Parallettes are small gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 devices, employed in pairs, used primarily to simulate the parallel bars that can be found in professional gymnasiums. Parallettes are similar to pushup bars, or dip bar

Dip bar

A dip bar is a piece of fitness equipment that consists of a U-shaped bar, usually about 1" in diameter, which surrounds the user's body at the waist.-Overview:The user grips the dip bar with both hands, and supports their body weight on it...

s, but they are generally longer and very low to the ground. Aside from their appeal as equipment for gymnasts, they are also appropriate for other athletes who wish to develop strength by means of body-weight exercises.

Typical exercises done on parallettes include L-sits, V-sits, handstand presses and handstand pushup

Handstand pushup

The handstand push-up - also called the vertical push-up or the inversed push-up - is a type of push-up exercise where the body is positioned in a handstand. For a true handstand, the exercise is performed free-standing, held in the air...

s. Body weight is always supported on the hands, but some parallette exercises are excellent core and leg strengtheners as well.

Although parallettes can be purchased from a number of commercial sources, they are simple to fabricate from commonly available materials such as PVC

Polyvinyl chloride

Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is a thermoplastic polymer. It is a vinyl polymer constructed of repeating vinyl groups having one hydrogen replaced by chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is the third most widely produced plastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene. PVC is widely used in...

pipe. Consequently, both professional and home gyms will often utilize low-cost, "homemade" parallettes.

External links

• Parallette Plans- illustrated instructions for building parallettes and other homemade gymnastics equipment.