Pivoting Foot Pedal System for Circulatory Health
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing devices for foot and leg exercise fail to provide a simple, inexpensive, and widely distributable solution that can be used in various settings to facilitate high repetitions of muscle contractions and blood flow without causing muscle fatigue, particularly for individuals with limited mobility or circulatory issues.
Innovation Solution
A pivoting foot pedal system connected to a rotating crank and flywheel that provides resistance through inertia, allowing users to perform high repetitions of ankle and foot movements without continuous muscle effort, promoting blood flow and muscle engagement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If motor-assisted passive motion is used to facilitate blood flow, then blood circulation is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The device uses the user's own muscle contractions to drive the pedal mechanism, which in turn facilitates blood flow through the calf pump mechanism. The system serves itself by converting the user's natural movement into therapeutic action, eliminating the need for external motors or power sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex motorized mechanical systems with a simple passive pedal mechanism that relies on user input. The treadle design uses basic mechanical leverage and the body's own movements to achieve the therapeutic effect, substituting electronic/motorized systems with pure mechanical simplicity.
2Reliability
If high repetitions are performed to purge the circulatory system, then circulatory health is improved, but muscle fatigue increases
Solution Approach 1:
The device employs periodic alternating isometric and isotonic contractions through the rhythmic pedal motion. This periodic action pattern allows muscles to alternate between tension and relaxation phases, preventing continuous fatigue while maintaining effective blood flow facilitation through repeated calf pump activation.
Solution Approach 2:
The device uses excessive repetitions beyond traditional exercise norms to thoroughly purge the circulatory system. By leveraging the passive mechanical advantage of the treadle system and flywheel momentum, the user can perform hundreds of repetitions without proportional muscle fatigue, achieving excessive action benefits without the usual diminishing returns.
3Ease of manufacture
If simple and inexpensive device construction is used, then ease of manufacture and distribution is improved, but device effectiveness may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates all unnecessary complex components from the device design. By removing motors, electronics, adjustment mechanisms, and other complicating elements, the device achieves simplicity in manufacture while maintaining effectiveness through the core passive treadle and flywheel mechanism that leverages human biomechanics.
Solution Approach 2:
The simple pedal and flywheel design serves multiple functions: it provides resistance training, facilitates blood flow through the calf pump mechanism, improves range of motion, and can be used by various ability levels. This multi-functionality is achieved through a single unified mechanism rather than multiple specialized components, enhancing both simplicity and effectiveness.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device enables users to perform hundreds or thousands of repetitions daily, reducing muscle fatigue and improving circulatory health by engaging the calf pump mechanism and promoting blood flow, suitable for both healthy individuals and those with physical impairments, without the need for electricity or extensive setup.
Implementation Method 1
The flywheel provides resistance. A user must work the foot pedal to overcome the inertia of the flywheel.
Implementation Method 2
The return flow occurs, in part, due to the pressure generated in the veins, the pull of the right auricle of the heart, and through the milking effect of the muscle contractions in the extremities, particularly the 'calf pump' mechanism of the lower extremities.
Data Source
AI summary
A treadle motion therapeutic device and a method of providing treadle motion therapy to a user which may be used as part of therapeutic modalities. The treadle motion therapy device adapted to receive at least one foot of a user in contact with a treadle such that the treadle pivots between a heel of the foot and a front portion of the foot to allow the user to move the treadle by using the front portion of the foot or by using the heel of the foot. The treadle motion therapy device having a capacity to store kinetic energy to assist in maintaining the treadling motion during a treadling session. Variations for other devices and methods are suggested.