Understanding exactly how to best to train for HYROX can be overwhelming. On the positive side, we know the requirements of the event so understand exactly what we are training for. On the other hand, the sport places a range of demands on the body, and so a range of training styles are needed. In particular, you need to balance the endurance needs of the event, with the requirements for strength, speed and power. Mistakes are very easily made when training for the race.
This article will cut through the confusion, and help you best understand some of the main considerations when programming your training plan for HYROX. However, if you’d rather not go to the trouble of creating your own plan, and want to be guided by a team of experts in the sport, then check out our HYROX Training Plans here.
Running
Running is roughly 50% of a HYROX race, and so is incredibly important. You need to be able to run 8 rounds of 1km during the event (plus additional running within the Roxzone, which is around 700 meters on average).
If you aren’t used to lots of running, it normally makes sense to increase the amount that you run gradually. Many running related injuries can be caused by running too much, too soon. You need to get your body used to pounding the pavement.
In terms of what sort of running workouts to do, a mixture of slow, steady state running (in heart rate zone 2), combined with other sessions of high speed, shorter distance, intervals, can normally work very well. You will also want to do some sessions at your expected race pace, especially as you get closer to the event. Exactly what, how often, and how far you run will depend on you, your history, time availability and existing capabilities.
One thing to remember is that you don’t need to just train for running. The 1km runs will be required after the taxing functional stations, meaning that you will be running in a compromised state. Running 1km on fresh legs, feels very different to running 1km after 100meters of walking lunges, for example. Therefore, getting comfortable with compromised running is important. As you get closer to the event in particular, some sessions which involve compromised running will likely be appropriate.
One final important part about running is ensuring you have the correct footwear. We talk more here about the best footwear for HYROX.
Endurance
Even though HYROX is, broadly speaking, an endurance event, and even though much of that endurance requirement comes from the running, it’s worth remembering that this doesn’t mean all your endurance work needs to be running work. As already mentioned, an excessive amount of running can lead to injuries – especially if you aren’t used to it – so training for endurance with other, lower impact, modalities can be sensible. My personal preferences for this are work on the Ski Erg and Row Machine (especially as both of these are low impact, and both also feature in a HYROX event), as well as work on the stationary bike or air bike.
Building your base aerobic endurance by doing longer, zone 2 heart rate, steady state work is typically worthwhile, with a smaller amount of work at race pace (or slightly faster) as you approach an event. Much (not all) of my steady state, zone 2 heart rate work comes from ski, row and cycling, with the faster, higher intensity work from running.
It’s not just aerobic endurance though that plays a part in HYROX, but also muscular endurance. For example, you need muscular endurance to be able perform 100 meters of sandbag lunges, once you are already well into the event. And then you need to be able to run another 1km after, followed by 75/100 wall balls! Bearing this in mind, some of your gym work should be at higher rep ranges than your pure strength work (more on that below).
Check out this article for an in-depth look at training intensity and how to use training zones in your workouts.
Strength Training
Building strength is another important aspect of a HYROX training plan. Moving the heavy sleds, in particular, is going to require an element of strength. We have separate articles on the site that talk more about specifically training for the sled push and sled pull. It’s not just the sleds though; all of the functional stations, to some extent, will need you to have a certain level of strength. Therefore, you probably want to be working on some basic strength exercises (squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, pull ups, for example) once or twice a week. When training for strength, you typically keep the weight higher and the number of reps lower.
Much of your strength training, for maximum effectiveness, would normally be done away from your endurance sessions (though as you approach closer to a HYROX race, you may look to combine the two so as to get used to the strength work in a more aerobically compromised state).
One thing to note is your strength is something to continually work on over several months / years, as opposed to expecting serious gains in the 8 weeks approaching a race. Unfortunately, strength gains can be slow coming, especially if you are older and / or have been training for a reasonably long time. For younger newbies, gains are normally easier to come by. When building your strength (and working on your endurance) you should be at least aware of the interference effect, and ideally take that into account when programming your training plan, if you want to ensure the maximal possible benefits from your training. Read more on that here.
Train the Specific Movement
Fortunately, there isn’t a huge degree of skill required to perform the exercises at the HYROX functional stations, but it’s still important to be comfortable with them. That doesn’t mean that you solely train those – as it’s likely there are other exercises which can carry over – but you do need to work on them. Therefore, ensuring you include ski erg, sled pushing, sled pulling, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carries, sandbag lunges and wall balls, to some extent, in your workouts / training sessions will pay dividends (the best you can based on equipment availability in your gym).
HYROX Simulations
The predictability of a HYROX event can mean many people end up doing a full HYROX simulation (or a scaled down version) in their training every week. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing a run through prior to an event, or the occasional scaled down version, but to regularly be doing them likely isn’t optimal.
Properly recovering from a full HYROX can take several days, and if you’re doing them too often you could end up overly fatiguing yourself, potentially leading to injury or adversely impacting the rest of your training.  It’s also generally not optimal. For example, the best way to improve your lunges probably isn’t to just do 100m of weighted lunges each week. Splitting up the total you do into more manageable sets, perhaps with heavier weights, can often be more effective, as well as being easier to recover from.
To reiterate, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea to occasionally replicate a HYROX race in your training; I would just be careful of falling into the trap of doing it too often.
This all said, there is a time and place for HYROX simulations, or metcons that incorporate the required HYROX movements. Something to bear in mind when doing these is understanding what you are trying to achieve out of the session. For example, you may want to specifically work on your upper body one day, and give your lower body more of a rest, so include more upper body based exercises that day. Alternatively, you may be aware of specific weaknesses (perhaps based on previous races) that you want to focus on, and so would do these more regularly than other exercises. For example, I knew that sled pulls and farmers carries were once a weakness for me, so once a week I included a session that looked like this:
60mins AMRAP:
500m run
40m Sled Pull
500m Run
100m Farmers Carry
That session helped to improve my carries and pulls, as well as my aerobic endurance, all in a compromised state.
It can also pay to think about the order of the stations in HYROX. For example, the sled push is the station after the ski erg, so maybe one session would include supersetting 800meters on the ski erg, with 40m sled push, for 3 rounds. You could include some running between those as well to replicate the event more closely, if appropriate.
Similarly, you might want to practice farmers carries along with rowing, a portion of the race that will test your grip strength to a greater extent than other parts. Or working on your running after the lunges – something that can be especially difficult. You can design the session with specific elements of the HYROX race in mind. My wall ball exercises are almost always at the end of my training sessions because they are the final part of a HYROX race. Therefore, I will be fatigued when doing them, but I also don’t need to do anything afterwards (except collapse at the finishing line!).
How Long Do You Need to Train for a HYROX?
There’s no definitive answer to this question as it depends upon so many factors (including your current fitness levels, sporting background, and aspirations). The reality is that MOST people who are reasonably fit and mobile could complete a HYROX tomorrow. There is nothing too technical in terms of the movements needed, and no time limit for completion. What training for the event does, if done properly, is help to prepare you for the race so you can complete it in a quicker time (and probably enjoy the experience a whole lot more too). Of course, if you have poor fitness levels right now, but want to win a HYROX, you will need a lot more time training for it than someone who just wants to complete it. That all said, 8-12 weeks of specific training is a good goal to aim for, if possible, for most people (but obviously the longer you have the better!).
Your Plan
Exactly what you need to be doing will come down to you, your strengths and weaknesses, experience, available time and more, but hopefully this article has given you some things to be considering when designing your training plan. Remember, if you want help with this, from a team of experts who will support you all the way, with everything you need to be successful on race day, check out our Personalised HYROX Coaching Plans or our 12 Week Training Plans (we have separate plans for Individuals and Doubles).
