How Hard is Hyrox?

Bloody Hard.

The hardest thing I have ever done but…

In order to answer this question more fully we can look at whats needed.

Hyrox is actually a power endurance race but it’s made up of a number of areas:

• Endurance

You will need to run ~8.7k if you can’t do that you will struggle!

100m Lunges, Rowing and Wall balls requires muscular endurance.

• Push / Pull Strength

Pushing sleds on hyrox carpet requires significant single leg strength.

The wall balls and burpees also require some push strength combined with endurance within the station.

Significant pulling endurance will be required for both skierg, sled pull & farmers carry.

• Mobility

You must be able to squat and get into a burpee position

This leads us to one fact:

If you have a deficiency in one area you will be found out!

Recreating the Feeling

Doing a 500m ski erg & 500 run etc in the gym can leave you thinking you can easily do a Hyrox. You are wrong.

You must recreate the feeling of Hyrox every so often to know how hard a Hyrox is actually and how far away from being ready you actually are.

It’s similar to training for a running distance, you may do a run encompassing the entire distance at competition pace to see ‘where you are at’ but you are unlikely to run it everyday. E.g. If you were training for a half marathon you wouldnt run the entire distance everyday. Punishing yourself is great sometimes but not a good idea generally.

You can only recreating the feeling by doing a hyrox simulation, a PFT with others or a Hyrox Class. Having to workout with others can make you push and compete more than on your own you want to be aware of the feeling.

Don’t be under a false impression, consecutive fatigue completely changes the feeling of the exercises:

• Pushing/Pulling @ Hyrox Weight on carpet feels soo much harder.

• Wall balls at the end of Hyrox will not feel like the weight specified.

Train with 9kg or greater (mens) to get a similar feeling after fatiguing your shoulder muscles with e.g. hand release pushups

• Running the distance is harder because it’s compromised.

Run after lifting very heavy for a similar feeling.

• Farmers carry weight will feel heavier

• Burpees will be harder after the sleds.

Do Hand Release pushups or shoulder press to pre-fatigue.

This is not an exaggeration. You have been warned.

Tip: Hyrox simulations have a place but just understand it’s suboptimal to do it everyday.

Pacing

Pacing your Hyrox can be very hard, you will likely not run a Hyrox at your 10k pace and you need to be very careful not to red line your heart rate. If you for example go too hard on the sleds and can’t run after you have effectively ruined your race very early. On the other hand, if you are taking breaks it is very easy to take way too long.

You need a game plan and you need to stick to it.

Remember over 50% of the race is running … you need to be able to run … compromised!

Setting the correct pacing per station is very hard!

The Stations

You will likely have stations because of your physical attributes (short, tall, skinny, heavy etc) that you are good at and others that you are relatively bad at.

I don’t believe I have ever met someone that says they like wall balls and thats their best exercise. Because of the positioning of this exercise it is even worse.

The point is wall balls are hard and you will need to give them significant attention.

Recreating the feeling of the sleds with the Hyrox carpet is extremely difficult also, pushing/pulling the same weight in the gym is not necessarily the same.

Generally if you are tall you have advantages in SkiErg, wall balls, rowing.

If you are strong you can hammer the sleds then you are have an advantage over others.

If you are short burpees will likely be easier on you then if you are bigger. Mobility can also play a factor here.

Don’t make it harder on yourself on competition day make sure you train your weakness more than your strengths but how hard each station is for you could be very personal.

Bottom Line

It is extremely hard.

You will need to ‘recreate the feeling of a Hyrox’ so you can gauge when you are at and what to work on but if you can’t run and are weak you will need to put some serious effort to build that foundation in order to be ready in time.

But …

Sometimes in life you need to test your yourself, throw yourself out of your comfort zone. I did it and you can too.