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The Dragon FlagThe dragon flag, unique bodyweight exercises difficulty rating for one rep - 8 out of 10Average time to master 3 months
The dragon flag made famous by Bruce Lee is one of the three best abdominal exercises that you can do (the other two being the full hanging leg raise and the abs wheel roll out). This exercise on its own can build amazingly strong and defined abs as well as great overall core strength so it is a must do exercise for anyone wanting to master the most difficult bodyweight exercises, having said that, it should only be attempted by people who have trained for some time and already posses a good level of overall body strength as it does have a high risk injury factor if you attempt it before you are ready.
As stated above this is a very difficult exercise and what adds to the difficulty is there are not many options for methods of progression, however, the technique I used was to bend my legs at the knees and therefore considerably reduce the leverage offered by the legs. So the first stage of progression is to lie with your back flat against a bench, your arms behind your head and your hands gripping the edge of the bench. Then bring your knees in to your waist so that your thighs are at 90 degrees and in one coordinated effort pull up with your hands keeping your whole body rigid until it rises up and your torso points directly towards the ceiling. Once there hold the position for a second or two and then lower your body back down under control until your buttocks are just a couple of inches from the bench. Note, as your body rises to begin the rep, slowly breath out and keep your whole body tensed , as you begin to descend again slowly breath in with the abdomen and repeat the sequence. If you find that even with your legs bent you cannot lift yourself of the bench under control you can simply perform partial negatives by lowering yourself down from the end of the movement until you reach as low as you can safely go and then pulling your body back up. The next stage of progression is to gradually extend the legs over a period of time as you get stronger until you can finally do the dragon flag with your legs completely straight.
Advice Make sure your shoulders and head are in contact with the bench at all times. Pointing your toes helps to keep your body correctly aligned. Good muscular coordination is essential to do the dragon flag so a good drill is to stand in front of a mirror and practice tensing as many muscles as possible at the same time. If you would like to lose up to 2lb of fat each and every week or start building muscle now why not let me train you online on a one to one basis and you will receive your own exercise and nutritional plan designed specifically for you and your individual, age, physical composition, metabolism, lifestyle, and goals. Find out more Here
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Try our Free online personal training for one week without obligation and see the results for yourself before you decide to subscribe. To inquire simply use the contact form Here and begin building your new body now! Other New Articles The 100 push ups in six weeks guide Read More |
Facts on strength building
To build pure strength all bodyweight exercises have to be kept within the 1-6 repetition range.
Once you can do the required number of repetitions in an exercise change to a more demanding one
You can build strength and stay the same weight if that is your goal.
Strength training requires short workouts of no more than 30-45 minutes to be most effective.
Facts on muscle building
To build a combination of muscle and strength all exercises have to be kept within the 6-12 repetition range.
The best muscle building diet requires two grams of protein for every kilo of your bodyweight.
The quickest way to build muscle requires an increase in bodyweight.
Each muscle should be trained no more than once or a maximum of twice per week for best results.
Facts on abs building
Diet accounts for 80% of the success in building great abs.
You cannot spot reduce fat from any one area of your body or in other words you cannot pick and choose were to lose fat. It has to be done gradually throughout the whole body.
To lose weight eat 4 or 5 small meals a day with each meal containing protein. This keeps your metabolism high and stops your body going into starvation mode which is when it will store fat.
Do not lose more than 1 or 2 pound of weight per week.
The best three abs exercises are the dragon flag, full abs rollout and full hanging leg raise.
Sit ups and crunches are terrible fat burning exercises. You would have to do 1000 sit-ups every night for over 2 weeks to burn 1 pound of fat.
In one study on rats, one group was given all their food in one meal per day as opposed to the other group which had the same amount of food but in small meals throughout the day. The results showed that ones who ate all there food in one meal put on weight whilst the others did not.
Doing lots of cardio without muscle building will result in large muscle loss because your body will adapt to make the cardio easy by losing the heavy muscle. The result could be someone who has very little muscle but still carries some fat.
Exercises that are weight bearing like running and walking are better for burning calories than non weight bearing ones such as cross trainers and cycling.
Facts on flexibility
All workouts should begin with dynamic stretchinginvolving two sets of 10 to 15 repetitions of each movement used.
All workouts should end with a cool down of static passive stretching.
The quickest flexibility results are gained with isometric stretching.
Isometric stretching should be done towards the end of a workout and never more than 3-4 times per week.