Exercise apparatus for use by people in wheelchairs are well known. These apparatus typically operate by supporting the driving wheels of the wheelchair on a roller which is connected to a flywheel. A brake is provided on the flywheel to allow a variable amount of resistance to be asserted against the driving wheels. However, these prior art apparatus are not capable of informing the user if more force is being applied to one of the driving wheels than is being applied to the other, and do not allow a different amount of resistance to be applied to each driving wheel. The prior art apparatus also do not allow the user to rotate each driving wheel at a different speed to simulate turning the wheelchair. In addition, the prior art apparatus are configured for use with a traditional wheelchair, having two large side-by-side driving wheels located at or slightly behind the seat and two smaller side-by-side rotatable wheels located at or slightly forward of the seat. Thus, they do not work for sports or racing wheelchairs of the type having a single front wheel which is located further forward of the driving wheels than in a conventional wheelchair and is centered between the driving wheels.
An exercise apparatus for a wheelchair having a pair of side-by-side driving wheels includes a pair of rollers which support said driving wheelers. The rollers are rotatably mounted on a platform which supports the wheelchair, are rotatable independent of one another and are arranged so that each driving wheel contacts one of the rollers. Each roller has a brake which allows resistance to be applied against the rotation of the associated driving wheel.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to
A pair of rollers 20 are rotatably mounted on the frame 16 such that the rollers rotate separately from one another, and one of the rollers 20 is centered in each slot 18. The rollers are carried by a lever 22,
A clamping mechanism 30, which will be more fully described later, holds the wheelchair 14 immovably with respect to the apparatus when the driving wheels are centered over the slots and the rollers are in their raised position.
Referring now to
A speedometer system 49 measures the rotational speed of each roller, and thus the rotational speed of each driving wheel, independently. In the embodiment illustrated the speedometer system includes a series of equally spaced apart radial lines 50 located on the end of each roller. A sensor 52, mounted on the frame 16, is aligned longitudinally with the axis of the associated roller 20. The sensors are connected to the monitor/control panel 28 and are calibrated with the lines 50 in order to show the rotational speed of the roller. The control panel could include a computer programmed to convert the time it takes for adjacent lines to pass the sensor into the rotational speed of a driving wheel located on the roller, or the resulting speed of the wheelchair if it were located on the ground. The rotational speed of each driving wheel or the speed of the wheelchair is then displayed on the monitor.
While the subject exercise apparatus can be used with any wheelchair having a pair of side-by-side driving wheels, the embodiment shown in the drawings is unique in that it can be used with a sports wheelchair which has a single front wheel 38 that is located forwardly of the driving wheels 10 and is centered between the driving wheels. This type of sports wheelchair is shown in the drawings as having a seat 40, which is located generally between the driving wheels, and an elongate tubular frame 42 which extends between the driving wheels and a fork 44 which carries the third wheel 38. In order to accommodate a sports wheelchair the apparatus includes a U-shaped trough 54 which is located forward of and centered between the longitudinal centers of the rollers 20. The trough 54 is slidably mounted on a track 56 which is attached to the platform. Located at the end of the trough is an upstanding stop 58 which angles slightly forward as it extends upwardly from the trough. A latch 60, mounted on the trough 54, is movable between a locked position where it engages the track and holds the trough immovable relative to the track, and a released position where the trough is free to slide along the track. The latch 60 can be actuated mechanically by a lever 61 and cable 67, or electrically through a solenoid (not shown) which is actuated through the control panel 28. The latch 60 is actuated when the driving wheels are located over the slots 18 to prevent the wheelchair from moving further forward.
Referring now also to
In use having individual rollers 20 and speedometer systems 79 for each driving wheel allows the user to determine which arm is the strongest so that more resistance can be added to the other driving wheel in order to strengthen the weaker arm. In addition, having individual rollers reach a driving wheel allows the driver to simulate making turns.
The terms and expressions which have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only by the claims which follow.