Homemade multipurpose weight lifting handle

Everybody who is into fitness has undoubtedly heard about the perfect push up. Since this was a hit (or just marketed well) the inventor has now introduced the perfect pull up. Now I have the perfect push up and it works as advertised, but I’m not shelling out over $100 bucks for the perfect pull up when I have a power rack with pull up handles.

The handles swivel-and-rotation action of the perfect pull up allows your hands to rotate to a more natural parallel or near-parallel position. The movement is completely natural and moves with the body, not against it.

I do believe that changing the angles of your hands changes the way the muscles are worked, and I like the idea of doing pull ups followed by chin ups with stopping to change my hand position. I decided to make my own perfect pull up handles. But I found more uses for my homemade multipurpose weight lifting handle (as I like to refer to it) and I’ll show you what the uses are later in this article.

Homemade multipurpose weight lifting handle

To make one handle I used 36” of 2” nylon webbing; one 3/4” x 5” black pipe nipple; duck tape or double sided duck tape; and tennis racket handle grip tape to give the handle a cushioned feel. Approximate cost of one handle was about $8-9. So for under $20 I had two perfect pull up handles.

I chose 2” nylon webbing because it has a rated tensile strength of 4000 pounds, and I needed the 2” width so I could fold it in half at either end for added strength. The bottom loop is folded in half and then sewn, and the loop itself is approximately 12” of material sewn together to make a loop big enough for the handle to pass through.

I used the same process to make the loop that passes through the handle, but the loop is bigger so my hand has room. This loop uses 16” of material, leaving 8” of nylon webbing between the two loops. My wife volunteered her sewing machine and services to sew the strap together with heavy thread.

The handle is a 3/4” x 5” black pipe nipple. Make sure you file down the inside lip of the pipe nipple so it doesn’t cut into the nylon webbing. I then wrapped double sided duct tape around the pipe, and wrapped the tennis rack grip material around that. I finished the handle by securing the tennis racket grip material at both ends with black electrical tape. The finished product was a heavy, cushioned handle.

Exercises using these handles

I’ve found more uses for this handle than just pull ups. It can also be used as a handle for controlling the bar during front and back squats. Instead of me trying to explain all of the uses here, just check out this video I made.

Conclusion

This is a very inexpensive accessory to make for your home gym. It has many different uses and if you have wrist problems, the handle enables you to move more naturally, minimizing joint strain and pain.