Guest blog post by Eric Guttmann, U.S. Navy Officer, Author, Fitness Enthusiast and More!
My Heavy Metal Strength Meditation Part 3 – How I trained to achieve 100 consecutive tire flips
It is amazing what the MIND and body can do when you focus on ONE thing to develop. As I have written in the previous two articles in these series, the goal of this strength meditation was to accomplish 100 consecutive tire flips with a 300lb tire. Six weeks after beginning this journey I performed 100 tire flips in 9:55. I relayed this to my friend Bud Jeffries and he asked me if that was my best time. I said no, that it was my FIRST time and that I purposely was not trying to go fast, rather I wanted to build a steady pace tied in to the breathing, like a meditation. Funny thing is, that once an IDEA gets in your consciousness it starts to get internalized and metabolized.
So the next time I did 100 consecutive tire flips I did it in 7:20. That means I shaved 2:35 by changing the intensity. I did notice that I shortened the movements and at one point matching the breath to movements was out the window. After the 75th rep it started to SUCK as I thought to myself “now, why did I have to listen to Bud Jeffries?!?” The funny thing is that after rep 84 my body started to adapt and I got a second wind.
It did not feel like I went that much faster than the first time. I thought only 30-45 seconds had been shaved from my previous time. When I looked at the stopwatch I was quite amazed. I will now relay how I went from doing 50 tire flips and having to stop because my forearms were fried to doing 100 consecutive tire flips feeling GREAT!
I decided to adapt a twice a week training regimen to allow for maximum recovery. This is an idea I got from champion Dru Patrick. I trained Monday and Thursdays. On Mondays I started doing a consecutive flip workout starting at 50 and increasing reps every Monday. I would do them with an emphasis of tying the breath to the movement and having this connection determine the SPEED at which I would move. When I could not do another rep in good form or when my forearms started to fry I would stop, that’s it, done deal. This could be considered the aerobic day.
On Thursdays I would always do 100 reps and I would do this in 20 sets of 5 reps done as explosively as I could. Five explosions, walk over to my training notebook and cross off one of the 20 tick marks I had previously written then walk back to the tire s-l-o-w-l-y and do another five explosion until I had finished my 100. This is definitely an anaerobic day.
You see, you can all probably do 100 tire flips NOW if your forearms are conditioned, as long as you break it up into sets of five and add rest. It is quite another thing to do them continuously.
I also added a third training day which I called a “recovery day” where I would tear two packs of cards, perform Dru Patrick’s “last man standing” drill which, my FULL mobility routine, hang upside down with my gravity boots, foam rolling with the “rumble roller” and if I had time left over, light stretching.
Card tearing is a great way to train your forearms. I call it “the $1.00 workout.” You simply go to the dollar store and buy a two-pack of cards. I have Noah Jeffries to thank for this. Once Bud dropped him over so I could show him some Naval Bases in the Jacksonville , FL area and when we got back he showed me how to tear cards. The funny thing was that when I saw him do it in front of me I did it pretty quick. When I started doing it on my own it would take me almost three minutes at first. The last one I did in 18 seconds, so you definitely improve over time and I feel it is one of the few bending/tearing feats that actually has a regenerative effect in your forearms and fingers… and it’s FUN!
During the last Super Human Workshop someone asked Dru what he did to train his core. He laughed as he said we would all get to experience the “last man standing” drill. He told us that 90% of the people he trained where unable to finish it. It consisted of:
- Side Plank (right) – 1min
- Front Plank – 1 min
- Side Plank (left) – 1 min
Dru was impressed that everyone at the Super Human Workshop achieved the tree minute mark and we even had some guys go up to 15 minutes! If three minutes was the “standard” then I decided six minutes to train my core would be MY standard to keep in line with the 100 tire flip mentality. After all, it IS a MINDSET!
Next comes my FULL Mobility which is extremely important for recuperation. Every morning I put special emphasis on mobilizing my spine as you will FEEL the effects of tire flipping the next day, specially since you are using the body as one unit. You are creating a wave from the ground to the arms and the spine is the carrier in the transmission of force. Also, every time you increase the reps you get that “whole body tired” feeling the next day. Achieving FULL Mobility in the mornings was HUGE for my recovery and to allow me to keep IMPROVING. I decided to add an extra mobility session on Tuesdays because it speeds recovery and makes you FEEL GREAT!
You can get my FULL Mobility course here:
To further decompress the spine I started using gravity boots. I started with 3 sets of 1 minute and now I am up to 3 sets of 4 minutes. It truly is a hanging meditation. The first week I felt a little bit of discomfort, but it quickly went away. The first time I did 3 sets of 4 minutes I actually felt TALLER when I finished!
Foam rolling and stretching help with rejuvenating the muscles and in aiding to remove waste products so you recover faster.
So in summary, here is the training program to do 100 consecutive tire flips:
- Mondays – Test day: do as many consecutive tire flips as possible
- Tuesday – “Recovery Workout”
- Card Tearing x 2
- “Last Man Standing”
- FULL Mobility program
- Gravity Boots
- Rumble Roller
- Stretching
- Thursdays – 100 Explosive Tire Flips done in 20 sets of 5 reps
There you have it. It took me six weeks to accomplish this goal with this training program. Try it out yourself and let me know what insights and training states of Nirvana you accomplish with the “Heavy Metal Strength Meditation.”
All my best,
Eric Guttmann
Eric Guttmann
P.S. If you feel that the 100 tire flipping extravaganza is a little too much for you right now, then get Extreme Military Fitness so you can build the base and be strong and conditioned enough to successfully tackle the Heavy Metal Strength Meditation.
You can get Extreme Military Fitness here:
If you want to increase your motivation to perform any change in your life and get your mental and volitional “muscles” conditioned, then get Listen Up! and read a couple of pages in the morning before you start your day to get in the right mindset, because it is all about MINDSET!
You can get Listen Up! here:
Read Eric’s complete bio HERE
1 Comment
[…] In conclusion, the Heavy Metal Strength Meditation was a success! I dropped 4 lbs of weight and you could make the case that most of it was fat loss, I increased my height, I “maxed” the situps and pushups with ease without training those specific exercises, and I ran the best run I have had in five years. In case you are curious and want to try it here is the curriculum I followed: My Heavy Metal Strength Meditation Part 3 […]
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