Dr Adam Storey on HYROX Strength Training

In an episode of the Rox Lyfe podcast, I got to sit down with Dr Adam Storey to unpack what strength training should actually look like for HYROX athletes.

Adam brings a rare blend of Olympic-level coaching experience, applied sport science, and hands-on HYROX involvement. From leading the New Zealand Weightlifting Team across Olympic cycles to now sitting on the HYROX Sports Science Advisory Council, he bridges old-school strength culture with modern endurance science.

From Olympic Weightlifting to HYROX

Adam’s background is not typical of most HYROX coaches.

He started in rugby and cricket growing up in New Zealand, fell in love with Olympic weightlifting, and eventually became Head Coach of the New Zealand Weightlifting Team. He coached athletes at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and multiple Commonwealth Games cycles.

After years immersed in pure strength and power, he flipped the script and went deep into endurance running, moving from half marathons to ultra distances.

HYROX, in his words, became the perfect blend of those two worlds.

Max Strength vs Fatigue Tolerance in HYROX

One of the biggest questions we explored was this:

How much max strength do you actually need for HYROX?

Adam acknowledged that max strength can help but its certainly not the full story.

You can have two athletes with identical peak strength. The one who retains more of that strength under fatigue will win.

He described HYROX as a power endurance sport. It is not just about how much force you can produce. It is about how often you can reproduce high outputs while tired.

Adam suggested practical ways to assess this. For example:

Test a 20m sled push for time at race weight.
Perform a standardised fatigue block, such as a 1km run.
Retest the sled push immediately.

The drop-off between efforts tells you more than your raw strength number. If your fatigue index is poor, you do not need more peak force. You need better strength retention.

Programming Strength Alongside Running

As HYROX athletes we often wrestle with the question of how to lift heavy and still run well (without the 2 adversely impacting each other).

Adam broke down the interference effect in simple terms. Endurance and strength activate competing molecular pathways in the body. When done poorly, they blunt each other’s adaptations.

Key takeaways:

Separate hard endurance and heavy strength sessions by 4–6 hours when possible.
Avoid smashing the same muscle groups with high intensity work in close succession.
Be strategic with session order and intent.

He also reinforced the importance of periodisation.

Early phases can prioritise bilateral lifts, vertical force production, and peak force development. Later phases must convert that into horizontal force, race-specific strength, and fatigue resistance. A huge squat is useless if you cannot move the sled efficiently under fatigue.

Why Farmers Carries Are Underrated

I asked Adam about training for the Farmers Carry in HYROX, to help better understand what makes someone good at this station, beyond just grip strength. He told me he sees it as a “postural endurance test”.

The question is not how strong your hands are, but rather how long can you maintain optimal posture under load while moving quickly?

Elite athletes who fly through the farmer’s carry are not just strong. They are biomechanically efficient and rock solid through the posterior chain.

He also made a key point for training. Farmer’s carries create high metabolic stress with relatively low eccentric damage. That makes them a powerful tool for increasing training load without destroying recovery. He feels they are a very underrated exercise.