043 above, the main body can be as large as the entire footprint of the shoe.
The difference in construction for shoes 40c using the peg assembly 115a compared to shoes 40a using the tab assembly 116 rests in the fact that the pegs 110 are higher than the tabs 6 and therefore the peg assembly 115a should not be in direct contact with the thin rubber laminate on the bottom of the shoe but should be placed higher in the sole of the shoe.
If the main body 114 of the peg assembly 115a is small as shown in
Accordingly the reader will see that the shoes and weights and the various hardware of this invention will provide a method of lower body exercises that is effective, safe, easy to operate, low cost, and can be used and kept easily in a small room or apartment.
Although the description above contains many specificities, exact descriptions of the hardware used to attach the weights to the shoes may be innumerable, and examples shown should not be construed as limiting the scope of this invention but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. Parts that attach to corresponding hardware on the weights may be recessed into the sides or the bottom of the shoe's sole. Additionally, the shoes of this invention can be boots, loafers using the disclosed heel cup, high tops, or any other kind of shoe that is found to work.
This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application for Patent No. 61/191,171 filed on Sep. 4, 2008 for “Weight lifting shoes and their weights” from Thomas Jay Zeek. The sandals and weights shown in this application are not claimed per se in this application and will be claimed in a later application.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61191171 | Sep 2008 | US |
