Energy expenditure garment

• US 5,978,966 A
• Filed: 09/11/1998
• Issued: 11/09/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Timothy P. Dicker, William T. Wilkinson
• Original Assignee: Timothy P. Dicker, William T. Wilkinson
• Inventors: Wilkinson, William T., Dicker, Timothy P.
• Primary Examiner(s): HALE, GLORIA M
• Application Number:
  US09/151,840
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• Field of Search: 2/69, 2/79, 2/228, 2/227, 2/238, 2/170, 2/108, 2/115, 2/102, 2/70, 2/455, 2/456, 482/105, 482/120, 482/121, 482/124, 482/131, 482/74, 450/104
• US Class Current: 2/69
• CPC Class Codes: A41D 13/0015 Sports garments other than provided for in groups A41D13/0007 - A41D13/088
• CPC Class Codes: A41D 31/18 Elastic
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/0004 Exercising devices moving as a whole during exercise bar bells or dumb bells A63B21/072; on wheels A63B22/20
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/0442 Anchored at one end only, the other end being manipulated by the user
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/0552 Elastic ropes or bands
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/0555 Details of the rope or band, e.g. shape or colour coding
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/4005 to the shoulder
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/4007 to the chest region, e.g. to the back chest
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/4009 to the waist
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/4013 to the ankle
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/4017 to the upper limbs
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/4021 to the wrist
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 21/4025 Resistance devices worn on the user's body A63B21/065 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2208/0204 Standing on the feet
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0622 Visual, audio or audio-visual systems for entertaining, instructing or motivating the user
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 1/00 Woven fabrics designed to make specified articles
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 13/008 characterised by weave density or surface weight
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/56 elastic
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2501/00 Wearing apparel

Abstract

An energy expenditure garment includes a body portion and limb portions made of a base fabric and incorporating at least one elastic resistance band which is free of any limb extremity anchor structure. The garment includes structure for retarding slippage of the garment during an exercise while still permitting some degree of slippage.

Claims

1. An energy expenditure garment comprising a body portion and limb portions, each of said limb portions terminating in an extremity, said body portion being made of a base fabric, said limb portions being made of a base fabric, at least one elastic resistance element in said garment adjacent to said base fabric, said elastic resistance element being made of a material which requires a greater force to stretch said element and resist said element returning to its unstretched condition than the force required for said base fabric, said garment being free of limb extremity anchor structure for said elastic resistance element at said extremity, at least a portion of said extremity being made of a material which requires a lesser force to pull said limb portion upwardly than the force required to stretch said elastic resistance element whereby said garment at said elastic resistance element is free to move under slippage as a result of movement by the wearer, and retarding structure for offering resistance to said slippage while still permitting some slippage.

10. The garment of claim 1 wherein said at least one elastic resistance element includes a plurality of elastic resistance bands extending longitudinally of said garment, said base fabric being made of a two way stretch material which stretches in the transverse direction, and said bands being made of a two-way stretch material which stretches in the longitudinal direction.

11. The garment of claim 10, wherein said garment includes a shirt portion having arms and a pants portion having legs, and said elastic resistance bands being in said arms and said legs.

12. The garment of claim 1, wherein said at least one elastic resistance element is an elastic resistance band arranged on at least one of said limbs in a cork screw manner without being anchored to said limb extremity.

13. The garment of claim 12, wherein said cork screw elastic resistance band is provided on each of said limb portions.

14. The garment of claim 13, wherein said garment includes a shirt portion having arms and a pants portion having legs, and said elastic resistance bands being in each of said arms and said legs.

15. The garment of claim 1, wherein said retarding structure comprises a narrowing of said garment as compared to the cross-sectional area of said garment immediately adjacent to each side of said narrowing.

16. The garment of claim 1, wherein said at least one elastic resistance element is an elastic resistance band located on at least one of said limbs, and said retarding structure being structure for narrowing the limb in an area of the limb corresponding to a portion of the limb which is worn at or outwardly of an enlarged portion of the limb of the user.

17. The garment of claim 16, wherein said retarding structure includes a cuff extending at least partially around said limb at said narrowed location.

18. The garment of claim 17, wherein said garment is a shirt, and said cuff being located at the elbow of said shirt.

19. The garment of claim 17, wherein said garment is a shirt, and said cuff being located in the forearm portion of said shirt.

20. The garment of claim 16, wherein said garment is pants having legs with a knee portion for each leg, and said cuff being located at said knee portions of said legs.

21. The garment of claim 17, wherein said garment is pants having legs with a knee portion for each leg, and said cuff being located at a thigh portion of said pants immediately above said knee portion of said legs.

22. The garment of claim 17, wherein said garment is pants having legs with a knee portion for each leg, and said cuff being located below said knee portion and above a calf portion of said legs.

23. The garment of claim 17, wherein said garment includes a shirt portion and a pants portion, said shirt portion having arms and said pants portion having legs, and a set of said band and said cuff being located on each of said arms and said legs.

24. The garment of claim 17, wherein said cuff is made of an elastic material.

25. The garment of claim 17, wherein said cuff is made of an inelastic material.

26. The garment of claim 17, wherein said cuff forms a closed ring.

27. A method of wearing the garment of claim 1 wherein during limb movement in an exercise the garment slides up the limb and is retarded against unimpeded sliding movement by friction encountered as the garment slides on an enlarged portion of the limb.

2. An energy expenditure garment comprising a body portion and limb portions, each of said limb portions terminating in an extremity, said body portion being made of a base fabric, said limb portions being made of a base fabric, at least one elastic resistance element in said garment secured to said base fabric, said elastic resistance element being made of a material which requires a greater force to stretch said element and resist said element returning to its unstretched condition than the force required for said base fabric, said garment being free of limb extremity anchor structure for said elastic resistance element at said extremity, said garment at said elastic resistance element being free to move under slippage as a result of movement by the wearer, retarding structure for offering resistance to said slippage while still permitting some slippage, said at least one elastic resistance element comprising a plurality of elastic resistance elements located in a friction ring in each of said limbs, and said resistance elements being in the form of ribs requiring a greater resistance force than the material of said rings intermediate said ribs.

3. The garment of claim 2 wherein said ribs are raised.

4. The garment of claim 3 wherein said garment includes a shirt portion having arms and a pants portion having legs, and said rings being in said arms and said legs of each of said shirt and pants portions.

5. The garment of claim 4 wherein elastic resistance bands interconnect sets of said rings.

6. The garment of claim 2 including adjusting structure for adjusting the circumference of said rings.

7. An energy expenditure garment comprising a body portion and limb portions, each of said limb portions terminating in an extremity, said body portion being made of a base fabric, said limb portions being made of a base fabric, at least one elastic resistance element in said garment secured to said base fabric, said elastic resistance element being made of a material which requires a greater force to stretch said element and resist said element returning to its unstretched condition than the force required for said base fabric, said garment being free of limb extremity anchor structure for said elastic resistance element at said extremity, said garment at said elastic resistance element being free to move under slippage as a result of movement by the wearer, retarding structure for offering resistance to said slippage while still permitting some slippage, said at least one elastic resistance elements including a plurality of elastic resistance elements incorporated in a ring, and said plurality of elastic resistance elements being disposed in a lattice weave to provide opposing resistance.

8. The garment of claim 7, wherein said ring is an abdominal ring.

9. The garment of claim 7, wherein said garment includes a shirt portion having arms and a pants portion having legs, and said rings being in each of said arms and each of said legs.

28. The garment of claim 7 wherein said ring is a closed ring, and said ring being a compression ring.

29. In an energy expenditure garment comprising a body portion and limb portions, said garment including structure for providing at one zone of the garment greater force to stretch said one zone and resist said one zone returning to its unstretched condition than the force required for an adjacent second zone of the garment, the improvement being in that said garment includes at least three zones arranged so that each of said zones is adjacent to at least one of said other zones, each of said at least three zones each having a different degree of resistance than said other zones thereby requiring a different force to stretch said each of said zones and resist said each of said zones returning to its unstretched condition than the force for said other zones, one of said zones having the highest degree of resistance, a second of said zones having the lowest degree of resistance, and a third of said zones having an intermediate degree of resistance.

30. The garment of claim 29 wherein said garment is a suit having a shirt and pants, said shirt including said one zone and said second zone, and said pants including said one zone and said third zone.

31. The garment of claim 30 wherein at least one of said shirt and said pants includes each of said one zone and said second zone and said third zone.

32. The garment of claim 29 wherein each of said zones is made of different material secured together.

33. In an energy expenditure garment comprising a body portion and limb portions, each of said limb portions terminating in a limb extremity, said garment including a first zone and an adjacent second zone having different resistance characteristics in resisting a stretching of that zone, said first zone having a higher resistance characteristic than said second zone, the improvement being in that said first zone comprises a ring formed as a lattice weave providing opposing resistance wherein a longitudinal pulling creates increased compression which causes said ring to tighten.

34. The garment of claim 33 wherein said ring is a closed ring.

35. The garment of claim 33 wherein said ring is located inwardly of and remote from said limb extremity.

36. An energy expenditure garment comprising a body portion and limb portions, each of said limb portions terminating in an extremity, said body portion being made of a base fabric, said limb portions being made of a base fabric, at least one elastic resistance element in said garment secured to said base fabric, said elastic resistance element being made of a material which requires a greater force to stretch said element and resist said element returning to its unstretched condition than the force required for said base fabric, a joint portion on said limb portion about midway down said limb portion, a first compression ring at said extremity, a second compression ring generally at said joint portion, said elastic resistance element extending from said body portion down said limb portion to said second compression ring, and said elastic resistance element terminating at a location spaced from said first compression ring whereby there is no anchoring of said elastic resistance element to said first compression ring.

37. An energy expenditure garment comprising a suit having a shirt portion with arms and a pants portion with legs, each of said arms and each of said legs terminating in a limb extremity, said suit being made of a tight fitting material, said suit including a base fabric made of 2-way stretch material which stretches in a transverse direction, longitudinal elastic bands being connected to said base fabric, said longitudinal elastic bands being made of a 2-way stretch material which stretches in a longitudinal direction generally perpendicular to said transverse direction of said 2-way stretch of said base fabric, said longitudinal elastic bands being made of a material which requires a greater resistance force to stretch said longitudinal elastic bands and resist said longitudinal elastic bands returning to their unstretched condition than the resistance force required for said base fabric, and said base fabric of said pants being made of a material having a resistance force which is more than the resistance force of said base fabric of said shirt and less than the resistance force of said longitudinal elastic bands.