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Intro
Welcome to my article, where I’ll review the prosourcefit parallel bars. This review describes parallel bars and how they can benefit indoor or outdoor workouts. The parallel bar is imperative for bodyweight exercises to learn the basics as the foundation. It’s fantastic for building a great body. Why? Because I use them a lot to develop my physique and work towards performing more complicated exercises. Once you’ve read my article review, I’m confident you’ll have peace of mind in making a great choice. So without further due, let’s jump right into this review.
What are parallel bars?
A parallel bar is a floor apparatus with different height levels depending on usage. For professional gymnastics, the bars are 5 cm (2 inches) thick, 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) long, 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall, and 42 cm (16.5 inches) apart. The bars can rest to hip height or below the hips for home usage, making them height adjustable. Second, the apparatus consists of two parallel bars made of metal or wood. Third, padding is on the top of the bar for comfort, like most home usage. Fourth, you can perform basic and advanced movements, depending on your bodyweight skill level. Fifth, home usage with parallel bars is mobile. Parallel bars are also medical devices explicitly applied in physical and occupational rehabilitation therapy. It assists individuals in relearning to walk and regain balance, strength, range of motion, and mobility after surgery.
How do you use parallel bars?
To properly use the Prosourcefit parallel bars, keep the base stable when applying any movement. Whether you’re using the safety connector or not, make sure to practice safety. Second, always grip the bars tightly when performing basic or advanced exercises. A perfect example is a vertical pushup. When you elevate your body up and then bring the body back down, always hold a tight grip. It goes for any movement done on the bars.
Are the Prosourcefit parallel bars of high quality?
The parallel bars are high quality, and I’ve used them without issues. The bars are really of high quality. It’s composed of an iron tube and has soft pads for easy grip use. The apparatus comes with a safety connector to help keep the base stable. Along with the safety connector, it has two large screws to tighten. It’s to prevent any erratic movement that would cause injury to a beginner. You can adjust the height from 31 inches to 35 inches. It includes four screws to tighten the iron tubes when adjusting the height of the bars. The bars weigh about 11 pounds each and can support up to 400 pounds. You can perform basic movements to advanced movements with these bars. Remember to practice safety before trying out anything else.
What are the pros and cons of parallel bars?
The bars’ pros are that they have great padding for easy grip comfort. Second, it has a safety connector to help keep the bar’s staple and prevent injuries. Third, it includes adjustable heights and screws to secure the tubes tightly. There are three cons. The first is just getting started if you’ve been lazy for a while. Second, progressing towards more advanced exercises on the bars is difficult. Second, it might not be great for people six feet tall and above. The height adjustment is from 31 inches to 35 inches, making this suitable for short people from 5 feet to 5’8 feet tall.
How do the Prosourcefit parallel bars measure up to other parallel bars?
I honestly don’t have an answer to this because the prosourcefit parallel bars are the only parallel bars I’ve had. But if I had to choose between stationary and mobile, I would pick the mobile parallel bars. The reason is that I could take the parallel bars indoors or outdoors whenever I wanted. Why wouldn’t you like to take your tools wherever you want to take them?
Who is it geared towards in the long run?
The parallel bars are for any individual looking for an excellent workout for upper body and core strengthening. No matter your body type, you can have a wonderful time developing your physique with parallel bars. Over time, being consistent throughout the process is vital. You can’t just expect to work out only once a week and expect great muscular results.
What types of exercises can you do with the Prosourcefit parallel bars?
You can do a variety of movements, but they require a body-mind connection. Some are compounds, and others are isometrics. Look at an article on static stretching before engaging in any physical activity. This article is to show you stretches to prevent you from underperforming and avoid tightness in the muscles.
Vertical Pushups
The vertical pushup is one of the parallel bars’ fundamental upper-body exercises. This movement requires the thoracic and lumbar regions to flex and target the chest and triceps simultaneously. Of course, other muscles activate this movement, like the forearms, lats, traps, abdominals, and deltoids. But the primary skeletal tissues that get the most contraction are the pecs and the triceps. The other muscles are just assistants to help with the motion. Another crucial part is flexing the hip and knee when going up and down. The reason is that the bars are designed only to be put to hip height, at 31 inches to 35 inches. I’m five feet six inches tall, and the 35-inch size sets well to my hip region. If I were to lower my body while having my knees extended, I would not be able to perform correctly.
Horizontal Pullups
Even if you tried to perform a vertical pullup in an L-sit pose, there isn’t enough height to allow you to level down your body. Performing vertical pullups isn’t ideal on the bars because the design height levels are 31 to 35 inches. But the horizontal pullup allows the entire body’s range of motion to lift the torso up and down. Just like the vertical pushup has assisted muscles in helping with the movement, so does the horizontal pullup. The assisted muscles are the triceps, pecs, deltoids, and abdominals. The primary muscle activation is the forearms, biceps, traps, rhomboids, and lats. Find a chair or anything to level the feet so you can be at a 180-degree horizontal angle. It’s to level the body at a 180-degree angle to fully activate the entire back muscles.
Knee Raises
This exercise is excellent for exercising the lower abdominals. Removing the weight of the lower leg allows you to engage the abs more. To perform the exercise, straighten the torso, flex the knees, then flex the hips by bringing the knees up high.
Leg Raise
The mechanics of the L-sit is similar to the knee raise, except the lower leg’s weight is involved. The involvement of the lower leg makes hip flexion a lot harder to perform. To perform the exercise, straighten the torso, straighten the legs then lift the legs by flexing the hips halfway.
L-sit
Performing an L-sit on the floor is excellent practice for transitioning to parallel bars. I honestly say doing the L-sit is better on the bars than on the floor. The first reason is performing the isometric movement on the bars allows you to grip. The grip gives the feeling of more stability when elevating the legs as you get more advanced in performing V-sit. Second, you feel more engaged in the abdominals with grip stability. Third, I can hold the L-sit even longer because the grip gives that sensation of better firmness. Doing the L-sit on the floor with your palms open is challenging, but it’s not my favorite. Even though I still think it’s essential as a practice for learning balance and stability.
Front Lever
Body alignment, stabilization, and strength are critical for the front lever. It’s tough to complete a whole front lever for different reasons. The first is that the lats require more activation because they carry the body’s weight mid-air. Second, you need a strong core and lower erector spinae muscles because it’s like a bridge. The bridge between the upper and lower body helps keep the body at a 180-degree angle. Also, the core and erector spinae help the lats carry the lower body’s weight since it is the heaviest load. Third, keeping the knees locked must keep the body aligned at 180 degrees. You can perform the front lever using both bars or just one. With both, you can perform a neutral grip front lever. For a single bar, you can execute a pronated grip front lever.
As you can see, I’m not perfect at doing the front lever just yet. I still have a lot of training to perform the front lever correctly.
Back Lever
The next area of your body you need to straighten is your knees by extending them, not flexing. You must lock your elbows in full extension and have a tight grip to perform this isometric position on the bar. To keep the rest of the body at a 180-degree angle, you must straighten your erector spinae. I’m not that great when performing this because I’m a beginner, but I’m always practicing to become intermediate. A reminder to you, always practice mobility on the shoulder joint.
As you can see, I’m not perfect at doing the back lever just yet. I still have a lot of training to perform the back lever correctly.
Hand Stand
The handstand is more complicated if you think the other isometric movements are challenging. The challenge of performing the handstand is inverted coordination and balance. The mind and body connection is increasingly demanding to perform this movement. One false move, and you’ll end up injured. I suggest that you practice assisted wall handstands if you are a novice. At this moment, in 2022, I can’t perform the handstand on the parallel bars because I’m a beginner at practicing the handstand. It’s also intimidating because of the height level you put yourself in when you’re inverted 35 inches off the floor. It will be wonderful to perform the handstand on the parallel bars one day, but not now. I’ll update this article when I can perform the handstand on the parallel bar.
Shipment
Conclusion
Using the prosourcefit parallel bars is a fun apparatus to develop an incredible physique if you’re consistent. I am pleased to have a tool I can use from a fitness company that prioritizes making the best. I don’t need any other parallel bar on the market because prosourcefit developed an incredible tool. This is my conclusion and summary of the parallel bars I recommend you have for your home gym. It’s worth it.
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