Form Anyone here do human flags?

[ricc505]

I knew a 55+ year old Chinese guy who could do them with ease. 6'2" thin build. Drove me nuts I was bigger and stronger, lifts, pullups, anything but he would destroy me in arm wrestling and could do the flag. Good for you persevering

 

[usernamee]

BTW--you can't be weak in your shoulders or triceps, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to do them wall-supported. You considered tiger bend push-ups though? If you feel like your tris need work, I found those gave me great results.

I meant that I'm too weak to do them full ROM, off the floor is fine strength wise.

I tried tiger bend pushups last year and they aggravated my elbows but I was on medication at the time which fucked with my joints and ligaments. I'm actually not doing handstand pushups at all at the moment because I'm dealing with another medical condition which makes being inverted not a great idea.

 

[Kforcer]

I meant that I'm too weak to do them full ROM, off the floor is fine strength wise.

I tried tiger bend pushups last year and they aggravated my elbows but I was on medication at the time which fucked with my joints and ligaments. I'm actually not doing handstand pushups at all at the moment because I'm dealing with another medical condition which makes being inverted not a great idea.

I am a big believer in the idea that no exercise is indispensable. I've made a lot of adjustments based on my elbows and joints and what seems to mess them up, etc. For example, I love the ab roller in theory, but it has hurt my lower back in the past, so I've pretty much said goodbye to it. Chin-ups and pull-ups I don't really do anymore either, or normal preacher curls.

I've always figured if an exercise is messing you, its fine to just find another way to work those muscles if you can that doesn't mess you up. Or just do other stuff and maybe try to rehab that area in some way.

 

[Fahcough]

Revisit just cause. Been working on front levers from Rings and Parallel Bars, both difficulties the same for different reasons. Ain't never had a lat and bicep pump like trying to hold body in a hanging plank. 90% of the work is holding in half tuck and lowering / raising body like a dragon flag. Maybe 1 leg out at a time for 2 seconds.

The ring false grip feels a bit more natural being you can pull your hands closer together but the shaking is violent. The bars are a bit wider apart with neutral grip instead of overhand. Being they are sturdy , figured it would be easier but grip difference works bicep harder

 

[Kforcer]

Revisit just cause. Been working on front levers from Rings and Parallel Bars, both difficulties the same for different reasons. Ain't never had a lat and bicep pump like trying to hold body in a hanging plank. 90% of the work is holding in half tuck and lowering / raising body like a dragon flag. Maybe 1 leg out at a time for 2 seconds.

The ring false grip feels a bit more natural being you can pull your hands closer together but the shaking is violent. The bars are a bit wider apart with neutral grip instead of overhand. Being they are sturdy , figured it would be easier but grip difference works bicep harder

Best thing for me as far as front lever development were doing hanging scapular retractions, i.e., hanging from the bar and then retracting the scapulae so that the shoulder blades touch. That was the biggest difference maker for me. Haven't done levers in a while though.

Got into one-armed dragon flags, right now the big issue is not letting my hips break or my back arch. My right side is further along than my left side. But I'm saying this during a rest period and my left side is, I think, doing pretty well. Been doing front leg raises and reverse leg raises(not sure what you'd call it actually) to try and help with it. Of course, at some point I am gonna get back to levers.

Haven't done flags in a while either. Overdid iron cross pulls, did them too many days in a row and tendonitis or something flared up, so that I couldn't really do human flag pull-ups without aggravating it.

We'll see how my current approach of strengthening hip flexors to help with straight-body stuff like flags and levers goes. With levers, the upper body is so much more important, but with flags, you definitely have a lot more core going on. Either way, strengthening my hip flexors won't hurt anything.

 

[Fahcough]

Haven't done flags in a while either. Overdid iron cross pulls, did them too many days in a row and tendonitis or something flared up, so that I couldn't really do human flag pull-ups without aggravating it.

We'll see how my current approach of strengthening hip flexors to help with straight-body stuff like flags and levers goes. With levers, the upper body is so much more important, but with flags, you definitely have a lot more core going on. Either way, strengthening my hip flexors won't hurt anything.

Sucks getting excited about trying to learn a new feat. You're gonna overdo it, and not realize soon enough lol. Ok 2 days then rest, 3rd day won't hurt. They are biceps they'll recover fine going 4 days straight.
What flared up? Iron Cross attempts is hell on AC joint, even at 10 second holds 4 or 5 times. That shoulder is going to scream tomorrow. Might be a week before ring dips are possible without pain.

1 arm flags would be cool to see. Haven't seen anyone attempt that but it's not really a thing shown on many vids unless you look for it.

 

[Kforcer]

Sucks getting excited about trying to learn a new feat. You're gonna overdo it, and not realize soon enough lol. Ok 2 days then rest, 3rd day won't hurt. They are biceps they'll recover fine going 4 days straight.
What flared up? Iron Cross attempts is hell on AC joint, even at 10 second holds 4 or 5 times. That shoulder is going to scream tomorrow. Might be a week before ring dips are possible without pain.

1 arm flags would be cool to see. Haven't seen anyone attempt that but it's not really a thing shown on many vids unless you look for it.

A lot of people have videos doing one-arm dragon flags, but a lot of them are letting their hips break and definitely not going down to parallel. Its actually making me feel a lot better with where I'm at. I was doing them with a pretty wide leg straddle, but my legs have gotten a lot closer and I actually do think the hip flexor work has helped straighten things out. I think if I continue to do the hip flexor work its going to have a lot of dividends.


I'm in a different place with my biceps than a lot of people probably, they've been through a lot in my 44 years. Iron crosses are one of the things that really takes them to the max (also, I often do them with biceps facing down which exacerbates the pressure on them), but I like doing it so much that I ended up doing it too many days in a row and ended up not being able to do it at all for a while. Got some long-time elbow, tendonitis issues, especially with the right arm. Don't do normal pull-ups, chin-ups at all anymore due to it. In this case, I guess I could feel it all the way through the biceps down to the forearm. Not a new skill, but just an exercise that's really cathartic to me and I just overdid it. I've gotten away with overdoing it a lot in the past but this time was too much I guess.

 

[nonoob]

Walk up to a pole. 1 hand low , 1 hand high. Hold body out like a flag, don't forget the l

Difficult to do, takes a bunch of strength and practice to keep legs straight out.

Being right handed, always used that stronger arm as the bottom pushing and the left arm pulling. Never had enough strength in my left arm to flip, use it to push up.

 

[nonoob]

Walk up to a pole. 1 hand low , 1 hand high. Hold body out like a flag, don't forget the l

Difficult to do, takes a bunch of strength and practice to keep legs sticking straight out.

Being right handed, always used that stronger arm as the bottom pushing and the left arm pulling. Never had enough strength in my left arm to reverse, couldn't use it pushing up on bottom.

 

[Kforcer]

--BTW, I think I am in a great place as far as iron crosses go. I just love doing it and kinda went overboard during the summer. Next time I do 'em, I'm sure its going to be great. Just had to step back for a minute.

 

[nonoob]

--BTW, I think I am in a great place as far as iron crosses go. I just love doing it and kinda went overboard during the summer. Next time I do 'em, I'm sure its going to be great. Just had to step back for a minute.

Bad to the Bone...And hespect. Never could pull that one off.

If anyone's new and interested? What Really Helps is learning gymnastics. Learn how to use your hands in place of your feet. To walk on your hands takes strength and balance.

To Start? Push-ups, push-ups, push-ups. Do a man's push up, body straight AF.
Knees? Please. Guys - No Knees Ever, cool for girls to use as their pivot point.

Do them forever, non-stop. Important to have perfect form, in sets of no less than 10, then 25, then 50. A good goal is Minimum of 50 in one minute...in perfect form.

 

[Kforcer]

Bad to the Bone...And hespect. Never could pull that one off.

If anyone's new and interested? What Really Helps is learning gymnastics. Learn how to use your hands in place of your feet. To walk on your hands takes strength and balance.

To Start? Push-ups, push-ups, push-ups. Do a man's push up, body straight AF.
Knees? Please. Guys - No Knees Ever, cool for girls to use as their pivot point.

Do them forever, non-stop. Important to have perfect form, in sets of no less than 10, then 25, then 50. A good goal is Minimum of 50 in one minute...in perfect form.

Couldn't agree more. Pushups are timeless, man.

 

[Fahcough]

Push Ups are cool because there's 50 variations of them. Like some decline into mini parallel handles, get deep in the stretch

 

[don't ask]

Anyone wanting to train human flags needs to get their hands on Convict Conditioning 2 and just follow the progressions.

One thing I learned on my own journey is that lifting yourself into the flag is a lot harder to do than putting your arms in place, kicking your legs to the sky and slowly lowering into the flag. I think most strong people who struggle with flags can pull them off with this tip.

 

[don't ask]

I am a big believer in the idea that no exercise is indispensable. I've made a lot of adjustments based on my elbows and joints and what seems to mess them up, etc. For example, I love the ab roller in theory, but it has hurt my lower back in the past, so I've pretty much said goodbye to it. Chin-ups and pull-ups I don't really do anymore either, or normal preacher curls.

I've always figured if an exercise is messing you, its fine to just find another way to work those muscles if you can that doesn't mess you up. Or just do other stuff and maybe try to rehab that area in some way.

You might want to try limiting those moves to a ROM that spares your joints. I found I progressed much further, pain free, with this method because I could make most bothersome exercises safe and productive. A few years after I started doing this, science showed that lengthened partials can build as much mass as the full ROM and this perfectly meshes with what I was discovering.

 

[Devil's_Advocate]

Don't overlook using bands to help regress the movement or build up volume.

 

[Fahcough]

This is gonna sound odd to a lurker but how do you make yourself smaller in Skin the Cat? I can't fit between the bar and hips, ankles aren't near clearing the bar. And I can't tuck any tighter. Might need to do more mobility on lower back to fit in the ball better to pull knees all the way to chin.

 

[Devil's_Advocate]

I think rings may be a helpful tool to get for the skin the cat exercise....it will give you more clearance....

It looks like the key is the hollow body upper body positioning, compression strength in bringing knees all the way to the chest and shoulder mobility.

 

[Fahcough]

I think rings may be a helpful tool to get for the skin the cat exercise....it will give you more clearance....

It looks like the key is the hollow body

That was the eye opener, no issue on rings. Tried to work a bar back lever and couldn't get feet to fit in the tuck. Bar was quite humbling how much tighter you have to roll up. Those 145lb dudes make it look so natural They got no belly to suck in.

 

[Kforcer]

That was the eye opener, no issue on rings. Tried to work a bar back lever and couldn't get feet to fit in the tuck. Bar was quite humbling how much tighter you have to roll up. Those 145lb dudes make it look so natural They got no belly to suck in.

Yeah, I feel bad for no response given the great responses I've got in the thread, but I don't really have much to say on skin the cat on a bar, having zero experience with it. That said, if you have access to rings, is there an issue just working it there? Whatever issues you have with the bar might at least be lessened through that, right? And if nothing else, you're working a similar set of muscles.