Free Weight Belt Squat Machine Vertical Plate Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing belt squat machines lack free weight movement control, require large spaces for Olympic plates, and do not accommodate users of varying sizes and heights, leading to unnatural movement patterns and safety hazards.
Innovation Solution
A free weight belt squat machine with an adjustable chain system, guiding metal plates, and variable hand grips, allowing users to control resistance directly and safely perform squats with Olympic plates, accommodating different stances and limb lengths, and featuring a resistance control arm for safe engagement and disengagement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If large space is provided for Olympic plates to be used as resistance, then free weight movement is enabled, but the range of movement is limited and user safety is compromised due to slip hazards
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the Olympic plates from the traditional horizontal placement configuration and repositions them vertically on an elevated rack. This extraction from the harmful horizontal configuration eliminates the slip hazard while preserving the free weight functionality. The plates are now suspended vertically above the user rather than occupying horizontal space around the user.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions the plate arrangement from a horizontal two-dimensional layout to a vertical three-dimensional configuration. By moving the plates to an elevated rack and suspending them vertically, the design utilizes the vertical dimension to resolve the safety contradiction while maintaining adaptability for free weight exercise.
2Ease of operation
If fixed and arcing movement pattern is provided by existing machines, then resistance is controlled through levers and cables, but the movement pattern becomes unnatural and user-specific adaptations are limited
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using levers and cables to control resistance movement (indirect control), the patent inverts the approach by allowing the user to directly control the resistance movement through free weight lifting. The resistance follows the user's natural movement rather than constraining the user to a fixed arcing path dictated by machine mechanics.
Solution Approach 2:
The user directly controls the resistance movement through their own body movement, eliminating the need for external control mechanisms like levers and cables. The system allows self-service resistance control where the user's natural motion dictates the resistance path, enabling adaptation to individual anatomy and movement preferences.
3Quantity of substance
If standard Olympic plates are placed horizontally for free weight exercise, then resistance is provided, but extra-wide stance is necessitated and different leg muscle adaptations are limited
Solution Approach 1:
By repositioning the plates vertically on an elevated rack rather than horizontally on the ground, the patent creates vertical clearance that allows users to adopt various stance widths and positions. This dimensional change enables narrow, wide, and intermediate stances to be utilized effectively, allowing targeting of different leg muscle groups.
Solution Approach 2:
The elevated rack configuration with vertically suspended plates creates a dynamic system where the resistance position can adapt to various user stances and movement patterns. Users can dynamically adjust their stance width and positioning to target specific muscle groups, rather than being constrained to a fixed wide stance.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention is a free weight belt squat machine that allows a free, unencumbered raising and lowering of variable resistance by a user. A belt which is directly attached to the horizontal free weight bar holds standard Olympic plates and may be raised or lowered, directly in free space, by the user. Thus, the natural and optimal movement pattern of a straight line over the user's center of gravity may be fully and completely realized. This machine provides a control arm to safely and effectively engage and disengage the resistance from the machine to the user and then back to the machine. This machine further provides an adjustable stopper mechanism for the safety of the user and to limit or expand the range of the exercise to cause the desired adaptations in muscular strength and size.