Self-Standing Sling for Hands-Free Leg Exercise
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lower body exercise devices using resistance-transmitting lines often require manual effort to couple and decouple the line from the user's leg, leading to frustration, premature muscle fatigue, and unbalanced muscle development due to inefficient engagement of gluteal muscles.
Innovation Solution
A self-standing sling with a supportive scaffold and resistance harness that securely wraps around the user's leg or foot, allowing for hands-free engagement and disengagement, enabling alternating leg exercises without manual effort, and providing optimal muscle engagement through secure and flexible design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a resistance-transmitting line is coupled with a user's leg using traditional mechanisms, then continuous resistance can be delivered during exercise, but manual effort is required to engage and disengage the device, leading to frustration and premature muscle fatigue
Solution Approach 1:
The lower extremity receiving device is designed to automatically engage with the user's leg when they step into the device and to automatically disengage when they step out. The self-standing sling with supportive scaffold and heel socket structure enables the device to self-engage and self-disengage without requiring manual effort from the user, thereby eliminating the time loss and frustration associated with manual engagement and disengagement mechanisms.
2Adaptability or versatility
If traditional coupling mechanisms are used, then the device structure can be simplified, but the user cannot easily alternate legs during exercise sets, leading to unbalanced muscle development
Solution Approach 1:
The device enables easy alternation between legs by automatically engaging with either leg when the user steps into it. The self-standing sling structure with heel socket and supportive scaffold is designed to accommodate both legs equally, allowing users to switch between working and resting legs during exercise sets without manual intervention, thus preventing unbalanced muscle development while maintaining simple device structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The lower extremity receiving device is designed as a universal device that can accommodate and exercise either leg through the same mechanism. The self-standing sling and heel socket structure are configured to work with both left and right legs equally, enabling the device to perform multiple functions (exercising different legs) without requiring different mechanisms or increasing complexity.
3Strength
If the sling is made rigid to provide structural support, then it can stand upright and receive the foot, but it cannot wrap securely around the leg during motion
Solution Approach 1:
The sling is designed with dynamic properties that allow it to transition between rigid and flexible states. When not in use, the self-standing sling maintains a rigid upright position through its supportive scaffold structure to receive the foot. During exercise motion, the sling becomes flexible to wrap securely around the leg, providing both structural support and adaptive containment throughout the range of motion.
Solution Approach 2:
The sling is constructed using composite materials or material combinations that provide both rigidity for structural support and flexibility for wrapping around the leg. The supportive scaffold may use rigid materials to maintain upright position, while the sling body uses flexible materials to wrap securely around the leg during motion, combining the benefits of both rigid and flexible properties in a single structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A lower extremity receiving device is disclosed, which facilitates enhanced gluteal muscle engagement, body stability, and range of motion. The device includes a self-standing sling that can stand upright and ready to receive a user's lower extremity and enable them to commence any combination of hip extension or hip abduction with proper form upon inserting their foot, the sling including a heel socket that surrounds and facilitates rotational movement of the user's heel during the applicable hip extension exercise, and a resistance harness connected to the sling and capable of engaging a resistance-transmitting line for exercise, the harness having a clearance space for providing clearance for a user's foot as they alternately insert or remove their foot. This functional framework of elements enables a user to perform full range of combination of hip extension and hip abduction under resistance, via hands-free insertion of either foot into the sling.