This invention relates to improvements to exercising apparatus of the type substantially as described in our __ earlier patent and patent No. 596536 and application No.

58890/90. f 5 This invention aims to alleviate disadvantages associated with our earlier described exercising apparatus and to provide exercise apparatus which will be reliable and efficient in use. Other objects and advantages of this invention will hereinafter become apparent. 10 With the foregoing and other objects in view, this invention in one aspect resides broadly in an exercise assembly including:- a supporting assembly; a pivotable member; support means for pivotally supporting the movable 15 member on the supporting assembly, and releasable restraining means for restraining pivotal movement of the pivotable member relative to the supporting assembly. The supporting assembly may be integral with the supporting assembly or the pivotable member or it may be a 20 separate assembly fixedly or pivotally secured to the supporting assembly or the pivotable member.

The releasable restraining means may provide a resilient limit or restraint to pivotal movement of the pivotable member and whereby the pivotal member may move freely between 25 the restrained limits or the releasable restraining means may restrain pivotal movement of the pivotable member away from its normally supported position and if desired no limit may be provided to the pivotal movement of the pivotable member. The releasable restraining means may be in the form of a 30 resilient buffer or stop provided on an abutment member on the pivotable member or the supporting member, the buffer being compressed between the pivotable member and the _b supporting member as a result of pivotal movement of the pivotable member. Alternatively, the releasable restraining 35 means may be in the form of a leaf spring anchored to one of

SUBSTITUTESHEET

the pivotable member or the supporting member adjacent the pivotal support and to the other spaced from the pivotal support. The leaf spring may be a metal spring but preferably the leaf spring is formed from a plastics or rubber material whereby and inexpensive spring which may be deflected through a large range may be provided. It is also preferred that there be provided stop means which abuts the leaf spring when at or adjacent the desired extreme pivotal movement of the footrest assembly. In the case of a leaf spring formed of plastics material, such abutment will be a resilient abutment providing in effect a resilient buffer at the extreme pivotal movement of the footrest assembly. Suitably the exercise assembly includes a slotted pivot pin on which the pivotal member pivots and fixed against rotation relative to the pivotal member and the leaf spring is slidably secured in said slotted pin. It is also preferred that the slotted pin extends upwardly from the supporting assembly and the underside of the pivotal member includes spring end holding means and wherein the parts are so made and arranged that the leaf spring may be releasably engaged with the slotted pin and with the pivotable member to facilitate ease of assembly.

In another aspect, this invention resides broadly in an exercise assembly including:- a supporting assembly; a pivotable member; support means for pivotally supporting the movable member on the supporting assembly, and releasable locking means for restraining pivotal movement of the pivotable member relative to the supporting assembly.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the pivotal member is in the form of a footrest assembly which includes a pair of spaced footrests and is pivotal about a substantially central axis. The pivotal member may be in the form of a straight bar or it may be in the form of a cranked bar with

the footrests displaced downwardly or upwardly from the central portion of the footrest assembly. Furthermore the axis about which the footrest assembly pivots when the supporting assembly is supported on a horizontal floor may be a vertical axis or an inclined axis as desired. Furthermore the pivotal connection between the supporting assembly and the footrest assembly may be a universal connection including a resilient universal connection and the biassing means may bias the footrest to a normal position and resist relative pivotal movement in any direction, such as for example, pivotal movement about a vertical axis or a horizontal axis. The biassing means may provide different resistance for pivotal movement about different axes. Of course the footrests may incorporate passive or active massaging means for massaging a user's feet.

In a further aspect, this invention resides broadly in an exercise assembly including:- a supporting assembly; a pivotable member; support means for pivotally supporting the movable member on the supporting assembly, and the support means being selectively adjustable to enable the pivot axis of the pivotable member to be adjusted relative to the supporting assembly.

Preferably the pivotal member is restrained for movement about an axis fixed relative to the supporting assembly and the latter is adjustably mounted on the supporting assembly. However if desired, the supporting assembly could be resilient member whereby the pivotal member could be pivoted about different and varying axes by controlling the inclination of the pivotal member by selected foot or hand manipulation.

Of course the variations described above could be incorporated with any of the various embodiments of the invention to provide a desired combination of features. In order that this invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now

be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a typical embodiment of the invention and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the invention; FIG. 2 illustrates the base assembly illustrated in FIG.

1;

FIG. 3 is an inverted perspective view of the mounting means and the footrest assembly;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken through the pivot assembly;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the supporting assembly of an alternate embodiment of the invention; FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view through the pivot assembly of the embodiment of FIG. 5; FIG. 7 is a broken away side view of the pivot mounting of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of yet another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view through the pivot assembly of FIG. 7.

FIGS. 10-14 illustrate further variations of the invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 the exercise apparatus 10 includes a base 11 and a footrest/handrest assembly 12 pivotally connected thereto whereby it may be reciprocated around a concealed central pivot mounting at 13.

As shown in FIG. 2 the footrest assembly includes an integral spigot mounting 14 in the form of a slotted upstanding round pin which projects upwardly from an annular shoulder 15 extending outwardly from the pin to a cylindrical hub 15a from which the pin projects and about which the bearing 16 may rotate. The bearing 16 is in the form of an circular sleeve provided with opposed flats 22 having projecting ears as illustrated. The flats 22 are adapted for close accommodation between the opposite side walls 17 and 18 of the footrest assembly. The latter is in the form of a

plastics moulding to which are secured the rests 20 substantially as described in my abovementioned copending patent application.

The side walls 17, 18 are formed integrally with a top wall 20 as is a socket assembly 21 which depends centrally from the top wall 20. The socket assembly 21 is cylindrical and provided with axial slots 9 to permit sectors of the socket assembly 21 to move outwardly whereby inward projections 23, formed on the lower inner periphery of the socket and having an internal diameter less than the external diameter of the upstanding pin 14, may pass across the upper portion of the pin 14 to engage in an circumferential recess 24 on the pin spaced downwardly from the upper end thereof. The recess 24 is adapted to receive the inward projections 23 to lock the footrest assembly to the base assembly. In this manner the footrest assembly may pivot freely and about the upstanding pin supported by engagement of the pin 14 with the socket 21 adjacent the top wall 20 and by engagement of the side walls 17 and 18 with the bearing 16 at their lower edges. This arrangement provides a stable pivotal mounting for the footrest assembly 12 on the base 11.

The slotted pin 14 is slotted transversely to the central spine member 30 of the base assembly 11. The slot 8 is adapted to receive a resilient leaf spring 31 whereby it is centrally held against pivotal movement. The spring may be formed of any suitable material such as spring steel or a suitable plastics material. In this embodiment the spring is formed from a plastics material and is moulded with spaced locating ribs 40 at either side of its central portion so as to locate the spring centrally of the pivot pin 14 and further ribs are provided at each end. These end ribs are adapted to be closely accommodated with spaced retaining walls 35 depending from the top wall 20. The depth of the spring 31 is such that when positioned within the slot it extends upwardly to a position just below the circumferential recess 24 on the pin 14.

The footrest assembly 12 may be supplied disassembled and readily assembled due to the simple connecting and springing arrangement described above. When the footrest assembly 12 is assembled to the base 11 with the spring 31 in position, a pivoting action of the footrest will cause the opposite ends of the spring to deflect oppositely and resiliently and thus provide a resistance against pivot motion of the footrest assembly relative to the base. Furthermore as pivotal motion continues the ribs 25, formed on the inside of the side walls 17 and 18 and spaced so as to closely accommodate the ears of the bearing 16, abut the inner portion of the spring and increase torsional resistance via a direct compression of the spring through engagement of the ribs 25. This resistance action is in addition to the bending load already applied by the spring. In this manner the pivoting action of the footrest is restrained within certain limits and the resistance force increases substantially towards the end of the pivoting action. This arrangement alleviate stress and possible damage to the mechanism by overzealous use of the apparatus.

It will be seen that the components of the above embodiment are so formed that they can be economically formed as injection mouldings and that the apparatus can be readily assembled in a snap-fit manner. The base assembly 50 illustrated in FIG. 5 differs from the previously described embodiment in that the spigot mounting 51 forms a part of an assembly which is pivotly secured to the base 52 whereby the pivotal axis provided by the spigot mounting 51 may be varied relative to the base 52. For this purpose the spigot mounting 51 extends upwardly from a mounting tongue 53 held captive between the opposing side walls 54 of the base 52. The tongue is apertured at 55 whereby it may pivot about the clamping bolt 56 secured in position by the adjustable cam 57. The tongue 53 is provided with a opposed outwardly projecting locking tabs 58 adapted to be selectively engaged

with selected opposing pairs of arcuately arranged locking slots 59 arranged about the locking pin 56. The arrangement is such that when the cam 57 is rotated about its pivotal connection 60 to the locking pin 59, the side walls 54 are urged inwardly to engage a selected pair of opposed slots 59 about the projections 58 so as to hold the spigot 51 at a selected inclination relative to the base 52. Release of the cam 57 permits the side walls 54 to move apart so as to free the projections 58 from the slots 59 whereby the spigot 51 may be pivoted about the locking pin 56 forengagement with other slots 59 and support at an alternate inclination relative to the base 52.

The embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9 substantially corresponds to the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1-4. However in this embodiment pivotal movement of the footrest assembly 80 about its pivot axis 81 can be prevented by withdrawing a locking pin 82 supported in a bearing housing 83 integral with the base assembly 84 and provided with a locking tab 85 which may engage within a corresponding recess 86 formed in the lower edge of the front wall 87 of the footrest assembly 80.

The locking pin 82 can be withdrawn until the tab 85 strikes the end face of the bearing 83 and at which position the tab 85 extends upwardly into the recess 86. Such engagement will prevent pivotal movement of the footrest assembly 80 about the axis 81 and the footrest assembly may be used simply as a footrest or as a massaging device for massaging the soles of a users feet. For this purpose the footrests 90 may be of any suitable form and/or may incorporate heel stirrups as hereinafter described.

To release the lock and to permit the footrest assembly 80 for pivotal movement, the user simply moves the locking pin 82 into its innermost position by hand or foot manipulation so as to arrange the gapped portion 91 adjacent the tab 85 directly beneath the front wall 87. In this position the footrest assembly is free is pivot within its

constrained limit.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 10 there is provided a cyclic counter 100 mounted at one end of the footrest assembly adjacent the rest 101. The counter 100 is of a type which is commercially available and provides a count of cyclic operations. Of course as illustrated, the footrest 101 may incorporate a series of massaging balls 102 held captive in the footrest 101 but freely rotatable to facilitate movement of a users foot across the footrest 101 in contact with the balls 102.

FIG. 11 illustrates a further footrest assembly which can be incorporated with any of the earlier described embodiments. It includes an end stop 111 which presents rounded edges for engagement with the side of a user's foot. As shown in FIG. 12 the footrest 120 may include a series of resilient projections 121 to enable a user to massage the soles of their feet. Furthermore in lieu of the ribbed pad 122 as illustrated on FIG. 12 and provided on all the earlier embodiments the footrest may incorporate a heel stirrup 130 as shown in FIG. 13. It is believed that such embodiments will be beneficial for use with elderly people such as for example if the device is being used for recuperative purposes and is supported on the user's be . In such arrangement the elderly and fragile persons may have difficulty in maintaining their feet on the footrest assembly and this is facilitated by use of the heel stirrups 130 as illustrated.

It is also preferred that the footrest assemblies illustrated and described above are detachably secured to the pivot bar by fastening means extending upwardly from beneath the pivot bar, such that alternate footrests may be provided and if desired quick release connections may be provided to enable users to modify their exercise apparatus for different occasions. In addition as shown in FIG. 14 the pivot bar 140 may be provided with hand grip 141 so as to convert the -footrest assembly into a handrest assembly to permit the exercising device to be utilised to exercise a users arms and

upper body.

It will of course be realised that the above has been given only by way of illustrative example of the invention and that all such modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed t fall within the broad scope and ambit of the invention as is described in the appended claims.