Innovative multi exercise self weight machine using gear changing mechanism

Background: The increased global obesity rate presents a major public health issue for people of every age group belonging to all regions. Obesity increases health risks, such as cardio-vascular disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and chronic kidney diseases. At present, we have all faced the impact of the damage caused by COVID-19. All past researches and traditional weight machines were found to be either plate-loaded or weight-stack-loaded. The plate-loaded machine requires the location of various load plates and manual adjustment of the load. Machines based on such techniques always have chances for user injury. Objective: The objective of developing a new innovative gym machine provides a load lifting apparatus which does not require weight stacks or weight plates for the user to exercise and is adapted to adjust user of various height and weight, requiring lower maintenance cost, providing user safety, and easy handling nature; this machine offers a cost-effective alternative for the existing devices. Methods: The present paper provides an innovation approach in developing multi exercise self-weight gym machine. The machine includes a unique design with new features for holding the handle during load lifting exercise, an input shaft having one or more first pulleys coupled to the handle for rotating the input shaft. An intermediate shaft having the first set of gears is configured for selective engagement with the input shaft. The output shaft includes a second set of gears which are configured for selective engagement with the intermediate shaft, and one or more second pulleys coupled for lifting one or more loads. A weight-based exercise machine that depends on user weight will add to its independence for adding or withdrawing weights, which makes the designed machine more cost-effective. The addition of parallelogram linkages in its design bene-fitted in providing a non-swing motion. The concept of maintaining proper resistance has also been an important factor during the design of the machine. Patents: The paper presents the idea of designing multi self-weight exercise machine as an innovation, involving a gear change mechanism for the users, having different weights and height. Results: The results concerning the gear ratio for the first and second lever are computed for the respective machine. Effective gear ratio and standardized load values calculation have been obtained for the user having less or more than 78 KG weight. Conclusion: The designed machine has been proved to be efficient by involving innovative ideas and design consisting of engagement configuration of the input shaft and intermediate shaft that further provide different gear ratio between the input, output & intermediate shaft. The concept of movable chairs along with the change of weight through gear mechanism and the use of this machine in different exercises have proved it to be effective and beneficial for users and the manufacturer due to its easy handling nature. © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.