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Should I get my dragon flag before I can achieve a front lever


Jordan Garcia
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Klaudius Petrulis

I guess that's an option. There are people out there that can do front levers and they don't even know what a dragon flag is. Take from that what you will.

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Tyler Gibson

People will have different limiting factors in achieving the front lever. For some it will be the lats, for some it will be the abs. For some people it will be neither, and it will simply be a matter of building up the strength and learning the neuromuscular pattern. The dragon flag, especially done with hollow body position, is an excellent exercise, but is by no means a prerequisite for the front lever. It will all depend on your personal level.

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Jon Douglas

IME dragon flag is a joke on the abs compared to front lever.

I have a friend (ludicrously strong in straight-body holds) who can't do them due to triceps issues however, so I'm inclined to go with ^ and say it depends on which of the two is your weak point. If your straight body is insufficient for a body lever, you probably aren't going to be able to hold FL imo, but its use as a prep element is limited.

 

No reason not to do them as prep for that while working up tuck levers for the shoulders/lats etc.

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Joshua Slocum

Nope. I'd never even heard of a dragon flag the first time I did a front lever. If you can do one it's a good sign that your abs are strong enough. 

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Joshua Naterman

This is covered in one of the later Foundation volumes, but the short answer is "YES."

 

The longer answer is that you need to be able to do body levers. Dragon flags are typically arched, and will not help you as much as the body levers, which are by nature hollow.

 

Speaking as someone who can do both a full lay FL and full lay body levers, the body levers are harder on the abs.

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Jon Douglas

This is covered in one of the later Foundation volumes, but the short answer is "YES."

 

The longer answer is that you need to be able to do body levers. Dragon flags are typically arched, and will not help you as much as the body levers, which are by nature hollow.

 

Speaking as someone who can do both a full lay FL and full lay body levers, the body levers are harder on the abs.

No kidding? I found the opposite. Pretty sure I'm doing it right, but perhaps I should revisit.

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Joshua Slocum

No kidding? I found the opposite. Pretty sure I'm doing it right, but perhaps I should revisit.

My experience is the same as Josh's.

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Jon Douglas

My experience is the same as Josh's.

Hmm, maybe the fault is on me then. I'll check that next time.

 

Useful little aside to come out of someone else's question :) cheers guys.

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Boban Ilievski

My situation is this: I can almost do a full body lever, but I can't do an advanced tuck FL. Although I'm pretty sure that the limitations for the fl is the shoulders in my case, not the abs.

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Joshua Naterman

Boban, that means that you are very close to having the core strength, but not very close to having the shoulder girdle, or perhaps lat, strength that you need.

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Noel Shevchenko

in my case, thing is next:

 

- can do pretty easily + 5 df, but when it comes to fl its really hard time for me, am struggling between adv fl / straddle fl ( will post new video in few days, so u can give some tips ), so i think i lack either shoulder / lats strength. :)

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Joshua Slocum

in my case, thing is next:

 

- can do pretty easily + 5 df, but when it comes to fl its really hard time for me, am struggling between adv fl / straddle fl ( will post new video in few days, so u can give some tips ), so i think i lack either shoulder / lats strength. :)

 

How wide is your straddle? For some people, lack of straddle flexibility makes the transition really tough. 

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Hari - what are some exercises to develop a wider straddle? Is it simply consistent work of stalder stretches on the floor and Straddle L variation holds? 

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Joshua Slocum

Hari - what are some exercises to develop a wider straddle? Is it simply consistent work of stalder stretches on the floor and Straddle L variation holds? 

 

 

Honestly, my straddle was always good enough that I never had to train it specifically. Make sure you have a good middle split (you don't need a perfect one, but you should be able to go significantly lower than you want to be able to hold a straddle). On top of that, do leg abduction exercises (e.g. leg lifts to the side), and leg extension exercises (e.g. straddled reverse leg lifts). 

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I can do full lay for both and the intensity on the core feels the same for me in both. I've always thought they both stress the core with the same intensity, just that body lever requires less lat/pulling strength since it has shoulders/upper back supported. I've discussed this with Blairbob before and we concluded that it requires the same amount of core strength for both. So I would say the body lever is a prerequisite for FL since someone who can do FL can always do a body lever, but the reverse is not necessarily true due to the difference in pulling strength requirements.

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Martin de Jesus Ponce Robaldino

IME dragon flag is a joke on the abs compared to front lever.

I have a friend (ludicrously strong in straight-body holds) who can't do them due to triceps issues however, so I'm inclined to go with ^ and say it depends on which of the two is your weak point. If your straight body is insufficient for a body lever, you probably aren't going to be able to hold FL imo, but its use as a prep element is limited.

 

No reason not to do them as prep for that while working up tuck levers for the shoulders/lats etc.

i think the same, bodylevers are different than drgonflags. i can do both. but in order to perform a front lever, i have problems with my girdle strength. is the only thing that is keeping me away from a full front lever

 

This is covered in one of the later Foundation volumes, but the short answer is "YES."

 

The longer answer is that you need to be able to do body levers. Dragon flags are typically arched, and will not help you as much as the body levers, which are by nature hollow.

 

Speaking as someone who can do both a full lay FL and full lay body levers, the body levers are harder on the abs.

yep, they are almost purely core strength

 

 

Boban, that means that you are very close to having the core strength, but not very close to having the shoulder girdle, or perhaps lat, strength that you need.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It takes months if not years to build the lats power to achieve a full front lever, so why wait till you get dragon flag? Should work on both at the same time. 

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