Best Parallettes for Calisthenics: Brands Compared
Every parallettes brand we cover, with models, materials, dimensions and options. What each one actually sells, and how to pick a height and a grip.
What each brand offers
🇫🇷 Eric Flag
Two families. The beech pair comes in a long and a short version, and the Elevation Bars are a taller steel pair with a choice of round or square grip.
- Models
- Wooden long, wooden short, Elevation Bars (steel)
- Wooden long
- 30 cm usable, 36 cm total, 10 cm high, 1.5 kg per pair
- Wooden short
- 15 cm usable, 20 cm total, 9 cm high, 1 kg per pair
- Grip
- 40 mm wood, or 38 mm round / 42 mm square on steel
- Load
- 150 kg wooden, 250 kg steel
🇫🇷 MX-Sport
🇫🇷 Made in France
Handmade in the brand's own workshop in Morlaix, unvarnished, with cork pads. Because each pair is made by hand, the brand states that dimensions vary slightly between units.
- Models
- MX Bars V3, MX Bars Practice
- V3
- 25 cm long, 20 cm usable grip, 8.3 cm high, 1.3 kg per pair
- Practice
- 40 cm long, 35 cm usable grip, 8.3 cm high, 1.7 kg per pair
- Grip
- 40 mm beech
- Options
- Engraving
🇫🇷 Peisma
🇫🇷 Made in France
One pair that comes apart. Four bar lengths and two grip diameters mount on the same base, so changing your setup costs a bar rather than a pair. The bars are textured, which the brand presents as a way to train without chalk.
- Bar lengths
- 30, 40, 50 or 60 cm
- Grip
- 35 or 40 mm
- Pads
- Recycled rubber and cork
- Options
- 5 base colours, wood or black bars, engraving up to 100 characters
- Dimensions
- Height and weight not published
🇩🇪 Gornation
The widest range, with a separate model per height rather than one adjustable pair. The Pro is the low one and ships assembled. Nothing on it adjusts.
- Models
- Pro (low), Max (high), Active (compact), Metal, Wooden
- Pro
- 50 x 25 x 10 cm, grip 40 mm x 38 cm, pre-assembled
- Materials
- Beech, steel on the Metal
- Adjustable
- No
🇪🇸 Gorletic
The most customisable pair here. Six body colours, six grip tape colours or none, and engraving of a name or a phrase. The two bars clip together magnetically for storage.
- Models
- LowFit Pro, LowFit, Medium, Mini Active
- LowFit Pro
- 47 cm long, 21.5 cm base, 10.5 cm high, 1.7 kg per pair
- Grip
- 39 to 40 mm beech with rubber ends
- Load
- 100 kg per bar
- Options
- 6 colours, grip tape, engraving, 2-year warranty
🇵🇱 Caliathletics
Four models, split between wood and metal. The metal pairs use a 50 cm beech handle on two steel feet. Caliathletics does not publish dimensions for these, so ask before ordering if height matters to you.
- Models
- Wooden MINI, Wooden MEDIUM, Low Metal, Metal PRO
- Materials
- Beech, powder-coated steel
- Dimensions
- Not published
🇩🇪 Pullup & Dip
Two families here too, wood and steel. The wooden pair has an ergonomic handle and comes in a low and a medium height; the steel pair leads on grip width. We have no product shot for these yet.
- Models
- Wooden parallettes (low, medium), steel fitness parallettes, push-up bars
- Materials
- Beech, steel
- Grip
- 38 mm on the steel bar, 44 mm with the rubber
- Dimensions
- Heights and weights not published
What this page is
A comparison, not a ranking. We have not tested these pairs, so putting one above another would be inventing a verdict. What follows is what each brand publishes about its own products, checked against their official pages in September 2026, with the gaps left visible where a brand does not publish a number.
Measured tests are in progress. When a pair has been through ours, its review gets linked here.
If you want the criteria rather than the catalog, the parallettes guide covers low against high, wood against steel against PVC, and how to size a pair to your training.
Picking a height
Low, 4 to 8 cm, keeps your body close to horizontal, which is the position planche is trained in. Anything taller turns a planche lean into a tuck planche with a bad angle. High, 15 to 30 cm, is for dips and deficit handstand push-ups.
Most of the pairs above are low. Gornation splits the two into separate models rather than making one pair adjust, which is worth knowing before you order the wrong one.
Picking a grip
Diameter first. Most parallettes sit between 35 and 43 mm. Thicker taxes the forearms more, which is useful for grip work and unhelpful during a long static hold.
Then length, which matters more than most buyers expect. A 35 cm usable handle lets you shift your hands as a planche lean deepens. A 15 cm one leaves you where you started. That is the real difference between Eric Flag’s short and long versions, and between the MX Bars V3 and the Practice.
Then rigidity. Flex under load is barely noticeable in a 10-second hold and very noticeable in a 30-second one, and it gets worse the heavier you are.
What to check before you buy
The feet. Rubber or cork across the width of the base beats four small pads on smooth floors, and it is the single thing most likely to annoy you daily.
Storage, if the pair is high. Measure the cupboard before ordering.
And the load rating against your bodyweight plus anything you add. The published figures here run from 100 kg per bar to 250 kg, a wider spread than the price difference suggests.
Full brand catalog in the brands directory.