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Sports specific movement emulators and camsSports specific movement emulators and cams description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070197353, Sports specific movement emulators and cams. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001]This non-provisional patent application claims all benefits under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119(e) of pending U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/776,052 filed 23 Feb. 2006, entitled "Sport Specific Movement Emulators and Cams". FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002]This invention relates to sports specific movement emulators and cams. Emulators of the type disclosed herein permit the user to practice motions analogous to motions that must be used in a specific sport. In particular, one of the emulators permits the user to develop movements that use the thighs and waist to initiate a motion, such as a baseball pitch, baseball base steal and the like. Another of the emulators permits the user to emulate a running movement, and yet another permits the user to practice a golf swing. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART AND OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION [0003]Various exercising devices for exercising body and limb, e.g., leg or arm, muscles are known in the art. For example, typical barbells or weight bars have been known and used for quite some time. These devices generally include a set of disk shaped weight members, commonly referred to as free weights, and a bar on which the disk shaped weight members are supported. One can exercise and build muscle tone and muscle fiber over a period of time by lifting the bar in various lifting motions. [0004]Other, more sophisticated apparatuses have been developed, including exercise apparatuses which include a cable connected to a vertical rack of weight plates and, through linkage devices, to a bar or handle. The bar or handle can be lifted or pulled resulting in a pulling tension applied to the cable which causes the cable to pull and lift a selected number of weights within the vertical weight rack. [0005]In such known weight-type devices, weights are lifted as a user lifts, pushes, pulls, or otherwise moves a bar or other mechanism. As the weights are lifted, a resistance is felt by the user resulting from a gravitational force acting on the weights and countering the user's lift or stroke motion. The user must exert an amount of "work" to lift the weight (work being equal to the product of the force acting in the direction of motion and the distance through which it acts). The amount of power required to lift the weight is equal to the amount of work per unit of time. It is often beneficial for a weight-type exercising device to provide a greater resistance (and require a greater amount of work or power) during portions of a lift or stroke and a reduced resistance during other portions of the lift or stroke. The greater resistance portions of the lift or stroke can be employed for working certain muscles or working certain portions of muscle movements to a greater degree and to allow the user to concentrate more on building muscle strength and muscle size. The reduced resistance portions of the lift or stroke are employed to duplicate the body's natural strength level at different portions of a movement. [0006]Certain known weight-type machines employ cams to assist in the resistance the user encounters during use. Typically, during the initial stroke on these machines, a low resistance is encountered by the user, but the resistance steadily increases over the span of the entire stroke, reaching a maximum resistance increase of about 30% at the end of the stroke. The above-described prior art exercise machines are designed to develop muscle size and strength in one muscle group only but do not serve to duplicate a particular sport specific motion. Emulators are not designed to make muscles larger but rather to force the brain to send higher electrical impulses to all of the muscles used in a sport movement. [0007]The emulator user is forced to duplicate a sport specific movement such as hitting a golf ball, baseball or tennis ball, throwing a baseball or passing a football, kicking a soccer ball or football and running while making these movements in the correct muscle firing sequence to create the most powerful movement possible. If the correct movement and sequence are not performed correctly, the emulator becomes extremely difficult to use. Emulators perform these tasks and train all of the exact muscles used in a sport specific movement at the same time. [0008]In addition, when using emulators, many muscles are being used at the same time and no one muscle or muscle group is isolated, preventing injuries from straining or over working the muscles. For example, in a golf swing there are as many as 80 different muscles used to swing a golf club. This means that the resistance load is distributed over a much larger group of muscles than prior art exercise equipment. As a result, each muscle is worked less and the possibility of injury is decreased by about 70%. [0009]The old standard for learning new sports movements such a golf swing state that if you hit enough golf balls that your brain will learn this movement. Research in the field of motor memory learning and retrieval suggest that this is not an accurate statement. This research states that learning motor skills during the teenage years is much easier that trying to learn a golf swing at the age of 40. As a teenager the brain is helping the young golfer learn the proper muscle firing sequence. In the early 20's the part of the brain that was helping the golfer to learn the proper movements goes away fast. As an athlete gets older it becomes increasingly more difficult to learn motor skills just from performing them. It is estimated that at the age of 40 a new golfer will have to hit 10 times more balls than a 14-year-old in order to learn the same amount of motor memory information. [0010]When the user is working out on the golf emulator the resistance that they encounter during the work out forces the brain to turn on the motor memory learning switch. The switch is not coming on because a particular movement is being made but because the brain is being forced to send a much higher level of electrical impulses from the brain to the appropriate golf muscles. This change in the level of electrical impulses is what forces the brain to turn on the learning switch. When this switch comes on everything that the user is doing while working out on the emulator is stored in motor memory. [0011]Forcing the brain to send a higher level of impulses to the movement specific muscles forces these muscles to function at a higher contraction level without making them larger. For example, when a user swings a golf club, the brain sends only the required amount of electrical impulses to the muscles to move a 10-ounce driver. However, when the user works out on a golf emulator set at 50 pounds, the brain is forced to send up to fifty times more electricity to all the muscles associated with the swing. Simply put, a user working out on an emulator demands and receives more electricity from the brain. [0012]To duplicate the actual sport specific movement requiring the use of different levels of strength at different intervals within the movement, unique cam designs are used on emulators to create up to 5 times more resistance in the beginning of the movement than at the end. These cam designs are what distinguish emulators from prior art exercise equipment found in the gym that isolates only one muscle for the purpose of increasing the size of that muscle. [0013]Emulators also create a level of flexibility for the user that other equipment cannot duplicate in a sport specific movement. As the user allows the emulator arm to return to the starting position the user is stretching the sport specific muscles and connective tissue used for that movement. This stretching effect will also decrease the likelihood that a user will injure muscles used in the sport specific movement during competitive play or during training. [0014]Therefore, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a sports specific movement emulator that permits an athlete to practice and develop specific motions needed to participate skillfully and at a high level in a particular sport. [0015]It is another objective of the present invention to provide an emulator that forces the user to train and strengthen sports specific muscles in the lower body safely and repetitively. [0016]It is another objective of the present invention to provide a sports specific movement emulator that forces the user to practice proper running motion. [0017]It is another objective of the present invention to provide a sports specific movement emulator that forces the user to practice a proper golf swing. [0018]It is another objective of the present invention to provide an improved cam and axle assembly for a golf swing emulator. [0019]It is another objective of the present invention to provide an improved cam and axle assembly for a batting emulator. [0020]It is another objective of the present invention to provide an improved cam and axle assembly for a throwing emulator. [0021]Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Continue reading about Sports specific movement emulators and cams... Full patent description for Sports specific movement emulators and cams Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Sports specific movement emulators and cams patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Sports specific movement emulators and cams or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Barbell set and plates Next Patent Application: Motivational displays and methods for exercise machine Industry Class: Exercise devices ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Sports specific movement emulators and cams patent info. 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