Vermont Patent of the Month – April 2022
Most jogging strollers create an unnatural running stride as the jogger must push the stroller with one or both hands. A natural running stride involves swinging your arms to help stabilize the entire body while running. The natural forces your legs create while catching and pushing off from the ground causes your body to twist through your hips and core, and swinging your arms opposite to your legs helps counteract these forces.
If you can’t swing your arms, you’ll feel the disruption to your running form. You might try to mitigate these issues by letting go of the stroller for brief periods of time which creates a really sporadic movement for the stroller.
StrollRunner, LLC has designed a stroller attachment that makes hands-free running possible without interfering with the runner or the stroller’s stride. There have been other attempts at a device with a similar purpose, but these have often suffered from an asynchronous motion between the runner and the stroller. If the rolling motion of the stroller is out of step with the runner, each will experience a jarring motion which is not comfortable at all.
StrollRunner’s design overcomes this by incorporating dampening functions into the geometry to better mitigate the natural push and pull of the runner’s stride. Their device attaches to the stroller, extends out, and sits snuggly (but comfortably) around the waist of the runner. The waist band is adjustable to fit anyone. The stroller attachment is also adjustable, able to be set at different widths to suit different stroller handle designs.
The arm which sits between the waistband and the stroller attachment is designed to dampen movement by sliding forward and backward in small increments. This reduces the steering sensitivity and the swinging hip motion of the runner to create a smooth stroller movement. For further customization, the length of the arm can be adjusted to shorten or lengthen the distance between the runner and the stroller.
Between the control over the distance and the dampening aspect of the arm, this design allows a smooth hands free run.
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