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Foot massaging treadmill

Foot massaging treadmill description/claims

This application claims priority to China application no. 200710004008.5, filed on Jan. 19, 2007.

The present disclosure relates to a treadmill, especially to a treadmill which provides foot massage to the foot soles of a user of the treadmill.

In recent years, treadmills or running machines become popular for in-door physical exercising. A traditional treadmill mainly comprises a horizontal or slanted supporting base and a frame with handrails. The supporting base comprises an elongated rigid supporting board. Driving rollers are mounted proximate to one or both of the longitudinal ends of the supporting board. An elastic endless running belt extends around the supporting board and the driving rollers, thus providing a slanted flat running surface. When the user is running on the running surface, the running belt is driven by the driving rollers to move in a direction reverse to the forwarding direction of the user. Thus the user can walk or run on the treadmill.

In traditional treadmills, the supporting board and/or the running belt are substantially flat. When walking or running on the treadmills, the user's foot soles consecutively contact with the flat running surface of the treadmill. In this way, the user will feel fatigue or pain on his or her feet after a long time of walking or running on the treadmill, no matter whether he or she wears shoes or not. If the fatigue or pain is serious, the user needs to have special massage to the feet to release the stress. In addition, according to current medical study, regular contacting and massaging the reflection areas or acupoints of the foot sole can, at a certain extent, improve the condition of human body and prevent illness.

Therefore, it is desirable to have a treadmill which can massage the user's feet when the user is exercising on the treadmill. It is expected that, by this treadmill, the user can exercise his or her body and feel comfortable on his or her feet even after a long time of exercising.

An object of the present disclosure is to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art. To this end, the present invention provides a foot massaging treadmill comprising a supporting base mounted close to the floor, wherein the supporting base comprises a supporting board, an endless running belt slidably extending around the supporting board, and driving rollers for driving the running belt to move around the supporting board in a longitudinal direction of the supporting board, with the upper surface of the running belt forming a user supporting surface, and wherein the supporting surface of the running belt provides a plurality of upward protrusions for applying pressure force to the user's foot soles.

The protrusions can be provided on the outer surface of the running belt and the supporting board is substantially flat. In this case, the protrusions can be integrally formed on the running belt. Alternatively, the protrusions are single pieces formed separately and are then removably attached to the running belt. Alternatively, some of the protrusions are integrally formed on the running belt, and the remaining protrusions are single pieces formed separately and are then removably attached to the running belt.

Alternatively, the protrusions are provided on the upper surface of the supporting board and the running belt is substantially flat. In this case, the protrusions can be integrally formed on the supporting board. Alternatively, the protrusions are single pieces formed separately and are then removably attached to the supporting board. Alternatively, some of the protrusions are integrally formed on the supporting board, and the remaining protrusions are single pieces formed separately and are then removably attached to the supporting board.

Preferably, the treadmill further comprises a frame mounted to the front side of the supporting base. The frame may include handrails.

Preferably, the treadmill further comprises a control panel mounted to the frame.

Preferably, the protrusions are regularly distributed. In this case, the protrusions have the same separating distance and the same arranging pattern.

Alternatively, the protrusions are irregularly distributed. In this case, the protrusions have different separating distances and/or different arranging patterns.

Preferably, the protrusions have the same shape and size. Alternatively, the protrusions have different shapes and/or sizes.

Alternatively, the protrusions comprises a plurality of sets of protrusions, the shape and/or the size of each set of protrusions are different from that of other sets of protrusions. In this case, the plurality of sets of protrusions can be arranged in an alternating manner. Alternatively, the outer surface of the running belt is divided into a plurality of zones, each zone containing a set of protrusions of the same shape and size, and the shapes and/or the sizes of the protrusions in different zones are different from each other.

Alternatively, the running belt comprises a plurality of zones, the protrusions are provided in some of the zones.

Preferably, the top surfaces of the protrusions, which are to be in contact with the user's foot soles, have smooth transition shapes.

Preferably, the protrusions are formed by an elastic rubber material.

Preferably, the running belt and the protrusions are covered with an elastic protective layer.

Preferably, the protrusions are sized for stimulating the acupoints or the reflection areas of the foot soles. For example, the protrusions each have a lateral size of a few millimeters. The arranging density of the protrusions may be about two hundred to about one thousand protrusions per square meter

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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