RESISTANCE ALLOCATING APPARATUS OF FOUR-LIMB EXERCISE EQUIPMENT

Abstract

A resistance allocating apparatus of a four-limb exercise equipment is consisted of an exercise equipment having a resistance supplier and a transmission motor, and an electronic control meter having a control panel. The exercise equipment has a pedal link rod and a corresponding handle link rod to define a limbs link relation, and a transmission motor is provided and operated for controlling the displacement of an elevating saddle, and the electronic control meter uses a corresponding control key installed on a control panel of the electronic control meter to control a resistance supplier and a transmission motor by the design of a built-in software program and a control circuit, so as to control an exercise resistance level and adjust the position of the elevating saddle, and the control panel further including a zero setting key and a resistance allocating selection key for selecting a four-limb exercise resistance allocation percentage.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Fields of the Invention

The present invention relates to a resistance allocating apparatus of a four-limb exercise equipment, and more particularly to the resistance allocating apparatus capable of selecting a four-limb exercise resistance allocation percentage of an exercise equipment to meet a user's specific exercise requirement.

2. Description of the Related Art

In general, four-limb exercise equipments refer to all fitness/exercise equipments with a link relation of upper limbs (both hands) and lower limbs (both legs). In short, when an exerciser uses exercise equipments of this sort, there is a link relation of four limbs regardless of applying forces to the upper limbs or lower limbs to achieve an expected synchronous exercise effect of the four limbs.

However, some exercisers have the idea of doing exercise at different exercise levels for the upper limbs and lower limbs in certain specific situations due to different specific requirements of the exerciser's training, therapy or personal preference. Therefore, the simplest way of achieving the aforementioned objective in various types of exercise equipments and common using habits is to separate the exercise of the upper and lower limbs. For example, fitness bikes or treadmills are provided for a pedaling exercise of the legs, and weightlifters or dumbbells are provided for exercises of the hands. Although such arrangement can meet the ultimate four-limb exercise requirement, yet it is time-consuming and inconvenient for exercisers, and thus indirectly showing that the design of conventional exercise equipments is not user-friendly and requires improvements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a resistance allocating apparatus of an exercise equipment having a saddle with a height adjustable by a transmission motor, so that an exercisers sitting on the saddle may change the force applying space of the upper and lower limbs and a corresponding force applying component (such as a handle link rod and a pedal link rod) automatically to change a resistance allocation for the exercise of the upper and lower limbs appropriately, so as to achieve an expected exercise effect.

According to the invention, a resistance allocating apparatus of a four-limb exercise equipment is consisted of an exercise equipment having a resistance supplier and a transmission motor, and an electronic control meter having a control panel. The exercise equipment has a pedal link rod and a corresponding handle link rod to define a limbs link relation, and a transmission motor is provided and operated for controlling the displacement of an elevating saddle, and the electronic control meter uses a corresponding control key installed on a control panel of the electronic control meter to control a resistance supplier and a transmission motor by the design of a built-in software program and a control circuit, so as to control an exercise resistance level and adjust the position of the elevating saddle, and the control panel further including a zero setting key and a resistance allocating selection key for selecting a four-limb exercise resistance allocation percentage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accomplishment of this and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and its accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic planar view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is another schematic planar view of FIG. 1 showing a height adjustment of a saddle;

FIG. 4 is a schematic planar view of an electronic control meter of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic planar view of another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention will now be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings that show various embodiments of the invention.

With reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 for a resistance allocating apparatus installed in an elliptical exercise machine (hereinafter referred to as an “exercise equipment 10”), the figures show an exercise equipment 10 and an electronic control meter 30.

The exercise equipment 10 comprises a ground-affixed support stand 11, a front support stand 12, a saddle support stand 13 and two pedal link rods 15, each having a pedal 14, wherein an electronic control meter 30 is installed at the front of the front support stand 12, and both corresponding ends of a crank 16 are pivotally coupled to the rear of the two pedal link rods 15 respectively, such that the crank 16 can drive a gear plate 17 to rotate, and a transmission belt 18 is operated to link an inertia flywheel 19 to rotate, and a resistance supplier 20 is installed on a side of the flywheel 19 to provide an adjustable exercise resistance to the flywheel 19, and a handle link rod 21 is pivotally coupled to the front of each of the two pedal link rods 15, and the other end of the handle link rod 21 is pivotally coupled to both sides of the front support stand 12 proximate to the top, so that the handle link rod 21 and the pedal link rod 15 have a limbs link relation. In addition, an elevating saddle 23 is installed at the saddle support stand 13 through four link rod mechanisms 22, and a transmission motor 24 is provided for controlling the displacement of the elevating saddle 23.

The electronic control meter 30 uses the design of a built-in software program and a control circuit to control the resistance supplier 20 and the transmission motor 24 freely through a basic control key 32 of a control panel 31, so as to control the exercise resistance level and adjust the position of the elevating saddle 23. Particularly, the control panel 31 further includes a zero setting key 33 and a resistance allocating selection key 34 installed thereon.

With the assembly of the aforementioned apparatus, an exerciser may adjust the elevating saddle 23 to an exercise position which suits the exerciser the best to perform an exercise stroke directly according to the user's figure and personal feeling after sitting on the elevating saddle 23 or may further press a zero setting key 33 at a specific position such that the built-in software program stores this position into a memory and considers this position as a four-limb exercise resistance balance point for the specific exerciser, and the exerciser can select the required exercise resistance allocation percentage through the resistance allocating selection key 34. After the exerciser has made a selection, the built-in software program will drive the transmission motor 24 to adjust the position of the elevating saddle 23 to obtain the required exercise resistance allocation percentage.

The software program and the control circuit are prior arts, and thus will not be described in details.

The so-called “four-limb exercise resistance balance point” refers to a reference point of the position of the elevating saddle 23 subjectively defined by a specific exerciser according to the exerciser's figure and using habits. After the exerciser presses the zero setting key 33, the built-in software program of the electronic control meter 30 of the present invention will consider the position of the specific elevating saddle 23 as the specific exerciser's “four-limb exercise resistance balance point”, that is the exercise resistance of the upper and lower balance allocated to the upper limbs and limbs respectively (50% each or 5:5), and then the exerciser can select different exercise resistance allocation percentages (such as a proportion of 6:4, indicating that 60% of the resistance is allocated to the upper limbs and 40% of the resistance is allocated to the lower limbs by the resistance allocating selection key 34), so that the exerciser's upper limbs will have more exercise resistance than the lower limbs. On the other hand, if the exerciser selects a proportion of 4:6, then the lower limbs will have more training. Of course, everyone's figure and personal feeling vary, so that the aforementioned “four-limb exercise resistance balance point” may be set individually by the exercisers to match the position of the saddle to best fit personal requirements.

As described above, the so-called “exercise resistance allocation percentage” is provided for changing a force applying space between the exerciser's upper and lower limbs and the corresponding force applying components (such as the handle link rod 21 and the pedal link rod 15) based on the front, rear, high and low positions of the elevating saddle 23. The smaller the force applying space, the greater exercising force required for the same resistance condition. On the contrary, a less exercising force is required. In FIGS. 2 and 3, when the elevating saddle 23 of the present invention is situated at a different position, the stretchable space for the upper and lower limbs is expanded or compressed. If the stretchable space of the upper limbs is expanded (or the elevating saddle 23 is situated at a low position), the stretchable space of the lower limbs will be compressed, so that the exercise of the upper limbs requires less effort and the exercise of the lower limbs requires more effort. If the elevating saddle 23 is situated at a high position, the exercise of the lower limbs will require less effort. Therefore, different exercise resistance allocation percentages can be obtained according to the design and calculation of the apparatus of the present invention and its software program.

With reference to FIG. 5 for anther preferred embodiment of the present invention, the resistance allocating apparatus of the present invention is applied to another common elliptical exercise machine (hereinafter referred to as an “exercise equipment 100”), the difference between this embodiment and the previous embodiment resides on that the exercise direction of the handle link rod 21 is in a back-and-forth swinging direction. In fact, the apparatus of the present invention may be applied to any type of the four-limb exercise equipments.

Since the four link rod mechanisms 22 and the transmission motor 24 are connected by a pull rod 221, a screw sleeve 241 and two axial contacts 222, 223; therefore, the elevating saddle 23 can be elevated or descended up and down, and these belong to the area of conventional mechanisms. In addition, the supply and control of the resistance between the resistance supplier 20 and the flywheel 19 are also prior art, and thus will not be described.

Many changes and modifications in the above-described embodiments of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. Exercise equipment comprising:

a support stand,

a front support,

a saddle support,

a height adjustable saddle connected to the saddle support,

a variable mechanical resistance,

two pedal link rods, with rear ends of the pedal link rods coupled to the mechanical resistance,

two pedals, each mounted on a respective one of the pedal link rods such that a user exerts force via their lower limbs against the mechanical resistance, and

two handle link rods, each pivotably coupled at a first, lower end to a front end of a respective pedal link rod and at an intermediate position to an upper end of the front support, such that the user exerts force via their upper limbs and the handle link rods against the mechanical resistance and such that adjustment of a set height of the height adjustable saddle varies relative mechanical advantage between the user's upper and lower limbs against the mechanical resistance so as to vary a relative force allocation between the user's upper and lower limbs.

3. The equipment of claim 2, further comprising:

a transmission connected to the height adjustable saddle so as to adjust the set height of the saddle; and

a control meter connected to the transmission and configured to receive user commands and store data such that a desired set height of the saddle for a given user is stored and adjusted upon command.