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Dragon Flag

Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐ Advancedcore

Home Setup

Use a sturdy bed frame, heavy couch, or doorway pull-up bar where you can lie down and grip something stable behind your head

Heavy couchBed frameDoorway pull-up barSturdy table

💡 Pro tip: Place a yoga mat or cushion under your upper back for comfort, and ensure whatever you're gripping can support your full body weight without moving

Gym Setup

Flat bench with legs or posts to grip, decline bench, or captain's chair with handles

Safety: Ensure your grip is secure before attempting the movement and avoid if you have lower back issues; start with regressions to build proper strength

💪 Muscles Worked

Rectus AbdominisTransverse AbdominisLatissimus DorsiHip FlexorsSerratus Anterior

⭐ Why This Exercise?

The dragon flag is one of the most challenging core exercises in calisthenics, developing exceptional anti-extension strength and full-body tension control. It builds incredible core stability, improves body awareness, and creates a strong foundation for advanced gymnastics and calisthenics movements while also developing impressive lat and hip flexor strength.

Make It Easier

Regressions for building up strength

1. Hollow Body Hold

floor + yoga mat

Builds the fundamental posterior pelvic tilt and core compression needed without the leverage challenge

2. Tuck Dragon Flag

bench + sturdy pole

Reduces leverage by keeping knees tucked to chest, making the movement 60-70% easier while teaching the movement pattern

3. Single Leg Dragon Flag

bench + sturdy pole

Reduces load by extending only one leg while keeping the other tucked, creating an intermediate difficulty level

Make It Harder

Progressions for advanced athletes

1. Weighted Dragon Flag

bench + ankle weights or weight vest

Adds external resistance via ankle weights or weight vest to increase core and lat demands

2. Dragon Flag with Pause

bench + sturdy pole

Holding at various points in the range of motion increases time under tension and control requirements

3. Slow Eccentric Dragon Flag

bench + sturdy pole

Taking 5-10 seconds to lower increases eccentric strength and body control to an extreme level

↕️ Similar Movements

Hanging Leg Raises
Develops similar hip flexor and lower core strength with vertical body positioning
L-Sit
Requires similar hip flexor compression strength and core stability in a different plane
Front Lever
Shares the horizontal body tension and lat engagement but with inverted grip and pulling emphasis
Ab Wheel Rollout
Trains similar anti-extension core strength with progressive leverage changes
Windshield Wipers
Advanced hanging core movement that complements dragon flags with rotational core strength

Form Checklist

✓Grip the bench firmly behind your head and keep shoulders planted throughout the entire movement
✓Maintain posterior pelvic tilt by pulling ribs down toward hips and keeping lower back from arching
✓Keep your entire body rigid as one unit - imagine you're a steel flagpole pivoting only at the shoulders
✓Lower with control until your body is nearly parallel to the ground, never letting your lower back sag
✓Engage lats hard by pulling down on the bench as if doing a straight-arm pulldown

Common Mistakes

  • •Allowing the hips to sag or pike, breaking the straight body line and reducing core engagement
  • •Using momentum or swinging rather than controlled muscular tension throughout the movement
  • •Letting the lower back arch into extension, which shifts stress from core to spine and increases injury risk
  • •Not maintaining shoulder stability and allowing shoulders to shrug or shift during the movement
  • •Attempting the full movement before mastering regressions, leading to poor form and potential injury

📈 When to Progress

You can hold a tuck dragon flag for 20+ seconds with perfect form, perform 8-10 single-leg dragon flags per side with control, and can complete 5 full dragon flags with a 3-second eccentric phase while maintaining a completely straight body line