This invention relates to fitness and exercise apparatus.

The pursuit and maintenance of physical fitness is an increasing concern in a society whose members lead ever less exertatious lifestyles. For children, provision can be made by educational systems to ensure that adequate "physical education" is provided to enable the children to grow up into healthy, fit adults. This can take the form of physical education classes, e.g. gymnastics, as well as the provision of apparatus stimulating healthy play and exercise. Many schools, parks and recreational areas are provided with climbing frames, and extensive development of such devices has occurred, e.g. as shown in US Specifications 4084812 and 5330400. However, once adulthood is achieved, too many people engage in an unfit lifestyle, without engaging in adequate amounts of physical exercise. Increasing reliance on motorised means of transport rather than walking is one obvious manifestation of this, and many occupations are necessarily sedentary. Particularly in urban surroundings, there is an increasing perception that going outside one' s own home involves danger and this is

a disincentive to maintaining a reasonable level of physical fitness.

In order to combat this, physical fitness facilities have been developed with a view to enabling people to exercise in safe and controlled surroundings, often with the aid of physical fitness trained personnel to assist in ensuring that the persons concerned exercise safely and appropriately to their age, sex and physical condition. A wide variety of so-called exercise machines have been developed for use in such activities, such as rowing machines, cycling machines and weightlifting machines. All are predominantly designed to provide vigorous exercise and build up muscular strength.

It is, of course, possible to exercise with no equipment whatever, and such exercise programmes have been developed.

I have found that neither machine exercise nor simple physical exercise unassisted by machine is necessarily of value in improving the physical fitness of people suffering from muscular imbalance, often caused or exacerbated by stress, whether physical or mental. In order to treat these sorts of problems, careful stretching therapy under the control of trained therapists is effective in many cases. While it is possible to carry out stretching exercises with a minimum of equipment, it is not always straightforward.

One well-known area where stretching exercises are routinely carried out as part of training is ballet. These are conventionally assisted by a horizontal bar mounted a few inches away from a wall and at an

appropriate height above the floor. This bar can be used for support, but the bar is of little value in therapeutic stretching exercises which may be different from positions adopted in ballet.

We have now found that simple apparatus of special design can materially assist the effectiveness of such therapeutic stretching treatments. The use of apparatus is valuable not only to enable stretching movements to be carried out, but additionally to enable them to be carried out repeatedly in the same way. The apparatus can act as a template ensuring the repetition, e.g. daily or other intervals, of prescribed stretching exercises.

According to a first feature of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for assisting with physical fitness and exercise consisting of a tripod frame, the frame consisting of three legs and a central connecting member, each leg being longer than the height of the intended user and being bent so that the legs taper together more rapidly adjacent the connector member than at their ends remote from the connector member.

The overall structure is thus in the form of a sort of three-way arch underneath which the person using the apparatus may stand.

The tripod must not move too easily relative to the ground and it is accordingly preferred that the lower end of each leg has a friction-reducing foot. Alternatively, the apparatus may include a base member, preferably circular, having three receiving cavities for the three feet of the tripod.

In order to enable the apparatus to be used with people of differing heights, it can be convenient to provide that the end of each leg remote from the connector member includes means enabling the overall length of the leg to be varied over a desired range. For example, the legs may be made of hollow tubing and may each have a cylindrical foot-bearing member which may be inserted more or less far into the open end of each tubular leg remote from the connector member, means being provided to fix the degree of insertion.

In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the apparatus includes, for attachment to one or more of the legs one or more elongate members which may be used in a variety of ways. For example, the elongate member may be in the form of a elastic webbing tie which may have a clip member which may be engaged on one of the legs at a desired position and which at its other end may have a member which can be grasped by the user of the apparatus or which, for example, may have a second clip likewise engageable on one of the legs. Such clips are preferably simply designed to snap over legs and to be held firmly in position. Most conveniently, they consist of an integral snap-on hook dimensioned to be snapped over a tubular leg and where the interior surface of the hook has a lining of high friction material such as rubber. The hook can be easily snapped on and off in a direction perpendicular to the extension of the leg, but once on, cannot be easily pulled along the leg, even under very high loading.

Alternative forms of clip which may be fixed in position, e.g. by means of a turn screw or a lever operated clamp can also be envisaged.

Alternatively, the elongate member may be elastic, e.g. in the form of a length of springy material like a bungee, again having at its other end means for engagement with the user of the apparatus or further clamp means for fixing the other end to the apparatus.

In a further development, one or more support surfaces may also be clipped or clamped on to the legs of the tripod by suitable means. This can be useful if a stretching exercise requires, e.g. one foot of the user to be on the ground and the other foot to be elevated. The other foot can rest on such a small surface.

In some cases, it may be useful to provide that the support surface on which the tripod rests includes, within the generally triangular area defined by the positions of the feet on the support surface, one or more turntables. These may be freely rotatable, or they may be fixable in position by a clamp. It may also be useful to provide appropriate gearing between the turntable and the mat enabling, for example, gradually increased twisting to be applied to a person standing on the mat and holding the tripod by rotating the turntable.

While the overall shape and size of the apparatus may vary with the size of the intended user, generally speaking for adults the tripod will have an overall height of 1.7 to 2.1 metres corresponding to adult heights of 1.6 to 1.9 metres. The spacing between the feet of the tripod, which are substantially at the apices and equilateral triangle, may be typically 1 to 1.2 metres.

The invention is illustrated by way of example with

reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a general perspective view of the basic tripod apparatus of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the tripod of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a perspective detail showing the connection of the legs and the connector member.

Figure 4 is an illustration of a foot.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a strap member for use with the tripod of Figure 1.

Figure 6 is a side view of a support surface member for use with the apparatus of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a top view of the apparatus showing in Figure 6.

Figure 8 is a perspective view of a base mat suitable for use with the apparatus of Figure 1.

Figure 9 is a perspective view of an alternative elongate member for use with the apparatus of Figure 1 and

Figure 10 is a perspective view of a base member incorporating a turntable.

Referring to the Figures, the apparatus consists basically of a tripod made of three bent tubular legs 1, e.g. made of steel or aluminium alloy tube, or of a suitable composite such as a carbon-fibre, reinforced

resin, joined by a connector 2. The connector consists of an internal member, e.g. of steel having three sockets for the reception of the ends of the legs and fixing means to hold the legs in the sockets, and an outer, e.g. plastics cover member consisting of upper and lower halves 3, 4 which may be clamped or clipped together around the internal member and the upper ends of the three legs.

The bottom of each leg may be provided with a high friction grip rubber foot 7 which may simply rest on the ground or floor. Alternatively, it may engage in a depression 12 in a substantially round mat 10, shown plain in Figure 8 and with a turntable 14 on it in Figure 10.

To assist body support against parts of the tripod, a webbing strap 20 may be provided having two snap-on clip ends 21, 22, each of which is arranged to snap over a tubular leg 1. The inside of hooks 21, 22 may be lined with a high friction rubbery material 25 as shown. The length of the webbing strap may be adjustable by means of a slidable member 26 of known buckle construction into which one end of the web is fixed and through which the web may pass.

If it is desired, e.g. to support a foot or part of the tripod at a distance above its feet, a support member 30 consisting of two half shelves of shape shown in Figures 6 and 7 may be clamped around a leg of the tripod.

Clamping is effected by turning a handle 31 which has a threaded member which engages threadedly in one of the two halves 32, 33 of the support surface member. Alternative support arrangements may easily be envisaged.

An alternative elongate member can be used for stretching exercises as shown in Figure 9. It has a clip 40 which can clamp on to leg 1, which clip has a length of stout elastic cord 41 threaded through it. On end of cord 41 bears a handle 42 which can be grasped by the hand or into which a foot can be inserted.

It may be convenient for certain exercises to provide shaped support cushions which can be placed on the floor or base. Other conventional exercise apparatus such as balls may also be provided.

We have found that using apparatus as illustrated, enhanced treatment may be provided to those suffering from muscular stress problems.