Many people believe that bodyweight exercises (calisthenics) will not help with strength building. These people are misinformed. Sure, maybe if you take a common exercise, the pushup. Some people find it easy, even doing 100’s of repetitions at a time. People think of that as the end all of bodyweight exercises.
However, show them some moves like the L-seat, handstand pushups, planche pushups, and V-sit, and they will see how hard it is to do some strictly bodyweight maneuvers. Bodyweight exercising is on the rise, with loyal followers at places like rosstraining.com, bodyweightculture.org, gymnasticbodies.com, and beastskills.com
Gymnastic type training is a huge part of bodyweight exercises, and one of the best tools you can use and keep in your home are parallettes. Parallettes are basically mini parallel bars, enabling you to do an extensive list of gymnastic type moves. If you do not desire learning gymnastic exercises, parallettes can also help with regular pushups and its variations, enabling you to go deeper each repetition.
Greg Glassman (from Crossfit.com) has written an excellent detailed article on making your own parallette bars, for less than $20.
