(pic from here)
My interest in the human flag:
ok, peeps, I don’t *really* care but it’s a kind-of-goal, an it-would-be-nice thing, as it stands right now. I’m not set on making it an I-am-fucking-doing-this type of goal, where accomplishment is imminent. Mostly because this past year has been fucking horrible with regards to injury (one day the whole story will come out, but for right now let’s keep it short and say it sucked balls), and so I am not going to be imposing on myself demands that will potentially lead to more injury, and am currently taking it easy on myself, and am only going to be doing exercises that don’t create more pain.
Seeing as how I have never in my life DONE a human flag and honestly don’t exactly know what it will involve, I can’t say if for sure I will conquer this or not. What I can say, though, is that this is a movement of interest for me, and that I will be looking more into executing this, as my body is healing (hail Jesus! I am feeling soooo much better).
Ok, so I was googling around and this is what the interwebs instructs as strength training movements to prep for the human flag.
To do a human flag:
Here is what this article “So You Want To Do a Human Flag?” from Onnit has to say:
Prerequisites:
- single arm hang for 30 sec
- 4 sets of 10 pull ups
- side plank 45 seconds
Strength training:
- 15 sets each of side plank variations, holding as long as you can each set
- etc
…I’m not even listing all the other stuff… because YOU GUYS… DID YOU SEE IT SAID *FIFTEEN SETS EACH SIDE*…
I need to put my eyeballs back in my sockets now..
Ok, I’m just gonna leave it at that.
So here is what I did today…(slightly laughable compared to the above “prerequisites” BUT WE ALL HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE):
After my regular workout today, I tried some of that shit.
The first thing was the one arm hang.
I held the right arm hang a few seconds. Then the left arm hang for like one to two seconds. I did several sets of that. Then got up to a 4 second hang on the right side. And like a 2 second hold on the left side.
So… a 30 second hold? I have a long way to go… Ok, but I like goals, so…
Pull ups was next on the list.
I used to be a pull up MASTER. I would knock out multiple sets of 15-20 pullups with a 45 pound PLATE wrapped around my waist. I’m not shitting you. There are some YouTubes vids of me doing weighted pull ups, in case you wanna see evidence (youtube.com/freestylefitnessvids). But nowadays, in my old, fragile, decrepit state, I can do maybe like one set of 4 pull ups, then 3, then 2, then 1. So, I did some pull ups. (I know I will get better at these.)
Next up was the side planks. Ok, friends, instead of doing 15 sets of side planks as long as I can (insert laughing face with tears emoji here), I did like 3 sets of 30 seconds each.
So, that’s where I started today. A few seconds of single arm hangs as my max; some pull ups; and a few sets of 30 sec each side planks.
I’m not saying this to gloat or to complain. More like, this is documenting evidence of my journey. After a year of injury, I’m finally getting back into athletics and feeling capable. Now, I am in the incipient stages of going for a human flag. I will keep you posted on my progress!
Love, licks, laughter, lettuce, learning, literacy, and luxurious lunges,
Kristina
SEP