Best Tube Resistance Bands With Handles & Other Attachments

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Which type of resistance bands have the option to attach handles and which sets are good? You can find it out here. 

Tube resistance bands have the option to attach handles or other attachments. Sometimes the handles are permanently attached to the tube while other times it’s possible to change attachments. These attachments make working out with these bands more comfortable and allows for more exercises.

Below we’ll go into what the best sets are, what other attachments can be used and if this type of band is right for you.

The Best Set of Tube Exercise Bands With Handles

You want a set of tube exercise bands you can attach handles and maybe other things to? What is the best set you can get? There are a ton of different sets of tube bands out there.  It is a good idea to buy a set and not separate parts, especially if you don’t have any bands or handles yet. 

A combo set of tube bands usually consists of the following;

• Five tube bands with different resistances
• Pair of D handles
• Door anchor
• Ankle straps
• Carrying bag

There is a little bit of variability between sets but the setup above is the most common. And it is a good starting point. That set will allow you to do a full body workout without buying anything else. Of course it’s possible to add on some of the extra attachments listed above.

When shopping for a set, keep an eye out for a few things;

• Buy as complete a starting set as you can
• Make sure the handles are detachable if you want to use other attachments. A carabiner and eyelet at the end of the tubes is a good indication. 

Here are some good options:

What Else Can You Attach To Tube Resistance Bands?

Handles (also known as D handles) are the first thing that come to mind to attach to a resistance band. And that makes sense, for the vast majority of exercises with resistance bands you want to grab them with your hands and D handles are the easiest way to do that.

However, D handles aren’t the only useful attachment you can attach to resistance bands. There are a few other things you can attach to resistance bands and are very useful.

Basically every attachment for a cable machine will fit on a tube band. As long as the karabiner is large enough it can fit. Often the karabiners are replaceable so even if they’re too small, you can easily make it work as long as they fit through the eyelet. 

The most common attachment other than D-handles are ankle straps. These are great to train quads, hamstrings and glutes. However, it doesn’t have to be limited to that. A straight bar could allow you to do lat pulldowns, rows and bicep curls for example. This allows you to do way more exercises with just a few extra attachments. 

Suggested: Which length resistance bands is good for a full body workout?

Can You Attach All Attachments To All Exercise Bands?

You might think that you can just attach all attachments to all exercise bands. That’s not the case however. There are many different kinds of resistance bands and only a few of them have the option to attach handles.

Tube bands have either integrated handles or an attachment eye for a carabiner. The ones with integrated handles can’t be changed. The handles are permanently attached to the tubes. Tubes with eyelets on both sides can be attached to any attachment you like with the help of a carabiner. 

On loop you can make some attachments work if you have a carabiner but they’re not intended to be used that way and you can wear the bands quicker if you do. You can just hook the carabiner around the band and attach the handles to the carabiner. However, you can only attach one handle at a time and not two like on a tube band. 

Mini bands and therapy bands you can’t really make work with any attachments and I’m not sure why you would even want to since they are made for very different purposes. 

So if you want exercise bands that can be used with most attachments, get tube bands with an eyelet on both ends. 

The Best Attachments For Resistance Bands

So if you can pretty much attach any cable attachment to a tube band, which ones are the best?

Here are some other useful things you can attach to a resistance band;

• Ankle straps: For training legs.
• Bar: For lat-pulldowns, curls, rows, triceps extensions, etc.
• Triceps rope: For face pulls, hammer curls, overhead extensions.
• Double D handle: For lat-pulldowns, rows.

You don’t need to get all of those immediately. But if you want to, here are some affordable options:

Ankle straps are the most important other band attachment to get besides D handles. That’s because it allows you to do leg exercises. Ankle straps can be seen as the D handles for legs. This means they allow you to do things like leg extensions, leg curls and leg raises among other exercises. That means ankle straps allow you to train your lower body with resistance bands in much more ‘detail’. Of course D handles can be used for exercises like squats and lunges but ankle straps allow for way more muscle isolation.

Suggested: Do resistance bands build muscle?

A bar can be a good attachment if you want to do lat pulldowns and curls. Instead of using each end of the band for each arm, a bar allows you to use one side for both arms. (or attach the bar to both ends for more resistance). This has the benefit that you can use more resistance and therefore build more muscle and strength. 

The triceps rope can be used for face pulls, hammer curls, straight arm pushdowns and more. It’s a thick nylon rope that’s held/attached to the band in the middle and has two plastic balls at the end. This makes it easier to hold your hands in a slightly different way than with D handles.

A double D handle is an attachment which combines two d handles into one attachment. The two grips can’t move independently of each other which means you can use them for close grip rows and pulldowns.

Anchoring Your Tube Band

Keep in mind that if you want to do different exercises, you’ll want to anchor the band at different heights. The door anchor that comes with most sets is OK but not amazing. If you want to get more information about anchoring your resistance bands, read this post.