Application of a biomimetic device with subaquatic movement resistance control to improve training and rehabilitation on water

Underwater resistance training has shown benefits for both swimmers and patients with different osteomuscular conditions. In swimmers, resistance training can increase swimming performance and power, and thereby improve speed test times. In patients, resistance training as part of musculoskeletal rehabilitation processes leads to demonstrable improvements in recovery spatial perception, postural stability, and muscular force. The process of underwater resistance training relies on the use of specialised devices including hand paddles and swim parachutes to increase the fluid drag from underwater motion. However, the fluid and fluid-structure interaction effects present in underwater movement are very complex, and these effects make tailoring these
resistance forces to the individual patient/swimmer difficult substantially more complex than in resistance training on dry land. One avenue toward more precise tailoring of underwater resistance forces is that of biomimicry:
marine organisms have been precisely tailoring fluid forces for hundreds of millions of years and have evolved efficient and biologically compatible mechanisms to do so. Biomimetic strategies for efficient underwater flow control particularly, in drag reduction have found application in
swimwear, robots, and torpedoes. However, there remain few studies of biomimetic strategies for drag tailoring for resistance training. This project aims to synergise biological, biomimetic, and therapeutic studies to develop a new device for underwater resistance training with the specific goal of control resistance forces over a range of movement speeds, in other to keep it constant
as happens on dry land training. Using biologically-informed design, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and clinical validation, we aim to enable underwater resistance training to achieve the same levels of precise resistance control as are available on dry land resistance training.