uch, it seems, can be gained by flipping a tire.

For men with arms the size of most people's thighs, it is a test of might and determination, a challenge to make their neck veins bulge like goiters. And, in a gritty and red-faced way, it is a test of what they are made of, which also goes for tossing kegs over walls or picking up boulders the size of medieval catapult ammunition.

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These are the tasks of strongman competitions, a sport fueled by the surprising appeal of large men moving large objects. It is twisted manual labor, the athlete's version of Sisyphus rolling his rock up the mountain, and competitors with meaty names like Magnus and Svend have gained fame through ESPN's "World's Strongest Man Competition."

But there is another, less expected name to add to the rolls of toil: Jim Burt Jr., a nimble newcomer who plays first base in the Mets' minor league system. This past off-season, he supplemented his regular workout with a weekly session of outrageous feats of strength, and he did it to help him at the plate.

"You can hardly stand up after that," he said. Still, he said it was worth it. His forearm strength has increased, and he says he is hitting the ball harder than ever.

Burt, a son of the former Giants' defensive lineman Jim Burt Sr., is not alone. Athletes from a wide variety of sports, and from high school to the pros, have come to embrace strongman workouts as a new level of training. They often have no interest in strongman competitions, only in boosting their strength and explosive power.

Not surprisingly, some trainers wonder if this is a one-stop injury shop. Strongman work is a rejection of modern gym equipment's ability to focus on a specific muscle, and although it is done with honed technique, it looks wildly uncontrolled. It is a real thrown-to-the-lions workout, with the whole body in the game.

That is good and bad. Muscles can be built, or ripped. Boulders can be hoisted, or dropped on a foot. Tires do not always fall forward.

"No matter what you do, whether riding a bike or running or weight lifting, you have to do it smart," said Susan McGowen, the director of sports medicine for ESPN, primarily for the X Games. "Beyond the body's ability to adapt, injury can occur."

At the core of this is, well, the core - the abs and back, crucial for any athletic activity. There is no way to toss a large keg without a strong torso.

The training is catching on because of the belief that its tasks are good preparation for life on the field. Bench-pressing 300 pounds is impressive, but it takes more than strong pectorals to knock over a 300-pound man. Especially if he is running at you.

That is why Giants offensive tackle David Diehl likes the tire flip. Much as he would take down an opposing player, he has to flip the tire by starting low, then moving up and into it. The tires for serious strongmen contenders can weigh around 800 pounds, but he typically works with 300-pounders because they are the heft of the men he blocks.

"It works the things that you need to work," said Diehl, who has been flipping tires for about a year. "It's a complete, overall total body workout."

Mark Philippi, a strongman competitor and director of strength and conditioning for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, said: "You're building explosive strength. Moving an object or lifting an object takes more of a degree of strength than just lifting a barbell in a controlled environment."

Like other coaches, he incorporates it with traditional methods as part of a complete workout. He said he had seen a significant improvement in athletes who really embraced the strongman tasks.

Joe DeFranco, a personal trainer in New Jersey who introduced Diehl and Burt to the training method, said an athlete could not go full throttle on free weights because the weights would go flying. But the keg? Flying is what it is there for.

It is also more fun to bully around large, clunky objects. A bench press may impress five guys in a gym, but the tire flip draws a genuine crowd. It is akin to watching Hercules and Atlas one-up each other on a construction site.

Done properly, the exhausting tasks provide an equally important psychological edge, according to Chad Coy, a strongman competitor who trains high school and college athletes at his gym in Kokomo, Ind.

"It teaches you that when you're tired, that you've got a little bit extra," he said. "So when you get on the field and the game's on the line, you've got a fifth gear to kick down to, and the other team doesn't."

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