People  often overlook the weight of a set of parallettes when determining the pair to buy

If the parallettes weight to much, it is not ideal to transport the parallettes.

Its nice to be able to travel with your pair so you can train anywhere, such as at an outdoor park, or to put them in your suitcase when you are going abroad.

Unless you are a gymnast training who performs a pirouette, when you are training your hands will not be moving. Therefore the length of the paralleled are not important, and will just increase to the cost and lower its portability.

However, super short parralletes like general  push bars may feel unstable  for advanced movements like the planche or handstand pushup.

Therefore ,we recommend getting a pair of parralletes around 12inches long for 99% of individuals.

A tall pair of parralleute bars allow you to perform very deep pushups, handstand pushups. However they can also be intimidating and require more energy to kick up to a handstand. Furthermore, they will feel less stable and be less portable.

A nice option is the Nanobars XL which offers a 2-in-1 adjustable height Parallete.

There are two materials for parallettes either wood or metal.

Wood is more comfortable and but not very durable. However, if you plan to take good care of them wood, is a great option. There are many types of wood, and are recommendation is maple. Maple is the more resistant to chipping and breaking.

Metal is more durable but can be colder to the touch and not as slip resistant as wood.

You can find some metal bars that are knurled to prevent slipping but they are hard to find and are often quite expensive.

Some bars such as a the nano bars XL are rubber coated so that you get the durability of the metal but a much more comfortable experience.

Lastly, you can always wrap your paralleled with athletic tape to get the best grip while also protecting your paraalletes from any damage.

A thin pair of paralletes are uncomfortable on the hands and on the wrist.

This is especially true when your entire bodyweight is suspended like in a planche or handstand and you need to use your wrists to balance.

We recommend a thickness of a minimum of 37.5mm in diameter and recommend up to 45mm if you are prone to wrist and hand pain.

Lastly, you want to avoid any type of push up bars that have foam, these are not durable at all.

1. Buying Multiple Parralletes

After reading you may have a hard time pick a parralleute that really embodies everything you need.

In that case we recommend you buy two. We recommend a portable low parrallete and less portable high parralleute that stays in one place.

2. Adjustable Parallettes

If you can’t decide one option is to get the Nanobars XL which gives you full portability since it has a pattered collpasing design but also offers two heights.

Remy started calisthenics in 2014 and has mastered advanced movements such as the one arm pull-up, front-lever, one arm muscle-up and more.