- What's up, elite Thenx athletes?
It's Stefan Heria,
welcome to another video of Official Thenx.
Today I'm going to teach you guys how to do a dragonflag.
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All right, so let's get started.
But before we get into the dragonflag,
let's go over some of the benefits.
So first off, the dragonflag is a compound exercise
that mainly targets your core,
but it also requires other muscle groups
to perform this exercise,
like your lats, lower back and your rear delts.
If your goal is to work towards
more advanced, more difficult exercises
like the front lever or the muscle-up,
then it is very important
to do training exercises like these
that require several muscle groups to work together
to perform the exercise.
When performing exercises like the bicep curl
you're mainly relying on the bicep
to perform that exercise.
However, when doing compound movements,
like the muscle-up,
you're required to use several muscles,
and at the right timing,
to execute the exercise.
The more you train these types of exercises,
the more comfortable you'll be
at doing compound exercises
and using your body as a whole,
which is something you don't often train
if you're solely doing isolation style workouts.
Lacking in compound-style exercises
will hinder you from reaching your best PRs
and overall performance.
Most people that don't train compound exercises
normally cannot perform advanced skills.
Which is why it is very common to see
really big guys who can curl a lot of weight,
but cannot even do 10 pull-ups.
So before beginning to learn how to do a dragonflag,
it is very important
you can comfortably pass these requirements.
You wanna make sure you can do
at least a 10 second L-sit,
five upside down deadlifts,
and 10 pull-ups.
If you can do these, you're good to go.
All right, so before we begin,
let me show you what a dragonflag should look like.
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All right, now I'm gonna show you guys
the progressions to this exercise
incorporated into a workout routine
to have you master the dragonflag.
We'll be starting from the hardest progression
to the easiest progression.
So follow along and jump in
at whichever progression is right for you.
All right guys, so let's get into the first exercise.
This is the hardest progression
and this move is called the dragonflag flutter kick.
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There you go, we're gonna do 10 reps of those.
Every time you lift one leg up
and the other one down is one rep.
Guys, when doing this exercise make sure that
the point of contact with you and the floor
is the upper back and your traps.
You wanna make sure that you have
as much of your back off the floor
and the way to do this
is by engaging your lower back and your core.
The activation of your lower back
is the key to keeping your body off the floor.
All right guys, once you've completed
those 10 dragonflag flutter kicks
lets move on to the next exercise.
So we're going to be doing
five single leg dragonflag raises on each side.
Here we go.
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There you go.
Five single leg dragonflag raises on each leg.
All right guys, this was the second hardest progression
to mastering the dragonflag.
This movement simulates the actual dragonflag
except it makes it a little bit easier
by bringing in that one knee
so you have less weight extended
and more weight close to the center of your body
which makes it much easier
to lift your body up and down.
Again, always make sure that your core is really tight
and you're engaging your lower back.
All right guys, lets jump into the next move.
So the next progression on the list
is gonna be dragonflag switching legs.
So it's gonna be similar
to the dragonflag single leg raised,
however this time, we're gonna keep a static hold
and switch legs 10 times.
Here we go.
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All right, when doing this move make sure
that you're not putting all your pressure on your neck.
Again, you wanna make sure that you're not moving around
when doing this exercise
and that you're maintaining a stationary position.
So keep your chin tucked.
Also, make sure that you're engaging those lats
'cause you really need to pull,
similar to a lat pull-down,
in order to maintain that hold.
And you want to make sure that
the majority of your back is off the ground.
All right guys, now that you've finished your 10 reps
lets move on to the next exercise.
So here we're going for the dragonflag negatives
and we're going for 10 reps.
(workout music)
All right guys, so there you have the dragonflag negatives.
This movement is like a leg raise
and hip raise at the same time.
You wanna make sure that your starting
with your feet straight up
and once you have that straight line with your body
you wanna lower yourself as slowly as you can
while making sure you put emphasis on that lower back
to push up till your tippy toes drop.
So guys if you do not have a straight back,
you are not doing this exercise correctly.
You wanna make sure that your engaging you lower back.
You need to be doing these exercises with perfect form
if you really wanna master the dragonflag.
If you don't have perfect technique,
you'll never get the dragonflag.
That bent dragonflag will never
translate into the straight dragonflag
if your not training it at a straight angle.
All right guys so let's move on to the last progression
which is the easiest progression in this workout routine.
If you were able to pass the requirement
as mentioned in the beginning of this video,
then you should have no problem performing this exercise.
This move is the first and easiest progression
in mastering the dragonflag
and it is also the last exercise in this workout routine.
So let's go for 10 dragonflag hip raises.
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All right guys, so there you have 10 reps
of dragonflag hip raises.
So if you guys are having trouble
keeping that straight line,
this exercise specifically trains for that.
So focus on this exercise,
if this is the only progression
you could do out of the whole routine.
You wanna drill this exercise
until you can work your way up
to mastering all the progressions on this list.
Eventually, you'll be able to work your way
up the progression, complete the routine,
and master the dragonflag.
So with that said, thank you guys
so much for watching.
If you enjoyed the video,
or it helped you in any way,
definitely smash that like button.
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Comment down below right now, and we'll see you next Sunday.
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- Zürich, we are coming for you guys.
Have you guys ever heard of Bardogs Gym?
Cause that's exactly where we're gonna be.
Stephen what date are we gonna be there?
April 25th, April 26th we're gonna be there.
We have advanced workshops, and we have basic workshops.
Check it out, thenx.com/blog/events
the link is down in the description below.
Shout out to Manuel for hosting us.
This is gonna be a crazy workshop guys.
If you are in Zürich or near Switzerland
and you wanna make it to this workshop,
sign up right now, we'll see you guys there.
Also Austria, we're gonna be in Bregenz
just a couple days before we're in Zürich.
For more info and to find out how you can attend
one of our events, go to thenx.com/blog/events.
See you guys there.
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