Fitness
Fitness
Is HYROX hard?
Tempted to put yourself through the wringer in one of the most competitive fitness sports on earth? Worried you have the mindset but not the muscle? Here's how tough HYROX events can be...
There is fit, and then there is HYROX fit.
Merging endurance with functional training, this fitness competition—launched in Germany in 2017—has surged in popularity in no time at all, attracting some of the strongest athletes on earth. But precisely how tough is it, really? You know, for the average neighbourhood gym-goer…
That depends on a few factors. Yes, HYROX is hard—but it’s far from impossible. If you follow the elite athletes who travel the world competing at the top level, you’ll know how much blood, sweat, and tears go into being the best. But at amateur level, the competition is absolutely accessible for newcomers who are willing to embrace the burn.
If you want to win or if you want to be on the podium you need to go out hard and know how to suffer.
You don’t need to be a stacked weightlifter to make the jump into HYROX. Plenty of the sport’s biggest names started in very different fields, including the UK's Lucy Procter, who began running cross-country as a teen to boost her self confidence and eventually found her tribe in the gym. Encouraged to compete in her very first HYROX event in Glasgow aged 19, she’s now a record holder, a 16–24 World Champion, and a member of Elite 15 – the sport's premier division.
Alexander Rončević is a Hercules of HYROX
© Red Bull Content Pool
Men's 2024 World Champion Alexander Rončević started off his own athletic career as a junior swimmer, covering up to 100km in the pool per week well into his twenties. When he realised going pro wasn't on the cards he took up HYROX as a hobby and it slowly morphed into a career. The Austrian says all that experience in the pool is why he’s usually so far ahead in the ski ergs of HYROX – calling it a “big advantage" – and that it taught him the discipline and sacrifice he relies on today.
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Can beginners do HYROX?
If you're a total newbie when it comes to fitness events, don't worry – beginners are welcome to sign up to HYROX events. As long as you are in "generally good health" HYROX officials will allow any person 16 or over to compete.
Exactly how strenuous a HYROX event is depends on what category you enter. You can sign up for races based on age groups such as 16-24, 25-29, all the way up to 85-89. And if you're looking to ease yourself into one of these events then it's best to start with Relay or Doubles, two types of HYROX races with less workload than the individual events.
My first HYROX at 40: Why would anyone take on this fitness challenge?
Essentially the party mode of the sport, Relay is set up for teams of four and divides the effort so that every person completes 2x workout stations and 2x 1km runs. This shorter burst, all-action format is just as fun for the spectators as the entrants themselves.
Entrants put through their paces in Red Bull Road to HYROX
© Participants seen during Red Bull Road to Hyrox in Vienna, Austria on November 14, 2025
Upping the ante, a Doubles event sees two partners compete in the race splitting the workout stations between them – though both members have to run every lap. This category could be where you truly measure your fitness and find out if you have what it takes for an individual race…
Open is your standard version for individuals who go completely solo - the sport's purest form. The Pro category is even harder than this, going with heavier weights and a professional-level field.
To get unrivalled insight into the pioneers of HYROX, the Elite 15, watch Red Bull Beyond the ROX. Here's a trailer:
1 min
Beyond the ROX
Follow the demanding off-season journey that prepares athletes to become one of HYROX’s elite competitors in the ultimate fitness race.
02
Why is HYROX so hard?
Imagine eight kilometres of running broken up by eight different workout stations – each designed to push your buttons in gruelling new ways. Just when you think you’ve found a rhythm, suddenly you’re wrestling a sled or forcing your body to burpee repeatedly across the floor as you wonder where your next burst of energy is going to come from.
The margins are quite unforgiving. At the Elite 15 level it's not all that uncommon to see athletes quitting mid-way through races when they find themselves not matching their expected times, preferring to save their energy than complete a race that’s already run.
When I started this sport people thought you had to be big, you had to be bulky, and I proved them wrong.
As much a battle of brain as it is brawn, competitors have to make plenty of internal calculations involving time, speed, intensity, oxygen level and physical fatigue. Making it to the Wall Balls (always the last workout station) with something still left in the tank won’t be easy. Experience plays a huge part, so even if you burn out too fast, or struggle anywhere else on your first event, don't worry, you'll get them next time.
Here's a breakdown of a HYROX race structure:
- 1km run
- 1,000m Ski Erg
- 1km run
- 50m Sled Push
- 1km run
- 50m Sled Pull
- 1km run
- 80m Burpee Broad Jumps
- 1km run
- 1,000m Row
- 1km run
- 200m Farmers Carry
- 1km run
- 100m Sandbag Lunges
- 1km run
- 100 Wall Balls
Breaking down the 8 exercise stations in HYROX
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What’s a good way to train for HYROX as a beginner?
Find a HYROX-friendly training spot
Just because your local gym has much of the equipment found in the sport doesn't mean it's the best place to train for your first HYROX. Before doing anything else, look to see if there are any training clubs in the area catering to HYROX, whether that’s in equipment, coaching, or even races themselves. At HYROX's official website you can type in your address and see if any affiliated gyms come up. FYI: Ireland has a healthy number.
Flexibility is everything
Always stretch before and after a workout to help improve your elasticity. In a competition working so many different muscles this will pay off in a big way. If you've not already bought a foam roller, now's the time.
Track your heart rate
HYROX allows competitors to wear smartwatches, chest straps other types of heart monitors in competition. With such a variety of lung-sapping, limb-weakening disciplines crammed into one event, heart-rates are regularly elevated, so learning how to listen to your body will help you find your limits and build a mental map of when to go harder. This said, some of the pros prefer to do it their own way, such as Alexander Rončević, who opts to run on gut instinct instead of tracking wearable tech. As he says in the documentary series Beyond the ROX: "A watch can’t tell me how I feel or how I slept – listen to yourself."
Concentrate on technique
These exercises may look simple on the eye, but technique goes an awful long way in a sport where margins can be tighter than the hamstring of a 100m sprinter. The Sled Push and Pull require not only sheer force, but the super-focused precision of a weightlifter who prioritises form over all else. Even something like Farmers Carry or Sandbag Lunges could put you at the risk of injury over time if you don't lift with proper form. Meanwhile, burpees demand coordination and power as to not risk wearing the body out too soon at events. And then there’s the Ski Erg, one of the most technically demanding stations in HYROX, requiring solid posture, optimal timing and maximum efficiency of stroke length. In short, work on your technique before getting too hung up on times.
Lucy Procter is one of the most exciting talents in HYROX today
© Markus Rohrbacher / Red Bull Content Pool
Find your weakness
Target areas that you’re not as comfortable with and watch your all-round HYROX game soar. Don't be put off by increased fatigue. Working new muscles will always take time. There will be ups, downs and plenty of in-betweens, just stick to a long term plan and the big gains will show themselves before you know it.
If covering every discipline in a single training session doesn't sound feasible, set up a weekly training schedule that ensures you tick every HYROX-specific movement off. That way, when it comes to event day you'll be ready to put it all together. Simulate race flow where possible too, aiming for the closest experience to the real thing as you're going to get.
OCR legend Ida Mathilde Steensgaard has tested herself in HYROX
© Jesper Gronnemark / Red Bull Content Pool
Scrawny? No, you're just more aerodynamic
Think you need to be swole? Think again. Spanish triathlete turned HYROX competitor Pelayo Menendez Fernandez was told that when he started in this new sport that he’d need to bulk up. “When I started this sport people thought you had to be big, you had to be bulky, and I proved them wrong.” He surprised them all on the sleds, telling cameras in Beyond the ROX: “You can be very competitive if you have enough strength and a capacity to move weights when you are fatigued.”
Disciplines such as the sled push and sandbag lunges will be far easier with more muscle mass and a solid core, so whether it’s press-ups, sit-ups, weightlifting or bicep curls, these exercises will certainly make life less difficult, but bulking up in a big way isn't always the answer.
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Do other Red Bull athletes ever try HYROX?
Absolutely. Most recently, Austrian triathlete and long-distance cycling specialist Michael Strasser was put through his paces in HYROX by Red Bull and has been enjoying his fitness journey. In fact, many Red Bull athletes known for other sports have been drawn in by the new types of physical challenges that HYROX presents, just as BMX superstar Kieran Reilly discovered during his first HYROX in 2023:
"It's very different kind of fitness," said the British rider. "For me, riding in a competition involves a high-intensity one minute run, whereas HYROX is [moderate intensity] zone two work for an hour. When I do a run in a competition, it's challenging the whole way through, but sitting at 80% [intensity] for the duration of a HYROX event is challenging in other ways – such as pacing it right and keeping going.
How to smash your first HYROX event
"Although different in terms of movement, I think having the baseline fitness from BMX, especially in the legs, probably helps a little bit on a couple of leggy movements. I'd like to say it helped in the sled push but it didn't…"
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Any tips to prepare like a HYROX pro?
Building aerobic capacity is important, but if you ask many pros it's equally as important to build a mental shield to deal with the toughest moments...
“There’s pain written all over her face,” says HYROX expert Lauren Smith in season one of Beyond the ROX when talking about OCR legend-turned-HYROX athlete Ida Mathilde Steensgaard, who impressed on her debut: “She knows how to sit in that hole, that pain cave, and marinate there. And ultimately that’s what makes a good HYROX racer, right? How much can you suffer pain?”
Granted, you can compete in HYROX and go at your own pace, making it as hard or easy if you like. But if you want to compete, you’ve got to be comfortable being uncomfortable, almost rewiring the brain to tolerate that so-called "pain cave" and get comfy.
Jake Dearden digs deep at 2024's HYROX World Championship in France
© Baptiste Fauchille / Red Bull Content Pool
Every step up you make in the sport will represent a new level of suffering. The secret is to train the mind to accept it, and also believe that you are going to win. As Alexander Rončević says in Beyond the ROX: “There’s a big difference if you’re Elite 15 and if you’re top 100 – I think most of it is in the mind. And most of us are crazy."
Choose the right footwear
As powerlifter-turned-HYROXer Robinson Bentler tells Red Bull, a good pair of runners could be the difference between glory and failure: “The most important gear will be your running shoes. Make sure that your feet are accustomed to your shoes and the shoe gives you good stability for lunges, Wall Balls and running on the curved track. Grip is essential on the Sled Push and Pull.”
HYROX race day: Expert strategy and pacing tips you can’t miss
Think of a gameplan to deal with fatigue
Another trip from Bentler is to be mindful of conserving enough energy to get you across the line: “The best recommendation for pacing in HYROX is to choose a running pace that you can sustain for about 75 minutes. This pace will feel like you are running on 80 percent, but those last 20 percent are your buffer zone for the stations that will flood your body with lactate. If you can speak two to three sentences during your run, you are on the right pace. If you can barely catch a breath, you want to slow down a bit.”
Race judges will check your technique is correct
© Christian Pondella / Red Bull Content Pool
Hydrate well
As you would do before competing in any major sports event, taking on liquids, nutrition, mobility, and sleep play a major role in how you perform. Hydrate well before a race and don't forget to reach for a Red Bull before your moment of need.
Find a balance
It’s all about give and take. Focus too much on one area of your HYROX armoury and another may suffer. In Beyond the ROX, the Australian athlete James Kelly reveals he and his coach had worked so hard to take his running ability to the next level that it affected his unilateral strength ahead of a new season, reducing his lunge power in competition. He’s done plenty of unilateral strength work since to address the balance.
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What makes it worth it?
Training for a HYROX and then committing to taking one on is an achievement to be proud of. Friends and family can come to cheer you on in the crowd, while work friends can hear you re-tell the same story 100 times for at least a month.
Mental toughness and total body conditioning (who doesn’t want a nice gym bod?) is another positive byproduct of training for, and competing, in HYROX, bullet-proofing your outer shell and making you a far more athletic competitor in a host of other sports, too. It's also a fabulous social tool, with Doubles and Relay events allowing you to tick off your goals alongside friends. And, who knows, maybe find some new ones along the way.
HYROX can become a great place to find a community
© Onthatile Zulu performs at Hyrox at CTICC in Cape Town, South Africa on July 20, 2025
Community is at the heart of what makes HYROX special – ask anyone, even the pros who put it all on the line week in, week out. It’s about togetherness, a similar passion and the thrill of iron-willed competitors pushing one another to new heights. The energy you’ll find at major events is off the charts.
What is HYROX and why is it so popular?
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Wrapping up: Why HYROX is difficult
HYROX is not only a race, it's fitness choreography performed under the toughest of conditions, pitting competitors against the clock and also a stampede of super-fit athletes. One mistimed routine or poor lap and you can quickly lose sight of the rest of the pack or enter a new world of pain.
Thankfully, the beauty of HYROX is that competitors can take events at their own pace. Doubles or Relay races also allow newcomers to test the waters while sharing some of the workload. HYROX is very difficult, no doubt, requiring a technical understanding of every discipline and a solid fitness base, but if you put in the work then you might well find yourself on the start line.
To keep updated with the latest HYROX World Championships season click here. For a more detailed list of FAQs around the sport click here. And to watch the first season of Beyond the ROX click here.
