Make Your Own Suspension Trainer
Making a Homemade Suspension Trainer is an easy way to add an extremely useful piece of exercise equipment to your arsenal, without breaking the bank.
Retail models sell anywhere from 0 on up, but this DIY option will run you around , or less if you happen to have some of these items laying around your house.
Let's get started...
Materials
2 feet or so of 1″ PVC pipe
A short piece of nylon webbing (optional, if you want to make a door mount)
40′ of polypropylene trucker's rope
A piece of sand paper
A little bit of masking tape (to tape the rope before you cut it)
A knife
A lighter (to cauterize the ends of the rope after they're cut)
1. Make Handles
You will first cut two 7 inch pieces of pvc, making sure to dull the cut edges of the pipe with some sandpaper to prevent cuts and chafing on the rope.
2. Cut Rope
You will need around 20 feet of rope. Wrap the rope with masking tape before cutting it to prevent fraying and unraveling. Then melt the cut ends with a lighter.
3. Tie Handles
Run the rope through each handle and tie a bowline knot (do a youtube or google search for instructions) in each, making sure to make each handle's loop around the same size.
4. Adjusting Handle Rope Length
You now have the handles built. To adjust the length of the line, DON'T tie an overhand knot in the rope. This will become nearly impossible to untie once it is under tension. Instead, tie a butterfly knot (again, try youtube), which is easy to tie and easy to untie after the rope has been under tension.
5. Make a Door Mount Attachment Loop
If you have a couple feet of nylon webbing lying around, simply tie a bowline in the webbing. You can then close a sturdy door onto the bowline loop, leaving the knot end behind the closed door acting as a stopper. Run the handle rope through the loop to set up.
***NOTE*** If you are using a door mount like this, make sure that your weight is CLOSING the door, instead of opening it. This will prevent you from falling flat on your face (or back) should someone try to open the door!
6. Make an Adjustable Mounting Loop
To use the DIY suspension trainer on an overhead beam or branch, you could simply throw the handles over the object and go at it. Or, if you will need to make height adjustments during your workout to do different exercises (dips after pullups, for example) you can make an adjustable loop out of more rope.
Simply tie a bowline on one end of the rope. Throw the rope over the object, loop the free end through the bowline, and then tie it off at the desired height using a couple half hitch knots (again, youtube is a great resource for this).
7. (optional) Make Foot Loops/Foot Straps
Making foot loops or straps for the suspension trainer will allow you to do many more exercises - knee tucks, plank variations, one legged lunges, and many more.
First, you will need to adjust the handle loop so that it can support weight independently on each side.
Find the middle of the handle rope:
Simply grab both handles in one hand, then stretch out the loop with your other hand to find the exact middle point. Mark this with some tape.
Next, tie a butterfly knot -- the taped point should be the exact mid point of the loop. This might take some adjustment, but you'll get it.
To make the actual loops or straps, cut two 3 foot sections of rope.
With each piece, make a loop on either side of the handle, using a bowline. Try to make each foot loop the same size.
7. Use it!
There are so many exercises you can do with this setup. Pullups, dips, and pushups are just the beginning.
Get creative and get into shape!
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