By Pesi Fonua

An invention by a Tongan-Australian, called “The Reviver”, an exercising apparatus that enables a person to straighten his or her spine, ease the pain in the hips, and helps an aged person to walk without pain, arrived in Tonga this week and was put through its paces at the Royal Palace.

Geoffrey Redmond, the inventor, presented King Tupou VI with the apparatus at the Royal Palace gymnasium on December 11. “It is for his sixtieth birthday.” he said.

The Revivor is a full body conditioning system that uses the body's own balancing system reacting with gravity. The apparatus moves the body giving the benefits of exercise “with the least amount of time and effort.”

Geoffrey, an electrician, invented the Reviver because of his concern with the health of his mother, who would suffer cramps after a short walk or while cooking the family meal.

His mother is Tongan from Ma’ufanga, and his father an Australian. The family lived in Nuku’alofa for a number of years before they migrated to Sydney, Australia.

“I figured that it was an electrical problem. I needed to intensify the signals between the brain and the muscles throughout the body.”

Geoffrey explained that the end result was that he designed and created a machine that can do just that.

“By producing an ocean wave like motion, like you are on a boat, and going through rough sea, then you always try to balance yourself, and in the process you can exercise very quickly.”

When he first put his mother on the machine she became very exhausted, “but the main thing was that her spine was straightened up immediately, the pain in her hips disappeared, and she started being able to walk short distances without pain.”

Geoffrey said that that was two years ago, when he built a clinic for people with different kinds of muscle disorders that can get relief by doing exercise.

“The problem with exercise is that it normally comes with pain, but by using the balancing, reflexing system there is no impact on any of the joints. The person doesn’t have to move, the machine does the moving for him or her, and the process of tilting a person in a ratio fashion, then all the signals are radiated from the brain, throughout the body, and from the body back to the brain, and the end result is that you become conditioned without having to move, the machine does the moving for you.”

The King tried the Revivor himself and then encouraged Tonga's CEO for Health, the Speaker of Parliament, military staff and the Matangi Tonga editor to have a go. Within a short time you feel as if you have been exercising.

Expo 2020

During the past two years, Geoffrey has invested over two million dollars on his Isodynamics Reviver project, and he has produced three Reviver devices. The first model, Adam cost $25,000; a bed is $130,000 and the latest, Eve is $150,000.

Geoffrey is planning to have his products assembled here in Tonga.

The Isodynamics Reviver products will also be on display at the Tongan Pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai from 10 October 2020 to 10 April 2021.