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How do you progressively increase
resistance to increase strength
with just water and a noodle?

The principles for this are the same whatever the piece of equipment. A noodle is made of foam, it is buoyant, and it has a certain surface area. Like any foam product, it will resist you when you submerge it under the water. The amount of resistance felt will depend on several factors, and these same factors will be manipulated to increase the level of challenge:

• Surface area - the larger the surface area presented against the water, the greater the resistance
• Foam products want to float, so the direction of push is important in engaging the greatest resistance.
• How you push the noodle against the water changes the intensity of the resistance. You have several things to work with: the speed of movement; the power behind the move; the depth that the noodle is submerged; the lever length of the limb that is pushing the noodle; the range of motion of the movement at the joints involved.

So, the hardest exercise would be one using maximum surface area of the noodle, using long levers, and using power with full range of motion.

Please remember that you may run out of resistance levels to offer a participant. The water and the noodle will reach a limit in terms of the strength that can be gained. Without knowing your clients I don't know what level of challenge they can cope with. For many of our participants, just starting to push the noodle under the water is hard enough, so there should be plenty of material to work with and progressively improve strength. For others the noodle won't have any effect because they are already too strong. You would have to find a larger, more resistant piece of equipment.