Air driven muscle toning garment

Abstract

An air driven muscle toning garment including a suit of lightweight, breathable, moderately elastic material that covers the body from just above the knees to just below the neckline and along the arms to the wrists. Low-elasticity supports are integrated into the suit at several places so that attachmnents can be secured to the suit at key points; these attachments are connected in pairs by pull-through air bladders, which when pressurized pull the pairs of points toward each other, and resist the muscles which oppose the points that are pulled together by the pull-through air bladder mechanisms.

I claim:  
     
         1 . A garment used to tone muscles of the body comprising: a two-part garment having a long-sleeved, form-fitting shirt portion and a form-fitting waist-down pants portion. Said portions of the garment having integrated, low-elasticity supports that provide stable attachment points for resistance devices; the integrated supports being positioned so that when two supports are pulled toward each other by a contracting resistance device, a motion of the body is counteracted causing the opposed muscles to do more work than was previously required to accomplish the opposed motion.  
     
     
         2 . The garment of  claim 1 . wherein: low-elasticity supports are integrated into the garment, encircling the body parts where attachments for the resistance devices are desired, providing stable and permanent locations for the resistance devices to be attached.  
     
     
         3 . The garment of  claim 1 . wherein: the garment is made of moderately elastic material so that the garment itself does not restrict movement; the purpose of the garment shirt is to hold the integrated supports in their respective positions until the garment is worn. The purpose of the garment shorts is to hold down the support which encircles the waist, providing stable attachments on the shorts portion.  
     
     
         4 . The garment of  claim 1 . wherein: low-elasticity supports are integrated into the garment at locations such as the elbow, having tunnel-like channels located where attachment cables from the resistance devices are desired to travel around a joint.  
     
     
         5 . A contracting, air-driven resistance device comprising: an essentially flask-shaped bladder having a cylinder-shaped plunger (not necessarily round) passing through a tunnel-like hole in one end of the bladder and a cylinder shaped lead cable longer than the plunger passing through a tunnel-like hole at the other end of the bladder, with the lead cable and plunger both being matched in size and shape to their respective holes in the bladder to provide airtight fit when lubricated. The plunger has disks of larger diameter and of the same shape as the ends of the plunger attached to the flat ends of the plunger to provide an end-of-travel point in either direction of travel through its hole in the bladder. The lead cable is attached to the center of the plunger end inside the bladder. A one-way valve is located on the bladder to enable pressurization, and a release valve is located on the bladder for depressurization. An attachment cable is attached to the external end of the lead cable and a pair of attachment cables are attached to eyelets on the bladder on either side of the plunger—this pair of cables ends in a single attachment. The resistance device contracts when pressurized by virtue of the fact that the plunger takes up more space inside the bladder; the plunger is pushed out of the bladder, in turn pulling the lead cable into the bladder and pulling the ends of the attachment cables toward each other and pulling the supports they are attached to toward each other.  
     
     
         6 . The resistance device of  claim 5 . wherein: the bladder has a fixed maximum volume when pressurized.  
     
     
         7 . The resistance device of  claim 5 . wherein: the lead cable is made of flexible material and has a cable passing through the center of it that will not stretch lengthwise, and is also fixed to the end of the plunger along with the lead cable.  
     
     
         8 . The resistance device of  claim 5 . wherein: the lead cable and plunger are lubricated to aid in making the resistance device airtight and also to provide smooth, efficient movement of the lubricated parts.  
     
     
         9 . The resistance device of  claim 5 . wherein: the plunger is of greater diameter than the lead cable, causing the plunger to be pushed out of the bladder when the bladder is pressurized. The greater the diameter (cross-sectional area) size ratio between the plunger and the lead cable, the higher the rate of compression inside the bladder. The lesser the size ratio, the lower the rate of compression inside the bladder, causing the resistance mechanism as a whole to have a more even amount of resistance during use.