US20050272580A1

US20050272580A1 - Exercise equipments

Info

Publication number: US20050272580A1
Application number: US10/851,967
Authority: US
Inventors: Wakae Katumata
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2004-05-21
Filing date: 2004-05-21
Publication date: 2005-12-08

Abstract

It is an object of the present invention to provide exercise equipments for preventing weakening of muscles and deformation of an articulation of a human body. The invention provides exercise equipments that open and close legs or arms to stimulate bases of the legs or arms, wherein the exercise equipments have supports for legs or hands, which move in directions to open and close the legs or arms in a state in which a human body lies down, and the supports 6 can forcibly open and close both the legs or arms by motors or the like.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to exercise equipments, and more particularly, to exercise equipments useful for rehabilitation for a long term resting patient, a bedridden patient, or the like.
2) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a long term resting patient, a bedridden patient, and the like face muscle weakening, articulation deformation, and pressure sore, therefore an appropriate exercise equipment for preventing them is desired.
Conventionally, as described in Non-Patent Literature 1 (“Home medical encyclopedia based on symptoms (second edition)” (see pages 889 to 891 “pressure sore” and “long term resting patient) issued by Hoken Dohjinsya Co., Ltd. on Jan. 5, 1978), in order to carry out the rehabilitation for moving the body of a long term resting patient, a bedridden patient, or the like, a nurse massages a paralyzed portion of the body or helps to move the articulation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the conventional technique described in the Non-Patent Literature 1, an affected portion is massaged or an articulation is moved heteromonously by a nurse. Therefore, the nurse becomes tired, the blood circulation over the entire body including legs and arms and build up of muscles can not be expected, and it is difficult to sufficiently prevent the articulation deformation.
There is a technical problem to be solved to obtain an exercise equipment that can prevent weakening of muscles, deformation of articulation and pressure sore of particularly a long term resting patient or a bedridden patient. It is an object of the present invention to solve such a problem.
The present invention has been proposed to achieve the above object, and a first aspect of the invention provides exercise equipments hat open and close legs or arms to stimulate bases of the legs or arms, wherein the exercise equipments have supports for legs or hands, which move in directions to open and close the legs or arms in a state in which the human body lies down, and the supports can forcibly open and close both the legs or arms by driving of motors or the like.
With this configuration, the exercise equipments are disposed at positions where the legs or arms can be opened and closed in a state where the human body lies down. The legs or hands are placed on the supports, and the legs or hands are lightly fixed onto the supports using any fixing units. It is not always necessary to fix the legs or hands using the fixing units. In this state, if the motors are driven, the supports for the legs or hands repeatedly reciprocate in the opening and closing directions based on the driving of the motors, and the opening and closing exercise of legs or arms is carried out. Thus, the legs or arms can open and close.
According to a second aspect of the invention, in the exercise equipments of the first aspect, the supports for the legs or hands can reciprocate along slits formed in upper surfaces of casings in their longitudinal directions, and the casings are formed into rectangular shapes as viewed from above.
With this configuration, the supports for the legs or hands reciprocate along slits formed in upper surfaces of casings in their longitudinal directions, the casings being formed into rectangular shapes as viewed from above. Thus, the opening and closing exercise of legs or arms is automatically repeated in the state where the human body lies down.
According to a third aspect of the invention, in the exercise equipments of the first or second aspect, screw shafts are provided in the casings in their longitudinal directions, and the supports for the legs or hands are mounted on moving bodies which reciprocate along screw shafts when the screw shafts are normally and reversely rotated.
With this configuration, the screw shafts are provided in the casings in their longitudinal directions, and the supports for the legs or hands are mounted on moving bodies which reciprocate along screw shafts when the screw shafts are normally and reversely rotated. Thus, the supports for the legs or hands repeat the reciprocating motion on the casings as the screw shafts rotate normally and reversely.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, in the exercise equipments of any one of the first to third aspects, the reciprocating motions of the supports for the legs or hands are repeated by limit switches provided on ends of each of the supports in its reciprocating direction.
With this configuration, the reciprocating motion of the supports for the legs or hands is carried out by normal and reverse rotations of the screw shafts which are switched by the limit switches.
According to the first aspect, the opening and closing exercise of legs or arms can automatically and continuously be carried out in the state where the human body lies down. When the legs are to be closed, if one sides of the exercise equipments in the center of human body are disposed near a portion of the body between the legs, the legs are closed while the knees are naturally bent when the legs are closed from their opened state, and the legs are opened in a state where the bent knees are gradually extended when the legs are to be opened from the closed state.
As described above, the opening and closing exercise of legs or arms can automatically be carried out in the state where the human body lies down. Therefore, if the exercise equipments are used, anyone can stimulate the base of legs or arms to promote the blood circulation. As a result, muscle is strengthened, deformation of articulation is suppressed as small as possible, shoulder stiffness or numbness can naturally be cured, and health of the whole body can be promoted.
According to the second aspect, the supports for the legs or hands reciprocate along the slits formed in the upper surfaces of the casings in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, the supports on which the legs or hands are placed can repeatedly reciprocate smoothly in the longitudinal direction of the upper surfaces of the casings.
According to the third aspect, the moving bodies connected to the supports for the legs or hands reciprocate on the screw shafts by normal and reverse rotations of the screw shafts provided in the casings in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, in addition to the effect of the first or second aspect, the reciprocating motion of the supports for the legs or hands can smoothly be repeated.
According to the fourth aspect, the screw shafts provided in the casings in the longitudinal direction rotate normally and reversely. Therefore, in addition to the effect of the first, second or third aspect, the supports on which the legs or hands are placed can reciprocate extremely smoothly along the longitudinal direction of the upper surfaces of the casings as the screw shafts rotate normally and reversely.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view for explaining opening and closing exercise of both legs according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view for explaining opening and closing exercise of both arms according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a plan view of an exercise equipment of the invention; and
FIG. 4(a) is a sectional view taken along a line A-A in FIG. 3, and FIG. 4(b) is a partially cut-away front view in FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS

Exercise equipments of the present invention enables not only a long term resting patient who can walk or a bedridden patient but also a healthy person to automatically repeat opening and closing exercise of legs or arms. The exercise equipment is disposed in an opening and closing direction of legs or arms in a state in which the person lies down. The exercise equipment is provided with leg or hand supports. The supports are allowed to reciprocate on the upper surface of the exercising equipment by a motor so that the both legs or both arms can automatically open and close forcibly.

Embodiments

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. The drawings show exercise equipments 1. Each exercise equipment 1 includes a rectangular casing 2 as viewed from above, a screw shaft 3 provided in the casing 2 in its longitudinal direction, a moving body 4 which meshes with the screw shaft 3, and a support for a leg or a hand. The support is connected to the moving body, and reciprocates on an upper surface of the casing 2 along a slit 5 formed in the upper surface of the casing 2 in its longitudinal direction.
The casing 2 is formed into a box-like shape. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the two exercise equipments 1 and 1 for opening and closing both legs and both arms are disposed in moving direction at a predetermined angle θ therebetween. If the predetermined angle θ is reduced, when both the legs are closed, the legs can be closed while bending the knees. Thus, when the legs opens from the closed state with the knees bent, the legs are opened in a state wherein the knees are gradually extended from the bent state.
The screw shaft 3 is provided in the casing 2 in its longitudinal direction. As shown in FIG. 3, the screw shaft 3 is connected to a rotation shaft (not shown) of a motor 7 having a speed reducer, and the motor 7 is provided on one side of the casing 2 in its widthwise direction. As the motor 7 rotates normally and reversely, the screw shaft 3 also rotates normally and reversely.
The moving body 4 meshes with the screw shaft 3. As the screw shaft 3 rotates normally and reversely, the moving body 4 reciprocates on the screw shaft 3.
The slit 5 is formed in the upper surface of the casing 2 in its longitudinal direction. A support 6 for the leg or the hand is connected to the moving body 4, which meshes with the screw shaft 3 and reciprocates, through a connecting section 8. The connecting section 8 is loosely inserted into the slit 5 formed in the casing 2. The connecting section 8 follows the moving body 4 along the slit 5 and reciprocates. Thus, the support 6 for the leg or the hand connected to the moving body 4 through the connecting section 8 also reciprocates on the casing 2 together with the moving body 4. The support 6 for the leg or the hand supports a leg or an ankle, or a hand or a wrist.
As shown in FIG. 3, the moving body 4 is provided at its left and right sides with pushing pieces 9 and 9, respectively. Limit switches 10 and 10 are provided on opposite sides of the casing 2 in its longitudinal direction. When the limit switches 10 and 10 are depressed by the pushing pieces 9 and 9, the limit switches 10 and 10 switch the normal rotation and reverse rotation of the motor 7. When the support 6 for the leg or the hand reaches the position of the limit switch 10 and the pushing piece 9 abuts against the limit switch 10, the motor 7 rotates reversely by the limit switch 10. Therefore, when the exercise equipments 1 of the present invention open and close the both legs or both arms, the two casings 2 and 2 are disposed at left and right positions to form the predetermined angle θ as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Therefore, the supports 6 and 6 for the left and right legs or hands are repeatedly approach and separate from each other by the limit switches 10 and 10 provided on the left and right sides of each of the casings 2 and 2, and the legs or hands placed on the supports 6 and 6 for the legs or hands disposed on the left and right sides move laterally. Thus, the both legs or both arms are repeatedly opened and closed simultaneously, and this exercise is automatically carried out by the motor 7. Therefore, the exercise of the both legs or both arms is carried out naturally even if the user lies down or is sleeping, not only for a long term resting patient or a bedridden patient but also for a healthy person, and it is possible to prevent the weakening of muscles, deformation of articulation and pressure sore. A user can freely adjust the position of the limit switch 10.
As shown in FIG. 4(a), rollers 11, 11 . . . may be provided on an inner side surface of the casing 2 in the moving body 4 in order to smoothen the movement of the moving body 4.
The present invention can variously be modified without departing from the sprit of the invention. Such modifications are also within the scope of this invention of course.

Claims

1. Exercise equipments that open and close legs or arms to stimulate bases of the legs or arms, wherein the exercise equipments have supports for legs or hands, which move in directions to open and close the legs or arms in a state in which a human body lies down, and the supports can forcibly open and close both the legs or arms by driving of motors or the like.

2. The exercise equipments according to claim 1, wherein the supports for the legs or hands can reciprocate along slits formed in upper surfaces of casings in their longitudinal directions, and the casings are formed into rectangular shapes as viewed from above.

3. The exercise equipments according to claim 1 or 2, wherein screw shafts are provided in the casings in their longitudinal directions, and the supports for the legs or hands are mounted on moving bodies which reciprocate along screw shafts when the screw shafts are normally and reversely rotated.

4. The exercise equipments according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the reciprocating motions of the supports for the legs or hands are repeated by limit switches provided on ends of each of the supports in its reciprocating direction.