Patent ID: 7704198

Claim:
A flexible elongated exercise device for use in the exercise of the human body, having variable resistance to bending in any direction including: an elongated extruded flexible thermoplastic tube containing essentially no continuous reinforcing fibers, said tube having opposite ends and a cylindrical interior surface defining a round section cavity, said tube being bendable in the shape of a semicircle without kinking, when bending forces are applied to the ends of said tube by grasping said tube at or near the ends of said tube, an elongated pultruded flexible rod fitting loosely within said round section cavity and extending longitudinally substantially coextensive with the length of said tube, said rod providing said exercise device with primary bending resistance and having a rectangular cross section shape with a major axis, a minor axis and radiused longitudinal edges, said major axis dimension of said cross section of said rod being at least one and one half times the minor axis dimension of said cross section of said rod, said rod rotatively orienting itself to bend about said major axis in the direction in which said tube of said exercise device is bent in response to forces exerted against said radiused edges of said rod by said cylindrical interior surface of said tube and a closure on each of said ends of said tube.