Athletic garment

Abstract

In several embodiments, an athletic garment is designed to store energy when a weight or load is lowered in order to assist the wearer to subsequently raise the load. In some embodiments, the garment provides seams which are curved in order to twist the garment fabric and thereby store energy therein. In one shirt embodiment, the sleeves extend perpendicularly forward of the torso and then converge toward a centerline of the shirt. In a second shirt embodiment, the sleeves extend perpendicularly forward of the torso for their entire length. In a weight lifter's suit embodiment, the curved seams extends from an armhole of a torso section to a location under the buttocks of the lifter. In another shirt embodiment, the arms extend forwardly of a vertical plane when the wearer is lying on the back in preparation for an arching bench press movement.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to an athletic garment and more particularly to a garment designed for weight lifters to store energy in the garment so the stored energy may be applied to lifting weights. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Weight lifting is a sport, like all sports, where small differences in performance are the difference between winning and losing, especially in top flight competition. The reason, of course, is that competitors are normally very evenly matched. In order to provide a competitive edge, tight fitting weight lifter's shirts have been designed to store energy when a weight is lowered in order to assist the lifter in raising the weight, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,908. This approach involves angling the sleeves of a lifter's shirt in a horizontal plane so that the shirt material, across the chest, is stretched on lowering the weight in order to contribute to the lifter's force in raising the weight. [0003] Other disclosures of some interest relative t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] In the case of angled sleeves acting as the energy storing component, lowering a weight in a bench press movement causes the sleeves to diverge. This stretches the fabric of the shirt across the lifter's chest thereby storing energy in the shirt.

[0009] A further object of this invention is to provide an improved garment for weight lifters that improves performance.

[0010] A more specific object of this invention is to provide an improved weight lifters shirt that stores energy during lowering of a weight to complement the force applied by the lifter.

Problems solved by technology

For example, extraneous material cannot be applied to the interior or exterior of garments.

The energy storing components must be incorporated into either the fabric of the garments or the seams of the garment because competition organizers do not allow extraneous materials on competition garments.

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