A personal training & food journal. Read about our weight loss progress at Train With Ron in Chicago, our nutritional habits and the life changes we're making to get in shape and stay healthy!

Yes, Monika got us back into writing the blog.  We’ve both encountered some minor “setbacks”… not even sure if you’d call them that… I need to accept that I’m not going to be on a straight line from where I was and achieve what I set out to without some peaks and valleys. For me, I’ve gained back about 8 pounds – but no inches – and need to get that under control quickly before it gets any more.

Dan goin' HAM on a truck tire!

I’ve cut my workouts down to three per week (from 4-5) for the last 2 months, but starting tomorrow I’ll be taking Wing Chun classes three times a week to supplement my workouts and learn a new skill. I’ve always been interested in Martial Arts, but never actually trained in any. I chose Wing Chun because its a very grounded, spiritual style.  You won’t see most Wing Chun practitioners doing a lot of flying and spinning kicks… it teaches a solid base (good for a shorter, stockier guy like me) as well as the redirection of the energy of an assailant away from the body while counter striking.  It is an aggressive style.

In any case, last week Matt ran one of his famous Tire Flip workouts this past Saturday.  As soon as I got the email message I dove in on this one… it looked fun from the pictures from last year, plus Matt is an enthusiastic coach and I knew he’d have some challenges cooked up.

The Tire Flip is more than just that.  There were 4 stations with two activities per station, and we had to do each one in 45 second shifts.  That doesn’t sound like very long but believe me, when you’re going full bore at pounding a giant truck tire with a sledgehammer, it feels like an eternity.  In addition to that, the other stations were:

Jump Squats – 80 yard sled pull @ 45 lbs., plank position, rubber strap arm extensions (punching forward with a big rubber band strapped to your hands and a fence behind you), rubber strap “street sweeper” pushups (brutal!), 2 squat / 2 lunge, and of course, the dreaded Tire Flip.  The tire is a huge tractor tire and weighs around 300 pounds.  We rotated around and did each station twice, then did a final rotation with each station just once.  Each move was more exhausting than the next, and the mosquitoes, itchy grass, and humidity were really not doing anything to improve the comfort level.

I started with 2 squat / 2 lunge (twice) and the sled pull (twice). Then I did planks and on my first two tire flips I got 8 each time. My technique wasn’t too good, I had my hands too close together when I was lifting the truck tire, forcing me to use a lot of arm strength and not enough shoulder / core strength.  I figured it out by watching some other guys that a wide grip worked much better.  I knew I could do more than 8.

We went through the whole rotation and I think I sweated off about 5 pounds just from that.  We started the 2nd round, and I took it easy on the sled pull (still finished ahead of the timer) and did my plank first, which was tough but not as tough as some of the other moves.  This let me catch my breath so I could really go all out on the Tire Flip.  The clock started… GO! … my hands slipped on the first flip.  Not a good start.  Matt stayed with me, coaching me along, encouraging me to keep moving and walking along as I recovered.  Then I got into a nice rhythm, picking up the tire and quickly throwing my hands behind it as I got it to my chest, then forcefully pushing it forward so it landed flat.  That was key, because if it rolled any on its axis (like a top) it would cost you precious seconds because you couldn’t really pick it up while it was rolling.  That did happen to me twice, but not too bad… as I neared utter exhaustion, the timer ran out and I had done 14 flips.  Only two guys did more than that – one of whom is probably 20 years younger than I am.  I felt AWESOME – but exhausted.

Luckily I only had 4 more moves after that, which I got through.  The two guys who got 15 squared off in a “playoff round” but they tied in that too, so they both won.  Actually, it was a killer workout… so everyone won.  Can’t wait for the next one… I think I can get 16 next time!