Elastic Type Arm Exercising Device

Abstract

An exercise device is provided for developing and strengthening the arm muscles, particularly those muscles associated with the act of throwing. The apparatus includes sphericalhand grip spherical hand to one end of an elastic cord to which structure is provided at the other end for anchoring the apparatus to a relatively immobile object of restraint. An elongated, flattened member extends into the interior of the spherical hand grip and is secured by a pin passing transversely through an aperture near the end of the member within the hand grip. A second aperture near the protruding end of the elongated member receives a hook for coupling the hand grip to an elastic cord. The hook is mounted on an elastic cord and means includes a cuplike portion having a helix that decreases in radius from the hand grip one end is cupped and knotted and held in the helix. The knot is too large to pass through the small end the helix. At the other end of the cord is provided with a loop to permit the device can be anchored to any immobile object, for example, a door knob, which will receive a conventional loop-hitch.

Description

This invention relates to the physical development arts and, more particularly, to apparatus for strengthening the arm muscles, particularly those utilized in the act of throwing.

I am unaware of any prior art exercise devices specifically directed to developing the muscles associated with the act of throwing. However, certain prior art apparatus is sometimes utilized to roughly approximate the desired exercise. This prior art apparatus consists of a hand grip coupled to a rope which passes over a pulley and is secured at its remote end to a weight. With this arrangement, pull on the rope in any direction compatible with the orientation of the pulley tends to lift the weight which provides the force of resistance. A number of distinct disadvantages accrue to this prior art apparatus when the act of throwing is simulated therewith. It has been found, for example, that the inertia of the weight mass virtually precludes the quick throwing movement necessary for securing beneficial results. The pulley has a tendency to wear at the pivots resulting in an uneven, jerky pull which is inconsistent with the development of a smooth arm motion. The occasional breakage of the ropes is notoriously well known to those knowledgable in the art, and such breakage occurring during an exercise motion can and does cause injury to the user.

Apart from the above described drawbacks which look strictly to function, it will be apparent that the prior art apparatus is not portable and that a functional installation is quite expensive. Thus, it will be understood that it is highly desirable to provide an exercise device for developing and strengthening the arm muscles, particularly those associated with the act of throwing, which exercise device provides a smooth, natural pull without substantial inertia and which is further inexpensive and completely portable.

It is therefore a broad object of this invention to provide an improved arm exercise device.

It is another object of this invention to provide an exercise device for developing the muscles associated with the act of throwing and which provides smooth, progressive, substantially inertialess resistance.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide such an arm exercise device which is simple and economical to manufacture.

It is still another object of this invention to provide such an arm exercise device which is completely safe and readily portable.

The manner in which these and other objects are achieved will become more readily apparent to those conversant in the art through a purusal of the following specification taken in conjunction with the subjoined claims and the drawing of which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the various components making up a presently preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partially cut away detail illustrating the manner in which the hand grip components are assembled;

FIG. 3 illustrates a first variation in the hand grip structure from that illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates a second variation in the hand grip structure from that illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 illustrates the apparatus in use in an initial position; and

FIG. 6 illustrates the apparatus in use at a terminal, extended position.

Referring now to FIG. 1, it will be observed that the various components making up a presently preferred embodiment of the invention include a sturdy elastic cord 1, which may be of highly elastic rubber and may have an outer casing of woven cloth; a loop 2 at one end of the cord formed by looping the end of the cord back upon itself and securing the end with the wrapping 3; a hook means 4 which includes a cuplike portion 5 for restraining a second end 6 of the cord 1 doubled back upon itself and secured with a ring 7; a spherical hand grip 8 of hard rubber or similar composition; an elongated, flattened member 9 having a chisel-like end 10 to facilitate partial insertion within the hand grip 8; and a pin 11 utilized for anchoring the elongated member 9 within the hand grip 8. It will be observed that the elongated member 9 is angled at a point 12 intermediate along its length for reasons which will be set forth below. A first aperture 13 passes through the elongated member 9 near its chisel-like end 10 and a second aperture 14 passes through the elongated member 9 proximate its other end. The cuplike portion 5 of the hook member 4 comprises a helix of decreasing radius away from the hook portion. The hook member 4 is preferably made of hardened and tempered steel such that the small end of the cuplike portion 5 cannot be distorted to permit the end 6 to slip through even under severe strain along the axis of the helix as would be encountered with the device in use.

The manner in which the elongated member 9 is secured at one end within the interior of the spherical hand grip 8 and at the other end to the hook means 4, is illustrated in FIG. 2. The chisel-like end 10 of the elongated member 9 is driven radially into the interior of the hand grip 8 until the axis of the aperture 13 lies approximately along the diameter of the spherical hand grip 8. Subsequently, the pin 11 is forced diametrically into the spherical hand grip 8 to pass through the aperture 13. The length of the pin 11 is somewhat less than the diameter of the spherical hand grip 8 such that, when driven into place to secure the elongated member 9, the pin 11 is disposed completely within the spherical hand grip, and the natural resilience of the material from which the spherical hand grip is made causes the material to tend to close over the point of entry of the pin 11 and to retain it permanently in place. The hook member 4 passes loosely through the aperture 14 near the protruding end of the elongated member 9 to pivotally couple the assembled hand grip unit to the elastic cord 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a variation of the assembled hand grip unit utilizing an elongated member 15 differing from the elongated member 9 only in that it is not angled at a point intermediate along its length, but is rather straight along its length. Similarly, another variation is illustrated in FIG. 4 utilizing an elongated member 16 with a substantially more pronounced angle along its length than that of the elongated member 9. As will become more apparent below, the various configurations of the elongated members 9, 15, and 16 provide somewhat differing directions to which the resistive force of the exercise device is applied to the hand as the exercising motions are carried out.

Attention is now directed to FIG. 5 which illustrates the apparatus in a preliminary position prior to passing the arm 17 through a throwing motion. The cord 1 has been passed around a suitable immobile restraint 18 and passed through the loop 2 to anchor the exercise device for use. The spherical hand grip 8 is grasped in the fist such that the elongated member 9 passes between the index finger and the middle finger. This grip will be recognized by those skilled in the art as similar to that utilized in throwing a ball for distance and speed and also similar to the modern grip for throwing a javelin. The arm 17 is then brought forwardly, and typically upwardly, in a throwing motion to translate from the position depicted in FIG. 5 to the near terminal position illustrated in FIG. 6 at which the elastic cord 1 is stretched several feet beyond its initial state which is preferably slightly stretched. As the arm 17 moves through the throwing motion, the hook member 4 pivots in the aperture 14 to automatically accommodate angular changes between the elongated member 9 and the natural line of the cord 1 at any given position. The position of the hand 19, as shown in FIG. 6, is not necessarily a terminal position even though the arm 17 is fully outstretched. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the wrist 20 can be snapped forward to provide additional impelling force, and the angle 12 imparted to the elongated member 9 (FIG. 1) makes it a natural and comfortable motion to complete this follow through. For more radical follow through, the elongated member 16 of FIG. 4 may find favor with certain users while others may prefer little or no follow through in which case the elongated member 15 of FIG. 3 may be useful. Experience has indicated, however, that the moderate angle 12 to the elongated member 9 gives entirely satisfactory results to a wide spectrum of users.

Certain variations in proportions and manner of construction will be immediately apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the size of the spherical hand grip 8 may be adjusted to fit the hand of the user although a baseball size hand grip has been found to be entirely satisfactory in most instances. The elastic strength of the cord 1 can manifestly be adjusted to the state of development of the user who may progress to cords exhibiting stronger pull during a program of development. A straightforward alternative to the manner in which the end 6 of the cord 1 is enlarged to fit within the cuplike portion 5 of the hook 4 is to simply knot the end although the use of the ring 7 depicted in FIG. 1 is preferred because of its permanence when it is applied tightly and is comprised of hardened steel.

While the principles of the invention have now been made clear in an illustrative embodiment, there will be immediately obvious to those skilled in the art many modifications of structure, arrangement, proportions, the elements, materials, and components, used in the practice of the invention which are particularly adapted for specific environments and operating requirements without departing from those principles.

Claims

I claim:

1. An exercise device for developing and strengthening the arm muscles, particularly those muscles associated with the act of throwing, comprising:

a. an elastic cord;

b. a spherical hand grip;

c. means for coupling said spherical hand grip to a first end of said elastic cord;

d. means for anchoring a second end of said elastic cord to a relatively immobile object of restraint.

e. an elongated, flattened member wedgedly secured at one end within and by said spherical hand grip, the opposite end of said elongated, flattened member protruding and exposed from said member, a first aperture through said elongated member proximate said exposed end; said member being additionally retained in said member by a removable means; said hand grip providing the sole and only hand grip portion for the user during an exercise program, and

f. hook means disposed at said first end of said elastic cord for mating with said first aperture, said hook means comprising a cup-like portion consisting of a helix of a plurality of turns decreasing in radius toward said second end of said elastic cord, and a hook portion depending forwardly from the larger radius end of said helix, said first end of said elastic cord being provided with an enlarged terminal portion small enough to pass into the larger radius end of said cup-like portion and too large to be pulled through said small radius end of said cup-like portion.

2. The arm exercising apparatus of claim 1 in which said elongated member is provided with a second aperture which is proximate said end within said spherical hand grip and said elongated member is secured within said hand grip, said removable means comprising a pin imbedded in said hand grip and passing through said second aperture.

3. The arm exercising apparatus of claim 2 in which said enlarged terminal portion consists of the first end of said elastic cord doubled back upon itself and fixed permanently in the doubled back position by means of a spring ring encompassing said terminal.