Patent ID: 7458922

Claim:
A stretching apparatus structured to enable therapeutic stretching of at least some of the muscles of the upper legs and at least some of the muscles of the lower legs of a subject, the stretching apparatus comprising: a frame; a chair apparatus disposed on the frame, the chair apparatus including a seat and a back rest, the seat being structured to receive thereon at least one of: the subject's thighs, and the subject's buttocks; the back rest being engageable with the subject's back, the back rest being movable to position the subject's back in a plurality of orientations with respect to the subject's thighs; and a foot manipulator engageable with the subject's feet when the subject's legs are substantially outstretched, the foot manipulator being movable between a first position and a second position to pivot the subject's feet in a dorsal direction about the subject's ankles, the subject's feet being in a generally relaxed position when the foot manipulator is in the first position, the feet being in a dorsal position and at least some of the muscles of the upper legs and at least some of the muscles of the lower legs being in an at least partially stretched condition when the foot manipulator is in the second position, wherein the back rest is pivotable with respect to the seat, wherein the back rest includes a retention mechanism, the retention mechanism resisting movement of the back rest in a first direction generally away from the foot manipulator while permitting movement of the back rest in a second direction generally toward the foot manipulator, and wherein the retention mechanism includes a toothed crank and a dog, the toothed crank including a crank and a plurality of teeth disposed on the crank, the dog being biased toward the toothed crank and being engageable with a tooth of the plurality teeth, the dog engaged with the tooth resisting pivoting of the back rest in the first direction, movement of the back rest in the second direction overcoming the bias of the dog.