Patent Publication Number: US-2009233773-A1

Title: Excercise Chair

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to the general art of chairs, and to the particular field of exercise chairs. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In recent years, the increase in urbanization and mechanization of society has led to a corresponding decrease in the amount of physical exercise in which members of our society regularly engage. Physicians and physical fitness experts have been generally concerned with the public health, and especially with the relationship between good health and a regular program of vigorous physical exercise. This problem is more acute in the case of the urban dweller that typically resides in an apartment or limited space dwelling and works during the day in an office, mostly in a seated position. Thus, the nature of most individuals&#39; employment activities limit his daily physical exercise, while the limited space in the home and surroundings reduces the opportunity to obtain a positive exercise program from daily activities. In an effort to provide home facilities for rectifying the lack of an area to exercise, various knock-down and collapsible exercising apparatus have been proposed. In the past it has also been proposed to provide various exercise gyms to which a person may join as a member by paying a membership fee and regular payment or usage fees. 
     A prior apparatus for home use have generally not been satisfactory in that collapsible devices are unattractive and must be stored out of sight when the room is to be used for day-to-day living or entertainment. Devices which store the exercise apparatus in furniture require a number of steps to set up the device and are bulky or cumbersome. Most prior art devices do not provide an attractive piece of furniture which can be used at all times as a piece of furniture, and in which the individual can have an exercise program without moving from his chair or from the front of a desk, the television set or the like. 
     Generally, exercise equipment, including home exercise equipment, is built for one general purpose only—to be used for exercising. Thus, stationary bicycles are used for stationary bicycling, rowing machines are used for rowing, treadmills are used for walking and running, cross-country skiing machines are used for simulated cross-country skiing, and so on. Conversely, although it is intended that home exercise equipment will be used in a home, such equipment is not generally designed to also serve as a piece of furniture—such as a chair. As a result, a person desiring to own exercise equipment must separately purchase both furniture and the particular piece of exercise equipment. Moreover, such a person must also have or create additional space to house the particular piece of exercise equipment. Still further, if an owner of exercise equipment tires of using that particular piece of equipment, or becomes physically unable to do so, the owner will have no other use for that piece of equipment and must either dispose of or store the unused exercise apparatus. 
     According to a news report, there a number of reasons why people quit exercising. One such reason is that people interested in beginning an exercise program often have not relegated an area in their home to exercise—something that would not be a problem if an exercise apparatus also served as furniture. Another reason why people quit exercising is that, with certain kinds of equipment, they cannot hear the television while exercising—thus, quiet exercise equipment is preferred over loud exercise equipment. Other reasons include that exercise is boring, and that exercise equipment is uncomfortable. 
     Specialized exercise equipment is available wherein a person performs specific exercises while seated. A first type includes a device with handles that lie at about the height of a person&#39;s head, and which can be grasped to lift and lower the handles against the resistance of weights. A second type of device includes handles lying in front of the person at waist level, which can be grasped to lift and lower the handles against weights. A third type includes foot handles, wherein a person places the bottom of his legs or his feet under the handles and moves them in a forward upper incline against the resistance of weights. 
     An office worker often has short brief periods of time in which he can perform exercises, such as when talking on a speaker phone and waiting of the called party to come to the phone. It would be desirable if the office worker could perform exercises during these brief periods of time while remaining seated in his office chair. It would be even more desirable if the exercises were similar to those performed on specialized equipment in a gym or health club which the office worker may already be acquainted with and which are known to be useful. By performing exercises known to the office worker to be similar to those performed in a health club or gym, the worker is encouraged to perform such exercises because he knows that his body is achieving the same type of benefit as if he attended his health club, which he may not have enough time to regularly attend. However, in order for such office exercise apparatus to gain acceptance, it must not interfere with comfortable seating of the office worker at his or her desk and movement in the desk area by swiveling in the seat or moving the seat on a desk pad. 
     Therefore, a need exists to provide an improved exercise apparatus and method, which is capable of serving as a chair-type item of furniture when not in use for exercising purposes. The improved exercise apparatus must also operate in a fairly quiet manner, so that even when in use for exercising purposes, the user can hear a nearby television set. On the other hand, the improved exercise apparatus and method should also be collapsible and portable, so that a user will have the option of storing or transporting the apparatus when not in use, in the event that the user does not desire to also use the apparatus as a chair-type piece of furniture. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The above-discussed disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by a chair that has arm and leg exerciser systems foldably mounted thereon. The exercise systems are stored out of sight and are deployed for use in arm exercises and/or leg exercises when desired. The systems include handles that are grasped for arm exercises such as arm curls, and which are connected to the chair by resilient belts and leg-encircling cuffs that are connected to the chair by resilient belts for performing leg exercises such as leg curls and abdominal exercises such as sit-up type exercises or the like. The belts provide tension against which the user works during the exercise routine. 
     Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
       The invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like referenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an exercise chair embodying the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a side elevational view of the exercise chair shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring to the figures, it can be understood that the present invention is embodied in an exercise chair  10  that fulfills the above-stated requirements. 
     Exercise chair  10  comprises a base  12  which is supported on a support surface such as a floor F, by wheels  16  which engage the support surface. A support stanchion  20  has a first end  22  which is a bottom end when the stanchion is in use and a second end  24  which is a top end when the stanchion is in use. The stanchion includes two portions  26  and  28  that are telescopingly connected to each other so the height of the stanchion can be adjusted to fit the needs of a user. A swivel connection  30  connects the first end of the support stanchion to the base. An annular collar  40  surrounds the support stanchion and is movably mounted thereon. 
     A chair unit  50  is mounted on the second end of the support stanchion and includes a seat portion  52  which has first and second side edges  54  and  56  and first and second end edges  58  and  60 . The chair unit further includes a back portion  70  which has first and second side edges  72  and  74  and first and second end edges  76  and  78 . First end edge  76  of the back portion is connected to second end edge  60  of the seat portion. The chair unit further includes an arm rest  80  mounted on each side edge of the seat portion of the chair. 
     A leg exercise unit  90  is mounted on the stanchion and includes first and second flexible straps  92  and  94 . The straps are identical to each other and each strap includes a first end  96  which is one-piece with the collar and a second end  98  which spaced apart from the collar. A leg-encircling band  100  is one-piece with the second end of the strap to which it is connected. Each leg-encircling band has an adjustment buckle  102  thereon. 
     The exercise chair further includes an arm exercise unit  110  mounted on the chair unit. Arm exercise unit  110  includes first and second flexible straps  112  and  114 . Straps  112  and  114  are identical and each strap of the arm exercising unit includes a first end  116  which is one-piece with an associated side edge of the seat portion and a second end  118  which is spaced apart from the seat portion. A hand grip element  120  is one-piece with the second end of the strap of the arm exercise unit to which it is connected. The flexible straps are formed of rubber in one form of the invention. 
     A hand grip element engaging handle  130  is located on each side edge of the back portion of the chair unit. As can be understood from the figures, each hand grip engaging handle is located to be co-linear with an adjacent arm rests so that when a hand grip element is engaged on the hand grip engaging handle. The arm rests can be arcuate to support the hand grip engaging handle. As can be understood from the figures, the hand grip forms a portion of the adjacent arm rest. An alarm clock  140  is mounted on the seat portion of the chair unit near the first end edge of the seat portion so a user can time his or her exercise routine. 
     The exercise chair further includes a second arm exercise unit  150  mounted on the second edge  78  of the chair unit. The second arm exercise unit  150  includes first and second flexible straps  152  and  154  with handles  156  and  158 , respectively. The second arm exercise unit  150  may be used to pull the handles  156  and  158  over the user&#39;s shoulders to exercise different parts of the arm. 
     As mentioned above, the exercise routine can include leg curls, arm curls, core exercises and/or any combination thereof which includes working against a resistance attached to the user&#39;s arms and/or legs. Once the exercise routine is completed, the arm and leg exercise units can be folded up and stored out of sight on the chair and the chair can be used in a manner usual to office chairs or the like. 
     While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many more embodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of this invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.