CalisthenicsIn review

Dragon Flag

A straight-body raise and lowering supported on the upper back with an overhead bench grip.

This page is a working draft. A coach has not reviewed it, so read it as a starting point, not as checked instruction.

Pattern: Trunk stability
Modality: Calisthenics
Difficulty: Advanced
Mechanic: Unknown
Force: Unknown
Laterality: Bilateral
Impact: Low
Trains where: Gym, Home
At home: Yes

How to do it

Set up

Lie on a stable bench and grip a secure edge behind the head.
Keep the head and neck relaxed and support the body on the shoulders and upper back.

Do the rep

Brace the trunk and raise the straight body until it points upward.
Lower the body as one line while keeping the hips off the bench.
Stop before the back arches, then raise the straight body to the start position.

What counts as a rep

One rep lowers the straight body from the raised position and raises it again without bending the hips or loading the neck.

Breathing

Breathe in as you lower; exhale as you raise the body.

Cues

Support on the upper back.
Keep the hips straight.
Use only a controlled range.

Common mistakes

Hips bending
What you seeThe body folds at the hips during the lowering.
FixEnd the set and use a separately reviewed bent-knee regression.
Straight hips define the full dragon flag.
Loading the neck
What you seeThe body presses onto the head or neck instead of the shoulders.
FixStop and reset the support on the shoulders and upper back.
The neck must not support the body weight.

Stop the set if

Stop if you feel sharp pain.
Stop if the grip slips or the bench moves.
Stop if you feel neck or back pain.
End the set when the body line breaks.

General educational content, not individual coaching or medical advice.

Muscles worked

Prime movers

Rectus abdominis · moderate confidence
Obliques · moderate confidence
Deep core / trunk stabilizers · moderate confidence

Assisting

Hip flexors · moderate confidence
Shoulders (coarse UI group) · moderate confidence
Forearms and grip · moderate confidence

Equipment

Bodyweight + Bench

Optional: Floor mat

Lie on a stable bench and grip a secure edge behind the head. Keep the head and neck relaxed and support the body on the shoulders and upper back.

In the app

You log this by hand. The camera coach does not watch this movement yet.

Tracking: Manual

How this page was checked

Draft. A editorial reviewer has not signed this off yet.

Draft text is original copy for Wave 2 batch 5, written from the blueprint CSV row and the owner rules approved 2026-10-12. No human review is complete.
Technique, cues, rep standard, breathing, stop cues, and error corrections need independent sources and the assigned review tier (blueprint two-source rule).
Programming roles, skill tier, failure cost, timed use, goal fit, and equipment follow the owner rules; the switch-on PR must confirm them.
Anatomy uses the CSV planning hints unless a correction is listed below; the assigned review tier must confirm it.
Legacy relations and engine edges stay empty until the progression ladder lane and S2-CAT-005.
Timed use and goal fit copy ex_dead_bug, the anti-extension reps twin. The draft carries no Wave 1 review evidence.
CSV equipment bodyweight|floor-mat|pull-up-bar-optional is normalized to required bodyweight, bench and optional floor-mat. The CSV floor-mat is optional under the existing catalog normalization. Required equipment follows the movement and the owner picker rules.
Skill tier advanced: One full rep needs high strength for the body weight and control of a long unsupported lever. The CSV says beginner. Failure cost moderate: a failed lowering drops the hips onto the bench, so the user must control the stop, as ex_tuck_dragon_flag and ex_nordic_hamstring_curl.
The CSV rep-or-duration-candidate hint maps to manual tracking because it is not a schema capability. Camera support stays false and public capability stays manual_only.
The CSV lists no required hand anchor. The draft requires a stable bench with a secure overhead grip and drops the optional pull-up-bar. Review must confirm the grip, bench stability and supported range.
The CSV reps-or-duration maps to bodyweight-reps as the primary kind, with duration also allowed. Timed use follows the named Wave 1 reference.

All instruction and editorial text in this record is original draft copy written for Allena. Planning metadata comes from the internal Wave-2 blueprint CSV.

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