Human Flag Tutorial | Training and Progression

Описание: How to do the human flag pole

The human flag is the result of two opposing but equal elements, one pulling, and one pushing. These two antagonistic forces neutralize each other, so creating a tension that allows you to hold a horizontal position. The pulling force is created by the top arm and will be activating the lats and the rear deltoids. The bottom arm is the one pushing, activating the medial and anterior deltoid. Contrary to common belief, the core area plays a minimal role in the human flag, only adding a bit more stability to the position.

The human flag can be done holding either horizontal or vertical bars, both are fine, although bear in mind that the vertical bar will be a little bit harder. The horizontal bars should be held with a pronated grip on top and a supinated grip at the bottom. A supinated grip on top could be possible but hard on your wrist and a pronated grip at the bottom is definitely wrong. For the vertical stance, you should have the palm of the hand facing away from you on top and facing you at the bottom. The other way around would be wrong both on top and at the bottom because it will give you no support.

Because of the mechanics and anathomy that I’ve mentioned, the main requirements for the human flag is to develop a good strength in the pulling and pushing motion. The pulling strength comes from the lats, medial traps, and rear deltoids muscles. To give you a reference of strength, you should be able to do pullups easily, even adding some extra load to your own bodyweight. The requirement of pushing strength would be being able to lift your own bodyweight with an overhead motion of the arms like in the exercises shown here. This strength comes mostly from your deltoids and your triceps.


A correct execution of the human flag starts with a good set up. To do that you must position your body correctly so you can apply forces in the rights direction. Start facing the bars or the pole and rotate your body externally while holding on the support so that the bottom shoulder is directly below the top shoulder. As you rotate your trunk push your hips away from the bars to create more tension. Once you understand this motion start pushing your body away further so that the outer leg is going up to the side. To do this, press hard with your bottom arm against the support until the arm is completely straight and the elbow locked.
If you create enough tension you should see that your body is starting to get off the ground a bit. The aim for now is to keep your body off the ground for as long as possible. Don’t try to get your body horizontal yet, keep your feet pointing down and focus on creating enough tension with your arms.
Then, slowly start to build up the horizontal position by raising your legs to the side.

The next exercise will help you placing your body sideways. You’ll be hanging from a bar with one arm while the other arm is pushing against a support, which can be the wall if the bar is close enough, or you can push against anything else you’ll find nearby.
In the next step, you will use momentum to jump into the human flag position. To do this, you must swing your leg and kick up while rotating your trunk. Once you find yourself in the horizontal position, get your feet together and keep pushing your body away from the support point, trying to hold for as long as possible. The final step now is to try to use progressively less momentum to get up, just using your arms and shoulder strength.