Leg-powered treadmill

Abstract

A motor-less leg-powered curved treadmill produced that allows people to walk, jog, run, and sprint without making any adjustments to the treadmill other than shifting the user's center of gravity forward and backwards. A closed loop treadmill belt running between front and rear pulley rollers is formed with a low friction running surface of transverse wooden, plastic or rubber slats attached to each other in a resilient fashion, wherein each transverse slat has at least one continuous fin descending downward therefrom.

1 . A motor-less, leg-powered treadmill, with a curved running surface, comprising:
 a treadmill frame;   a front shaft and a rear shaft that are each positioned respectively in a front and rear of the treadmill frame and configured for synchronous rotation;   pairs of front and rear pulley rollers attached on opposing ends of the front and rear shafts, respectively;   opposing arrays of bearings, arranged as concave rows of bearing rails and positioned between the front and rear shafts on opposing peripheral sides of the treadmill frame; and   a closed loop treadmill belt arranged to rotate about the pulley rollers synchronously with rotation of the front and rear shafts, while maintaining contact with the bearing rails;   wherein the closed loop treadmill belt comprises a plurality of parallel transverse slats that are resiliently interconnected to form the curved running surface; and   wherein the concave rows of bearing rails follow a concavity that is inherently defined by a weight of a portion of the closed loop treadmill belt that extends between a 0-degree position of the front and rear pulleys, and a distance between respective central axes of the front and rear shafts.   
     
     
         2 . The motor-less, leg-powered treadmill as per  claim 1 , wherein each slat of the plurality of parallel transverse slats includes an upper surface, a bottom surface and at least one fin, extending down from the bottom surface. 
     
     
         3 . The motor-less, leg-powered treadmill as per  claim 2 , wherein the at least one fin extends continuously over substantially an entire length of each of the transverse slats between the opposing peripheral sides of the treadmill frame. 
     
     
         4 . The motor-less, leg-powered treadmill as per  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of parallel transverse slats is made of a material with sufficient resiliency and strength and weight to lie on bearing rails and conform to the concavity of the concave rows of bearing rails. 
     
     
         5 . The motor-less, leg-powered treadmill as per  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of parallel transverse slats comprise a material selected from the group consisting of rubber, plastic and wood.