Innovation
Behind the Design
How a 31 cm prototype, a tired grip and a simple cut shaped Aqua-Bend.
I thought the hardest part would be creating enough resistance. I was wrong.
The first Aqua-Bend prototype created plenty of it. But after a few hard repetitions, my hand was giving up before the muscles I actually wanted to train. That problem started a chain of changes: a cut for the thumb, a different grip, a support for the wrist, and eventually an entirely new way of holding and moving the disc.
None of it was planned from the beginning. Most of it came from one simple process:
Build. Try. Notice what doesn't work. Change it.
CHAPTER 01
It started with the gym
I had spent years training in the gym, so I started with movements I already knew. Press. Pull. Curl. Raise.
The question was simple: could I take those familiar strength movements into the water? I wasn't trying to reinvent training. I wanted enough resistance to make the movements feel meaningful.
So I started with a large, 31 cm disc and raised its edges to create even more resistance, particularly for stronger pulling movements.
On paper, resistance was the problem to solve. The first test in water showed me otherwise.
CHAPTER 02
My muscles weren't the first thing to fail
The first prototype had a large, thick handle. Even with my large hands, holding it under resistance was hard.
After five or six strong repetitions, I could feel my grip fading. During pulling and shoulder movements, the disc also wanted to rotate, so I squeezed even harder just to control it.
The resistance was there. I simply couldn't use it as well as I wanted to.
That changed the problem completely. I stopped thinking about how to create more resistance and started thinking about how the hand could control it.
CHAPTER 03
So I took a saw to it
The first big breakthrough didn't happen on a computer. I took the prototype, cut into it, filed it and started removing material around the handle. I was simply trying to make room for my thumb.
But that small opening immediately changed the way my hand could sit on the disc.
Then I noticed something else: if I positioned the opening correctly, I didn't need separate left- and right-hand versions. And later, almost by accident, I discovered there was enough room to hold it with both hands.
One small cut had solved one problem — and opened several new possibilities.
CHAPTER 04
A better grip still wasn't enough
The thumb opening made a huge difference, but my hand was still doing too much work. At the same time, I was testing the high edges I had originally added to increase resistance. The difference was smaller than I expected.
So I removed what wasn't helping and kept the raised edge only where it could do something more useful: support the wrist. Suddenly I didn't have to create all the stability by squeezing the handle.
The opening positioned the hand. The grip controlled the disc. The edge supported the wrist. That was the moment separate ideas started working as one system.
CHAPTER 05
The Multi-Grip wasn't designed. It evolved.
Once the hand could move more naturally, the rest started to follow. The same opening worked with either hand. It allowed a different thumb position and opened a two-handed, kettlebell-like grip.
Foam made the contact softer, not only for the hand but also when the foot moved through the opening. Attachment points made it possible to connect the disc to the leg for lower-body movements.
Each feature came from using the previous version and finding another limitation. A movement revealed a problem. A problem created a change. And sometimes that change created a completely new movement.
Today, those decisions live together in what we call the Multi-Grip Resistance System.
CHAPTER 06
Bigger isn't always better
My first instinct was to build Aqua-Bend for someone like me: someone used to strength training and looking for serious resistance. But testing quickly challenged that idea.
A large disc can feel great for powerful chest and back movements, while a smaller one can give you much more control for shoulders, arms, mobility or core work. That eventually led to FLOW, FIT and FLEX. Not simply beginner, intermediate and advanced.
The same person can benefit from different resistance levels for different movements — just as you wouldn't use the same weight for every exercise in the gym.
The goal wasn't to find one perfect resistance. It was to make resistance useful.
CHAPTER 07
Then water taught me something else
I started this project trying to bring gym movements into water. But somewhere along the way, I realised I was asking the wrong question.
In water there is no cable fixing the direction. No machine telling your arm which path to follow. Change the angle of your movement and the water is still there. Reverse the direction and it's still there.
That discovery began changing how I thought about Aqua-Bend — and about training in water itself.
Maybe the goal wasn't to recreate the gym underwater. Maybe it was to build something that could take advantage of what only water can do.
But that's a story for the next Journal.
The smallest detail changed everything
When I look at Aqua-Bend today, the feature I still notice first is the thumb opening. Not because it's the biggest. Because it was the first small change that unlocked everything else.
The wrist support completed it. The different grips expanded it. The movements kept shaping it.
The final product didn't come from one big idea. It came from repeatedly noticing small things that weren't quite right — and refusing to leave them that way.
Sometimes the smallest change opens the biggest possibilities.
