JP2003339800A - Walking simulating stimulator type health promoting equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide health promoting equipment capable of promoting health by giving the same compression stimulus to the sacrum bones while sitting as that given by an actual walking. <P>SOLUTION: The health promoting equipment is comprised of a pair of foot mounting platforms, means to support the pair of foot mounting platforms so that at least their heel holding parts can move in the longitudinal direction, means to force up at least the heel holding parts of the foot mounting platforms periodically and smoothly, means to rapidly move the heel holding parts downward after the heel holding parts are forced up, and means to stop the downward movement of the heel holding parts immediately when the heel holding parts reach a position downward from the starting position of the downward movement. With such a configuration, the health promoting equipment can compress and stimulate the sacrum bones using a force from the heels for supporting the legs and an inertial force of the descending upper body. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a health promoting machine, and more particularly to a health promoting machine that provides a human body with an effect similar to that provided by walking.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is well known that walking has a favorable effect on maintenance and promotion of human health. However, actual walking requires a suitable environment, which is not always obtained as desired. For this reason, various health-promoting mechanical devices have been proposed that allow a human body to perform an exercise simulating walking in a limited space such as a room. They basically cause the legs to perform walking and stepping movements that imitate actual walking at a fixed position.

On the other hand, it is also known that by stimulating the soles of the feet, not only the feet but also the whole body is healed and various health promoting effects are obtained. What is proposed based on this recognition is a so-called massaging machine, which generally applies a pressing action or a kneading action to the sole of the foot with a projecting member.

[0004]

A device that allows a person to walk or step by using a rotating belt conveyor, a foot pedal, etc., has the effect of training the muscles of the legs and feet and consuming excess fat. To be However, one of the main reasons why walking contributes to maintaining and improving the health of the human body is that the moment the foot touches the ground during walking, the inertial force of the body during forward motion acts on the heel through the legs. However, as a reaction, it is thought that an impact force is generated in the leg from the heel toward the hip joint, which stimulates the sacral portion at the lower end of the spine to activate the human body. It seems that this is the reason why walking is not effective for promoting health unless the walking speed is higher than a certain level.

In the walking on the rotary belt conveyor and the stepping motion on the foot pedal, the body does not perform the forward motion,
The irritation to the sacrum is not obtained, and the pressing action and rubbing action given to the sole by the protruding member of the sole massager do not reach the sacrum.

[0006] In view of the above circumstances, the present invention provides a health promoting machine capable of promoting health by applying to the sacrum the same stimulus as that provided by actual walking in the presence of one. It is an issue.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a pair of foot rests, and at least the heel support portions of each of the pair of foot rests can be vertically displaced. Footrest support means for supporting, heel support push-up means for periodically and smoothly pushing up at least the heel support of the footrest, and heel support from a state pushed up by the heel support push-up means. A heel support lowering means for rapidly lowering the heel support, and a heel support lowering stop means for momentarily stopping the lowering of the heel support at a position separated from the start position of the lowering. It is intended to provide a walking stimulation type health promotion machine.

As one embodiment, the walking simulated stimulation type health promoting machine having the basic structure as described above has a heel support pushing-up means for a rotary cam whose working radius gradually increases and a drive for rotationally driving the rotary cam. The heel supporting portion lowering means may be configured by including a means, and the operating radius gradually increasing portion of the rotating cam has a stepwise reducing operation radius at the end thereof. The heel support lowering stop means may be a hammer provided on the footrest and an anvil for receiving the hammer.

Further, in the walking simulated stimulation type health promoting machine having the above-mentioned basic structure, the footrest supporting means pivotally supports the footrest by the toe portion of the footrest so that the heel support can be vertically displaced. It may be configured as a means to do.

[0010]

As described above, the pair of foot rests, and the foot rest support means for supporting each of the pair of foot rests so that at least the heel support can be vertically displaced.
Heel support part pushing-up means for periodically and smoothly pushing up at least the heel support part of the footrest, and heel support part for rapidly lowering the heel support part from the state pushed up by such heel support part pushing-up means. A device having a lowering means and a heel support lowering stop means for momentarily stopping the lowering of the heel support at a position separated from the starting position of the lowering is prepared, and a person is When placed on a pair of footrests, as the footrests are smoothly pushed upwards by their heel supports, a person is smoothly pushed upwards by their heels, and at the next moment heel support is provided. As the part suddenly descends, the support of the heel part is lost, the leg and the upper body supported by the part both suddenly descent, and the descent is instantaneously stopped by the heel support part descending stop means, and at that moment, the sacral part Falls It is sandwiched between the inertial force of the body and the supporting force from the lower part supported by the legs, and is compressed for a moment, giving a stimulus similar to the moment of heel landing during walking to the sacrum, and it has the effect of activating the human body. can get.

As described above, the heel support pushing-up means includes the rotating cam whose operating radius gradually increases, and the driving means which rotationally drives the rotating cam, and the operating radius of the rotating cam is stepwise at the end of the gradually increasing portion. If the heel support lowering means is configured by being sharply reduced, the above-described operational effect is achieved by a simple drive structure using a rotary cam and a rotary drive means such as an electric motor for rotationally driving the rotary cam. It is possible to configure the essential part of the driving means necessary for the walking simulated stimulation type health promoting machine that brings about the above. In this case, the heel support lowering stop means may be the bottom of a step in which the operating radius of the rotary cam is sharply reduced in a stepwise manner from the end of the gradually increasing part, but this is provided on the side of the footrest. And an anvil that receives this will make the instantaneous stop of the descent of the heel support of the foot rest resonate and improve the quality of the stimulation applied to the sacrum. Further, since the height of the anvil can be easily changed, it is easy to adjust the descending distance of the heel support portion of the footrest.

Further, if the footrest supporting means is constituted as a means for pivotally supporting the footrest at the toe portion of the footrest so that the heel supporting portion can be displaced up and down, the footrest to toe portion of a person's foot The angle to the part around the heel can be flexibly changed around the heel, so that when the heel support of the footstep is moved up and down, the toe remains at the same height position with the pivot of the footrest. However, the action of receiving the weight and the inertial force of the sudden drop at the heel end at the end of the sudden fall of the heel part is performed without any hindrance, and the upper and lower parts of the heel support part which bring about the effect of the present invention by the simple structure of the pivotal support. The movement can be easily performed.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a walking stimulation type health promotion machine according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows an internal structure of the state of FIG. 1 with a casing 10 forming an outer shell removed. It is an exploded plan view. In addition, in FIG.
For convenience of explanation, one of the footrests is removed and its outline is shown by a broken line. Figure 3 shows the arrow III-II in Figure 2.
It is a somewhat exploded side view seen in the I direction.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the footrest 12 is constructed as a flat plate-shaped member on which a person's foot is placed, and when the person puts his foot on it, the footrest support 14 is Support the heel of the foot, and the toe support 16 supports the toe of the foot. When the casing 10 is mounted, as shown in FIG. 1, a pair of oval holes 18 provided in the casing border the footrest 12.

The footrest 12 is supported on the back side of the toe support 16 so as to pivot about a pivot 22 from a footrest support device 20. Further, in the illustrated embodiment, the footrest 12 is lightly and elastically supported from below by a compression coil spring 24 at a position slightly closer to the heel than the center thereof.

A pair of rotary cams 26 are rotatably supported by a pair of bearing devices 30 by a rotary shaft 28 so as to be positioned below the heel support portions 14 of the pair of foot rests 12. As shown in FIG. 3, the annular cam surface forming the peripheral edge of the rotating cam 26 has a portion 32 where the radius gradually increases and a step portion where the gradually increased radius suddenly returns to the original position.
And a roller 36, which is a cam follower driven by the annular cam surface of the rotary cam and faces the annular cam surface, is attached to the back side of the footrest 12 by a pair of bearing devices 38. The rotating cam 26 has its output pulley 44, endless belt 46, and shaft driven by a driving means composed of an electric motor 40 and a transmission 42.
It is adapted to be driven to rotate counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. 3 via a driven pulley 48 attached to 28.

A hammer 50 is provided on the back side of the heel portion 14 of the foot rest 12.
Is attached, and an anvil 52 is provided facing it from below. In addition, the footrest support device 2 described above
0, the compression coil spring 24, the bearing device 30, and the anvil 52 are all mounted on the base 54.

A gap of about 3 mm is left between the hammer 50 and the anvil 52 when the foot rest 12 is pushed up to the highest push-up position by the rotary cam 26 at its roller 36. There is. The gap may be changed within a predetermined range by adjusting the height of the anvil with an arbitrary means such as a screw.

Thus, when the rotary cam 26 is rotationally driven with a person's foot resting on the footrest, particularly with the foot resting on the footrest, the rotation contacting the roller 36 is performed. At the moment when the peripheral edge of the cam moves from the gradually increasing radius portion 32 to the step portion 34, the heel support portion 14 of the footrest suddenly descends, and when the hammer 50 collides with the anvil 52, it suddenly stops at the heart. At the moment of sudden stop of the heel support, the sacrum is sandwiched between the inertial force of the falling upper body and the supporting force from the lower part supported by the legs and is compressed for a moment, and the heel of the sacrum is landed during walking. A stimulus similar to the moment is given.

The stepped portion 34 of the pair of rotary cams 26 is 180
They may be offset from each other at an angle of degrees, so that when the person drives the electric motor 40 with his / her feet on the pair of footrests 12, the sacrum is stimulated at regular intervals. Is affected.

Reference numeral 56 denotes a power supply device provided with a control means for controlling the rotation speed and the operation duration of the electric motor 40. The power supply of the power supply device is turned on / off, the motor rotation speed and the operation duration are provided in the casing 10. The operation panel 58 is used. On the base 54, the foot rest 12
A foot rest sensor 60 is provided which detects when the foot rests on it causing the compression coil spring 24 to flex and pivot slightly around the pivot 22, and the power switch is turned on. If so, the electric motor may be turned on only when the foot is placed on the footrest 12. 62 is a power cord.

In the above, the present invention has been described in detail with respect to one embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and modifications or alterations to the illustrated embodiment are made within the scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various other embodiments are possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing one embodiment of a walking simulated stimulation type health promoting machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded plan view showing the internal structure of the walking simulator shown in FIG. 1 with the casing removed.

FIG. 3 is a side view with some exploded view taken along the arrow III-III in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Casing 12 ... Footrest 14 ... Heel support 16 ... Toe support 18 ... Oval hole 20 ... Footrest support device 22 ... Axis 24 ... Compression coil spring 26 ... Rotating cam 28 ... Rotary axis 30… Bearing device 32 ... radius increasing section 34 ... Step 36 ... Laura 38 ... Bearing device 40 ... electric motor 42 ... Gearbox 44 ... Output pulley 46 ... Endless belt 48 ... Driven pulley 50 ... hammer 52 ... Anvil 54 ... base 56 ... Power supply 58 ... Operation panel 60 ... Footrest sensor 62 ... Power cord

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A pair of foot rests, foot rest support means for supporting each of the pair of foot rests so that at least the heel support can be vertically displaced, and at least heel support for the foot rests. Of the heel support part, which pushes up the section smoothly upward smoothly, a heel support part lowering means for rapidly lowering the heel support part from the state of being pushed up by the heel support part lifting means, and the heel support part A simulated walking stimulation type health promoting machine, comprising: a heel support section descent stop means for momentarily stopping the descent at a position below the descent start position. 2. The heel support pushing-up means includes a rotating cam whose operating radius gradually increases, and drive means for rotationally driving the rotating cam, wherein the operating radius of the rotating cam is stepwise at the end of the gradually increasing portion. The walking simulated stimulation type health promotion machine according to claim 1, wherein the heel support lowering means is configured by being sharply reduced. 3. The gait stimulating type health promotion machine according to claim 1, wherein the heel support lowering stop means is a hammer provided on the footrest and an anvil for receiving the hammer. . 4. The footrest supporting means is means for pivotally supporting the footrest by its toe portion so that the heel supporting part can be vertically displaced. The simulated walking-type health promoting machine according to any one of the above.