- What's up calisthenics athletes, it's Chris Heria,
welcome to another video of OfficialThenx.
Today, we're gonna learn how to flag.
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Alright, so who's ready to start learning
how to human flag?
So the first thing we got to go through is the steps,
so we have two steps, the first step
is being able to grip straight arm side plank, alright?
After you can do this move, we're gonna go into a grip,
straight arm side plank by lifting your leg,
from there, we're gonna go into the progressions.
The first progression, flag bounce.
The next progression, flag bounce with closed legs.
The third progression, flag negatives,
and the fourth progression, flag raises,
so let's start off on the steps first,
and the first step is gripping straight arm side plank,
so we're gonna get down in the bottom of a pole,
we're gonna put our hand at the bottom of that pole,
as you can see, I'm gripping the pole at the bottom.
From there, I'm gonna come up to the side
like I'm doing a side plank, and then
I'm gonna grab from the top up here,
and this top hand over here is gonna help support my body
by giving it a little pull, a little tug,
almost like I'm doing a pull-up, a wide grip pull-up,
while this arm right here simultaneously is pushing
straight out, so this one's pushing,
and this one's pulling.
So you guys wanna be able to hold this move right here,
real comfortable.
And of course, you wanna be able to do it on both sides.
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Alright.
So once this move here gets really comfortable,
you guys can move on to step two.
Step two is the same thing, except
you're gonna lift your leg.
So in this movement, you can feel it,
you're gonna start to simulate what it feels like
to actually be in a flag, except that you're being assisted
by having your feet on the ground, of course.
But, it's gonna strengthen those muscles,
start preparing for the next progressions.
So this is the next one, step two.
Gripping straight arm side plank with the legs raised.
Alright.
Let's try the other side.
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it's important that the bar should be
right over your head, guys.
Crown of your head, not behind it, not in front of it.
So now you're starting to feel
the main foundation of this move
all comes in the bottom hand, it's really
what's lifting and supporting the rest of your body.
Alright, so moving on, once you guys have mastered this,
and if you haven't mastered this,
go into the app, ThenX app, don't have it?
Download it right now, because we have the human flag
technique guide there, and there we break down every step,
so if you haven't figured out this part yet,
go into the app, check out the steps
to get more thorough idea of this movement.
But, if you guys have already moved on,
we're next to start progressions.
Alright, so we've been training this move for a while,
now you should be strong enough
to bring the bar up to your body,
so we're gonna come to this bar right here,
and I'm gonna show you progression one.
Progression one, flag bounce.
Alright, so now we're gonna actually start
to incorporate what it feels like to be in a flag,
so the first thing we need to cover is our hand placements.
The hand placement is super important,
you wanna have the hand about waist line,
and your hand, the palm should be out just like that,
so this arm really wants to try to stay straight
and pushing, like this.
This is the job of the bottom arm,
is to hold the rest of the body, support it,
but also to keep it straight and push it out like that,
so you wanna keep this right by the waist,
a little lower is fine as well,
and this is also so that you can easily grab it
without having to jump up and grab it,
'cause you wanna have a nice wide grip in between,
so I'll have it almost by the pocket level.
So from here, this position here,
I wanna now bring my shoulder out a little bit,
and bring my chest out a little bit from here,
so that I can have a better grip
in grabbing the bar above from right here.
So from this position right here,
like I said before, you want your head to be
right under this bar, not behind it, not in front of it.
So from this position here, we're gonna bring
with one leg, we're gonna swing it up, and bounce.
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Pretty easy, right?
Let's try the other side.
And down.
So as you begin to try this move, you feel like,
oh, I can do it at first by pushing with this bottom hand,
and pulling with the top one, and I can do less of a bounce,
and I'm using more of my strength to lift my body up,
and then as I get tired, I can just kick a little harder,
just to keep my body up, and compensate
for the strength that I'm losing as I fatigue
throughout the motion.
So, eventually, the goal is to be able to do this
and develop these movements strong enough
so that you can just, boom, and lift your whole body up
with less of a bounce, so you wanna
decrease your bounce over time.
So, progression number two is gonna be a flag bounce,
but we're gonna close our legs
when we get to the top of that flag bounce,
so it should look like this, keeping the same form,
hand right there by the pocket level,
shoulder leveled in line with the bar,
chest a little sticking out, hand right over
the head from here.
Here we go.
Up, and then meet together at the top.
Alright, let's try the other side.
Alright, so one of the main muscles that you're using
when performing this exercise right here
is a lot of obliques, so this is gonna get
your obliques super shredded and also super strong,
'cause you're lifting most of your body
with your obliques and your lats.
Of course, your shoulders are helping as well.
So, we're gonna move on to progression three.
Progression three is flat negatives,
so we're gonna go up into a flag,
and then, now you should be able to kind of like hold it
for a little bit there, once you've been training the flag
bounce with the legs closed, for a while.
At this point, you want to hold it
and then come down with both legs closed.
As you can see, these progressions
are getting gradually harder.
Each one gets about 10% to 15% harder,
so you wanna master one before moving on
to the next one.
So now, let's try flag negatives.
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Up.
Come down.
Alright, let's try the other side.
Alright, so we're almost at the end,
so the last progression, if you guys have made it this far,
is progression number four, that is flag raise.
Once you've been doing this for a while,
and you can do about 10 on both sides comfortably,
it's now time to try the flag raise.
That is, from the bottom, you're just gonna pull straight up
into a flag.
You're gonna get to the flag level, tighten for a second,
and then come back down.
Up, boom, tighten for a second, come back down.
You wanna be able to do this for reps,
and by the time you can do this for reps,
you'll be holding a flag no problem,
so the last progression should look like this.
So on the bottom, feet together.
Now let's try the other side.
Woo, that's a lot of flag work for today.
Alright, so you've made it this far,
and some of you haven't, some of you have.
Now, as you're going on through these progressions,
you might find, oh, how do I know
when I'm ready to move on to the next progression?
Well, if you get the app, open up to the human flag
technique guide, and there you will see
the exact requirements of when to move on for each step,
and you'll have a more in-depth look
of exactly how to do this, we're only
skimming the surface here.
Alright, so, let's say you can get
all the way to the end, what now?
How do I, or I could do these flag raises,
I still can't do a flag, or I could do a flag,
how do I perfect it, how do I master it?
This, I'm about to show you guys,
is how I master all the techniques that I do,
it's a very simple process.
What I do is I start at the progression
that challenges me the most, whether it be the actual move
as a flag, or it'll be the progression right under it
if I can't do a flag yet, for example, the flag raise,
or it could be the flag negatives,
wherever my fitness level is at,
I'll start at the hardest one,
I'll do as many as I can until I break form,
and then I'll go into the progression previous
as many as I can til I break form,
go into the previous form, until all the way,
and I work my way all the way down
to the basic, basic, basic, simplest progression.
Even with pull-ups, it could be just Australian pull-ups,
I'll go all the way from weighted pull-ups
to expulsion pull-ups to L-sit pull-ups
to just normal pull-ups to Australian pull-ups,
all the way down working the progression,
so this is how you're gonna master this movement,
so let me give you guys a little snippet
of what that should look like.
So, for me, personally, you guys could jump in
at wherever the progression is that challenges you the most,
and you start from there working your way down,
I'm gonna start at the flag hold,
so let's say I was to go here.
Hold.
When I can't hold anymore, stop.
Now I'm ready to go on to the progression right before it,
even if I can only do one of those reps,
still, always also, do it on both sides.
So now we're gonna go into the progression before.
I'll keep going with those til I max out,
or until perfect form breaks.
Then I'm ready to go to the previous progression.
Alright, flag negatives.
When I can't go on anymore, you see, even if you just do two
of each progression, you're still training,
you're still getting a solid, solid, solid workout as well,
and you're gonna get this foundation really, really strong
so that human flags are gonna be super easy.
Next one we have.
Flag bounce, closed legs.
Then, woo, I'm actually kinda feeling that now.
Now a flag bounce.
Alright, and we'll even work down to the steps.
So you come down.
Hold the bottom.
Then, right there.
Hold, hold, hold, hold til you can't go anymore,
til you drop.
Woo, alright.
Well, make sure you're training both sides,
super important.
You don't wanna be that guy that can only
do a flag on one side, you know what I'm saying?
That's not that cool.
So, hopefully you guys take this,
you take these concepts, you take this training,
I wanna see you guys doing flags everywhere.
And that little technique process that I showed you
can work your planche, work for muscle-ups,
work for any technique that you're trying to accomplish,
and if you're trying to accomplish these techniques
worry-free, just basically with all the cheat codes,
download our app, ThenX app, you can search for it
in the app store, or click the link
in the video description right now
to get it on your phone, learn how to human flag,
muscle-up, planche, all these super awesome moves,
not only that, but when you become a member,
you have access to our whole database,
that's all our workouts, all our workout programs,
that's right, everything, alright, so I'll see you guys
on that other side, thank you guys so much
for watching, peace out.
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