How to make thick handled bars

Thick handled barbells and dumbbells are a great way to increase forearm strength and gripping power. Making dumbbells with thick handles isn't too difficult. The simplest way is to wrap a dumbbell bar with lots of tape till you get to the desired thickness. A length of pipe can be slid over the tape to give you a nice old-fashioned dumbbell. A lot of old timers used thick handles. By following a normal, basic routine with these thick handled dumbbells, you will be able to increase your hand and forearm strength quite a bit. If you decide to specialize on gripping power, you could add One-Hand Deadlifts to your program. Along with lots of curls, rowing, clean and pressing, dumbbell swings, your gripping power will increase tremendously. Even more versatile would be having a thick handled barbell. However, a barbell would be hard to make with the tape and pipe method and hard to use since the handle won't revolve. Here's an easy solution. You will need PVC pipe for this method. Cut a length of PVC pipe long enough to become the "sleeve" on your 1 inch exercise bar. If you want to make it more solid, use several PVC sleeves of progressively increasing diameter. You will also need two pressure caps, one for each end. Drill a hole in each one, slightly wider than the diameter of your bar. Attach a pressure cap to each end. Slide the whole thing on the bar in place of the sleeve. Add the inside collars, and it's done! Make sure the inside collars have enough space to allow your new thick handle sleeve to revolve. It will take a little time getting used to the thickness, but your grip strength will start to increase. Any exercise you do will work the forearms nice and hard. The clean and press done for reps is a perfect exercise for this kind of bar. Don't forget to continue to work with regular size barbell handles so you don't lose strength in that area. Strength can be very specific. If your thumbs start to hurt, take a break from the thick handles and try again more gradually.