Device for driving a common shaft by pushing and pulling hand movements, that comprises respective driving bars for the left and right hands, and a mechanical unit that converts both the forward and backward movements of the pushed, respectively pulled driving bars to rotate a driven shaft, wherein respective biased rope drums (28, 29 61, 62) are provided at both sides of the driven shaft, and on the rope drums respective ropes (30, 60) are arranged as windings, and the driving bars (15, 16 51) are interconnected and pivoted around a common shaft (17, 52), the ropes are coupled to the respective driving bars in such a way that at one of the two sides an assembly is provided that reverses the direction of the rope displacement to become opposite to the direction of the displacement of the associated driving bar (16).