HULA-HOOP

Abstract: A. The field of the invention written in the claims: Hula-hoop. B. Subject of the art to be overcome by the present invention: to increase the desire for exercise of users who may feel boredom and ineffectualness resulting from the hula-hoop of a simple shape. C. Point of the solution of the present invention: improving the structure of the monotonous shape hula-hoop by changing the conventional ring-shape hula-hoop to the hula-hoop having bents, maximizing the effect of exercise by forming a plurality of massage balls along the inner circumference of the hula-hoop, and adopting a plurality of separable circular arc portions having bolt and nut respectively at both ends so as to provide a hula-hoop contributing to portability and desire of users.

Description: [ SPECIFICATIONS ] [ NAME OF INVENTION ] Hula-hoop. [ TECHNICAL FIELD OF INVENTION ] The present invention relates to a hula-hoop, and more particularly, to an improved hula hoop which gives sufficient exercising effect, induces an interest so as to break the monotony of exercising. { CONVENTIONAL ART OF INVENTION ] In general, a hula-hoop is an exercising apparatus which has a shape of circle made of plastic and is rotated using one's neck or waist. As mentioned above, the hula-hoop continues to have definite feature and structure from the time of development to now. As shown in FIG. 1 which is a perspective view illustrating a conventional hula- hoop, a body(2) is formed in shape of a ring by connecting both ends of a plastic pipe with a coupling portion(A), and the diameter of the body is much bigger than the perimeter of a user's waist. The user puts the above-mentioned hula-hoop(l) on his/her waist and continuously twists his/her waist to keep the above-mentioned hula-hoop(l) twirling repeatedly so that the hula-hoop(l) continuously rotates due to the centrifugal force of the body(2). Accordingly, the user becomes exercised according to the continuous rotation of the hula-hoop(l) using the continuous twist of his/her waist. However, though such a simple exercising apparatus as the above-mentioned hula-hoop gives a considerable amount of exercise, it is the biggest subject that the simple exercising apparatus increases the interest of users so that the users do exercise continually. Further, to increase the amount of exercising per one rotation is a basic subject to be improved for the exercising apparatus. In order to overcome these subjects, as shown in FIG. 2, in the Korean utility patent No. 1998-68543, a hula-hoop having a plurality of males around the inside of a body is invented. [ DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION ] The present invention is invented to satisfy the above-mentioned common requests of the concerned makers. The object of the present invention is to provide a hula-hoop which increases not only the interest of users but also the amount of exercise. Another object of the present invention is to provide a hula-hoop which is easy to carry by improving the general one body structure of the conventional hula-hoop. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a solid and high- quality hula-hoop and the same method. The present invention further provides a valued hula-hoop. To overcome the above-mentioned objects, the present invention provides a hula-hoop comprising a body having a shape of ring which comprises a sequence of upper and lower bents. Further, for the hula-hoop having a ring-shaped body, the present invention provides a hula-hoop including a body having coupling grooves which are formed along the inside of the body toward the center of the body; and a plurality of massage balls which are respectively coupled with the coupling grooves of the body and respectively have a coupling supporter covering around the inside surface of the body so that the coupling supporter of the massage ball is selectively attached to the bending grooves of the body. Further, for a ring-shaped hula-hoop having a plurality of body portions which are respectively disassembled to a circular arc, the present invention provides a hula- hoop including a bolt-shaped first coupling portion which is integrally extended from the respect body portion, has an outer diameter smaller than the body portion, and has a screw on the outer circumference; and a second coupling portion which includes 1) a body-fixing portion on which a hole having a smaller diameter than the body portion is formed toward the longitudinal direction of the body portion, 2) a fixing bolt wherein a screw is formed around the outer diameter of itself, is forced to be inserted into the hole of the body portion, and a protrusion is protruded out from the end in the opposite direction of the other body portion toward the outer circumference, 3) a ring-shaped nut portion which has an inner diameter bigger than the outer diameter of the body portion and is formed on one end of a fixing end which is protruded into the inner circumference so that the protrusion of the fixing bolt is latched by the fixing end, 4) a fixing band which covers the outside of the body-fixing portion, has a substantially identical diameter as the outer diameter of the body portion, and is faced with the fixing end of the ring- shaped nut portion at one end of itself. And, the present invention provides a hula-hoop wherein first and second bodies are separated according to the longitudinal direction of the body, and the first body and the second body corresponding to the first body are coupled to form as one body by coupling pressure males with inserting holes which are respectively formed at the first and second bodies. [ BRIEF EXPLANATION OF FIGS ] FIG. 1 is a plan view of a conventional hula-hoop. FIG. 2 is a plan view of another conventional hula-hoop having a body on which males are formed. FIG. 3 is a plan view of a hula-hoop according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a front view of a hula-hoop according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a plan view illustrating another example of the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a front view of the hula-hoop in FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the hula-hoop in FIG. 5. FIG. 8 is a drawing illustrating a portion of a conventional hula-hoop having massage balls. FIG. 9 is an expanded view of the massage ball in FIG. 8. FIG.10 is a drawing illustrating another example of conventional hula-hoop having massage balls. FIG.11 is a drawing illustrating a portion of the hula-hoop according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG.12a and 12b are drawings illustrating a coupling method of the massage ball according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG.13 is a plan view illustrating a conventional separation type hula-hoop. FIG.14 is a drawing illustrating a separation type hula-hoop according to the third embodiment of the present invention. FIG.15 is a drawing illustrating a circular arc portion of FIG.14. FIG.16 is an expanded view of "Z" portion in FIG.14. FIG.17 is a drawing illustrating a hula-hoop according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG.18 is an expanded view of "H" portion in FIG.17, which illustrates a coupling structure between two members. [ THE BEST MODE FOR INVENTION ] Hereinafter, referring to the attached drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail. The first embodiment As shown in FIG. 3 which is a plan view illustrating a hula-hoop according to the first embodiment of the present invention, a schematic feature of a body (10) is in shape of ring like a conventional hula-hoop. FIG. 4 which is a front view of FIG. 3 shows the spirit of the present invention to the best. As shown in FIG. 4, the body(lθ) comprises a sequence of an upper bent(l 1) and a lower bent(12). The vertical width between top and bottom surfaces of the conventional hula-hoop only depends on the thickness of the ring-shaped body, but since the hula-hoop according to the present invention has a sequence of the upper and the lower bents, the vertical width(d) between the top and bottom surfaces becomes much bigger than the conventional one. The sequence of the upper and the lower bents looks like a wave of billow, and if rotating the hula-hoop at such a definite position as waist, contacting region with the user's body becomes wider just by the vertical width(d) between the upper and the lower bents. That is to say, by using the hula-hoop according to the present invention, the contacting region with the user's body becomes wider, and thus force affects more portions of the user's body so that the amount of exercise increases. The structure or feature of the upper/lower bent is not limited to that of the figure, and it is enough that the bending angle or bending structure gives the above effect so as to result in the difference between the top and bottom surfaces of the hula-hoop. In the FIG. 5 and 6, in addition to the first embodiment of the present invention, massage balls(20) are formed on the inner circumference of the body (10). Like the above-mentioned published utility patent, the massage balls(20) can have a variety of structures and give effects of increasing the amount of exercise and excluding the monotony. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of FIG. 5. According to the present invention, since the body in shape of ring has the vertical width between the top and bottom surfaces, the amount of exercise increases, the monotony of exercise is excluded, and the massage balls(20) give the effect of massage. The second embodiment The second embodiment according to the present invention refers to the structure of the massage balls(20) and the corresponding body to the structures of the massage balls(20). Generally, the hula-hoop having the massage balls, which were published in the early utility patent, are assembled by the following method. FIG. 8 is a partial expanded view illustrating an assembling of the conventional hula-hoop having the massage balls of the published utility patent. Referring to FIG. 8, explaining the structure of attaching the massage balls to the conventional hula-hoop, the root of the massage ball(20) is attached to a fastener(21), and the fastener(21) is put into a fastener hole(22) formed on the body(lθ). But, as shown in FIG. 9, once attached, the above-mentioned male(20) is impossible to exchange due to the structure of the fastener(21). Namely, once attached, the fastener(21) can not be separated. To solve such a problem, namely, in order to make the male removable, the subject inventor of the present invention invented a massage ball and a male in the Korea utility patent no. 99-13419. That is to say, as shown in FIG. 10, the coupling structure of a body(50) having a plurality of pressure males(70) and massage balls(60) respectively having an inserting hole(65) is invented, and by the method of attaching the inserting hole(65) of the massage ball(60) to the pressure male(70) formed on the body(50) via compulsorily inserting, an one body massage ball(60) is formed so as to suggest a removable structure. But, in practice, the above-mentioned invention has the problem of disassembly during rotation due to the excess of exercising. Accordingly, the second embodiment of the present invention accepts all the advantages of the above-mentioned conventional invention, and in order to exclude that problem, the second embodiment provides a hula-hoop having a massage ball structure of being removable but hardly removable during rotation. FIG.l 1 is a partial view of the hula-hoop according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, a massage ball(120) has a massage portion(120a) having a schematic shape of sphere, and the massage portion(120a) preferably has two legs(120b) at one end. As a removal supporting portion, the legs are engaged with a ring-shaped body(150). - At this point, the ring-shaped body(150) has the conventional shape of ring shown in FIG. 1 as well as has the shape of waved ring having the upper/lower bents according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The main concept of this embodiment is to form removal grooves(130) on the various ring body(150). The removal groove(130) is coupled with the removal supporting portion(120b) of the massage ball(120), and can be attached as well as removed. The removal groove is grooved on and along the inner circumference of the body, has a certain width of half of the thickness of the ring body, and further has a concave portion(130a) at the end so that both attaching and removing are possible. For the massage ball(120), that is possible by forming a protruded portion(120c) at the end of the removal supporting portion(120b). Explaniing with reference to the FIG.12a and 12b illustrating the operation easily, as shown in FIG.12a illustrating the process of attaching via putting the massage ball(120) into the removal groove(130) of the body(150), the removal supporting legs(120b) are inserted and latched into the almost identically shaped removal groove(130) of the body, and the attaching is finished. On the contrary, in case of removal, fingernails or a pointed apparatus are used to easily separate the boundary surfaces between the removal groove and the removal supporting legs which are coupled as shown in FIG.12b. From the results of tests, by this method, there occurs no removal during rotation of the hula-hoop. The present invention is effective for removing the massage balls, which means that exchanging or repairing is necessary when massage balls are damaged in use or a new character of the massage ball is wanted. The third embodiment It is an object of the third embodiment of the present invention to provide a solid hula-hoop which is simply manufactured and easy to assemble/disassemble. In general, hula-hoop has the structure difficult to change the size from the time of inventing to now. That is to say, referring to the conventional hula-hoop shown in FIG. 1, the hula-hoop is certain times bigger than the perimeter of the waist in size, and since the hula-hoop is manufactured with respect to the size of adults, it is difficult for children to use. To solve the above-mentioned problem, a separation type hula-hoop is invented. As shown in FIG.13 illustrating the conventional separation type hula-hoop, a plurality of circular arc portions(160a, 160b) are connected with each other for use. In the configuration of the above-mentioned separation type hula-hoop, each of the circular arc portions(160a, 160b) has an inserting portion(176) and a coupling hole(l 70) respectively at both ends, and a plurality of pressure males(l 80) are formed at the inserting portion(176). By putting the pressure males(180) into the coupling holes(170), the two circular arc portions are coupled together. The described hula-hoop is separated to increase the easiness in sale or packing. Accordingly, the conventional separation type hula-hoop has some convenience in carriage. But, the conventional separation type hula-hoop is not easy to change the size with respect o the various users. And, the pressure males(180) formed at the inserting portion(176) become weary away due to the repeat of coupling/removing and can not be used after wearing occurs. Accordingly, it has the disadvantage of such a possible deformation of the body. To overcome the above-mentioned problem, the third embodiment of the present invention provides a hula-hoop which has a plurality of bodies and adopts a bolt engaging method to couple the bodies. FIG.14 is a perspective view illustrating the hula-hoop according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, an approximate feature of the hula- hoop is a shape of ring. Further, the above-mentioned hula-hoop comprises a plurality of separable circular arc portions(250), and each of the circular arc portions(250) is assembled with the adjacent circular arc portions by certain connecting means. The circular arc portion(250) has respectively different connecting portions at both ends, the structure of which is explained hereinafter. FIG.15 shows a cross-sectional view of one circular arc portion(250) in hula- hoop. The above-mentioned circular arc portion(250) has first and second coupling portions(210,200) respectively at both ends. The first coupling portion(210) in shape of bolt has the smaller diameter than the circular arc portion(250), and is formed on and extended from the circular arc portion(250) as an one-body. However, at the second coupling portion(200), a coupling means is formed in order to be coupled with the bolt which is formed at the first coupling portion(210) of the adjacent circular arc portion(not shown). Namely, the above-mentioned second coupling portion(200) comprises a body fixing portion(202) which has the smaller diameter than the body portion(112) and is extended from the circular arc portion(250) as an one-body, a ring-shaped nut(208) having an internal screw on the inner circumference corresponding to the first coupling portion(210), a fixing bolt(206) fixing the ring-shaped nut(208) to the body fixing portior and a fixing band(202) covering around the body fixing portion(202). At this point, the ring-shaped nut(208) and the fixing band(250) substantially have the same outer diameter. Further, the end of the body fixing portion(202) is open, and the fixing bolt(206" is coupled through the open portion of the body fixing portion(202). The ring-shaped nut portion(208) which is comprised in the second coupling portion(200) rotates independently of the circular arc portion(250), and is coupled with the first coupling portion of the adjacent circular arc portion by rotating the ring-shaped nut portion(208). FIG.16 is an assembling view illustrating the coupling relation of the second coupling portion(200) of FIG.15 and "Z" portion of FIG.14. From the figure, the relation of the second coupling portions(200) according to the present invention can be seen. First, in aspect of the function of each part comprised in the second coupling portion(200), the nut portion(208) is coupled with the first coupling portion so as to substantially fix each circular arc portion(250), the fixing bolt(206) is to fix the nut portion(208) to the body fixing portion(202) of the body portion(l 12). At this point, protruded portion(230) is formed on the fixing bolt(206), and a fixing edge(232) corresponding to the protruded portion(230) is formed at the nut portion(208). That is to say, the protruded portion(230) formed on the fixing bolt(206) and the fixing edge(232) formed at the nut portion(208) are coupled so that the nut portion(208) is fixed to the body portionQ 12). However, the fixing bolt(206) is attached to the inner surface of the body portion(202) in order to fix the nut portion(208) to the circular arc portion(250), and at this point, there is no forming of an extra portion on the inner surface corresponding to the screw of the fixing bolt(206). Accordingly, in the present invention, in order to couple the fixing bolt(206) to the body fixing portion(202), the fixing bolt(206) is forced to rotate into so as to be fixed to the body fixing portion(202). That is to say, the third embodiment of the present invention, in order to couple the fixing bolt(206) and the inner surface of the body fixing portion(202) formed at one end of the circular arc portion(250), adopts the method of forming a screw tap on the inner surface of the body fixing portion(202) by forcing the fixing bolt to rotate into. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene(ABS) resin is used for the fixing bolt(206), and for the material of the body portion, polyethylene resin and the like which is softer than the ABS resin is used. However, the fixing band(204) is coupled to the outer surface of the body fixing portion(202), and has the function of preventing the deformation of the body fixing portion(202) on coupling the fixing bolt(206). Namely, since the body fixing portion(202) is integrally formed with the circular arc portion(250), the softer material than the fixing bolt(206) is used for the body portion. Accordingly, when the fixing bolt(206) is inserted into the inside of the body fixing portion(202), the body fixing portion(202) becomes wider just by the difference in diameter with the fixing bolt(206), and at this point, the coupling force of the fixing bolt(206) and the body fixing portion(202) happens to become weak. To prevent that, the fixing band(204) is additionally attached to the outside of the body fixing portion(202) so that the body fixing portion(202) does not become wider and the coupling force of the fixing bolt(206) and the body fixing portion(202) becomes stronger. In the coupling order of the described second coupling portion, the fixing band(202) is coupled with the outer surface of the body fixing portion(202), the fixing bolt(206) is coupled with the nut portion(208), and the fixing bolt(206) which is protruded due to coupling with the nut portion(208) is forced to rotate into and coupled with the inner surface of the body fixing portion(202). At this point, though the nut portion(208) is fixed to the circular arc portion(250) by the fixing bolt(206), the nut portion(208) rotates independently of the circular arc portion(250), and by rotating the nut portion(208) which has the corresponding shape of the first coupling portion of the adjacent circular arc portion, the first and second coupling portions are coupled with each other. As described, since, in order to couple with the fixing bolt, there is no need to form an extra screw on the inner surface of the body fixing portion which is formed at an end of the circular arc portion(250), the manufacturing process becomes simple. Herein, the fixing bolt employs harder material than the body fixing portion. Further, the third embodiment according to the present invention described hereinbefore is surely adapted to the bent-shaped hula-hoop and the massage ball hula- hoop which are described in the first and second embodiments. The fourth embodiment The fourth embodiment of the present invention refers to the body of the hula- hoop. Generally, hula-hoops according to the above-mentioned conventional art, the first, second, and third embodiments are made as an one body, and the separation type hula-hoop comprising a plurality of circular arc portions is also made by assembling a plurality of united circular arc portions. The hula-hoop having the above-mentioned one-body adopts a blow molding technique, explanation of which is omitted. The blow molding technique has an advantage in manufacturing the conventional hula-hoop of simple design, but is not conformable to molding the complicate feature shown by the first, second and third embodiments of the present invention. To solve the problem, for the fourth embodiment, as shown in FIG.17, each circular arc portion(250) of the separation type hula-hoop illustrated in FIG.15 is made by assembling a first and second body portions(300a, 300b) which are respectively manufactured and comprised in the circular arc portion(250). That is to say, as shown in FIG.18, the first and second body portions(300a, 300b) which are respectively in shape of a half portion of the circular arc portion are respectively manufactured, pressure males(310) are formed on the edge portion of a body portion, inserting holes(320) into which the pressure males are inserted are formed on the other body portion, and the first and second body portions are coupled as an one body by coupling the pressure males and the inserting holes. Herein, the connection between the first and second body portions(300a, 300b) is not limited to the coupling by the pressure males(310) and the inserting holes(320), but instead of the pressure males(310), the fastener shown in FIG. 9 is also adapted to coupling. Further, hula-hoops having the above-mentioned structure can be manufactured by the injection molding technique, and using the injection molding technique for this embodiment has an advantage in that a transparent hula-hoop can be manufactured. Furthermore, if the injection molding technique is adapted for the hula-hoop comprising the half-shaped parts, the inferiority percentage of the hula-hoop manufacturing process decreases, and a solid hula-hoop of high quality can be manufactured. The first and second body portions(300a, 300b) may have the removal grooves of FIG.11 a bending shape shown in FIG. 7. As explained hereinbefore, the hula-hoop according to the preferred embodiments of the present invention has following characteristics. First, due to basically having the upper and lower bents, the contacting region with user's body becomes wider, and various contacts exclude the monotony of exercising and induce the interest of users. Second, the removable massage balls attached to the inner circumference increase the interest and effect of exercise. Third, since a plurality of separable circular arc portions are connected by bolts, carriage and both assembly and disassembly become easy. Fourth, if hula-hoops are manufactured according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention, the inferiority percentage of manufacturing process decreases, and hula-hoops of high quality or transparent material are possibly manufactured so that the commodity value increases.

Claims: [ RANGE OF CLAIMS ] [ CLAIM 1 ] A hula-hoop comprising a body in shape of a ring as a whole including a sequence of an upper and a lower bents. [ CLAIM 2 ] The hula-hoop according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of males are formed on the inner circumference of the body. [ CLAIM 3 ] A hula-hoop having a shape of ring comprising, a body having a removal groove portion formed along the inner circumference of the body and toward the direction of the center of the body; and a plurality of massage balls coupled with the removal groove portion and having a removal supporting portion, the removal supporting portion being in shape of covering around the inner circumference of the body and removably and selectively attached to the removal groove portion of the body. [ CLAIM 4 ] The hula-hoop according to claim 3, wherein the ring-shaped body is in a bending shape. [ CLAIM 5 ] A circular hula-hoop including a plurality of respectively separable body portions comprising a first coupling portion integrally extended from the respect body portion and having a screw formed around the outer circumference of the first coupling portion with a smaller outer diameter than the body portion; and a second coupling portion including 1) a body-fixing portion wherein a hole having a smaller diameter than the body portion is formed toward the longitudinal direction of the body portion, 2) a fixing bolt having a screw formed around the outer diameter of the fixing bolt and being forced to be inserted into an inner diameter of the body portion and having a protrusion protruded out from an end of the body portion toward the outer circumference, the end being in the direction opposite to the other body portion, 3) a ring-shaped nut portion having an inner diameter bigger than the outer diameter of the body portion and formed on one end of a fixing end, the fixing end being protruded into the direction of the inner circumference so as to latch the fixing bolt, 4) a fixing band covering around the outside of the body- fixing portion, having a substantially same diameter as the outer diameter of the body portion, and faced with the fixing end of the ring-shaped nut portion at one end of the fixing band. [ CLAIM 6 ] The hula-hoop according to claim 5, wherein the respect body portion is in a bending shape. [ CLAIM 7 ] A hula-hoop divided into a first and a second body along the longitudinal direction of the body, wherein pressure males and inserting holes are respectively formed at the first body and the corresponding second body, and the first and second bodies becomes one united body by coupling the pressure males and the inserting holes so as to form the hula-hoop. [ CLAIM 8 ] The hula-hoop according to claim 7, wherein the first and the second bodies are in a bending shape.

Inventors: KONG HYUN-SIK, KONG, HYUN-SIK
Applicants: KONG HYUN SIK, KONG, HYUN-SIK
Application year: 2000
Main classification: A63B19
IPC codes: A61H7, A63B19