Barbell Slider

Abstract

A barbell attachment for an exercise machine, such as a Smith machine, comprises a slider which can be mounted on a barbell 6 of a machine. The attachment has two mounts with an inner part 1 and an outer part 2. The parts are aligned to screw holes while a circular rubber shape 9 in the middle makes contact with the barbell 6 to provide grip. The mounts are connected through an additional barbell 5 which may have a square or triangle shape to prevent spinning of the bar. The attachment can be used with barbells of standard thickness, or any suitable size; and the of the attachment may be adjusted by the loosening or tightening the screws on the mounts. The attachment enables horizontal movement through sliding handles 3, 10 alongside the vertical movement of the machine.

Description

Barbell Slider is a piece of workout equipment designed to be mounted onto the barbell of the Smith machine / barbell weights machine. This is to allow you to perform additional exercises such as chest flies and others on the machine alongside regular use with its multifunctional design. Smith machines and other similar options are often used by people to perform exercises such as bench press and squats etc. more easily and securely as opposed to using free weights. Although machines like such do not accommodate on their own the ability to perform exercises such as chest flies and other similar workouts due to the restriction of horizontal movement in their design. Which then requires a separate dedicated machine for such exercises, costing more money or the need to use free weights, which can be less safe. Hence why the invention presented here is designed in a way where it can be installed by being attached onto the bar of the Smith machine, allowing the user to perform the desired exercises and also attain the normal use of the machine through the additional barbell (5) without needing to uninstall anything. This is achieved by mounting the slider on an angle parallel to the hooks on the sides of the bar. Allowing you to hook and unhook the barbell of the machine by either grabbing and turning the handles (numbers 3 and 10) or moving the additional barbell underneath (5) back and forth. If the user aims to perform an exercise such as the chest fly, then they would position themselves in the bench or incline bench position and use the handles to slide their hand outwards and inwards from their chest, similarly to how this exercise is performed regularly. When wanting to perform a regular bench press or other exercises which require just the barbell, you can rest the handles by sliding them to the right and left corners. This would leave you with sufficient space in the middle of the barbell to grip and perform your exercise. This method is advantageous over using free weights such as dumbbells or bars etc. as it allows you to exercise without the fear of the weight dropping on you in case of failure or vice versa, having to drop the weights suddenly. This is because you would have constant access to the hook and unhook system of the machine which you can use by either the handles or the additional barbell at any time. By not needing to focus on balancing the bar and its vertical movement, you can focus more on the horizontal movement (sliding the handles) and attaining the proper extension of your chest muscles during the exercise. The Barbell Slider is mounted on the barbell of the machine parallel to the angle of the hooks on the side, using four screws in total (two on each side). There are two mounts, one on each side which have an inner (1) and outer (4) part. These parts are to be aligned according to the screw holes while the circular rubber shape in the middle (9) makes contact with the barbell (6) of the machine to provide grip (figure 2). Screwing and unscrewing will allow for adjustment of tightness to the barbell as the gap in the middle of the outer (1) and inner (4) part is present for such purpose, also allowing you to adjust the tightness for different sized barbells compared to just the standard ones. The mounts are connected through an additional barbell (5) which serves as replacement for the existing bar of the machine (6), accommodating for regular use without needing to uninstall anything. This barbell can be the same in thickness as standard barbells or Olympic barbells commonly found in gyms (28mm in diameter) or any different size that is desired (for example the 25mm junior barbell size). This barbell can be plain, provided with a rubber grip or be knurled and also be replaceable to allow for a different grip style bar if desired. The additional bar would have a polygon, square or triangle shape etc. (containing corners) alongside the cylindrical shape of the barbell on each side to prevent spinning of the bar and its shifting from side to side (figure 11). This would then be locked into place using two screws, one on each side (figure 4). Between the barbell of the machine and the additional barbell of this invention would be the handles (3 and 10). They will be held into place with contact from both barbells on each side on the rollers (2 and 7). The main roller will be in the middle (7), connected to the handle using bearings allowing it to rotate freely (figure 10). The shape of the main roller curves around the barbell to allow for more contact and better grip as it is the main roller under force during use (figure 5,6 &10). The four cylindrical rollers (2) on each corner are present to prevent the handle grip from swinging. They are connected to the handle using a plate (8) on the top and bottom, which also serves as a case to hold these components together and to prevent the handle from slipping out of the main roller bearings (Tl) (figure 9). The grip on the handle (10) can be fixed using welded connections or be joined using two screws, on the top and bottom. Using screws would allow it to be replaceable similar to the additional barbell and the extra replaceable options for both of these could be sold separately.

Claims

1. An additional barbell that is attachable onto the existing barbell of any smith machine through mounting points each side which clamp on to the existing barbell of the smith machine and use screws to tighten and form a grip on it, thus connecting moveable, sliding and rolling components to the smith machine’s barbell to enable horizontal movement across the barbell.06 01 25

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