Lewbari Hip Harness

This is Mick Luvbight's variant of Lew Rubens' Lewbari™ Hip Harness. Note that Lewbari is a trademark of Lew Rubens, and is used with permission.

THEORY: This is a hip harness rope tie used for suspension. Using two quarter inch 30 foot ropes (6mm thickness 9 meters long), we'll create two flat bands just below the waist, and one flat band around each thigh. The thigh bands are connected to the waist bands by two thick "handles" that can be used as lifting points. The handles also serve to keep the waist and thigh bands taut and a fixed distance apart.

The thigh bands are below the crotch to avoid pressure on the femoral artery (reducing the chance of Harness Hang Syndrome).

Although we'll show the handles being tied on the back of the body for a face-down suspension, the same tie can be used to make handles on the front of the body for a face-up suspension or on the side of the hip for a sideways suspension.

Welcome to our rope class The bight of the rope goes where you want the top of the rope handle Pull the rope through the bight As you build up the tie, always keep the rope under light tension Pull the rope straight down and bend it back at the bottom of the handle and bend the rope back between the legs Wrap around the front of the thigh and pull through the bend This picture shows the basic structure; next we'll add more wraps to make flat bands for support Use the thumb to lay down another layer of rope in the other directions Wrap back around the front of the thigh and pull back between the legs Pull the rope through the double bight Pull the rope up through the original bight Follow the top rope laying now another layer of the rope band Again, use the thumb to position the next layer of rope Follow the rope around the front of the stomach Go over the rope band as shown Use your finger as a hook to pull the rope through as shown Always pull rope, never try to push it Again, always keep tension...your rope should look like this Cut back around the other rope to create a lock Wrap only one time around the handle (this is where my variation to Lew's tie begins) Now pull down Pull the rope under the loop coming in from the left This will serve to lock the thigh band from moving down the leg Again, keeping tension, it should look like this Wrap under the handle from the left And pull through This is the end of my variant of Lew's original tie Now wrap the rope around the handle to create compression Keep wrapping Until you get to the top band of rope Now make figure eights to use up the extra rope We'll build a triangle at the top band with the extra The other half of the figure eight Again, use your finger as a hook and pull the rope through There's one figure eight Here we've used up 18 inches of extra rope with three figure eights Almost done Now to tie it off You can run it under one of the figure eights (optional) Split the ends and wrap one around one side Now tie a square knot in the ends The ends tie off Grab the handle and test it (ask the model if it pinches anywhere) Use a second rope and tie a mirror-image handle on the other leg Front view, the ropes should form an X over the middle of the stomach Run a finger inside the bands to even them out Smooth out any gaps between the ropes The end