Best Parallettes UK 2026: Bars for Calisthenics and L-Sits

Parallettes are two short bars that raise your hands off the floor, and that centimetre or two of lift is what unlocks L-sits, planche leans, deep dips and straighter handstands. Get the wrong pair and you'll fight a wobble on every rep; get the right pair and you own most of a calisthenics gym in the footprint of a shoebox. Four things separate them. Height decides whether they're built for floor skills or dips; grip diameter and material decide how they feel after ten sweaty minutes; the feet decide whether they slide; and the weight rating decides how far you can push them. The five below are the parallettes worth buying on Amazon UK right now, across low and high, wood and steel.

1. Gravity Fitness Medium Parallettes: Best Overall

If you want one pair to cover almost everything, get these. Gravity Fitness build the medium parallettes around a welded steel frame with 40mm wooden handles, and that combination is the sweet spot: the steel feet sit at a true 90 degrees so nothing rocks, while the wood soaks up sweat and stays warm in a cold garage. The handles sit 30cm off the floor on a 50cm by 40cm base, tall enough for tucked planche and full L-sits yet low enough to feel planted under a handstand. Rated for over 150kg of dynamic load, they'll take a weighted dip session without complaint.

The catch is weight and price. At 5.7kg the pair, these aren't going in your carry-on, and they cost several times what a bare-steel budget set does; wooden handles can also chip if you drop them onto concrete. The medium height is the one most people grow into rather than out of, which is why it's the default recommendation in a lot of calisthenics circles. For a home setup you'll genuinely progress on over years rather than months, they're the ones I'd buy first.

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2. GORNATION Wooden Parallettes: Best Wooden Parallettes

These are the ones to grab if handstands, L-sits and floor skills are your main thing. GORNATION turn a single block of red beech into a low 11.5cm bar with a chunky 40mm diameter, and the natural grip is genuinely nicer on sweaty palms than any coated metal. They weigh just 1.5kg for the pair and ship with a carry strap, so they live in a rucksack happily, while the rubber feet still hold on grass, decking or a wooden floor. Load rating is a stout 300kg per pair, well past anything bodyweight training throws at them.

Low bars have limits. At 11.5cm there isn't much clearance, so taller lifters will scuff their heels on deep dips or a full L-sit, and the 30cm bar length feels a touch narrow for very wide push-ups. If you mostly train skills, work out at the park, and want something you can pack, these are the pick.

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3. GORNATION Metal Parallettes: Best High Parallettes for Dips

Dips are where height earns its keep. At 40cm tall, these give you full leg clearance to sink into a rep without your feet catching, which no low bar can match. GORNATION make them from powder-coated steel with a 40mm bar and a long 65cm footprint, and the load rating is frankly absurd for bodyweight work: 500kg per pair. That stability turns them into a proper home stand-in for a dedicated station, and they double up for L-sits, tuck planche and elevated push-ups. If you'd rather a fixed unit, see our best dip station UK guide.

The corrugated rubber end caps grip hard floors, wooden boards and paving without shifting, which is what you want when you're 40cm up and inverted. Two honest downsides, though. They're heavy at 7.7kg the pair and 65cm long, so they claim floor space and don't travel; and a powder-coated steel bar turns slick once your hands sweat, so keep chalk within reach. Tall bars also tip more readily than low ones if you throw your weight sideways, so plant them square. For dips and clearance, nothing else here comes close.

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4. PULLUP & DIP Fitness Parallettes: Most Stable

Nervous about tipping a bar mid-handstand? This is the reassuring one. PULLUP & DIP build a wide, arched steel base that plants itself and simply refuses to wobble, and the 38mm tube is wrapped in rubber to a 44mm grip that's warmer and less slippy than bare metal. The handles sit at a medium height around 30cm, the pair weighs 5.6kg, and the steel is rated to 200kg. A small ebook of parallette exercises comes bundled, handy for a beginner mapping out a first routine.

That wide arch is the trade-off as well as the selling point: the base reaches out further than a straight-footed design, so the real footprint is bigger than the numbers suggest. The height is fixed, so you can't drop them lower for pure planche practice the way you can with a mini pair. The 200kg ceiling is lower than GORNATION's steel pair, though still far beyond what most people will ever load onto them. If rock-solid footing matters to you more than portability, buy these.

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5. Yes4All Steel Parallettes: Best Budget

Want to find out whether L-sits are your thing before spending real money? Start here. The Yes4All steel parallettes are plain U-shaped bars, roughly 61cm long with a 38mm (1.5 inch) grip and non-slip rubber feet, and they hold up to about 158kg. For push-ups, dips, handstand practice and early L-sit work they do the job at a fraction of the premium price, which is exactly what a first pair should do.

You get what you pay for on feel. Bare powder-coated steel is cold first thing and slippy once your palms sweat, so chalk or gloves help; the grip has none of the warmth of wood, and a handful of owners mention creaks or scuffed finish over time. There's no travel strap, and assembly is down to you. The U-shaped bar also puts the feet close together, so they feel less planted than a wide-based pair when you tip your weight forward. As a cheap way into calisthenics that you can upgrade from later, though, they're still hard to beat.

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Which parallettes should you buy?

It comes down to height, material and how far you want to carry them.

• Best overall: the Gravity Fitness Medium Parallettes suit almost everyone, with warm 40mm wood handles on a rock-steady steel frame.
• Best wooden: the GORNATION Wooden Parallettes are the light, low, skill-focused pick for handstands and L-sits.
• Best high parallettes: the GORNATION Metal Parallettes stand 40cm tall for deep dips and hold a huge 500kg per pair.
• Most stable: the PULLUP & DIP Fitness Parallettes plant themselves with a wide arched base and a comfy rubber grip.
• Best budget: the Yes4All Steel Parallettes are the cheap, no-frills way to start.

Still torn? Match the height to the skill you care about most. Handstands and planche reward low bars; dips and long L-sits reward tall ones; and a medium hybrid splits the difference well enough that most people never regret it. Pair any of them with a pull up bar and a set of gymnastic rings and you've covered most of a bodyweight gym in a corner of the room. This kind of training pays off, too: the NHS recommends working all the major muscle groups on at least 2 days a week, and even short calisthenics programmes measurably build strength. Whatever you choose, test the feet on your own floor and load the bar gently before you trust it upside down.

Recommended reads

• Home gym equipment guides
• Best Dip Station UK
• Best Gymnastic Rings UK
• Best Pull Up Bar UK