Abstract: A foot and ankle strengthening device is an apparatus used to provide stimulus to muscles typically weakened in people who suffer from various foot and ankle problems, particularly plantar fasciitis. A pair of angled surfaces is used to reinforce healthy foot arches. The apparatus comprises a first foot-bracing platform, a second foot-bracing platform, a textured roller, and an elongated balance block. The first foot-bracing platform is a surface against which a user may place a foot for support and appropriate positioning. Similarly, the second foot-bracing platform provides a surface for the user's opposite foot. The textured roller is a generally cylindrical device that enables the user to apply targeted pressure to specific pieces of the user's foot or ankle. The elongated balance block is a generally rectangular prism-shaped protrusion that, in the preferred usage of the apparatus, provides the contact point with the ground.

Abstract: The invention includes an exercise mat that provides intuitive tactile feedback allowing a user to determine body placement using the sense of touch. The invention enables visually impaired users to determine location and/or direction on the mat. The invention includes devices to assist a user in correct foot and hand placements during a yoga posture sequence, an exercise program, a dance routine, and so forth. Tactile markers for hand and foot placement enable discerning a reference marker as either intended for hand or foot, right side or left side, and forward or backward. The invention makes yoga more accessible to the visually impaired and enables a user to participate in mainstream yoga communities. The invention can be used for the practice of yoga in a class setting in schools for the blind, in public or private studios, or at home. The mat can be used in a yoga class to follow instructions with more ease and independence.

Abstract: A portable massage device for providing effects of finger pressing massage and kneading massage (like fingers of a person repeatedly gripping and separating from each other) by kneading members including a driving mechanism 2 which is disposed on one of a pair of fixed plates 11 of a frame 1, a driven rotary shaft 3 which is rotatably held on the frame and driven to rotate by the driving member 2, driven rotary plates 4 which are disposed on the center part of the driven rotary shaft 3 and driven to rotate by the driving member 2, cam parts 41 which have a convex and concave surface 42 formed on one end, kneading members 5 which are disposed on shaft 3 and slide freely thereon, and have cam receiving parts 51 to contact the cam parts 41 of the driven rotary plates 4 for moving the kneading members toward and away from each other on the shaft 3, and a power spring member 6 which is disposed on the two kneading members 6 to make the motions of the kneading members 5 repeat continuously.