Miniaturized track exercising device
A miniaturized track exercising device includes a chassis on which a counterweight wheel set is provided. The counterweight wheel set is provided with a resistance adjusting unit. Two crank arms extend in opposite directions and are arranged on opposite sides of the counterweight wheel set. Each crank arm is pivotally connected to a pedal in an offset manner. The pedals are provided with a guide rail unit that is opposite to the crank arms with respect to the pedals and that provides a pivot joint and a fulcrum. Thus, when the pedals are being treaded, with the counterweight wheel set inducing a sufficient resistance that is adjusted with the resistance adjusting unit and the guide rail unit providing support against gravitational force acting on the pedals while the pedals undergo track motion, the pedals are constrained by the guide rail unit to generate an elliptical track motion.
(a) Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of physical exercising or fitness equipment, and in particular to an elliptical track exercising device having a reduced volume and effectively increasing exercising amount.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
To cope with the substantial reduction of exercising sites and time that am available for modern people, a variety of exercising device or fitness equipment is available in the market for carrying out different types of physical trainings. Among the exercising devices available in the market, a track exercising device is operated by having the feet treading and skidding back and fro to effect training of strength of legs. The track exercising device has been developed from the early vane-type stationary bicycle to the recent elliptic track exercising device.
To improve the drawback of being of less amount, of exercise for the conventional vane type stationary bicycle, other types of exercising devices have been developed and an example, given in
Further referring to
The known pedaling type track exercising devices provides the users with exercising by pedaling action. Since in all the known devices, the support point or fulcrum and the pivot point are “floating” rather than stationary, when the device is operated to take track motion, the gravity center of the pedals are located in front of the user so that the user cannot control the balance thereof and thus handgrips located in front of the chassis are required to support the user. On the other hand, the known sliding type uses the slidable pedals sliding along the guide bars to realize exercising. Again, since the pedals are “floating” and are not properly supported, when the device is operated to take track motion, the user is not able to control balance so that again, handgrips are needed in the front of the chassis for supporting the user.
In other words, the conventional pedaling type track, exercising devices realize exercising by pedaling action. To increase the resistance thereof, a large size vane is needed. Also, crank set and chain are used to drive the vane. All these complicate the construction and enlarge the overall volume. In addition, the gravity center is put at a high altitude, causing negative effect on the operation safety. The handgrips that allow the user to keep balance also increase the overall volume of the track exercising device, causing problems in flexibility of space use and inconvenience of use, installation, storage, and transportation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a miniaturized track exercising device, which has reduced overall volume and has enhanced operation safety.
The above objective is realized with the following technical solution. A miniaturized track exercising device comprises a chassis on which a counterweight wheel set is provided. The counterweight wheel set is provided with a resistance adjusting unit for adjusting the resistance induced by the counterweight wheel set. Two crank arms extend in opposite directions and are arranged on opposite sides of the counterweight wheel set. Each crank arm is pivotally connected to a pedal in an offset manner. The pedals are provided with a guide rail unit that is opposite to the crank arms with respect to the pedals and that provides a pivot joint and a fulcrum. As such, with the above described means, the present invention may adjust the resistance against the rotation of the counterweight wheel set by means of the resistance adjusting unit and the guide rail unit, provides support against gravitational force acting on the pedals while the pedals undergo track motion, so that the user may stably stand on the pedal to take the track motion without the handgrips to maintain balance. Thus, reduction of overall volume and putting the gravity center at a lower altitude are realized. And, exercising result can also be enhanced with safety.
The foregoing object and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.
Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.
The following descriptions are of exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
With reference to the drawings, and in particular to
With such an arrangement, by setting and adjusting the resistance induced by the counterweight wheel set 61 with the resistance adjusting unit 62 and by supporting the gravity of the load on the pedals 64 with the guide rail unit 65, when a user treads the pedals 64, the pedals 64 are subject to constraints by the crank arms 63 to move with the rail bars 66 sliding with respect to the fulcrum rollers 67 thereby generating an elliptic track motion. As such, a compact and safe miniaturized track exercising device is realized.
To practically operate the miniaturized track exercising device in accordance with the present invention, referring to
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in
In a further embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in
Further, as illustrated in
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention which is intended to be defined by the appended claims.
It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above.
While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
Claims
1. A miniaturized track exercising device comprising a chassis on which a counterweight wheel set is provided, the counterweight wheel set being provided with a resistance adjusting unit, two crank arms extending in opposite directions and arranged on opposite sides of the counterweight wheel set, each crank arm being pivotally connected to a pedal in an offset manner, the pedals being provided with a guide rail unit that is opposite to the crank arms with respect to the pedals and that provides a pivot joint and a fulcrum, whereby when the pedals are being treaded, with the counterweight wheel set inducing a sufficient resistance that is adjusted with the resistance adjusting unit and the guide rail unit providing support against gravitational force acting on the pedals while the pedals undergo track motion, the pedals are constrained by the guide rail unit to generate an elliptical track motion.
2. The miniaturized track exercising device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the guide rail unit comprises a rail bar having a semi-circular cross-section and extending in a frontward direction from an underside of each pedal, two fulcrum rollers being rotatably mounted to a front portion of the chassis and respectively engaging in a rolling manner with and supporting the respective rail bar.
3. The miniaturized track exercising device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the guide rail unit comprises a rail bar extending in a frontward direction from an underside of each pedal and having a front end to which a fulcrum roller is rotatably mounted for and adapted to roll on a fixture surface, whereby being supported on the ground and with the fulcrums as pivot joints, the pedals are constrained by the crank arms and the rail bars to undergo elliptical motion.
4. The miniaturized truck exercising device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the guide rail unit comprises channels having upward facing openings and arranged at a front end and opposite sides of the chassis to movably receive the fulcrum rollers therein respectively for making rolling of the fulcrum rollers smooth, the channels being foldable inward to reduce space occupied thereby.
5. The miniaturized track exercising device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the guide rail unit comprises a guide collar mounted to an underside of each pedal and a rail bar slidably extending in a frontward direction through the collar, a front end of the rail bar being pivoted to a front end of the chassis whereby the pedals are constrained by the crank arms and are movable along the guide rail unit to thereby induce an elliptic motion.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 18, 2007
Publication Date: Mar 6, 2008
Inventor: Chin-Ta Lin (Taiping City)
Application Number: 11/736,596
International Classification: A63B 22/04 (20060101); A63B 22/06 (20060101);