KNEE REHABILITATION EXERCISE DEVICE
A knee rehabilitation exercise device with a right and left leg brace, a rear knee strap, an upper leg strap assembly, a lower leg strap assembly, a portable rear brace assembly and an elastic resistance band. The left and right leg brace members are each comprised of an upper member and a lower member rotatably pinned together at the area of the knee joint. The left and right leg braces are attached to the upper and lower leg strap assembly. The rear knee strap is attached to the left and right leg braces at the knee joint. When a user places the elastic band onto L hooks mounted on the upper and lower strap assembly and the rear brace assembly is placed between the rear of the user's knee and the elastic band, a resistive stretching is caused when the user straightens his leg which exercises and strengthens the users leg muscles in the area of the knee joint.
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 14/980,705, filed Dec. 28, 2015, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/799,456, filed Apr. 26, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,220,623, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 12/157,767, filed Jun. 13, 2008, now abandoned. Each of the prior patent applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates generally to the field of portable leg exercise devices and more specifically to a knee rehabilitation exercise device.
With today's rigorous sports activities including football, tennis, basketball and soccer it is unfortunately a common occurrence for active people to injure there knee joint to the point where surgical treatment is necessary to repair the knee and areas around the knee.
Because of this, it has been necessary to provide devices to help rehabilitate the knee area after surgery. Some devices are simply leg braces that help take pressure off the knee joint while it is healing. Other devices are machines or apparatus that help strengthen the leg muscles around the knee and associated with proper knee function.
Patents that describe leg braces that help keep the knee joint supported during exercise include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,732, 5,116,296, 4,433,679 and 5,980,435. Patents that describe exercise apparatus for helping to rehabilitate the muscles of the leg around the knee joint include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,546,968, 4,776,587, 4,979,737 and 5,181,895. However, these patents and other commercially available exercise devices have a deficiency in that none of them allows a person to wear a light weight inexpensive brace which has hooks attached to allow the user to releasably attach an elastic band from the area of the upper leg to the area of the lower leg, and to insert a portable assembly behind the user's knee for the elastic band to stretch over to increase the resistance factor to the muscles surrounding the knee joint. Furthermore, none of the patents or other prior art shows a leg brace exercise device that allows the user to easily and quickly change the resistance band location from the back of the leg to the front of the leg whereby the user can insert a portable assembly in front of the knee which the elastic band passes over to passively stretch the knee joint to a straight position.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe primary object of the invention is to provide a knee rehabilitation exercise device that allows a person to strengthen leg muscles after knee surgery.
Another object of the invention is to provide a knee rehabilitation exercise device that helps increase the range of knee joint motion.
Another object of the invention is to provide a knee rehabilitation exercise device that can be easily used by a person without the need for additional help from a care giver.
A further object of the invention is to provide a knee rehabilitation exercise device that is light weight and can be adjusted to fit a variety of leg lengths and diameters.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a knee rehabilitation exercise device that can be fastened to a user's leg quickly and easily.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, there is disclosed a knee rehabilitation exercise device comprising: a left rigid leg brace, a right rigid leg brace, a rear knee strap, an upper leg strap assembly, a lower leg strap assembly, a portable rear brace assembly, an elastic resistance band, said left and right leg brace members each comprised of an upper member and a lower member rotatably pinned together at the area of the knee joint, said left and right leg brace attached at their uppermost ends to said upper leg strap assembly, said left and right leg brace attached at their lowermost ends to said lower leg strap assembly, said upper leg strap assembly including a rear facing upwardly turned L hook, said lower leg strap assembly including a rear facing downwardly turned L hook, said upper and lower leg strap assemblies able to be formed into a circular shape by a user so that said upper leg strap assembly fits around said user's thigh and said lower leg strap assembly fits around the user's ankle, said upper and lower leg strap assemblies secured to said user's leg by standard attachment means, said rear knee strap fixedly held at said pinned knee joint by said left and right leg brace, said rear brace assembly held in place behind said user's knee joint by said elastic resistance band when said upper and lower L hooks interact with an upper and a lower aperture in said band, so that when said user straightens his knee from a bent position, said elastic band stretches putting pressure on said rear brace assembly, and said pressure transferring to said user's leg muscles causing them to contract and strengthen after repeated use.
The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments to the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention.
Detailed descriptions of the preferred embodiment are provided herein. It is to be understood, however, that the present invention may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed system, structure or manner.
Referring now to
Elastic stretch band 2 is attached to L hook 6 on the upper leg strap 43 and L hook 4 on the lower leg strap 45. Rear leg brace assembly 70 is portable and can be placed between the elastic stretch band 2 and the rear of the user's knee 28 where rear knee strap 54 is located. The outwardly facing horizontal post 8 of portable brace assembly 70 engages strap 2 so that when the user straightens his or her leg 34, as shown in
Side plates 26, 27 on portable knee brace assembly 70 help keep the knee from slipping off cross bar 29 as shown in
Elastic stretch band 2 is shown clearly in
While the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the particular form set forth, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Claims
1. Knee rehabilitation exercise device comprising:
- a rigid upper member and a rigid lower member rotatably pinned together to provide a pinned joint;
- an upper leg strap assembly attached to the rigid upper member, which upper leg strap assembly is configured to fit around a user's leg above the user's knee and to releasably secure the exercise device to the user's leg;
- a lower leg strap assembly attached to the rigid lower member, which lower leg strap assembly is configured to fit around the user's leg below the user's knee and to releasably secure the exercise device to the user's leg;
- a spring member that is connected to the rigid upper member and to the rigid lower member and that is positioned such that the spring resists straightening of the user's leg and such that a resistive stretching is caused when the user straightens the user's leg; and
- a rear brace assembly connected to the rigid upper member and to the rigid lower member, the rear brace assembly being configured to face and engage the rear of the user's leg at a location between the upper leg strap and the lower leg strap.
2. The knee rehabilitation exercise device of claim 1 wherein the knee rehabilitation exercise device is configured to position the rear brace assembly behind the user's knee joint and between the user's knee joint and the spring.
3. The knee rehabilitation exercise device of claim 1 wherein:
- the spring member is an elastic stretch band; and
- the knee rehabilitation exercise device is configured to position the elastic stretch band behind the user's knee joint.
4. The knee rehabilitation exercise device as claimed in claim 3 wherein:
- the upper leg strap assembly comprises a rear facing upwardly turned L hook;
- the elastic stretch band defines an aperture that receives the rear facing upwardly turned L hook to attach the elastic stretch band to the upper leg strap assembly;
- the lower leg strap assembly comprises a rear facing downwardly turned L hook; and
- the elastic stretch band defines an aperture that receives the rear facing downwardly turned L hook to attach the elastic stretch band to the lower leg strap assembly.
5. The knee rehabilitation exercise device as claimed in claim 1 wherein:
- the upper and lower leg strap assemblies are each comprised of a flexible sheet plastic nylon strap;
- the upper leg strap assembly is approximately five inches wide and the lower leg strap assembly is approximately four inches wide;
- the upper and lower leg strap assemblies are removably retained by polyester belting and snap fastening buckles attached to the belting.
6. The knee rehabilitation exercise device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the spring member is configured to provide resistance to the user's rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, intermedialis and vastus medialis oblique muscles.
7. Knee rehabilitation exercise device comprising:
- a rigid upper member and a rigid lower member rotatably pinned together to provide a pinned joint;
- an upper leg strap assembly attached to the rigid upper member, which upper leg strap assembly is configured to fit around a user's leg above the user's knee and to releasably secure the exercise device to the user's leg;
- a lower leg strap assembly attached to the rigid lower member, which lower leg strap assembly is configured to fit around the user's leg below the user's knee and to releasably secure the exercise device to the user's leg;
- a spring member that is connected to the rigid upper member and to the rigid lower member and that is positioned such that the spring resists straightening of the user's leg and such that a resistive stretching is caused when the user straightens the user's leg; and
- a rear brace assembly connected to the rigid upper member and to the rigid lower member, the rear brace assembly being configured to face the rear of the user's knee,
- the rear brace assembly being comprised of a padded first horizontal bar having left and right ends, a second horizontal bar centrally attached to the first horizontal bar and left and right knee retaining panels respectively fixedly attached to the left and right ends of the first horizontal bar,
- the second horizontal bar terminating at its free end in an outwardly projecting post, and
- the elastic stretch band defining an aperture that receives the post so that the first horizontal bar rests behind the user's knee joint and the second horizontal bar extends outward to engage the elastic stretch band, the elastic stretch band being configured to stretch and apply resistive pressure to the user's leg muscles.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 10, 2017
Publication Date: May 10, 2018
Inventor: Jebodiah Mose Burns (San Jose, CA)
Application Number: 15/729,543