Patent ID: 6113521
Filing Date: 2000-09-05
Classification: A63B

Abstract:
A method of constructing an exercise article of manufacture having a select number of weight-receiving compartments therein and consisting of an assemblage of panels of stretchable neoprene construction material, said construction method comprising the steps of selecting a rectangular first neoprene panel having opposite flat inwardly and outwardly facing surfaces, selecting a cooperating pair of rectangular second and third neoprene panels, placing said second and third neoprene panels in overlapping relation, stretching slightly said overlapping second and third neoprene panels to cause an urgency therein in an opposite direction, stitching together at uniform spaced apart locations and in parallel relation to each other said second and third panels while maintaining said directional urgency in said neoprene construction material thereof, releasing to a non-stretched condition said stitched together second and third panels so as to cause said urgency to urge said parallel spaced apart stitching in closing movement upon each other, configurating in said non-stretched condition of said stitched together overlapping second and third panels an inwardly directed semi-circular compartment wall between each adjacent stitching location on said second panel and an outwardly directed semi-circular compartment wall between each adjacent stitching location on said third panel, bounding a circular shaped weight-receiving compartment out of each said facing semi-circular shaped compartment walls, closing a bottom of each said weight-receiving compartment, stretching said stitched together second and third panels so as to cause said circular shaped weight-receiving compartment to close into a flat configuration, attaching said second and third panels with said closed weight-receiving compartments to said flat outwardly facing surface of said first panel, positioning said inwardly facing surface of said first panel in contact against a user, and inserting a select number of weights in a cooperating weight-receiving compartment, whereby said combined thicknesses of said first and second panels contribute to maintaining a flat configuration in a back of each said weight-receiving compartment and said diminished thickness of said third panel results in an assumed semi-circular shape in a front of each said weight-receiving compartment to thereby hold in place each weight inserted into a said weight-receiving compartment.