Tire Flip

What is the Tire Flip?

The tire flip is an explosive strongman event: you lift a heavy tire from the ground, drive it up to a tipping point, and push it over, repeating for distance or time. It is a whole-body power event that blends a deadlift, a drive, and a push into one movement, and it demands aggression and clean technique in equal measure.

Muscles worked

Primary — Quads

The quads drive the tire up out of the bottom position and power the final push-over, doing explosive work rather than grinding reps.

Secondary — Back, Glutes, Hamstrings, Chest, Biceps, Forearms, Traps

The back, glutes, and hamstrings extend the hips to lift the tire, the chest and biceps drive it up the body, and the forearms and traps hold the position through the pick.

How to perform the Tire Flip

1. Set your feet back from the tire, drop into a hip hinge, and jam your hands and forearms underneath the tread with your chest pressed against the rubber.
2. Brace hard, then drive with the legs and hips to lift the tire while your chest and the tire rise together — pull it into you rather than curling it with the arms.
3. As the tire reaches a tipping angle, step in and switch to a push: drive one knee and both hands through the top to send it over.
4. Reset your stance behind the tire and repeat, keeping the back braced and flat on every pick — a rounded-back flip under a heavy tire is the classic injury.
5. Flip it for the prescribed distance or time and record the tire weight with the distance or time; the flip is powered by the legs and hips, scored as event work, not as reps.

Suggested working range: 1–5 reps. Default progression: manual.

Mechanics

A hybrid power event: a hip-hinge lift transitions into a chest-and-tire drive and finishes as a horizontal push. Range runs from the floor to the tipping point and over; it is powered by the legs and hips and scored by distance or time, never by clean reps.

Form cues

• •Jam the hands and forearms under the tread with the chest pressed against the rubber before you pull.
• •Drive with the legs and hips so the chest and tire rise together — never curl it up with the arms.
• •At the tipping point, step in and switch to a push, driving a knee and both hands through the top.

Common mistakes

• •Rounding the back to pull the tire with the arms instead of hinging and driving with the legs and hips.
• •Trying to lift the tire straight up like a deadlift rather than driving the chest and tire up together and then switching to a push.
• •Standing too close or too far from the tire, so the hands can’t get a strong grip under the tread.
• •Curling the tire with the biceps at the bottom instead of using the whole body to send it over.

Variations & alternatives

• •Lighter tire for speed — a smaller tire flipped for continuous reps to train the pattern and conditioning.
• •Heavy single flips — a max-effort tire lifted for one or two flips to train raw power.
• •Sandbag or atlas stone loading — related ground-to-height power events when no tire is available.

Barbell Back Squat

Quads · Barbell

Leg Press

Quads · Machine

Bulgarian Split Squat

Quads · Dumbbell

Goblet Squat

Quads · Dumbbell

Leg Extension

Quads · Machine

Programming: sets, reps & when to use it

Train it for a set number of flips, a distance, or a time. Keep the back braced and flat on every pick — a rounded-back flip under a heavy tire is a real injury risk. Log the tire weight with the distance or time. It is explosive event work that earns no hypertrophy or rank credit through the sets pipeline, so use it as power or conditioning work rather than as hypertrophy volume.

Frequently asked questions