There is no doubt that the tire flipping is one of the coolest-looking exercises you can possibly do! It’s an excellent exercise for developing raw power, strength, muscles and improving athleticism.
The benefits behind flipping tires are immense, because this might be a simple movement, but extremely effective for the entire body improving your performance and appearance. Among all the benefits of this exercise, we count adding muscle to your posterior and working the hands and forearms intensely.
If you own a garage or have a backyard, you can get yourself a tire and start working. You can flip the tire on any type of surface such as concrete, grass or sand. However, to be able to flip tires, you must first get strong in all the areas of your body. You can do this in a number of ways, but the most efficient exercises that you should be good at are pull-ups, conventional/sumo/trap bar deadlifts and kettlebell/barbell/dumbbell/sandbag clean and press.
Moving heavy tires quickly is superior to working out on a machine because the challenging of the movements and also the fact that you use several different muscle groups at once. As a result, you’ll be burning more calories. When you’re going through an intense training, the calorie-burning effect spills over for hours after you complete your training session, which means even more calories are burned out.
Flipping tire technique
Having the tire flat on the ground, place your hands and fingers under the tire keeping your hands at about shoulder width apart. Squat down and pull the tire up with your arms and back, exploding out of the squatting position. When the tire comes up, you need enough momentum so you can change your hands from a pulling to a pushing position and push the tire all the way over. If you have to use your knee to pop the tire up high enough so that you can change hand positions to a pushing motion, do it as little as possible in order to avoid leg injury. Injury is a strong possibility for this exercise when you have one leg planted on the ground and the other one in the air. This is one rep.
For a proper warm up, before getting to flip the tire do 8 to 10 reps of body-weight squats, push-ups, lounges and leg raises. To prep your hand muscles for flipping do a set of chin-ups and one of dumbbell or kettlebell swings.
Weight of the tire
For athletes, the weights to use for strength and conditioning should be at around 300-350 pounds for females and at 400-450 pounds for males. If you just want to flip the tire for a good total body workout, you should use a tire that’s anywhere between 200 and 300 pounds.
Where can you get a tire from
The best place for finding a large tire is at a tire dealership that deals in farm tires, an auto-body shop or a junkyard. Some gyms also have them.
Once you get yourself a tire, or if they have it at your local gym, it would be a waste to only use it for the flipping tire exercise. Here are 6 other exercises you can perform using the tire.
- The farmer walk
This is a challenging variation that challenges your conditioning and your grip. To perform this exercise, you set up in a deadlift position and lift the tire, taking it for a walk. Make sure you keep your chest up and shoulders back for safety.
- Sledgehammers
Just like the tire flip, this exercise might seem simple, but you need to understand a few important technical components to make it safer and more effective.
Line up the head of the hammer on the middle of the tire in front of you. Line up your feet at about shoulder width apart. One hand has to stay on the top of the handle while the other one near the bottom. Rotate the hammer until it gets aligned directly over your head. With the hammer overhead begin to simultaneously drop your hips downward as your top hand slides toward the bottom so maximum power can be generated. Catch the hammer up high on the rebound and then repeat the motion. After you get the hang of it you should alternate sides.
- Partner work
There are a few movements where two people can work together using tires. The technique is simple : one person stays on one side of a large tire while the other person will keep their elbows tucked, drive with their legs, and shove the tire towards the other person. The person receiving the tire should tuck their arms close to the side of their body and absorb the energy with their core and legs muscles, then redirect the tire back to their partner.
This team tire flip exercise is great for building limit strength, explosive power, slabs of muscle, flexibility and endurance to boot.
- The deadlift
Stand in the center of the tire with your arms at your sides and your hands rotated so that your fingers point away from your body. Bend down until you can grab the inner ring of the tire with your fingers, and stand upright. Do a shrug at the top, then lower the tire to the ground and repeat.
- Tire jumps
This is a functional exercise that can improve your explosiveness for running and increase your vertical jump.
Lay your tire flat on its side, facing it with your feet at shoulder-width apart. Slightly squat down, as if you're going to jump straight into the air and leap onto the tire. Both feet should land softly on the tire, because although you’re using a tire, landing too heavily can hurt your knees upon impact.
- Jumps over tire
This is a great exercise for developing explosive power and improving the muscle fiber reaction, requiring your leg and core muscles to quickly contract and create maximum force for performing the jump.
You need to stand straight with your feet at shoulder-width apart. Drop into a squat and swing your arms back, exploding into your maximum jump. Now swing your arms and use that momentum to thrust your hips forward and land over the tire. A strong core can help you land in a controlled squat position with both feet.
Because you need to use your legs, arms and back intensely, the tire flip is definitely best used early in your training session, right after you do a proper warm-up. You shouldn’t try tire flipping after doing squats or deadlifts.