Exercise weight-lifting apparatus and improved carriage for same

Claim 1

An exercise weight-lifting apparatus comprising a pair of spaced-apart guide rods supported in a vertically oriented position, a rectangular shaped carriage comprised of front and rear plates operatively disposed on opposite sides of said guide rods for vertical ascending movement along said guide rods during exercising use of said apparatus, exercise weights operaively connected to oppose said ascending movement of said carriage, a vertically oriented channel member bounding a rectangular passageway on said carriage front plate, an L-shaped handle having a horizontally oriented leg adapted to extend from said carriage in a transverse orientation to facilitate the urging thereof in said ascending movement and having a depending leg extending in depending relation therefrom correspondingly rectangularly shaped and size to partake of sliding movement in said carriage rectangular passageway adapted to be slidably received in said carriage rectangular passageway for allowing a connection therebetween in a selected slidably disposed operative position of said handle for permitting the user to exercise in prone and standing positions corresponding to said handle selected operative position, a threadably adjustable means operatively effective to hold said depending leg of said handle in any selected sliding position of movement, and at least four linear bearings embodied in the construction of said carriage each disposed in a cooperating corner of said rectangular shape thereof and in encircling relation about a guide rod, whereby said bearings are effective to eliminate any binding of said carriage along said guide rods despite the forces applied to said carriage when said carriage handle is in a remote slidably disposed position therefrom.