Abstract
The enhancement of blood flow is effective to improve performance of exercise and reduce fatigue after it. This paper proposed a wearable thermal device that enhances the blood flow by alternative hot and cold stimuli at a local point of the ankle. The previous studies showed that thermal stimuli using waters is effective to enhance the blood flow, and our compact device achieved it by simple method using a Peltier device. At first, we evaluated whether the thermal stimuli for a local point on ankle could enhance the blood flow or not comparing with a case of mechanical pressure stimuli and actual exercise. Then, we investigated that how the previous thermal stimulus influences the performance of exercise taking pedaling motion. The results of experiments showed that the proposed thermal device can enhance the blood flow enough so that it improved persistent of exercise and reduced subjective hardness during pedaling motion.
