American-Gymnast Travellettes ($39.95)
www.american-gymnast.com

Going with the theme of this issue, I thought I would review a product that is extremely useful for any aspiring gymnast, or anyone just looking to add a potent new weapon into their fitness arsenal. Parallettes are a very popular training aid amongst gymnasts because it allows them to practice many gymnastics skills and build strength while they are away from the gym. They are similar to Parallel Bars (or P-Bars, as gymnasts say), except they are much lower to the ground and shorter. The American-Gymnast Travelettes are designed with portability in mind. They are very lightweight and disassemble quite easily. However, do not assume that this portability comes at the price of function. On the contrary, I think they are better than the ones at my gymnastics gym. For one, they have rubber end caps, which prevents them from sliding out from under you. This is an important consideration for those of you who do not want to be putting a chiropractor's son through college. They also have special connector that allows you to take the feet on and off easily, and it also keeps the feet square with one another. My homemade ones do not have this feature and it's somewhat of a nuisance. All I can say is that the Travellettes are very well designed and are the envy of anyone who decided to build their own.
There is also an excellent training guide on the American-Gymnast website. It has three levels of difficulty and a huge variety of exercises. Most people will be humbled at the beginning level. Two sets of 5-7 handstand pushups are considered "beginner". If you have ever tried handstand pushups on parallettes, they are surprisingly difficult compared to doing them on the floor. Another staple in the program is the L-Sit, which is one of my favorite ab exercises. I really like this particular exercise because it engages a lot of other muscles. As you move into the V-sit, it becomes a demanding active flexibility exercise. Handstands become pirouettes and pushups become planches. Everything about this program is very progressive in nature. It is so challenging in such a variety of ways that it will keep you interested for a very long time. If you can complete the advanced workout, consider yourself superhuman.

Jay Thornton performs a Straddle Press to Handstand from an L-Sit on a pair of Travellettes.

Jumpstretch Videos ($10/each)
www.jumpstretch.com

One of the best-kept secrets in fitness are these Jumpstretch videos produced by Dick Hartzell. They are an incredible value at $10 each and the information in them is invaluable. If you are an owner of Jumpstretch bands, you cannot afford not to get at least on of these videos. I would start off with the flexibility video as your first pick.
Flexibility video: In this video, Dick Hartzell covers all of the exercises covered in the manual and on the website, plus a few more. What is excellent about the video is that he adds a lot of tips on how you can improve the efficiency of your workouts. These timesaving tips are great, but my favorite part of the video is the spinal traction exercises. I have found them extremely valuable on those days when my back is just a little stiff. After just a few minutes with the bands, my back always feels much better.
Basketball video: One of the athlete's at the Jumpstretch gym presents this tape on using bands for basketball training. He does a great job of explaining and demonstrating the exercises. There are a wide variety of drills in here for improving agility and vertical jumping abilities. The program is well designed and I'm sure that it will be effective if you desire to jump higher.
Martial Arts video: Carl LaRosa guides you through this nice video on using bands for martial arts training. There is a variety of drills for improving your blocks and punches. Basically, he shows you how to configure the bands so that you can go through a variety of different punching and blocking motions. He also covers flexibility exercises for the lower body and strengthening exercises that simulate a kicking motion. This video is great for martial artists.