APPARATUS FOR PHYSICAL EXERCISE

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of devices, apparatus and equipment used to enhance physical activity and improve fitness levels and physical endurance of people, whether through exercise or rehabilitation, and more particularly refers to an apparatus for simulating the conditions of climbing in two senses, that is, ascending or descending a moving ladder, simulating a mountain or rock wall, with the possibility of varying the angle of inclination in order to develop the different muscular zones in a much more adequate and effective manner, also allowing the person to use arms and legs simultaneously or individually. By allowing exercise in ascent and/or descent along the moving ladder, the device according to the invention allows the exercise of different muscle groups corresponding to the exercise in ascent climbing and/or descent.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

As is known in the field, ladder climbers are exercising equipment designed to simulate or replicate the movement a person would perform climbing surfaces or ladders. Among their benefits, these ladder climbers provide an intense cardiovascular workout, improving cardiovascular and pulmonary endurance and developing the person's body. To this end, the conventional climbers typically comprise a base structure featuring a closed belt simulating the wall in a mountain, with a plurality of projections simulating pieces of rocks, the belt moving in a loop, in a descend sense, allowing the person to “climb” the descending wall by stepping and gripping on these projections, thus replicating the movement they would perform on, for example, a mountain. The speed of the belt can be controlled to vary the intensify the workout.

Although these climbers allow people to improve their physical endurance, they are limited to the development of the lower body and do not allow for the development of the upper body, which is also essential, particularly for those who climb mountains and use this type of device to train and improve their physical condition. Furthermore, conventional climbers do not simulate or replicate the real-life situation of mountain climbing, where arms and legs must be used together at different angles. Ultimately, they are functionally intended for regular leg exercises.

There are several simulators for climbing simulated mountain walls, which allow for practicing and developing upper and lower body strength and skills while ascending. One type of climbing simulator is that disclosed in Patent Document FR 2692488, which is provided herein as a reference, and which shows a completely vertical wall structure with support and grip, the wall being defined by a band or belt that downwardly moves in a loop between motor-driven pulleys to simulate mountain climbing when the user moves upwardly.

Another type of climber is that disclosed in Patent Application Publication Document BR PI0401237 A, incorporated herein as a reference, and which describes a wall with loop-shaped movement for simulating climbing, having a plurality of support and holding supports, and a drive motor in conjunction with a pulley that provide the loop-shaped movement to the wall. The wall can also be tilted and rotated to vary angles and positions.

In these devices of the prior art, the user can exercise the arms and legs, but always in a climbing or ascent. If the person falls, slips, or is hanging in a dangerous position, the wall continues its looping motion without extremely dangerous consequences for the user, but only falling from a short distance from the floor. Furthermore, these types of wall devices only allow for one type of exercise and do not allow for rehabilitation, as they are not structurally viable for this purpose. In other words, they are devices for training athletes specialized in climbing rock faces. They are not suitable for physical exercise or rehabilitation of untrained individuals. As can be seen, these prior art machines are very rudimentary and do not allow other exercise, for example descending the wall, which is essential for completing any climbing or descending action.

As a result of the above, the inventors of the present invention, had devised in 2020 a sketch of a climbing machine that was submitted as Patent Application in Argentina under Application No. AR 20200100279, and which was declared abandoned because the information, as filed, had a total lack of technical information to support a patent request. Although the objective of Patent Application AR 20200100279 was to try to obtain protection for an idea, the patent application was unsuccessful due to the lack of illustrations and descriptions of inventive constructive elements or parts that would allow its manufacture.

Based on the foregoing, the inventors have continued developing this original idea in order to provide a realistic climbing machine that can improve people's physical endurance, faithfully simulating climbing a mountain or hanging ladder to comprehensively train the user's muscles in both, ascent and descent senses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new exercising apparatus for exercising the physical resistance of people which faithfully simulates the ascent or descent of a mountain and/or ladder in order to exercise the different muscle-building areas of the user, which, unlike known machines, allows exercising the muscle groups that are used both in ascent and descent, involving the upper and lower limbs, spine, abdominals, the center of the body, which does an important job in both movements, imposing an important exercise vigor both in ascent and descent.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an exercising apparatus that allows the development of the upper and lower body, using arms and legs simultaneously or individually by gripping and stepping in a plurality of step/bars moving downwardly or upwardly along a closed loop.

It is also another object of the present invention to provide an exercising apparatus that can be moved to different angles of inclination, this is it can be controllably tilted, so as to provide different levels and types of exercises.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a scaling device or apparatus that offers the possibility of influencing the entire body of the user either through self-control by means of manual mechanisms or through prior programming using preset programs.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an exercising apparatus for the comprehensive physical improvement of people, improving not only physical resistance, but also the coordination of movements between legs and arms.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an exercising apparatus for ascent and descent physical exercise, comprising:

• • at least one chassis that forms a support structure;
  • at least one tiltable climbing module mounted to said support structure by at least one module pivot shaft and at least one tilting actuator, said tiltable climber being pivotable about said module pivot shaft, relative to a vertical geometric axis;
  • wherein said tiltable climbing module comprises a plurality of rungs spaced apart from each other and mounted between respective side chains actuated by at least one chain driving mechanism, wherein said side chains are mounted on corresponding side ladder beams arranged on sides of a central ladder section; and
  • at least one rung presence sensor in said tiltable climbing module and at least one floor presence sensor on a floor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For greater clarity and understanding of the object of the present invention, it has been illustrated in several figures, in which the invention has been represented in one of the preferred embodiments, all by way of example, where:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the structure of the tiltable exercising apparatus for exercising the physical resistance of people according to the present invention ;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a lower portion of the exercising apparatus of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a lower and rear portion of the tiltable exercising apparatus of the invention, where a tilt actuator is illustrated;

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a portion of the exercising apparatus of the invention, wherein a lower portion of a chain drive mechanism and tilting mechanism according to the invention is illustrated;

FIG. 5 shows a detailed view of a chain driven by the chain drive mechanism of the present invention, and on which respective rungs or steps are mounted;

FIG. 6 shows an enlarged view of an upper portion of the exercising apparatus of the invention; the upper portion of the chain drive mechanism being illustrated;

FIG. 7 shows a view of the structure of the exercising apparatus according to the present invention; a drive motor of said chain drive mechanism being illustrated;

FIG. 8 shows a front view of the exercising apparatus of the invention, where covers are illustrated assembled with the structure of the apparatus; and

FIG. 9 shows a schematic view of the exercising apparatus of the invention, illustrating the data and electrical connections according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the figures, it can be seen that the invention comprises a new tiltable exercising apparatus for training people's physical endurance. This device allows both arms and legs, as well as spine, abdominals, core muscles, the center of the body and more, to be exercised simultaneously or individually, while also providing different training angles for a variety of exercises that develop different muscle groups much more appropriately and efficiently. The apparatus or device of the invention can be used for both exercise and rehabilitation without any inconvenience.

Thus, and in accordance with FIGS. 1 to 9, the apparatus of the present invention is indicated by the general reference 1 and comprises at least one chassis 2 that forms a support structure having a front chassis portion 3 and a rear chassis portion 4, also being provided with corresponding structural chassis reinforcement bars 5 arranged between said front chassis portion 3 and said rear chassis portion 4. Said chassis 2 will be supported on the ground or floor of any place and also comprises a support structure 6 which is vertical, or extends upwardly, and has a plurality of structural support reinforcement bars 7 to provide greater stability and resistance to the general structure. Said support structure 6 also comprises at least one actuator anchor support 9, preferably two anchoring supports 9, and at least one pair of supports with pivot shaft bearing supports 10.

The apparatus of the invention is provided with at least one variable inclination climbing module, or tiltable climbing module 11, comprising a central ladder sector 12 divided by at least one ladder closing plate 13 and delimited laterally by respective lateral or side ladder beams 14, defining towards a front of the apparatus an open front ladder portion 15, while towards a rear part of the apparatus, an open rear ladder portion 16 is defined. Likewise, it is provided with an upper ladder cover 17 that interconnects superiorly to said lateral or side ladder beams 14 closing the upper part of the central ladder section 12 of said tiltable climbing module 11.

Each of said respective side ladder beams 14 has at least one chain guide slide 18 through which corresponding side chains 19 run, as best illustrated in FIG. 5. That is, at least one lateral or side chain 19 is provided on each side ladder beam 14. Likewise, said tiltable climbing module 11 comprises a plurality of steps or rungs 20 spaced apart from each other and mounted between said side chains 19 and transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the side ladder beams 14, said side chains 19 running in a looped form along and adjacent to said side ladder beams 14. In order to carry out the actuation of the side chains 19, a chain driving mechanism 21 is provided which comprises at least one upper chain pulley 22 arranged in an upper end portion 23 of each side ladder beam 14 and at least one lower chain pulley 24 arranged in a lower end portion 25 of each side ladder beam 14.

Said upper chain pulleys 22 are mounted on an upper pulley drive shaft 26 which is in turn mounted between said ladder side beams 14 by means of respective rotating supports 27; while said lower chain pulleys 24 are mounted on a lower pulley drive shaft 28 which is in turn mounted between said side ladder beams 14 by means of respective rotating supports 31. In this way, each side chain 19 is mounted in a closed loop between respective sets of upper chain pulley 22 and lower chain pulley 24 provided on each side ladder beam 14, thus allowing closed loop movement of the rungs 20 which can circulate back and forth with respect to the ladder closing plate 13 and vice versa. Chain pulleys 22 and 24 are preferably sprockets that engage the side chains. Rungs 20 may move downwardly or upwardly, driven by side chains 19, to permit the user to simulate ascending or descending the ladder.

A pulley drive motor 29 is provided in the lower part of said central ladder section 12 and is operatively connected to said lower pulley drive shaft 28 through a coupling 30, as best illustrated in FIG. 7. The pulley drive motor 29 is in turn mounted on a pair of structural bars 32 transverse to the side ladder beams 14 of the climbing module 11, and fixed through respective bolts, pins or the like, this not being limiting for the invention since it can be mounted in the most convenient way according to the space requirements without any inconvenience.

Thus, the pulley drive motor 29 provides rotary movement to said lower pulley drive shaft 28 which in turn drives said lower chain pulleys 24 to move the side chains 19 which move together with the rungs 20 in an ascending or descending direction depending on the rotation of the pulley shaft drive motor 29, whose rotation direction can be controlled without any inconvenience through an electromechanical system that has not been illustrated for the purposes of providing greater clarity with the object of the present invention.

In accordance with one of the novel features of the present invention, the climbing module 11 can pivot by varying its angle of inclination between positive angles and negative angles with respect to a vertical geometric axis, that is the vertical in respect to the horizon, or the natural vertical of the floor. To this end, the climbing module 11 is mounted to said support structure 6 by means of at least one module pivot shaft 33 and at least one tilt shock absorber, preferably a pair of tilt or inclination shock absorbers 34 connecting the tiltable climbing module with the support structure. Shock absorbers 34 allow a smooth movement, compensating inclination and absorbing any shock in the movements.

Module pivot shaft 33 is mounted between said pair of pivot shaft bearing supports 10 and respective pairs of shaft supports 35 arranged in a portion of said central ladder sector 11. The shaft supports 35 may comprise a “C” type support, hub or the like provided with an internal bearing. In turn, the climbing module 11 will pivot in an around said module pivot shaft 33.

The shock absorbers 34 can be selected from the group consisting of pneumatic, hydraulic, electro-pneumatic cylinders or a combination thereof, having a first end 36 connected to said cylinder anchoring supports 9, and an opposite end 37 to the first end 36 connected to a corresponding portion of the structure of said climbing module 11. It is highlighted that said shock absorbers 34 help compensate for the pivot movements of the climbing module 11 in order to provide a smooth cushioned or compensated movement and help better distribute the generated loads, thus extending the useful life of the parts that make up the device of the invention.

In order to tilt or incline the climbing module 11, a tilting actuator 38 is provided which tilting actuator preferably comprises a tilt drive motor 38 mounted on said chassis 2, with motor 38 having an extendable tilt drive shaft 39, preferably a telescopic shaft, operatively connected to a lower tilt crossbar 40 mounted between said side ladder beams 14 of the climbing module 11. Said tilt drive motor 38 is actuated by means of an electromechanical system which has not been illustrated for the purposes of providing greater clarity of the drawings of the invention. In this way, the tilt drive motor 38 will be actuated to extend or retract the tilt drive shaft 39 so as to vary the angle of inclination of the climbing module 11 in one direction or the opposite, by rotating in module pivot shaft 33 as mentioned above. The tilting actuator 38 may any of pneumatic cylinders, hydraulic cylinders, electrical actuator and combinations thereof.

The present invention may be provided also with a display screen 41 mounted on a portion of said ladder closure plate 13. The plate 13 is of utmost importance in protecting the user because if one or both of the user's feet were to slip off the rung 20 and move towards the rungs 20 that are ascending at the rear part of the apparatus, the leg or legs could be broken by being caught by the rear rungs moving in the opposite direction to the front rungs on which the user is standing. This problem does not occur with the prior art climbers mentioned above, which have a descending blind wall, belt or panel that cannot be traversed by the user's legs. The invention may be also provided with at least one chassis cover 42 covering said chassis 2 and support structure 6 on both sides, and at least one beam cover 43 covering each side ladder beam 14, with a gripping or grab bar 44 mounted in each beam cover 43 by means of grab bar supports 45. The grab bars 44 will allow the person to hold on while exercising, for example, only the legs. Grab bars 44 are designed and mounted to support the weight of the people without any inconvenience.

Beam cover 43 provides greater security to the general structure of the device by preventing any part of the person's body from entering the section of the lateral ladder beams 14 and, in the event of an erroneous and involuntary movement, from suffering an accident. Likewise, as seen in FIG. 9, the invention provides at least one upper and lower height limit sensor 48 that detects when the maximum height is exceeded; at least one front ladder presence sensor 49 that detects the presence of the person or if they hit a part of the structure; at least one floor presence sensor 50 that detects when a person falls to the floor; at least one inclination sensor 51 that detects the inclination angles of the device; at least one long flat cam limit switch 52 and a cam with wheel limit switch (not illustrated); at least one CPU 53 connected to said monitor 41 for commanding programs, visualizations, displaying data, images, among others; at least one board 54 with its connection plug 55 for the connections and power supply of the parts; and respective junction boxes 56 for organizing the cables.

The front presence sensors on the ladder 49 and the floor presence sensor 50 detect whether a person falls to the ground or hits a part of the structure. This completely stops the rotation of the motor 29 and, consequently, the movement of the rungs 20, further improving the safety of the device. Thus, the sensors, in conjunction with the beam covers 43, prevent accidents or, in the event of a slip or fall, significantly reduce any potential increase in injury.

It is highlighted that said upper and lower height limit sensors 48, front presence sensor on ladders 49 and floor presence sensor 50 can be cylindrical, retroreflective or diffuse reflective photoelectric sensors, while said inclination sensor 51 can be a cylindrical inductive proximity sensor, not being in any case limiting for the invention since other types of sensors can be considered and used without any inconvenience. Likewise, the device of the present invention can have software for programming and preloading different types of training, commands for the activation of the pulley drive motor 29 and tilting motor 38, speed control thereof, inclination control and other parameters that can be displayed through said display screen 41 and be controlled by means of a touch screen 46 provided in a convenient part of the apparatus. In case of emergency, the invention has at least one emergency stop button 47 for stopping the pulley drive motor 29.

In this way, the exercising apparatus of the present invention is constituted and constructed, which faithfully simulates the situation of climbing a mountain or ladder, varying its angle of inclination so as to generate different types of exercises and thus develop or rehabilitate different muscle zones in a much more adequate and effective manner, which is not possible with the conventional devices of the prior art. Likewise, the invention allows exercising both arms and legs, either individually or in combination, as well as many other muscles of the body.

That is, the person can climb the rungs 20 using their arms and legs simultaneously as they move up or down and at the same time, it is possible for them to hold onto the grab bars 44 as they “climb” using only their legs. Likewise, the person can vary the angle of inclination of the climbing module 11 so as to remain “hanging” or “suspended” only by gripping or holding on the rungs 20, leaving their legs partially or completely free, that is hanging. The same occurs if one only wants to exercise their legs, where the climbing module 11 will be arranged at a convenient angle of inclination so that the person can “climb” the rungs 20 without any inconvenience while holding on grab bars 44. On the other hand, the invention also allows the rotation or direction of movement of the side chains and consequently that of the rungs to be reversed and therefore generate an upward movement of the same, causing the person to descend the ladder and perform another type of exercise and development of other parts of the body compared to the movements performed when ascending.

As mentioned above, the invention offers a number of alternatives, combinations and exercise possibilities thanks to the variation of the angle of inclination of the climbing module 11 and the speed of rotation of the rungs 20. It is emphasized that the invention is not limited to the examples mentioned above since there are many combinations of arrangements and exercises possible by means of the device of the present invention.