Unless you live under a rock or in France, you know that incorporating Strongman events into training has become a popular way to add variation to any program. At Gorilla Pit Strength Sports, we’ve trained several athletes in the discipline of tire flipping and are starting to see very distinct patterns of how the uninitiated approach the process and how the successful have mastered the technique. Yes, technique. As with any aspect of life, one may be able to muscle through, but the skilled make the difficult look easy with mastered technique. Most newbies come into the gym and figure they can just flip over all our tires, but they often end up looking like monkeys fornicating a football, or in this case, a large tire.You can teach this motion any way you like, but we divide the flipping of a tire into three segments—the start, the raise, and the push. We’re going to look at each segment and the differing ways to go about them.
The start
This segment begins when the athlete decides to flip a tire and ends with the first upward motion of the tire’s edge. It’s important for the athlete to realize that the tire’s edge will move upward and forward for the same distance, traveling along an arc and making a line between its horizontal starting point and its vertical finish point of 45 degrees. The force applied to the tire’s circumference should be neither parallel nor perpendicular to the ground but should match this 45-degree angle upward.Foot placement should mimic this. If you want to get your protractor out, that’s fine with us, but we want our athlete’s feet placed far enough from the tire that they lean against the tread. If at any moment during the movement, the tire could be magically removed, the athlete should fall forward. We establish proper foot placement by having the athlete squat down in front of the tire and fall into it with their chest. They should have to rock away from the tire to stand up. Feet are generally slightly more than shoulder width apart, but this varies with each athlete.Hand placement will also vary slightly but should be much wider than the shoulders. The bottom edge of the tire should be gripped with fingers on the sidewall or around treads. We always chalk very heavily.

Approaching the tire is where we see two distinct techniques. We call one the “set” and the other the “attack.” The set technique involves the athlete approaching the tire, setting their feet, squatting down, leaning against the tire, setting their hands, tightening their core, and lifting the tire. Several seconds will pass between the setting of the feet and the beginning of the lift, and several seconds may pass with the athlete in a squatted position against the tire. This simulates a deadlift type situation with no use of the eccentric stretch and is favored by many of our heavyweights.

The attack technique is much faster, but it tends to involve more mental preparation and is more prone to error. The athlete will stand several feet from the tire, visualizing both foot and hand placement. The athlete will approach the tire, and in one continuous motion, set feet, lean in, set hands, and begin the lift. With often less than two seconds passing between the foot placement and initial motion of the tire, we believe this technique takes advantage of the eccentric stretch, simulating a squat or “dive bomb” deadlift. Misplaced feet and hands will often cause the athlete to pause, sometimes ruining the flip for less focused and experienced athletes.

The raise

This segment begins with the upward motion of the tire and ends with the tire supported by the palms and upper chest and the knees and hips extended. Good technique will involve continuous motion of the tire. A pause during the raise is asking for trouble.

We have our athletes approach the raise as they would a power clean—continuous motion, full hip extension followed by a slight drop, and a hard push out of the bottom. The difference is the knee. Sometimes.

Once initial upward motion begins, the athlete should reach full knee and hip extension with elbows extended as in a deadlift. The athlete’s body should be leaning into the tire so that without the tire they would fall forward with the chest as the main point of contact.

Athletes who raise the tire well but are standing nearly vertical with the tire in their belly are placing their feet too close to the tire during the start.

As soon as hip and knee extension is reached, one knee should be brought sharply into the tire sidewall as the athlete slightly drops his hips and rotates the hands so that the palms are supporting the tire rather than the fingers. There should be no perceptible pause in the tire’s motion, and the knee strike, hip drop, and hand rotation will be nearly simultaneous. The hands will be much closer to the shoulders, and the tire’s lower circumference will now be resting on the upper chest.

The knee drive should be very sharp and forceful. We often debate the actual amount of force transfer from the knee strike into the tire. It appears to be small, but we can’t argue with the results or popularity of this technique. A common error is to hyperextend the back rather than dropping the hips. This may be remedied by placing the feet farther from the tire during the start and coaching a deeper hip drop with a lighter tire. It isn’t uncommon to come away from this exercise with bruises on the knees and thighs. Knee sleeves provide some protection but a distinct lack of manliness.

The second technique we like is what we call “Svend style.” We don’t know if Svend Karlsen was the first to do this, but we saw him do it first. We think Svend is a nice guy, and Svend style has good alliteration. Svend style more truly replicates a power clean and seems to have better power transfer into the tire. It’s a faster technique and that’s important in competition. Despite its simplicity, Svend style seems to be more difficult to master than the knee drive, and many of our athletes abandon it on heavier tires. Svend style uses no knee strike, and the athlete should strive to have both feet leave the ground when knee and hip extension are reached. After extension is reached, hip drop is more pronounced, as the hands are rotated and the upper chest brought into the tire.

No matter what technique is used, knee drive or Svend, the athlete should end the raise with the tire resting on the upper chest, palms under, and the body at a forward angle. Constant motion of the tire is important, and maximum explosiveness should be used throughout the raise. This is not a slow exercise.

The push

The push starts with the tire on the upper chest with knees and hips extended and ends with the tire at or passing through 90 degrees. There should be no pause as the knees and hips are extended at the finish of the raise and the tire approaches 90 degrees with the shoulders and elbows becoming extended for the push.

The only difference in push technique arises from the goal being achieved. If the goal is a specified number of flips or flipping for a specified length of time, there isn’t any reason to push the tire over very forcibly, just enough to have the tire pass through 90 degrees and fall over. If the tire needs to be moved a specified distance, a forceful push on the tire may cause it to slide as it impacts the ground. We have 85-foot Strongman lanes in the gym and an extra hard push on each flip can be the difference between covering that distance in nine flips rather than 10.

As a courtesy and a bit of common sense, leave the tire standing vertically on the last rep. No one wants to stand up half a ton of rubber just to put the equipment away.

Training ideas

Tires can be flipped for a specified distance with the goal to be able to progressively cover that distance in either less time or fewer flips. Tires can be flipped for lengths of time with the goal of increasing the amount of flips attained in that time.

We tend to start a set of flips using Svend style and transition to knee drive as the set progresses and fatigue sets in. With lighter tires, one arm flips can be done with caution for bicep strain.

If you have enough space and several different weights of tires, drop sets can be performed. Flip your heavy tire and then move onto the lighter ones. Flip until you reach a set number or until you puke.

A favorite of ours is alternating flips. Two or three athletes will stand equidistant from each other around a tire and simply flip the tire back and forth, alternating turns. The goal is to flip the tire one more rep than everyone else. This fosters a healthy environment of competitiveness that most gyms are lacking.

Team Gorilla Pit believes that weakness is an affliction of the mind, body, and soul that can be cured through hard work and intensity. Gorilla Pit Strength Sports strives to provide such a healing environment to northern Ohio. Both are physically located in Mentor, Ohio, and digitally located at www.gorilla-pit.com