The difficulty of lifting and or working with a heavy object increases proportionately with its size. The difficulty of working with a heavy object is compounded when the object is also round in shape and has a smooth finish. This is the situation facing those familiar with the practice of “lifting weights”. Those experienced in lifting weights normally engage in this practice to build muscle mass. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,502 ('502) issued to Anastassi and U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,380 ('380) issued to Lien et. al. for further background and discussion on this subject.
Those engaging in this practice that use “free weights” to train as compared to weight resistance machines, find themselves continually loading and unloading barbells or free weight which are heavy and cumbersome. Many times these weights have either no handle or just a simple hand-hole in the weight to be used as a handle to facilitate picking up the weight and to improve grip on the weight when picked up. Once upon a time the practice of lifting weights was the exclusive domain of power lifters, bodybuilders and football linemen. Injuries related to “slamming iron” within this group were considered a badge of honor for novice lifters. A frequent injury acquired is when one plate is loaded next to another and the tissue of the hands or fingers is pinched between the weight plates. Another injury common occurs if the weight plate slips as the plate is unloaded from the bar or placed on the ground and hands or fingers or caught between the weight plate and the ground or floor.
More experienced lifters have learned over time to avoid the potential injuries related to loading and unloading heavy weights through caution and expertise. Over the last fifteen years, however, the practice of lifting weights has been found by trainers, coaches and athletes to potentially improve the performance of almost any athlete including sprinters, basketball and baseball players. The popularity of weightlifting then has greatly increased the number of people exposed to weight lifting as well as the potential exposure of novices or part-time lifters to the dangers and difficulties of lifting free weights. Unfortunately, no one, until now, has taught an apparatus to avoid this type of injury. In fact, the teachings of the prior art may have compounded the problem.
The '502 patent issued in 1992 teaches incorporating openings into the outer portions of the face of the weight plate. This teaching improved the handling of heavy weights and allowed the user to pick the weight off the floor. The '502 patent teachings also provided the user with an opportunity to put his hands in harms away when he stacked more than one weight onto a barbell bar.
The '380 patent issued in 2004 claims to also teach a system useful in preventing injuries and assisting a user in gripping a weight. The teachings do allow a user to insert his or her hands into a hand hole for use a grip. This assists the user with picking the weight up off the floor. The teaching then exacerbates the injury situation by ensuring that there is no virtually no space between the two weight plate hand holes as the weight plates are inserted onto the barbell bar and interlocked thus crushing the inattentive, novice and many times exhausted user's hands or fingers.