By Brooke Hinckley
BYU engineering students and professors are seeing results in the fitness machine they have been working on for a couple of years.
The ?Y-Flex,? as the prototype has been nicknamed, introduces a new, weights-free workout. The home fitness machine has two rows of adjustable, bendable fiberglass poles with guides that simulate the feel of free-weights.
The idea of a weights-free, resistance fitness machine was made popular with fitness machines like Nautilus? Bowflex.
?The biggest difference between those machines and the Y-Flex is that they provide resistance like an uncoiled spring does,? said BYU engineering professor Larry Howell in a BYU press release. ?At first it?s easy to push, and then it gets harder at the end when the coil is compressed.?
The technology in the Y-Flex simulates the feel of constant weight from the start of an exercise to the end, Howell said.
The Compliant Mechanisms Resource Group, a group of students and faculty in the Engineering Department, developed the idea for the fitness technology. The project was funded by a grant from the state of Utah in hopes to promote economic growth within the state.
There were several obstacles to overcome while developing the Y-Flex. Maintaining low production costs and coming up with the design were a couple of the main difficulties.
Also, the engineers realized that in order to be useful to any prospective fitness companies that may invest in the technology from BYU, the Y-Flex would need to be able to simulate the same range of weights as their competitors? machines, said Spencer Magleby, a BYU engineering professor.
Carl Stratton, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, has worked on the prototype since last summer. Stratton took a compliant mechanisms class and became interested in working on the Y-Flex.
Stratton and other students and faculty have been working on implementing the idea of the technology that had been developed previously.
Because the machine is lightweight and does not have the risk of falling weights as free-weight machines have, Stratton said, there is less risk of getting injured.
Also, the machine costs less to make and will be easier to manufacture, assemble and distribute.
The Y-Flex is being shown to major fitness companies. BYU engineers are hopeful that one of these companies will buy the patent to the machine and adapt the technology to the company?s needs, Magleby said.
?The Y-Flex is a successful prototype and we feel the technology it showcases represents a wonderful opportunity for an existing company or an entrepreneur to get an innovative piece of fitness equipment out there for the public to enjoy,? Magleby said.