GB2347091A

GB2347091A - Barbell training accessory

Info

Publication number: GB2347091A
Application number: GB0004135A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Adrian James Baker
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1999-02-24
Filing date: 2000-02-16
Publication date: 2000-08-30
Anticipated expiration: 2020-02-16
Also published as: GB2347091B; GB9904257D0; GB0004135D0

Abstract

A barbell training aid has a pressure pad which can be attached to a barbell shaft, the pressure pad having two cupped regions 8 which can, in use, be located over the middle trapezius muscles (2, figs 1-3) of the user's back. The pad allows the barbell to be rested on the middle trapezius muscles more comfortably. The cups 8 may fit around the full periphery of the trapezius muscles, and stop the trapezius muscles from being pushed apart. The pad may have a slot 14,16 for receiving the barbell bar, and a cut-away channel 11 to avoid putting pressure on the spinal vertebrae (6, fig 1,3). The pad may have a curved surface for location against the rear of a user's neck, raised cushion areas for the sides of the neck, and recesses (9, fig 4) for the upper trapezius muscles. The pad may be of polyurethane synthetic foam plastics or rubber. This accessory thus reduces the risk of the user receiving pain, bruising skin, and damage to the spine area, from resting the weight of the barbell on their trapezius muscles.

Description

BARBELL TRAINING AID This invention relates to a barbell training aid. It relates particularly to a training aid for use in performing weight lifting exercises.

There are two primary weight lifting exercises which are used for developing the leg muscles. A first one of these, the Squat, is performed by the user balancing a barbell across the shoulders behind the neck. This requires the arms to be raised to grasp the bar at each end. With the back straight, the legs are bent to a crouch position and then raised to the upright position. The exercise is normally done in sets of ten repetitions. The middle trapezius muscles of the user's upper back become arched when the arms are raised to grip the bar and this causes two pre-formed muscle peaks to appear. It is through these peaks that the substantial weight load of the bar is required to be dissipated.

The Standing Calf Raise exercise will similarly require the barbell to be rested behind the user's neck across the middle trapezius muscle.

A heavily loaded barbell will have the effect of creating acute stress across the muscle region immediately beneath it. This is because a standard barbell which is of 25 to 28 millimetres in diameter has only a minimal back contact area through which its load can be distributed. Extreme pressure points can be formed across the contact area of the muscle and neck vertebrae. These exercises can therefore be extremely uncomfortable to perform and they are often accompanied by bruisiig across the soft muscle tissue.

There have been attempts to partially distribute the bar load by using a towel wrapped round the bar or the use of a plastics foam pipe lagging material. These means are not very helpful because they are not appropriately shaped and they will suffer from compression under load so that their effectiveness will be minimised.

A partial solution to the need to distribute the barbell load in a mechanically effective way has been disclosed in United States Patent No. 5342272. The device disclosed in the patent is a resilient plastics shell which is intended to be clipped onto the bar. The shell has a convex contact surface which conforms to the contour of the valley formed by the left and right trapezius upper back muscles of the user. The shell contacts only the inner faces of the left and right side trapezius muscle. This means that under load pressure the muscles will be pushed apart from one another and the shell will tend to sink down in the valley such that part of the barbell load will become distributed to the user's spinal vertebrae. The patented device therefore is still not free from the risk of damage to the weight lifter's spine.

I have now discovered an alternative construction of barbell training aid which enables the muscles to take the weight in a way that avoids pushing the muscles apart.

According to the invention, there is provided a barbell training aid comprising a pressure pad which is able to be attached to a weight training barbell, the pressure pad having two cup regions which are spaced apart from one another such that, when the article is in use, they are capable of being located over the left and right middle trapezius muscles of a user's back. Each cup region is so dimensioned that it will fit around the full periphery of each trapezius muscle.

Preferably, the space between the two cup regions has a cut away portion located over a spine area of a user's back. This provision ensures that a load bearing part of the pressure pad will be unlikely to come into contact with the user's neck and spine.

The provision of two cup regions in the pressure pad allows the weight of the barbell to be distributed over the full convex surface of each trapezius muscle so that there is no tendency to the two muscles to be pushed apart from one another. To use the whole conical surface of each muscle is a more satisfactory way of distributing the bar load than just using the inner surface of each muscle. The two cup regions will thus allow the bar weight to be supported in a stable manner without the muscles tending to be moved outwards from their normal positions. The muscle surface in contact with the pressure pad is thereby increased and this can lead to a reduction in the pressure per unit area which is applied to the user's skin.

The pressure pad may have a curved surface arranged for location against a rear contour of the user's neck. Raised cushion areas may be provided for location against either side of the user's neck.

By way of example, a particular embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a view of a weight lifter's back muscle arrangement involved in doing the barbell exercise, Figure 2 is an enlarged view of the middle trapezius muscle, Figure 3 is a contour map of the outer wall of the muscle, Figure 4 is an underside view of the training aid, Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line V-V on Figure 4, Figure 6 is a further cross-sectional view taken along the line VI-VI on Figure 5, Figure 7 is a front perspective view of the training aid, Figure 8 is a contour map of the training aid footprint, and, Figure 9 is a rear perspective view.

The view of Figure 1 shows the positions of the weight lifter's different back muscles at a time when the barbell exercise is being performed. The barbell bar 1 is seen to be positioned along the back of the user's neck with the weight of the barbell being shared between the arms and the middle trapezius muscle 2. An Upper Trapezius Muscle 3 extends up the user's neck and a Lower Trapezius Muscle 4 extends downwards along the spinal column. The vertebra bone 6 is located close to the neck between the left and right hand parts of the middle trapezius muscle 2.

Figure 2 shows the middle trapezius muscle 2 in greater detail. The muscle has a convex lobe located on each side of the vertebra bone and the bar 1 is seen to be supported across these two lobes in a position above the vertebra bone. The action of raising the arms to grasp the bar behind the neck has caused the middle trapezius muscle 2 to be formed into two peaks. The muscle fibre is comparatively soft in texture and it can be deformed by the barbell weight allowing the bar to press down into the space between the peaks where the bar 1 could place loading on the vertebra bone.

Figure 3 is a contour map of the muscle 2 wall and the area of the vertebra bone 6.

Figure 4 is an underside view of the training aid 7. The training aid 7 has two cup regions formed by concave areas 8 which are spaced apart such that they will be capable of fitting over the two peaks of the middle trapezius muscle. An extension 9 of each area 8 is positioned to be located additionally on the upper trapezius muscles. Between the concave areas 8, the training aid has a deep cut-away channel 11 which when in use would be located over the user's vertebra bone. The deep channel 11 therefore prevents any contact of the training aid 7 with the spine in the places where that element is most prominent at the base of the neck where the thoracic spine connects to the cervical spine. This feature thus serves to remove the barbell pressure from the spine.

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line V-V on Figure 4. It shows various hollows in the surface which are intended either to contact or to avoid the skin contours of the user's back. The most deeply recessed area corresponds to the outline of the channel 11 (Figure 4). A concave profile 12 is a cushion area formed by a curved surface which is intended to extend along the back and sides (profile 13) of the user's neck. The device when in use thus comes into contact with the user's skin at the base of the neck, but curves away at the top to minimise surface contact and allow freedom of head movement along the vertical plane. The device is thus appropriately shaped to embrace the neck without creating any undue pressure points or edges that might otherwise cut into the user's neck and impair the user's concentration on the performance of the exercise. The device also assists in locating and stabilising the barbell bar on the user whilst ensuring that the barbell bar never actually comes into contact with the user's back. The barbell load is thus focussed through the full periphery of the middle trapezius muscles and not the neck.

Figure 6 is a further cross-sectional view and the relative positions of the profiles 11, 12 and 13 can be seen in this Figure. It will be noticed that the profile 12 is a convex profile in the vertical plane cross-section of Figure 6 whilst it is a concave profile in the horizontal plane cross-section of Figure 5. An opening 14 leads to the slot 16 through which the barbell bar is passed to enable the training aid to be attached. The article is made from a pliable plastics foam material such as a polyurethane synthetic foam. This material is reasonably soft but in a high density form is resilient to compression under load. The training aid includes the slot 16 which extends along the whole width of the aid, the slot being of such a size that it will fit around a barbell bar and be secured thereon by the elasticity of the plastics material. The aid is secured to and released from the bar by the opening 14 being pulled open manually.

Figure 7 shows the profile 12 located between the two profiles 13 and the profile 11 which is intended to be located over the vertebra bone.

Figure 8 is a contour map of the training aid footprint showing where the aid is intended to cooperate with the body surfaces. The concave areas 8 are intended to be fitted over the trapezius muscle 2 peaks as depicted in Figure 3. The profile 11 is of such depth as to avoid any contact with the vertebra bone 6 (Figure 3).

Figure 9 is a rear perspective view showing how the training aid 7 is secured to a barbell bar. The opening 14 is capable of being opened manually to enable the barbell bar 1 to be inserted and the bar will then be gripped by the walls of the slot 16.

In use of the barbell training aid, the aid 7 is able to be attached easily to the centre section of a barbell bar. The usual weight training exercises can then be performed with the bar and fitted training aid being rested on the user's back as usual. The two peaks of the user's middle trapezius muscles will become located in the cup-like areas 8 of the training aid thus ensuring that the barbell weight will be distributed over a large surface area of the user's back. The cut-away channel 11 between the cup-like hollows of the training aid will be located over the user's spinal vertebrae so that the weight of the bar will not be transmitted to this part of the back. The performance of the exercises is therefore made very much more comfortable for the user than when the barbell is used in the absence of the training aid. The risk of bruising the user's skin and causing pain is reduced and the risk of harming the area of the spine is minimised.

When the training aid is supported on the trapezius muscles, the concave profile 12 of the aid is brought into contact with a rear contour of the user's neck. At the same time, the cushion areas of the aid formed by the profiles 13 are positioned against either side of the neck. This provision ensures that the barbell bar will be fully embraced by the aid so that no part of the bar is able to come into contact with the neck or spinal skin of the user.

The user of the training aid is thus able to do his/her exercise programme with greater confidence and freedom from pain and bruising. Since the barbell load is spread over the full surface of each trapezius muscle, this load is transferred gradually to the spinal column so that the risk of injury can be kept very low. This will allow the user to concentrate on the technique of the lift so that there will be no distracting influence that a severe pain might bring. The part of the training aid that contacts the user's neck assists with the centralisation and stabilisation of the bar and it of course ensures that the bar load will not be transmitted to the neck vertebrae.

The barbell training aid is capable of being manufactured at a comparatively low cost. It has been found in practice that the relative positions of the preformed peaks of the trapezius muscles does remain fa : rly constant between people of different sizes, even if there are differences in the muscular development of these people. The spacing of the cup regions of the training aid should therefore be able to accommodate a range of users. It is envisaged that the training aid could be produced in two sizes, a first size would be suitable for the average to intermediate muscle build and a further size for the advanced weight lifter.

The foregoing description of an embodiment of the invention has been given by way of example only and a number of modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. For instance, the training aid has been stated as being made of a polyurethane foam material but in a different embodiment, this could be made of a rubber. Additionally, the construction could be a combination of a hard material to form a robust internal structure which is covered with a soft outer foam material.

Claims

CLAIMS 1 A barbell training aid, comprising a pressure pad which is able to be attached to a weight training barbell, the pressure pad having two cup regions which are spaced apart from one another such that, when the article is in use, they are capable of being located over the left and right middle trapezius muscles of a user's upper back.
2 A training aid. as claimed in Claim 1, in which the cup regions are so dimensioned that they will fit around the full periphery of each trapezius muscle.
3 A training aid, as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, in which a pressure pad surface between said cup regions has a cut-away portion located over a spine area of a user's back.
4 A training aid, as claimed in Claim 1,2 or 3, in which the pressure pad further includes a curved surface arranged for location against a rear contour of the user's neck.
5 A training aid, as claimed in Claim 4, in which the pressure pad has raised cushion areas arranged for location against either side of the user's neck.
6 A training aid, as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 5, in which the pressure pad includes a slot opening capable of being fitted over a central portion of a barbell bar.
7 A training aid, as claimed in Claim 6, in which the said said slot opening extends across substantially the full width of the pressure pad.
8 A training aid, as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7, in which the pressure pad is formed of a polyurethane synthetic foam plastics material.
9 A barbell training aid, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of Figures 4 to 9 of the accompanying drawings.