- Hey, I'm Ryan from GMB Fitness.
In this video series I'll be covering
everything paralettes.
Be covering topics such as the benefits of p-bars,
looking at difference in height of the p-bars,
in material of the p-bars.
Also be looking at a full routine that you can use
that covers bent arm as well as straight arm exercises
and a whole lot more.
Alright, let's get into it.
Parallettes are a great tool to help you build really
solid upper body and core strength.
Now, something that I really like about the parallettes
and using the parallettes is that
it's a bit easier on the wrists.
So if you're having wrist problems when you're performing
push ups, hand stands or anything else on the floor,
you can take those movements to the p-bars.
And because of the angle of the wrist, when using the
p-bars, it helps to alleviate a bit of that pain and
allows you to continue working on those
particular movements.
Now, something else is they're fun.
It's an alternative to just doing a particular movement.
As well, it can be a good stepping stone going from
movements from the floor and working up to the rings.
Because of the stability of the p-bars, it allows you to
practice certain movements, going deeper in those movements
before you then move on to the rings.
Two common questions that are received regarding the
p-bars is what is the best height of the p-bars and what
material of the p-bars should I be using?
For example wood, pvc or metal.
Now to address the first question, in a perfect world,
you could have two sets of p-bars; one that is low
and one that is higher.
Now, they both have benefits.
For example, in the beginning when you're working with
p-bars that are higher up off of the ground, the movements
will be easier.
Lets say that you're working on a L-sit.
When working on the tuck position, because you're higher up
in the air, it's gonna allow yourself to pull
your feet back.
It's gonna make that movement easier.
As well, when you're learning new movements where you're
having to pull your body from the front of the p-bars to the
back of the p-bars, simply gonna be easier because
you have more clearance.
Makes sense, right?
Cool thing though, about having higher p-bars is when you
start working on some of the more advanced movements, say
the handstand pushup, because they're higher it's gonna
allow you to drop your head further in between the p-bars
making it more difficult.
Making the movement more difficult.
Now likewise, if you have a set of low p-bars,
as you get better, taking things to the ground is gonna
force you to compress your body more therefore further
strengthening the core.
So, the best set of p-bars to be honest is really
whatever you have in the very beginning but then as you
get better, making adjustments and then possibly buying
a set of higher p-bars or lower p-bars depending
on what you wanna work on.
Now to address the next question, what is the best
material to use for the p-bars?
Well first off, I would like to say that I believe that
for parallette work, parallettes are the best thing to use.
In other words, a set of kettle bells, or dumb bells,
I personally don't think are very good.
The reason why?
They're not stable at all.
Heaven forbid you use those, lose your balance, fall on
your head, break your neck.
We don't want that.
So, first and foremost, if you're doing a lot of parallette
work, I suggest purchasing a pair of parallettes.
These parallettes are actually bamboo.
Our good friend Dusty makes these.
They're P-Barz, with a zee.
These are actually custom built for me.
I'm beta testing some of these but doesn't mean that you
have to have these.
Anything will work.
I prefer wood.
The reason why is over time the natural oils in your hand
seep in to the wood making the grip even better;
therefore you're not going to be slipping.
Metal is perfectly fine as well as PVC, again, it's kind of
a personal preference.
I do suggest though, if you're using metal or if you're
using PVC just to make sure that the grip is solid on there.
So for example, something that you can do is take tennis
tape or even athletic tape, wrap that in order to make sure
that you're not slipping off of that.
Again, this is a personal preference regarding height
as well as material.
Let's take a look at how to set the width of the parallettes
as well as the hand placement when performing movements.
Now, there's three settings that you can use and I got
this from way back when I was in gymnastics.
This is how we would set up the p-bars whenever we
needed to perform our routines.
It's very, very simple.
What we're gonna do is we're gonna take our elbow and
measure out to our wrist, our knuckles or the fingers.
The width is gonna depend on your personal preference.
If you're looking for more of a narrow setting for your
p-bars, you'll place your elbow to the inside and then
set it up to about the start of the wrist.
So basically where my watch is right now.
This is pretty narrow, pretty narrow.
Now the other option is simply just to move this out
so that it's at the top of your fist.
This is my personal preference.
This is what I like to use but that's just me, okay?
Also, by the way, make sure that your arm is straight
across and not at an angle.
That will mess up your p-bars.
The final one is simply extending the fingers.
This is a very wide position for the parallettes.
It's up to you; again, my personal preference though
in the very beginning, if you just wanna try this one out
is to make the fist, go from the elbow right to the top
of the fist.
It's a good general place to start off.
Now lets take a look at hand placement.
This is a big one.
Make sure that you're using this.
You're gonna find that it's gonna help tremendously and
also just make it a lot easier on the wrist
when you do this.
So, very simple, all you're gonna do is start off making
sure that your shoulder is over your wrist.
This is very straight.
The way to do this
is to simply place your thumb
on the top of the p-bar so that it's facing forward.
Now notice that my wrist is not turning outward or dropping.
Nor is it dropping to the inside.
We don't want that at all.
So by placing the thumb on top of the p-bars, then you'll
notice that you have this straight line.
Now its just a matter of wrapping the fingers and
wrapping the thumb, keeping that position with the wrist.
This is a very good habit to get in to when you're setting
up for the p-bars.
Very beginning, placing the thumb on top of the p-bars,
wrapping the fingers and then wrapping the thumb before
you're setting up for your movements.
Pretty simple but a big one for wrist health.
Alright, next up, we're gonna take a look at a full
routine that you can use to train all the movements
using the five-p framework.