We’ve signed up to tackle a series of eight movement stations connected by one-kilometer runs, a competitive amalgamation of a CrossFit event, a half marathon, and an urban obstacle race. There’s a mixture of cardio work (SkiErgs and rowers), strength challenges (sled pushes and pulls and farmer’s carries), a CrossFit staple (wall balls), and flat-out punishments (walking sandbag lunges and burpee broad jumps). The exercises are meant to be approachable for all gym-goers, but they’re still tough. The average Hyrox finishing time is about an hour and a half. I’m aiming to be faster.
By 11:20, my heat of more than 20 guys is raring to go. I’m running in the Open individual division, so it’s all men. (You can also take on the course with a partner or four-person relay team and mix women and men together.) There are the lean, muscular guys in the group you’d expect at any masochistic fitness event, but there are other bods, too, guys sporting knee braces and bellies. We mass at the line, the clock hits zero, and I sprint off to the first station, the SkiErg.
HYROX STARTED AS an idealistic concept: an event in which everyday exercisers could share the same space as top athletes and where anyone could conceivably tackle every aspect of the course. This dynamic exists in CrossFit’s annual Open event and in road and trail running races, but Hyrox cofounder and CEO Christian Toetzke, an endurance-racing junkie who organized events for years, believed he could create a fitnessy sport with broader appeal. He set out to engineer a contest that could bring mass participation to the gym and running space and teamed up with Moritz Furste, a former German Olympic field-hockey champion.
The special sauce in Hyrox is its mix of eight movements that requires a blend of strength, power, and endurance. You work through key movement patterns (push, pull, run, throw, and carry). Running was essential, since (almost) everyone can do it, but Toetzke and Furste also chose exercises that could be assessed quickly by officials on the course, since the idea was to hold events with large waves of competitors. The moves needed to be (relatively) safe to do under fatigue and couldn’t be more difficult for women than men. (Box jumps were nixed for the former reason, monkey bars for the latter.) Hyrox was born in 2017.
The first event was held in Hamburg in November 2017 with 650 participants. Nearly seven years later, Hyrox is on pace to host 45 events for 425,000 athletes in five continents this year, according to the company’s stats. It also has a healthy spectator culture: along with the over 5,000 competitors, company reps say 7,000 spectators attended the NYC event. A slew of partnerships with brands like Puma (apparel), Chris Hemsworth’s Centr (equipment), and F45 (group training) have bolstered Hyrox’s corporate status. TIME named it one of the world’s most influential companies for 2024.
The crowd around me shows how much Hyrox has grown. I jog through the inflatable yellow gate from the run course into the “Roxzone,” an area within the barriers where attendants hand out cups of water and sports drinks. The run structure confuses me; I can’t remember if I’m required to run two or three loops around the course each round, and I’m pretty sure I skipped a lap by accident between the first station (Ski-Erg) and second (sled push). There’s a rush of running bodies flowing in and out of the event space and tracking anyone else from my heat is near impossible, since everyone runs the race at their own pace. Ultimately, this is a race against myself. I look to the turf for Station 4, burpee broad jumps, and trudge over for one of the toughest challenges of the day.
FROM THE WALL balls to the Ski-Erg to all those burpee broad jumps, it’s difficult for anyone with knowledge of the last 15 years of fitness to describe Hyrox without comparing it to CrossFit. Look at Hyrox division winners, and you’ll see a lean, shredded body atop the podiums—much as you would at a CrossFit competition. (Elite CrossFit athletes like Chandler Smith and Lauren Fisher also ran the New York Hyrox event, by the way). While Hyrox trumpets itself as a race “for every body,” it’s still a competitive event. It has an Elite 15, a ranking of the top individual men and women competitors who race for the overall crowns at a World Championship event (recently held in Nice, France, where Austria’s Alexander Rončević took the gold in 56:21).
GIACOMO FORTUNATOStation 3, the sled pull. Men’s Open competitors pull sleds loaded with 103 kg (about 227 lbs) for 50 meters.
Hyrox’s growth trajectory is also close to CrossFit. David Magida, the 2023 North American Champion and Hyrox 365 Global Programming Director, says the company is currently developing educational materials for coaches and is working with affiliate gyms to provide programming, not unlike CrossFit’s top-down organizational structure. According to the company, 2,000 gyms and trainers globally are already part of its affiliate network. But there’s more in the pipeline that could make Hyrox more standardized than CrossFit, which typically allows gym owners to determine what their spaces look like. Magida says the company plans to open Performance Centers, with floor plans specific to Hyrox training, and will also help gym owners understand how to retrofit their spaces for ideal use to train for the race.
Not that you need a “Hyrox-affiliated” gym to prep for your first Hyrox competition. If you’re working through a basic strength routine that includes cardio, you’ll be able to gut out this competition, especially since the race never changes (notably unlike CrossFit).
AS I HIT the penultimate event, the sandbag lunge, I can see positives and negatives to Hyrox’s open-for-all mindset. Running with all kinds of competitors is thrilling. But there are bottlenecks at the stations whenever slower competitors catch their breath. I nearly burpee broad-jumped into the back of someone’s legs, and now I’m lunging my way around guys sucking air. I try to keep moving.
Hyrox is actually a good event to test strength and stamina. The race fits directly in the middle of the group-exercise spectrum. On one end, there’s CrossFit and those who train hard and challenge themselves to do ultra-tough workouts. On the other, there are those who love group fitness for its social aspects. But CrossFit can be technically difficult for casual exercisers while group fitness training doesn’t truly let you gauge your progress. Hyrox bridges that gap.
But races are equal parts mental and physical tests. MH Advisory Board member David Otey, C.S.C.S., points to the lunges: All told, it may take you 50 or more lunges per leg to finish the 100-meter course. That’s not building strength; it’s surviving. “This is something where I can see it as a great test of someone’s fortitude,” says Otey. In other words, Hyrox is a good challenge, and training for Hyrox will improve your fitness—but you won’t build strength or muscle like you would with a more traditional lifting regimen.
GIACOMO FORTUNATOVendors and activations, like these ice plunge tubs, offered competitors space to recover at the event.
At the final station of the course, Wall Balls, I’m exhausted but exhilarated as I squat down on number 90 of 100 total reps, then explode up to heave the 14-pound medball to the target. There have been some bumps along the way—the missed lap, the backups on the field, and at one point the aid station ran out of water. But I’m finishing my first Hyrox. Even as I slow down, I feel myself getting more excited. The crowd at my back cheers, and I dig to find the strength to knock out the final 10 reps all in one go. I drop the ball and jog the short distance up the ramp to the finish. I’m now a Hyrox finisher, a status that might soon be bandied about the way marathoners or Ironman competitors consider participating in those events integral aspects of their identities. I’m thrilled.
For the moment, though, I need a seat, a cold drink, and maybe an ice plunge. This might be a race for everybody, but that doesn’t mean it was easy.
3 EXERCISES TO TRAIN FOR HYROX
ADD A DOSE of Hyrox into your own workouts (and prep for your first race too!) by mixing these three moves from David Magida into your training. Do each twice a week.
Substitute For Sled Push — Single Leg Bench Step-Ups
Do 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side.
Hyrox’s 50-meter sled push decimates quads, glutes, and core. Train for it with single-leg step-ups: Holding dumbbells at your sides, place your right foot on a bench, step, or chair. Drive through your right foot as you stand tall on the box, then lower with control. Do 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps per side.
Substitute For Sled Pull – Romanian Deadlifts
Aim for 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps.
The 50-meter sled pull that follows isn’t rocket science: You’re pulling something heavy. Deadlifts ready you for those big pulls—and blast your forearms, too. Stand holding heavy dumbbells at your sides, then push your butt back and lower your torso until it’s at a 45-degree angle with the ground. Stand and squeeze your glutes. Do 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps.
Substitute Wall Balls – Thrusters
Aim to do sets for time, not reps: Think 3 sets of 60 seconds of work.
Ready yourself for wall balls, which have you squatting then throwing a ball overhead at a target, by doing thrusters. Stand holding dumbbells at your shoulders, then push your butt back and bend at the knees, lowering into a squat. Stand and drive the dumbbells overhead as you do. Keep the weight ultra-light, since your goal is to build endurance. Focus on time, not reps; do 3 60-second sets.
Brett Williams, NASM-CPT, PES, a senior editor at Men’s Health, is a certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
