Pull type friction exercising device

Claim 1

An exercising device comprising: a. a housing having a hollow interior and a cord opening: b. a cord retractor reel mounted for rotation within said housing; c. rewind means for continuously urging said retractor reel in the rewind direction; d. a plurality of capstans all mounted in fixed locations within said housing, the axis of each said capstan being spaced from the axis of said cord retractor reel and from the other said capstans, said capstans all freewheeling in the rewind direction; e. manually operated locking means associated with said plurality of capstans for selectively locking one or more of said capstans against rotation in the unwind direction in the operating mode, and for selectively unlocking one or more of said capstans to permit freewheeling in the unwind direction in the inoperative mode; f. a flexible cord fixed to and wrapped around said retractor reel, said cord running from said reel sequentially to and being wrapped at least partially around each said capstan, said cord running from the sequentially last of said capstans out of said housing through said cord opening; and g. said rewind means and said locked capstans cooperating to apply a retarding force to said cord to oppose an exteriorly applied manual force pulling said cord in the unwind direction, and said rewind means applying a rotational force on said retractor reel to pull said cord in the rewind direction in the absence of an exteriorly applied manual force on said cord.