I have always said that Seniors are stronger than they think they are, and that we can do much more than we think we can do. On March 11th of this year, I decided to learn to do the “Dragon Flag” movement made famous by martial artist and movie actor, Bruce Lee, and later in the Rocky movies by Sylvester Stallone. This is one of the most difficult core exercises of all time and requires a great deal of abdominal muscle strength to perform the movement. I gave myself a set amount of time to learn to do it and performed them well for the first time 14 days early on April 27th.
I have done them in a little corner of the gym where no one could see me, ever since. It’s a “show off” movement and I am not particularly in to “showing off”. Yet I am proud that I am able to perform the move.
But I made the mistake of commenting on someone’s Health and Fitness podcast about setting goals and accomplishing them regardless of age, that I was able to do “Dragon Flags” at age 78. I got a comment back that I should post a video demonstrating that I could do it.
I asked a “gym buddy” to take a video this morning so that I could prove that I was telling the truth. Thank you Dennis for shooting the video. Dennis is in his early seventies and is in the gym every morning when he is not out West skiing.
So I included the video in this article. I hope it actually shows up on the page. If not, here’s a link to the YouTube video. Its purpose is only to demonstrate that it’s never too late to try something new. It’s not quite as good as Bruce Lee or “Rocky”, but not bad for a 78 year old.
The point of showing this at all is not to brag, but to show that age should not stop a person who wants to try a new skill, or accomplish something that would normally be beyond you. If you start slow, and take your time, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish physically. Yes, there are things that are way out there and maybe we shouldn’t do, but I have read about Seniors in their 80s who perform competitively in events far beyond what most of us can do in our 50s or 60s.
P.S. Please don’t try the Dragon Flag on your own. It’s a difficult movement and it’s really easy to rip or tear an abdominal muscle.
Thank you for reading.