Military Muscle

Bored with your workout routine? Get ‘tired’: Flip, drag and push toward a challenging fitness routine

By Nate Morrison - Special to the Times
Posted : January 22, 2007

So there you are, fresh out of ideas for your morning physical training session.

You’re tired of push-ups, sit-ups and running. You don’t have dumbbells, and the gym is full of unappealing machines.

What to do? Here’s a decidedly low-tech solution.

Get a tire. You want one at least 300 pounds and no less than 4 feet tall. Tractor tires are great for this.

If there aren’t any available at the motor pool or Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office on base, stop by the nearest tractor dealer or tire shop. They’ll probably give you all the old tires you want. They may look at you a little funny when they ask you what you want it for, but who cares?

Once you have your tire, start with a simple practice session — rolling it, pushing it, pulling it and flipping it — just to get the hang of it.

All set? Now find a place where you have about 100 meters of open ground and get ready for pain.

Start by flipping the tire end over end with a goal of time, distance or exhaustion.

To do a proper flip, begin by mimicking a dead lift to get the tire up a bit, get under it and push it over. Then repeat.

As a means of active recovery, I recommend rolling the tire back to your starting point or going for a short jog between sets. As usual, the standard variations — racing, going for time, et cetera — can be applied here.

Speaking of variations, here are five others worth trying:

The rim drag. Set the tire flat on the ground and try pulling it by the rim. Be careful of your form, and be sure to quit before it hurts. This is one killer drill.

The rope drag. Attach a rope and pull the tire toward you — either solo or as a team, depending on the weight of the tire. You could also try pulling it by walking forward or backward. Still another option is a tug-of-war with a buddy.

The push. To mix things up, set the tire down flat and try pushing it, using different techniques. Just like the pulling variations, you can try to push it past a buddy to add some healthy “beer competition.” But if you win, skip the light beer — you will have a lot of carbs to replace.

The center flip. Another nasty variation is to try to flip the tire as you stand in the center hole. This takes some doing, but give it a shot.

The hammer. Finally, one of the ultimate drills is to grab a sledgehammer and hit the tire from your right and left sides equally — the ultimate core workout. I made a buddy of mine throw up doing this, so consider yourself warned.

Nate Morrison is an Air Force pararescueman staff sergeant. He is a military fitness expert and founder of the online fitness magazine www.milfitmag.com.

Ellie