DE29801626U1 - Training device - Google Patents

Description

Wolf & Lutz

Patent attorneys

European Patent and Trademark Attorneys

Peter Gottlob

Steingasse 9

71577 Großerlach-Grab

Training device

STUTTGART

Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Phys. Eckhard Wolf* Dr. rer. nat. Dipl.-Phys. Johannes Lutz* Dr. rer. nat. Dipl.-Phys. Thomas Pfiz*

BADEN-BADEN

Dr. rer. nat. Dipl.-Phys. Thilo Corts

Delivery address:
Hauptmannsreute 93 D-70193 Stuttgart

Telephone 0711 - 187760 Fax 0711 - 187765

A 15 314 30.01.97 t - ha

Office Baden-Baden: Zeppelinstraße 40 · D-76530 Baden-Baden ■ Telephone 07221-38520 ■ Fax 07221-38525

Training device Description

The invention relates to a training device for combined muscle, cardiovascular and proprioceptive training, with a lever mechanism mounted on a frame that can be operated by a training person by applying force and simultaneously guiding the movement of several parts of the body.

There are a number of training devices of this type, such as ergometers, stair climbing machines, treadmills, rowing machines, cross-country skiing machines, stretching machines and the like, on which several exercises can be carried out at the same time, but only individual muscle groups are moved independently of one another. For example, on a bicycle ergometer with arm operation, in addition to the actual pedaling process with the foot pedals, an independent back and forth movement of levers can be carried out with the arms. In this way, body awareness is only created for the specifically trained muscle group, and no natural and complete bending and stretching movements are achieved. Rather, most resistance exercises on stationary exercise machines are highly isolating bending, stretching or pulling exercises, without a dynamic movement amplitude.

Based on this, the invention is based on the task of improving a training device of the type specified at the beginning so that a flexion and extension movement of the extremities and an upright movement of the torso of a training person, coordinated with the biomechanics conditions of a training person, is made possible with harmonious movement coupling. In this case, training people with little or no training experience should also be supported in training the necessary movement coordination. A general problem in the development of such training devices is to maintain the strength and kinematics conditions of the stressed body parts during simultaneous exercise in such a way that an optimal training effect can be achieved.

To solve this problem, the invention proposes the combination of features specified in claim 1. Advantageous embodiments and further developments emerge from the dependent claims.

The invention is based on the idea of coordinating the movements to be carried out by the person through a corresponding forced coupling of the lever system used so that the intended muscles work in the desired way. For this purpose, it is proposed that the lever mechanism has three pivot joints each fixed to the frame with parallel

It has levers that are hinged to pivoting axes and can be pivoted back and forth between a starting and end position, of which a leg lever equipped with pedals can be pushed into its end position by the person stretching their legs, an arm lever connected to pulling elements can be pulled into its end position by bending their arms, and a seat lever carrying a seat part can be moved into its end position as a driven element when the person straightens their torso. These measures result in harmonious training of the arms, back and legs of the person being trained. At the same time, the exerciser is led to a high level of movement coordination in continuous exercise sequences. The entire back muscles, the arm muscles, the body-extending torso muscles and the hip and knee extension loops are exercised in a coordinated movement pattern. Due to the conscious activation of this large muscle mass, a significant cardio effect is also achieved, i.e. the heart/circulatory system is physiologically stressed.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the arm lever is forcibly coupled to the leg lever and the seat lever via a connecting link. This allows the power transmission in the lever mechanism and the coupling of the arm, leg and pelvic movements to be achieved in an optimal manner with minimal structural effort. In this respect, it is also advantageous if the connecting links are connected to

are hinged against each other at a common articulation point of the arm lever.

In order to take into account the biomechanical conditions of the exerciser in the design of the lever mechanism,
are the leg lever, which is designed as a one-sided or one-armed lever, and the one above it
two-sided arm lever at a lateral distance from the one-sided seat lever under opposite inclination.
arranged thereon, whereby the arm and leg levers can be pivoted in opposite directions to the seat lever.

A favourable transmission of the force acting on the seat lever due to the body weight can be achieved by the connecting link of the seat lever

between the swivel joint and the seat part is hinged to the seat lever. A further improvement can be achieved by
It can be achieved that the connecting link of the
Seat lever forms an acute angle with the adjacent pivot-side section of the seat lever
.

To increase effective leg strength and to adapt
and support of the knee bending movement, the connecting link of the leg lever is advantageously located between
the swivel joint and the pedal organ are hinged to the leg lever.

For foot operation, the leg lever is designed as an angled fork, the U-shaped fork legs of which have foot rods or pedals that protrude outwards at their free ends as a pedal mechanism. With a simple design, a sufficient swivel path can be kept free if the fork legs of the leg lever laterally grip around a bearing support that protrudes upwards on the frame and supports the leg lever and the arm lever.

According to a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the seat part has a seat element, preferably designed as a seat cushion, which is freely displaceable in a linear guide by changing the effective lever arm of the seat lever. This measure serves to easily adapt the lever ratios to the body or leg length of an exerciser. At the same time, the pelvic lifting movement is supported in that the seat element, in contact with the exerciser, executes a superimposed linear movement in addition to the pivoting movement of the seat lever.

In order to exert a high restoring moment on the seat lever in the starting position through the body weight of the exerciser and thus to provide a higher actuating force in a physiologically adapted manner, the linear guide is arranged on an obtuse-angled free end section of the seat lever, so that the guide track in the starting position of the seat lever is approximately horizontal

Fig. 1: a side view of a training device for combined muscle and cardiovascular training;

Fig. 2: a front view of the training device according to Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 and 4: a representation corresponding to Fig. 1 of the training device operated by a training person in the starting position and the end position.

The training device shown in the drawing essentially consists of a frame 10, a lever mechanism 12 mounted on the frame 10 and a return device 14 for introducing an adjustable, external return force into the lever mechanism 12. The lever mechanism 12 has three levers 22, 24, 26, each of which is articulated on a swivel joint 16, 18, 20 fixed to the frame with axes of rotation parallel to one another and which can be pivoted back and forth between a starting position (Fig. 3) and an end position (Fig. 4) in a forced-coupled manner. The swivel joints 16, 18 are supported by a two-armed bearing support 28 and the swivel joint 20 by a further bearing support 30.

The one-sided or one-armed lever 26 mounted on the joint 20 carries a seat part 32 as a seat lever. This is mounted on an end section 36 of the seat which projects at an obtuse angle and is rigidly supported by a strut 34.

The seat part 32 consists of a linear guide 38 running parallel to the end section 36 and thus approximately horizontally aligned in the starting position and a seat element 40 designed as a seat cushion that is freely displaceable in the linear guide 38.

The one-sided lever 24 mounted on the swivel joint 18 can be pressed into its end position as a leg lever by a training person 41 while stretching their leg. As can also be seen from Fig. 2, the leg lever 24 is designed for this purpose as an angled fork, the U-shaped fork legs 42 of which grip the bearing support 28 laterally and are provided at their free ends with foot bars 44 projecting outwards as pedals.

The two-sided lever mounted on the swivel joint 16 can be pulled into its end position as an arm lever by the person 41 while bending the arm. For this purpose, a length-adjustable actuating device 46 is provided at the free end of the arm lever 22, which has an extension piece 48 that can be fixed in different angular positions and two handles 50 connected to the extension piece 48 via rope pieces.

In order to enable a guided, harmonious movement, the levers 22, 24, 26 are positively coupled as a lever gear. This is done on the drive side by

This is achieved by connecting the arm lever 22 to the leg lever 24 via a connecting link 52. The connecting link 52 is hinged to a hinge point 54 at the end of the shorter lever arm 56 of the arm lever 22 and to a hinge point 58 at the end of a load arm section 60 of the leg lever 24. The lever sections 56, 60 thus form a double swing arm with the connecting link 52 acting as a coupling link, which can perform a back and forth swinging movement when the levers 22, 24 rotate in the same direction. The seat lever 26 is connected to this double swing arm as an output link via a single additional connecting link 62. This is hinged on the one hand to the hinge point 54 of the arm lever 22 and on the other hand to a hinge point 64 at the end of the adjacent load arm section 66 of the seat lever 26 on the swivel side, with the connecting link 62 and the load arm section 66 forming an acute angle with one another.

In the coupling described, the leg lever 24 and the arm lever 22 located above it are arranged at a lateral distance from the seat lever 26 and at an opposite inclination relative to the latter, so that the arm and leg levers can be pivoted in opposite directions to the seat lever, with the connecting links 52, 62 executing a bending movement relative to one another.

The training person 41 supported by the seat part 40 pushes the seat lever 26 due to his body weight

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F _G into its initial position. To move the seat lever 26, a pulling force F _z is therefore required in the direction of the connecting link 62 according to the relationship

where 1 and h are the effective lever lengths of the seat lever 26 with respect to the force application points of the weight force F _G and the pulling force F _z . The connecting link 62 is articulated with a short effective lever length h between the swivel joint 20 and the seat part 40 at the articulation point 64 of the seat lever 26, so that in the starting position the necessary pulling force F _z is a multiple of the weight force F _0. Since the ratio l/h decreases with increasing swivel angle in the direction of the end position, the necessary pulling force also becomes correspondingly smaller. The pulling force is applied by the training person 41 via the arm lever 22 and the leg lever 24. In order to achieve a suitable force transmission with lengths of the connecting links 52, 62 adapted to the biomechanical conditions, the articulation point 58 of the connecting link 52 of the leg lever 24 is arranged approximately centrally between the pivot joint 18 and the pedal member 44, so that the force arm has approximately twice the length of the load arm 60 of the leg lever 24, which also corresponds to the lever ratio of the lever arms 56, 68 of the arm lever 22.

In order to be able to adjust the training load and increase the training effect, the arm lever 22 is coupled to the reset device 14, which has a hanging device 72 that can be moved up and down on a weight tower 14 of the frame 10 arranged to the side next to the lever mechanism 12 for optionally holding a number of weights 74 and a pull rope 88 that is guided over deflection rollers 76-86 mounted on the frame and connects the hanging device 72 to the arm lever 22. The pull rope 88 pulls the arm lever 22 into the starting position with the weight of the weights 74 placed on it in addition to the reset force introduced into the lever mechanism 10 due to the body weight of the person 41. Although the selected pull rope path is favorable with regard to unhindered operation of the training device, other connection points on the lever mechanism 12 can also be considered. In principle, it is also possible to provide other devices for force introduction, for example mechanical springs or pneumatic cylinders acting as air springs.

To perform exercises with the training device, the training person 41 moves the seat element 40 in the guide 38 into a suitable position in order to reach the pedals 4 4 and the traction elements 50 in the starting position by bending the knees and lowering the torso as well as stretching the arms. The training person then presses

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Extension of the legs pushes the leg lever 24 away from the body and at the same time exerts a pulling force on the arm lever while flexing the arms and straightening the back, whereby the arm lever is pivoted towards the body. The pivoting paths are determined by the lever lengths and the movement sequence by the coupling of the levers 22, 24. Due to the further coupling with the seat lever 26, the pelvic area of the person being trained 41 is simultaneously stretched while raising the body's center of gravity. The seat lever 26 follows the body and pelvic straightening movement while the seat element 40 is in contact with the body. The return movement from the end position to the starting position then takes place under the influence of gravity and muscle relaxation. In order to achieve a circulation-stimulating effect in addition to muscle development, the exercise sequence described above is carried out with a suitably high number of repetitions and frequency.

The exercise sequence is made up of many individual movements that are guided and coordinated by the lever mechanism, which is adapted to the biomechanics of the exerciser, based on its coupling. The following muscle groups are essentially used and developed:

All parts of the erector spinae (from the deep spinal muscles to the higher longissimus and iliocostalis), multifidus, gluteus ma-

ximus, the large back muscles such as latissimus dorsi, teres major, teres minor, infraspinatus, trapezius, posterior deltoid, the shoulder blade flexors, the arm flexors, ischiocrural, the entire shoulder girdle, quadriceps, adductors and all joint-stabilizing muscle groups of the ankle, knee, hip, vertebral joints, the sacroiliac joint and the shoulder joints. Since the muscles are physiologically trained in a muscle loop and not individually in isolation, the muscle strength, intra- and intermuscular coordination and motor skills can be used immediately even in everyday movements and stressful situations.

During the movement, the flexed body with a kyphosed spine is brought into the fully extended position under variable load. The exerciser has to master several coordination tasks to ensure a smooth movement. As this movement, in addition to its demanding coordination, simulates two essential everyday postures and movements - namely sitting and standing up from a crouched position - the exerciser's proprioception is significantly improved in general and especially for movements from a vertical position. This means that the strength gained can actually be transferred to everyday life. Unfavorable lifting and standing upright positions, such as those that have developed over the course of several years due to one-sided postures and muscular imbalances, are corrected by this training.

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The muscles involved in this exercise have, among other things, significant stabilizing and relieving functions in relation to the torso. The thoracolumbar fascia, which attaches dorsally to all spinous and transverse processes and thus anchors the spine, is stretched by precisely the muscle groups that are trained in this exercise. In particular, the diagonal tension over the latissimus dorsi and the internal tension over the deep small torso muscles of the erector spinae are practiced in this exercise in exactly the range of motion and with the amplitude that is required in the critical situation of straightening the body or lifting a load. In this respect, training on this device significantly reduces the strain on the spine when sitting, standing up and lifting through improved coordination, strengthening of the muscles involved, better tension in the fascia and improved proprioception, and makes the execution of movements more economical.

The training organisational advantages of the training device also lie in the fact that all muscle groups or muscle loops involved in the exercise sequence are physiologically trained on this device, whereby the combination of connected partial movements into a multi-movement results in a considerable time saving for the exerciser. The exercises train large muscle groups

loops are used, which results in a high training stimulus in terms of coordination and motor skills. The total muscle mass used by the exercise exceeds the threshold of around 1/6 of the total body muscle mass, which means that the heart and circulatory system is sufficiently stressed. This means that the muscle loops that straighten and stretch the torso and the entire arm and leg area can be exercised in the sense of strength endurance training and cardio training.

In summary, the following can be stated: The invention relates to a training device for combined muscle, cardiovascular and proprioceptive training, with a lever mechanism 12 mounted on a frame 10, which can be operated by a training person 41 by applying force and simultaneously moving several parts of the body. In order to achieve an optimal training effect both in terms of muscle and circulatory strain and movement coordination, the lever mechanism 12 has three levers 22, 24, 26, each of which is hinged to a frame-fixed swivel joint 16, 18, 20 with axes of rotation parallel to one another and can be pivoted back and forth between a starting and end position in a forced manner, of which a leg lever 24 provided with pedal elements 44 can be pressed into its end position by the person 41 when the leg is extended, and an arm lever 22 connected to pulling elements 50 can be pulled into its end position when the arm is bent. and a seat part 32 carrying

·

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the seat lever 26 can be moved into its end position as an output member when the torso of the person 41 is raised.

Claims (14)

- 17 - Protection claims 1. Training device for combined muscle, cardiovascular and proprioceptive training, with a lever mechanism (12) mounted on a frame (10) and operable by a training person (41) by applying force and simultaneously moving several parts of the body, characterized in that the lever mechanism (12) has three levers (22, 24, 26) each articulated on a frame-fixed pivot joint (16, 18, 20) with mutually parallel axes of rotation, which can be pivoted back and forth between a starting position and an end position in a forced manner, of which a leg lever (24) provided with pedal elements (44) can be pressed into its end position by the person (41) stretching his leg, an arm lever (22) connected to pulling elements (50) can be pulled into its end position by bending his arm and a seat lever (26) carrying a seat part (32) acts as a drive member when the person (41) straightens his torso can be moved to its final position. 2. Training device according to claim 1, characterized in that the arm lever (22) is connected to the leg lever via a connecting link (52,62) (24) and the seat lever (26). - 18 - 3. Training device according to claim 2, characterized in that the connecting links (52, 62) are hinged against each other at a common articulation point (54) of the arm lever (22) so that they can bend against each other. 4. Training device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the one-sided leg lever (24) and the two-sided arm lever (22) located above it are arranged at a lateral distance from the one-sided seat lever (26) at an opposite inclination relative to the latter, and that the arm and leg levers can be pivoted in opposite directions to the seat lever (26). 5. Training device according to one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that the connecting link (62) of the seat lever (26) is articulated on the seat lever (26) between the pivot joint (20) and the seat part (32).
20 6. Training device according to one of claims 2 to 5, characterized in that the connecting link (62) of the seat lever (26) forms an acute angle with the adjacent pivot-side section (66) of the seat lever (26). 7. Training device according to one of claims 2 to 6, characterized in that the connecting link - 19 - (52) of the leg lever (24) is articulated between the pivot joint (18) and the pedal element (44) on the leg lever (24). 8. Training device according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the leg lever (24) is designed as an angled fork, the U-shaped connected fork legs (42) of which have foot bars (44) or pedals projecting laterally outwards as a pedaling element at their free ends. 9.. Training device according to claim 8, characterized in that the fork legs (42) of the leg lever (24) have a support (46) which projects upwards from the frame (10) and supports the leg lever (24) and the arm lever (22) laterally embrace the supporting bearing support (28). 10. Training device according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the seat part (32) is a in a linear guide (38) by changing the effective lever arm of the seat lever (26) freely displaceable seat element (40), preferably designed as a seat cushion. 25 11. Training device according to claim 10, characterized in that the linear guide (38) is provided at an obtuse-angled free end section (36) of the seat lever (26) so that the guide track of the linear guide (38) runs approximately horizontally in the initial position of the seat lever (26).
5 12. Training device according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized by a length-adjustable actuating device (46) arranged on the arm lever (22), which has an extension piece (48) that can be fixed in different angular positions at the actuating end of the arm lever (22) and two handles (50) connected to the extension piece (48) via rope pieces as pulling elements. 13. Training device according to one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the lever mechanism (12) is coupled to a return device (14) for initiating a return force counteracting the movement of the levers (22, 24, 26) into their end position. 14. Training device according to claim 13, characterized in that the resetting device (14) comprises a suspension device (72) which can be moved up and down on a weight tower (70) of the frame (10) for selectively receiving a number of weights (74) and a Has a traction cable (88) guided by deflection rollers (76,78,80,82,84,86) and connecting the suspension device (72) to the lever mechanism (12), preferably to the arm lever (22).