Patent Application
20230027314
Various types of personal massage equipment are designed to enable an individual to apply a massage therapy on another individual. For example, a percussion massage device has a small handle to be held by a masseuse who uses the device to treat a massage patient. A handle's shape plays an important role in enabling the user to apply the massage therapy. As an example, a handle can be extended to enable a user to reach otherwise difficult to reach places. An extended handle is particularly useful when the user wants to apply the massage therapy to him or herself instead of another person.
The presently disclosed device relates to extending the handle of a massage device. Particularly, the handles of massage devices can be extended to enable the user to apply the massage therapy to him or herself without having to rely on another person. This is critical when no one else is around. The presently disclosed device is also designed with the handicapped in mind. Whether a user is in a wheel chair or ambulatory in a bed and is unable to reach their legs, calves and feet, the present device can be made instantly longer by adding in a first embodiment sections or using the telescoping mechanism of a second embodiment.
The difficulty of a self-induced therapy with a massage device is that the handles of the massage devices are only long enough to hold in one or two hands, and do not extend far enough for an individual to precisely target critical parts of their body. For example, a large section of a person's back is inaccessible during a self-induced therapy due to the inability of the human arm to control a massage gun around the upper, mid, and lower sections of the back. Even the strongest and most flexible athletes have challenges reaching these areas. Not only are these areas of the body extraordinarily difficult to reach with precision, but it is even more difficult to apply a constant pressure needed to satisfy the therapeutic need. Even where these limitations could be overcome by a very determined user, the user is indeed strained in attempting to do so and the therapy has little-to-no effect because the user is not relaxed. By involving targeted muscle groups in carrying out the therapeutic process, the user is unable to realize the full effect of any therapy applied to those muscle groups.
Existing prior art includes many different types of handheld percussion massage gun devices, none of which were found to include an extendable handle. Alternatively, some non-percussion style massage devices were found to reach around the human back. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,168,196 is a solid frame handle that enables a user to target hard-to-reach areas of their back. However, this handle is not able to be used independently by the user. Use of this handle requires a wall to provide the necessary pressure on the back. It also requires that the user stand in an upright position, rather than in a relaxed position such as lying on a bed. The user must exert substantial effort by squatting or raising their entire torso up and down to effectuate the massage therapy. Not only is this handle limited to reaching only areas on the back, it is not compatible with other handheld massage devices such as a percussion massage gun.
A person having ordinary skill in the art is any user who senses tension in any of the various muscle groups and wishes to apply massage therapy using a percussion massage gun. When applying treatment on another person, that person could be either a masseuse, or a family member or friend. With self-induced therapy, however, the person having ordinary skill in the art is anyone wishing to use a massage device on themselves.
The present extender enables the user to apply massage therapy using various massage devices on his or herself and with minimal effort. The user can achieve a relaxed position during the self-induced therapy. The extender is not limited to any particular type of massage device (e.g. percussion massage gun); it is compatible with virtually any massage device that has a handle. Although prior art was discovered to include a percussion or tapping massage gun, such as U.S. Pat. No. 10,357,425, no prior art found features any sort of inter-functionality with an extendable handle attachment, and a unique universal fully adjustable massage gun receiving holder that can also be angled to create better leverage on a trigger actuated by the user. Patent No. 10,357,425 is not designed to be attached to a separate extendable handle, the user merely grips the built-in handle and applies therapy within arm's length. The arm's length limitation prevents self-induced therapy to numerous muscles in their natural, relaxed state. The very muscles used to hold the heavy massage gun are the same muscles the user is trying to relax. The extender can selectively extend a massage device handle to various lengths and enables the user to angle the massage device at various angles to reach hard-to-reach muscles in a number of ways. While the user is in bed, the extender can be placed on the bed as the user slides the extender effortlessly to reach areas of the lower body allowing the bed to support the weight of the unit and not the user. Because of the adjustable nature in the length of the extender, greater leverage is achieved with significant decrease in effort. The extender increases the ability to apply greater pressure to the targeted area of the body, allowing the muscles to relax more. For example, if the extender with the massage device is resting on the trapezius muscle on the user's neck, an arm can be draped over the handle to take advantage of the weight of the arm and gravity while the user relaxes and lets the massager do all the work.
The object of the presently defined device is to extend the length of a massage device handle to enable the user to allow the massager to reach areas with greater leverage on the intended area, which areas are otherwise inaccessible to someone using a massage gun on themselves without the extender.
The presently defined extender for a massage device provides the user with the ability to apply self-induced massage therapy by extending the handle of the massage device. Areas of the user's body that are normally inaccessible become accessible with the extender. A sleeve or strap firmly wraps around the handle of the massage device, firmly and removably gripping the handle. The sleeve is attached to a rotating locking member which connects the sleeve to an extendable handle. The rotating locking member is configured to disengage at one angle and reengage at a different angle. The angle of the locking member varies and enables the extendable handle to pivot at various angles with the massage device handle. The extendable handle can be configured with one or more extensions or with a protracting and extending sliding adjustable mechanism similar to a tripod telescoping extending leg. The handle is extendable to enable the user to reach the more distant and difficult areas of the user's body, and to increase one's leverage such that the user needs to apply less strength.
The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or another embodiment in the present disclosure can be, but not necessarily are, references to the same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of the embodiments.
Referring to the first embodiment of the extender assembly 100 illustrated in
Attached to the sleeve 102 is a pivotal locking member 104 that adjustably connects the sleeve 102 to the top portion of first extender handle 106. The locking member 104 is adjustable to achieve a spectrum of user defined angles between the orientations of the sleeve 102 relative to the first extender handle 106.
The first extender handle 106 is permanently fixed to the locking member 104. Attached to a bottom portion of the first extender handle 106 is a first joint section 108. The first joint section 108 has a female thread 200 (
Referring to
The third extender handle 118 is removably connected to the second extender handle 112. Attached to the third extender handle 118 is a third joint section 120 (
The first extender handle 106, second extender handle 112, and third extender handle 118 may comprise either a shaft or bead structure. A grip-like structure may also be used as seen on the first extender handle 106 (
The user holds the first extender handle 106 and screws the first intersecting handle 110 into the first joint section 108. Next, the user screws the second extender handle 112 into the first joint section 108. The user then screws the second intersecting handle 116 into the second joint section 114. Finally, the user screws the third extender handle 118 into the second joint section 114. The user then screws the third intersecting handle 122 into the third joint section 120. This completes the assembly of an extender having three sections.
A second embodiment of the presently disclosed extender assembly for a percussion massage device is illustrated in
First horizontal handle 430 extends laterally outward from first extender shaft 414. Handle 430 comprises a soft material grip 432 (
If necessary, trigger 418 is depressed to disengage hinge assembly 416 to rotate cradle 402 until the angle between massage device 404 and extender assembly 400 desired by the user is attained. Trigger 418 is then released and hinge assembly 416 is locked in the selected position. The visual gradation indicia 419 allow the user to reposition the angular orientation between extender assembly 400 and massage device 404 to a previously preferred angular position.
