Cordless Jump-Rope Can Help the Clumsy By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Tue May 30, 7:50 AM
WASHINGTON - If you think keeping fit is merely mind over matter, Lester Clancy has an invention for you _ a cordless jump-rope. That's right, a jump-rope minus the rope. All that's left is two handles, so you jump over the pretend rope. Or if you are truly lazy, you can pretend to jump over the pretend rope.
And for that idea kicking around Clancy's head since 1988, the U.S. Patent Office this month awarded the 52-year-old Mansfield, Ohio, man a patent. Its number: 7037243.
What makes this invention work is the moving weights inside the handles. They simulate the feel of a rope moving, Clancy said. Well, it's only one handle so far because Clancy is waiting for financial backers before building its partner.
But why jump rope without a rope?
It's perfect for the clumsy, Clancy said. "If you are still jumping, you're still using your legs as well as your arms, and getting the cardiovascular workout. You just don't have to worry about tripping on the rope."
It is also good for mental institutions and prisons where rope is a suicide risk, said Clancy, who works as a laundry coordinator in a state prison. And low ceiling fans aren't a hazard any more, he said.
Daniel Wright, who features the cordless jump-rope on his Web site http://www.patentlysilly.com, can barely talk about Clancy's invention without laughing.
"What really grabbed me," Wright said, was the name the item has in its patent, Wright said.
The idea isn't all that crazy, said Mike Ernst, a professor of kinesiology at California State University in Dominguez Hills.
"I think it's silly but at the same time if somehow, some way it promotes physical activity, gets kids active, then I'm all for it," Ernst said.
The more he thought about it, the more Ernst said he could see the benefit, adding that the act of jumping, not the rope itself, is what provides exercise.
"Do you need to jump with a rope? You don't," Ernst said. "But I wouldn't buy the product, I can tell you that. I'm not an idiot."
High-tech handles aren't needed. You could even use toilet paper holders, Ernst said. On second thought, he wondered if he could patent that idea.
but WAIT, there's MORE! if you order NOW we will include a set of bladeless knives for ABSOLUTELY FREE!
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
Jumping rope is more than just hopping. Your arms, shoulders, and upper back get a nice little workout.
i always thought the dexterity part of jumping over the rope was part of the whole fitness experience. if the exerciser is so clumsy as to trip over the rope, perhaps, just perhaps, that person should try a different form of exercise...
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
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