A device and method for conducting self-application massage therapy. The device has a combination of a uniquely designed suction cup combined with a massage attachment for conducting self-application myofascial massage therapy.
Massage Therapy, Generally: Myofascial release is a therapy technique often used in massage. The technique focuses on pain arising from myofascial tissues, which are the connective tissue in the body that wrap and support muscles. Trainers, doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists and physical therapists continue to encourage the use of myofascial release therapy to combat the effects of tight or restricted muscles, and it is fast gaining recognition as the missing link in traditional healthcare for soft tissue and fascial tension conditions. Trauma, inflammatory responses and/or surgical procedures create myofascial restrictions requiring release, whether caused by injury, exercise or other factors. The goal of myofascial therapy is to stretch and loosen the fascia so that it and other connected body parts can move more freely, and motion is restored. For this reason, myofascial therapy is sometimes referred to as “myofascial trigger point therapy.”
There are many methods of myofascial release therapy. While many therapists, doctors or others can apply the therapy to the affected person, there is an increasing market for tools and techniques that are utilized by the affected person individually. These “self-application” tools currently include foam rollers, hand-held massage tools, and self-stretching exercises. While users of self-application therapy gain the benefit of not paying for therapy services, or relying on friends, family or others to administer the therapy, there is an inherent problem with self-application: leverage and access. The present invention solves these problems in the self-application therapy space by creating an entirely new method of self-application: handheld massage units that are temporarily attached to a wall or other surface allowing users to conduct therapy sessions anywhere and at any time.
Self-Application Massage Therapy Issue to be Resolved: To understand the problem of “leverage” in the self-application space, one must look at the most popular devices purchased by consumers and how those devices are utilized. Across the board, users can only gain the force and pressure necessary to target the affected trigger points by either straining to reach difficult-to-reach areas like the upper and lower back and neck, straining other muscles to exert the force necessary to reach trigger points, or getting on a floor and allowing gravity to assist.
For almost every device targeted at reaching the back/spine—which is one of the most targeted areas of myofascial therapy—it is very difficult to bend your arms backwards and then pull or push in a way that allows the tool to dig deep into your muscles. While difficult for any active individual, it is especially challenging for elderly persons, disabled persons or persons with restriction issues who do not have the flexibility necessary to address these trouble areas. While certain devices do exist that bend and loop around from the front of one's body to reach the back area, they are typically large, cumbersome and not something one would typically want a others to see being done in a public realm.
To overcome some of these issues, foam rollers have become increasingly popular self-application devices as they allow users to use gravity to gain leverage. Individuals place a tube-like roller on the floor and roll their body over the targeted areas. Inherently, this requires users to only do the exercise while wearing gym clothes or other clothes that can get dirty, and/or also requires users to find enough space to lay across a floor making it difficult in offices or other public areas. In addition for certain persons who are disabled, elderly or even not at peak fitness, it may be difficult to roll across a floor targeting a specific area.
Another popular method of self-application in hard-to-reach areas is the use of a tennis ball or lacrosse ball placed on a wall, and then leaning against the ball and moving around the ball to relieve the affected area on the back or arms. While this alleviates the problem of contorting awkwardly to reach the back area, as well as prevents one from lying on a floor, it faces another issue: gravity. Quite simply, the ball falls off the wall if any gap exists between it and the person, making a long, uninterrupted therapy session challenging, and very difficult to move or alternate from one target area to another.
The present invention solves the leverage and access problems by being the first device that combines a unique attachment system to various massage attachments that temporarily adhere to surfaces such as walls, doors and glass. This allows users to lean into any of the various devices without straining, without contorting in weird directions, without getting dirty on the floor, and without having the device fall to the ground after a few minutes of use, while at the same time allowing users to effectively target hard-to-reach areas such as the upper and lower back, neck, arms and legs. When users complete their self-application massage therapy, they can remove the device from the surface. The temporary element of this solution allows individuals to gain the important leverage necessary for the trigger point massage in any home, office, or other space, while not requiring users to permanently mount tools to home or office walls and/or doors. A defining feature of the device, however, is that it is being designed with a substantial sticking device, e.g., a suction cup base so that users can freely engage the device with force to generate deep trigger point massage relief and not have it disengage unintentionally from the vertical surface to which it is attached, before easily removing it from the surface when the therapy is finished.
Each device has a different massage “head” or shape on one end that is aimed at applying a different method of myofascial therapy, and a simple-yet-strong unique suction cup on the other end that allows adhesion to various flat surfaces. In addition, the device may be configured with multiple suction cups such as the massage rolling stick illustrated in
Additional components to the devices are a leverage pedestal for users to stand on while utilizing one of the devices of the present invention, a door mount for the devices to be inserted into for longer periods of use on a door, and a plastic or glass mounting plate that can be permanently or temporarily attached to a wall by fasteners or adhesives so that the devices can be used in spaces that may not have smooth surfaces for the suction cup mounts. Furthermore, the mounting plate could even include a saddle feature for placing and attachment point for the devices over a door or the back of a chair without requiring fasteners or adhesives. As mentioned above, a defining feature of the present invention is, the unique combination of strong adhesion of the devices to vertical surfaces to enable deep trigger point therapy, while also allowing the flexibility to remove and utilize in multiple places.
The various massaging attachments for the devices are selectively attachable to the suction cup base via a connection. The connection could be any type of connection known in the art to keep the massaging attachment attached to the suction cup base during moments of high torqueing force. It should also be appreciated that the connection could keep the massaging attachment static, or it could include a ball joint or the like for allowing rotational movement of the massaging attachment. It should also be appreciated that the connection could include tabs providing a snap fit. The massaging attachments can be hard or elastic and could include any number or shape of prongs and contact points. The massaging attachments could also be configured to provide electronic or motorized movement or vibration. The contact points, i.e., where the massage attachment comes into contact with the user, could have any number of surface characteristics including but not limited to smooth, splined, ribbed, or defining a plurality of projections extending therefrom.
While there are multiple proposed embodiments of the suction cup base for the device, the invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein. It should be appreciated that the suction cup could be any form of suction cup known in the art so long as it is capable of creating a suction force great enough to retain the connection between the device and the surface on which it is mounted during massaging action. Furthermore, the description has emphasized the placement of the device on a smooth vertical surface, it should also be appreciated that the device could be attached to the floor or any other surface such as a table top, bar, or other surface. As a non-limiting example, the device could be placed on a tile floor and the user could massage their legs or feet therewith. It should also be appreciated that the suction cup is designed to hold the device in areas with a lot of moisture, such as a shower. The suction action can be biased via an internal spring, a piston, or the like. In one embodiment, the suction cup base could include more than one suction cup.
The roller stick or massager includes a shaft extending between two handles, a connection adjacent to each handle, and a medially located roller extending about the bar. It should be appreciated that such a design could also include a singular connection. In one example of the singular connection roller massager, the shaft is folded into the general shape of a cloths hanger, wherein the widest portion includes a roller and the narrowed portion that generally includes a hook for hanging includes the connection. As with the various massage attachments, the roller can have any number of surface characteristics including but not limited to hard, soft, splined, ribbed, or defining a plurality of projections extending therefrom.
The door mount and the mounting plate could also be combined such that the mounting plate is located on the height adjustable mounting section of the frame of the door mount. The leverage pedestal could have any pitch and surface characteristics suitable for providing leverage to a user.
In yet another embodiment, the suction cup base could be configured to spin and/or move the massaging attachments to provide electronic or motorized movement against the user without the user having to move.
A massage apparatus 10 is configured to be mounted to a mounting surface 12 such as a door, building wall or other vertical structure, or any other desired surface including the ground or an inclined plane. If mounted to a door 16, as described below, a door mounting device 130 may be used to help secure it in place. The massage apparatus 10 generally includes a base 20, which attaches to the mounting surface 12 and a massage attachment 40, which is what is used to engage a person and provide the desired benefits as described above. The base 20 generally includes a suction cup 22 attached to a body 24 that includes a receiver 30 configured to receive and retain the massage attachment 40. The base 20 may be securely affixed to the massage attachment 40 and not generally releasable for any of the illustrated massage attachments 40.
The base 20 may use a variety of methods to engage or disengage the suction cup 22 such as the illustrated lever 26 or a twist mechanism 38. The lever 26 may include a spring 28 and a cam (not illustrated) to maintain it between the engaged and disengaged positions as illustrated in
The massage attachment 40 generally is formed having a massage portion 42 configured to engage the individual and the attachment portion 50 configured to attach the massage portion to the base 20. The attachment portion 50 generally includes a protrusion 52 configured to fit within the receiver 30. Although the receiver 30 and protrusion 52 are illustrated as either a square or circle other types of shapes and configurations such as triangles and octagons may of course be used. The protrusion 52 may be permanently affixed to the receiver 30 or releasably affixed such as by a magnet 54 as illustrated in
The massage apparatus 10 may be configured to have interchangeable massage attachments 40 to allow different pressure points or types of massages to be performed using a single base 20. For example, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
As all surfaces may not be configured to easily attach a suction cup device or may not be desirable to adhesively or double sided tape attach the suction cup to a surface, the present invention of the massage apparatus may include an attachment device 100. For example, if the structure surface 14 such as a wall or door is not conducive to a suction cup attachment and it is not desirable to adhesively attach or double sided tape attach the base 20 to the surface 14, a mounting or attachment device 100 such as an illustrated mounting plate 110 may be used. For example, wallpaper may not provide a good surface to which to adhere the suction cup 22. As such, an attachment such as illustrated mounting plate 110, which is fastened to the wall or structure surface 14 with fasteners 112 may provide a smooth surface to which a suction cup may adhere. For example, the attachment device 100 may be formed out of a glass and highly stylized surface that looks like a piece of art work on the wall but it disguises that a mounting surface 12 is being provided to easily attach the base 20 of the massage apparatus 10 thereto. The mounting plate 110 is illustrated in
In addition, a door mounting device 130 may be used. The door mounting device 130 generally includes hooks 132 that hook over the top edge of the door 16 and extend downward to a massage device retainer 134. The legs 136 that extend between the upper hook 132 and the massage device retainer 134 may be height adjustable to allow for different users to hit the desired points of engagement on their body. The upper hooks 132 may also be adjustable in width to accommodate different size doors as well as the massage device retainer 134 may have different size, shapes and configurations depending on the types of bases 20 and massage attachments 40 used. In some instances, the door mounting device 130 is just an additional security to ensure that the suction cups 22 stay attached to the door 16. As illustrated in
As described above, there are multiple different heads or massage attachments 40 that will couple to the base 20, either fixably or releasably. Please note that the massage attachments have been shown separate from the bases 20 in most figures for ease of illustration, most massage attachments 40 may be fixed to the bases 20, including permanently. The base 20, together with each massage attachment 40 each referred to as a “Massage Apparatus 10.” The descriptions below regarding the apparatus in the figures provide several non-limiting examples thereof. In addition, the leverage pedestal 120, door mount device 130 and mounting plate 110 may form part of the apparatus 10. For ease of illustrations, the base 20 was illustrated separately, but the same base 20 may be utilized for each of the attachments 40, including multiple bases 20 for the roller massager 70, including being permanent affixed.
As illustrated in
A variation of the base 20 is illustrated in
Both of the proposed bases 20, if a releasable system is used it will have a male or female component, illustrated as a female receiver in the Figures on the top of the base 20, allowing the base to attach to each of the massage attachments 40 directly via the protrusion 52 of the attachment portion 50. The attachment of the massage attachments 40 to the base 20 component may be permanent as a final step in production process, or may have the functionality of allowing users to remove/attach the massage attachment with each use, as described above.
A hard ball or sphere massager 80 is illustrated in
A multi-prong massager 62 is illustrated in
A second finger massager 62 is illustrated in
A roller massager 70 is illustrated in
A rounded tip massager or lobed massager 78 as illustrated in
A roller ball massager is illustrated in
A pointed tip massager or cone massager 92 is illustrated in
A mounting plate 110 is illustrated in
Another attachment device 100 is the leverage pedestal 120 illustrated in
The door mount is illustrated in
The specification and illustrations of the embodiments described herein are intended to provide a general understanding of the structure of the various embodiments. The specification and illustrations are not intended to serve as an exhaustive and comprehensive description of all of the elements and features of apparatus and systems that use the structures or methods described herein. Many other embodiments may be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the disclosure. Other embodiments may be used and derived from the disclosure, such that a structural substitution, logical substitution, or another change may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, the disclosure is to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.
Certain features are, for clarity, described herein in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any sub combination. Further, references to values are to be regarded as non-limiting examples.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/681,053, filed Jun. 5, 2018, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62681053 | Jun 2018 | US |