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Angled Human Flag Progression

The Human Flag is one of the toughest bodyweight exercises/feats of strength you can do. It requires tremendous levels of core and general upper body strength to perform. It's a GREAT bodyweight exercise.

And I can't do it, either...

(exercise demo: Bishnu Adhikari)

But I want to...

...so I came up with a progression exercise to help me (and you!) get there.

Now, even if you don't have a Human Flag as your end goal, you can use this exercise to put MAJOR tension on your obliques and pretty much your entire upper body.

It's a great intermediate exercise that's going to give you an amazing core workout just on it's own.

How to Do It:

You'll need a power rack to perform this one, ideally one with a chin-up bar as a top cross-beam (easier to use but not 100% necessary).

Set the safety rails of the rack to about 3 feet off the ground (or about waist height). Set a bar on the rails and brace it against the uprights, away from the chin-up bar.

Brace your hand in an underhand grip against that bottom bar and grip the chin-up bar with your other hand (underhand grip as well).

Now "step" your legs up off the ground and use your top arm to pull your legs off the ground at the same time, keeping your body stiff and straight. Use your bottom arm to BRACE your body and push hard with it to maintain that position.

With this setup, you'll get your body to about 30 to 45 degrees or so. Then just HOLD there for as long as you can.

Because you're at an angle rather than holding onto a vertical bar or post, you're not working against as much resistance during the exercise.

It still targets the EXACT same muscles and isometric contraction patterns, however, allowing you to build up gradually to the strength needed to perform the full exercise, if that's your goal.

Rest briefly then switch around to the other side.

To build up strength in this exercise over time, I recommend finishing EVERY single training session with it, not just when you're training abs.

Because it's likely you won't be able to hold for more than a few seconds the first time you try it, it won't demand a whole lot of recovery time, so you'll be able to do it again fairly soon. Training frequency is your friend on this exercise.

Perform one set on each side, rest one minute then do it again (aim for 2-4 total sets). I recommend starting with the side you finished with on the previous set, to keep your strength balanced.

Whether or not the full Human Flag is your goal, or if just want to build a much stronger, tighter core, this is a GREAT exercise to add to your training arsenal. Very simple and very effective.

If you want to see this exercise in action (even though it's an isometric exercise, it's very helpful to see the setup and positioning for it), I've got it posted on my YouTube channel here.