Tire flip tips

[Allen Yeh]

We recently acquired a used MRAP tire at for my buildings workout yard. I've done tire flips in the past but always as a messing around thing never all the time. Anything I need to keep in mind? According to this article I've been doing them very wrong.

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/tire_flipping.htm

In the past I had always done as a DL movement, today I tried it with my hands wide and dropping my hips way down it seemed to work but now I have a "tire burn" all the way across the top of my chest and my tops of my arms. Not sure if I was doing something wrong or it's normal? All I know is that when I shower tonight it will hurt, badly.

Any tips or articles you guys with experience are willing to share would be appreciated, as well as tire flip workouts. Today we did flips to one end of the yard and then the other guy flips it back, ended up being 12-13 flips per person, one way.

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by Allen Yeh

We recently acquired a used MRAP tire at for my buildings workout yard. I've done tire flips in the past but always as a messing around thing never all the time. Anything I need to keep in mind? According to this article I've been doing them very wrong.

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/tire_flipping.htm

In the past I had always done as a DL movement, today I tried it with my hands wide and dropping my hips way down it seemed to work but now I have a "tire burn" all the way across the top of my chest and my tops of my arms. Not sure if I was doing something wrong or it's normal? All I know is that when I shower tonight it will hurt, badly.

Any tips or articles you guys with experience are willing to share would be appreciated, as well as tire flip workouts. Today we did flips to one end of the yard and then the other guy flips it back, ended up being 12-13 flips per person, one way.

Sounds right, everybody flips different and will flip different tires differently, light tires I like to go wide and use no knee, flip it up catch the underside and push over trying to catch the bounce. With heavy tires I go narrower with hands inside of the knee and use a split to catch it, if it's really heavy I'll work it up my chest and "press"/lever it over

I recently hit a retarded rep PR on our 750 tire and by the last few I had probably flipped that tire every conceivable way. My takeaway is that you should try it every possible way.

one of my fav. workouts with a heavy tire is I go/You go with a training partner back and forth until a miss or ladders same format.

my benchmark crossfit workout is 123

100k log clean and press x 5
200k axle DL x10,
300k tire x 20...

one trip through is all that I have ever taken.

[Jacob Rowell]

I favor the wide grip/narrow stance setup for most tires as well. Get the shoulders into the tire if it's tall enough, get the feet about squat stance, and drop the hips to below shoulder height. I've been taught to get more of a forward drive into the tire, vs a deadlift/knee/push over setup. As the tire is passing through around 45 deg, you'll be able to initiate a big knee and hip extension, and from there drop under quickly and walk through.

keep your hands on the tire as the flip is completing to minimize wobble, and to make sure you're getting right back on it for the next flip.

All of that goes out the window was a tire outside of your normal flipping ability, like Dave said.

[Mark Fenner]

Any thoughts on the super deep, low position that some times results in the "dreaded rounded back lifting" posture? Essentially, making contact at toe level might require either an super deep Oly squat at the knees, or a silly-deep stiff-leg deadlift position, or a bit of lower back flexion.

I suppose some treads might allow a grip point higher than ground level. I'm thinking about tires that basically require grip at ground level.

Best,
Mark

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Jacob Rowell

I favor the wide grip/narrow stance setup for most tires as well. Get the shoulders into the tire if it's tall enough, get the feet about squat stance, and drop the hips to below shoulder height. I've been taught to get more of a forward drive into the tire, vs a deadlift/knee/push over setup. As the tire is passing through around 45 deg, you'll be able to initiate a big knee and hip extension, and from there drop under quickly and walk through.

keep your hands on the tire as the flip is completing to minimize wobble, and to make sure you're getting right back on it for the next flip.

All of that goes out the window was a tire outside of your normal flipping ability, like Dave said.

That is how I was doing it, I was trying to drive my chest into the top of the tire, and have my hands as wide as possible. It was very different trying to push it up as opposed to the pull it up method as I had used in the past.

Do you get tire burn? on your chest/arms at all? It looks pretty vicious still and doesn't feel great either.

This tire isn't even that heavy I think online specs say it should be around 335 or so. I'm just happy our little gym here is starting to get a little better, and I just found out they actually run BJJ/Muay Thai classes over at the Canadian Gym on base.

So far I have built a pullup bar out of tie-down straps and a bar, York sent us a free KB, I used some water jugs for farmers walks, and we have a tire. Next I'm going to take one of my duffels and throw some stuff in there for sandbag stuff, not much in the way of sand here, a lot of dust, no sand though.

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by Mark Fenner

Any thoughts on the super deep, low position that some times results in the "dreaded rounded back lifting" posture? Essentially, making contact at toe level might require either an super deep Oly squat at the knees, or a silly-deep stiff-leg deadlift position, or a bit of lower back flexion.

I suppose some treads might allow a grip point higher than ground level. I'm thinking about tires that basically require grip at ground level.

Best,
Mark

squatting into a tire doesn't really work unless you have super short legs.

round back lifting is required. it's absolutely one of the most essential elements of physical strength. period.

[James Evans]

I've never flipped a tyre of any significant weight so super sharp technique has not been necessary but by coincidence I was reading an article yesterday that emphasised not adopting a sumo style with arms inside the knees to avoid bicep tears.

What interested me was the following:

When using a tyre it's important to find the right size. The tyre should be 250kg-300kg for lighter and younger athletes and 300kg-350kg for heavier and professional athletes. Tyres below this range have too little training value. If an athlete finds a 250kg tyre especially difficult to work with they are not physically prepared for tyre training.

The article was aimed at fighters rather than strength athletes. I've enjoyed using a lighter tyre (150kg?) for mucking around/conditioning (not CF) but I was wondering what Dave etc. thought of the above.

[Dave Van Skike]

How timely. There is a very good reason it will sound like I'm speaking out of school here but I have not noticed one style to be any tougher on the biceps than any other. Then again bicep injuries are common in strongman..Many events are really focused on arm strength and that's what sets you up I think in a way that the occasional use of tire for conditioning might not.

With larger/thicker tires, 700-1000 pounds, many people cannot physically reach for an outside grip without narrowing stance so much that the tire is unstable once up or you unevenly overload the low back more than is ideal.

However..I think it's best to shift around and find what works well for you and allows you to use full body and hip drive to drive it up explosively.

[Emily Mattes]

Tire burn is normal. I get bruising all across my chest and biceps, looks pretty ugly but if you keep flipping the tire your body will get used to it and you won't get it as much.