Hyrox has gone from being a German curiosity to becoming the fastest-growing competitive fitness event in Europe. In 2023, there were over 100,000 participants worldwide. In 2025, Spanish races sold out within days. And in 2026, gyms positioning themselves as Hyrox preparation spaces have waiting lists.
If you own a functional box or are a gym coach, you have probably already wondered exactly what Hyrox is, what preparing athletes for it involves, and how it fits with what you offer. This guide answers those questions in detail: what happens at a race, what the athlete needs to perform well, and how to structure preparation from your gym.
What is Hyrox: the event explained for a coach
Hyrox is a fitness competition consisting of 8 kilometres of running split into 8 segments of 1 km, separated by 8 functional work stations that are always completed in the same order. The format is identical at every race worldwide, which allows times to be compared across cities and categories.
Unlike CrossFit, where the WOD of the day can be anything, Hyrox holds no surprises: the athlete knows exactly what they are going to do, in what order and with what loads. That predictability is part of the appeal for participants and an important advantage for coaches designing the preparation.
The race is designed to be competitive but accessible. There are categories for all levels (Open, Pro, Elite), for men, women and teams (Doubles and Relay), and loads are scaled. Someone who has never competed can finish a Hyrox race. Someone who has spent two years preparing can aim for the podium.
The 8 stations: what they are and what they demand physically
This is the map of the terrain you need to know in order to design a preparation with purpose.
1. SkiErg — 1,000 metres
The Concept2 SkiErg simulates the cross-country skiing movement: simultaneous downward pull of both arms with a slight forward lean of the torso. It primarily works the latissimus dorsi, biceps, core and trapezius, with a high cardiorespiratory demand.
What the athlete needs: sustained arm power, coordination of the movement pattern and aerobic capacity. The most common mistake in competition is starting too fast and arriving at the next station already spent.
2. Sled Push — 50 metres (weight: 102 kg men / 72 kg women)
Sled push on a track. It demands leg strength, hip extension and lactate tolerance in the quadriceps. This is the station that intimidates beginners the most and the one that makes the biggest difference between prepared and unprepared athletes.
What the athlete needs: quadriceps and glute strength, an efficient push posture and resistance to local muscular fatigue. An athlete with a good aerobic base but without specific strength can grind to a halt at this station.
3. Sled Pull — 50 metres (same weight)
Backwards sled drag using ropes. More technical than the push: it requires keeping the torso upright, short steps and power through the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, lower back).
What the athlete needs: coordination of the drag pattern and posterior chain strength. Athletes who have not practised the movement lose a great deal of time through poor technique.
4. Burpee Broad Jump — 80 metres
Burpees with a forward jump rather than a vertical jump. The total distance is 80 metres, which can mean between 25 and 40 repetitions depending on the athlete’s jump length. This is the station with the greatest impact on the cardiorespiratory system and the one that most affects the following running segment.
What the athlete needs: tolerance to repeated high-intensity effort, efficient burpee technique and a fast recovery capacity. This is where a great deal of time is lost or won depending on the pace chosen.
5. Rowing — 1,000 metres
Concept2 rowing ergometer. Coordinated pattern of legs, hips and arms. High cardiorespiratory demand with a sustained power component. Favours athletes with good rowing technique and an aerobic base.
What the athlete needs: solid rowing technique (many functional athletes row with poor technique and lose efficiency), aerobic power and pace management. A poor rowing split can cost two or three minutes off the final time.
6. Farmers Carry — 200 metres (24 kg each hand men / 16 kg women)
Loaded carry with dumbbells or kettlebells in both hands. Works grip, core stability, trapezius and general muscular endurance. It seems straightforward in training and can be a trap in competition due to accumulated fatigue.
What the athlete needs: sustained grip strength, a neutral spinal posture under load and a consistent pace. Athletes who set the load down on the ground lose valuable time.
7. Sandbag Lunges — 100 metres (20 kg men / 10 kg women)
Lunges with a sandbag across the shoulders. A long distance that demands quadriceps, glute and knee-stabiliser endurance. The accumulated fatigue from previous stations makes this harder than it appears when fresh.
What the athlete needs: leg strength under accumulated fatigue, an efficient lunge pattern and mental management over long distances under load. This is a station where a consistent pace beats an explosive one.
8. Wall Balls — 100 repetitions (9 kg men / 6 kg women)
Squat with a medicine ball and throw to a target at 3 metres. High cardiorespiratory demand, quadriceps, shoulders and coordination. The final station before crossing the finish line: athletes who arrive here exhausted suffer particularly.
What the athlete needs: efficient wall ball technique to avoid wasting energy, the capacity to maintain large sets under accumulated fatigue and pace management in the final repetitions.
What type of athlete comes out of a well-prepared box ready for Hyrox
There is a widespread perception that Hyrox is “for runners who go to the gym”. That is an oversimplification that leads to mediocre preparation.
The athlete who performs well at Hyrox needs three well-developed capacities:
Aerobic base endurance. The 8 km of running are non-negotiable. An athlete with a great deal of strength but no aerobic base arrives at the stations already spent and the overall time collapses. The running is the thread that runs through the entire race.
Specific functional strength. Not one-rep-max squat strength: strength-endurance in the exact patterns of the eight stations. Pushing and pulling the sled, managing the sandbag, holding on through the wall balls with fatigue. This is the strength that needs to be built.
Technical efficiency at each station. A technically efficient athlete completes each station at a lower energy cost than one who has more strength but poorer technique. The SkiErg technique, the sled push pattern, the burpee broad jump rhythm: everything has room for improvement that translates into minutes off the final time.
CrossFit athletes have a clear advantage in the third area: they already know most of the movements. Where they tend to fall short is in the first: the aerobic running base is not always well developed in a box that prioritises high-intensity work.
How to structure preparation from your gym
The time frame: 12 or 16 weeks
The most common Hyrox preparation is structured in blocks of 12 to 16 weeks, with a specific race as the target date. That horizon allows you to build the aerobic base, develop specific station strength and refine technical efficiency before entering the taper phase.
A well-designed 16-week cycle has three distinct phases:
Phase 1 — Base (weeks 1–6): Build aerobic running volume (3–4 weekly sessions of 30 to 60 minutes), general strength work and technical introduction to the 8 stations. The goal is not intensity: it is base and technique.
Phase 2 — Development (weeks 7–12): Increase intensity and station-specific work. Introduce partial race simulations (2 or 3 stations chained together with running segments in between). Develop resistance to accumulated fatigue.
Phase 3 — Specificity and taper (weeks 13–16): Reduce volume and increase quality. Full or near-full race simulations. Refine running and station paces. The final week before the race is a deload.
To structure this type of periodised cycle with purpose, the complete framework from personalised training planning is the reference point.
How many weekly sessions does an athlete need
The minimum useful volume for Hyrox preparation is 3 sessions per week, but optimal preparation requires 4 or 5. The typical breakdown:
- 2–3 running sessions (aerobic volume + tempo)
- 2 station-specific work sessions
- 1 general strength session (if the athlete has a deficit)
An athlete who already trains at your box 4 days a week can integrate Hyrox preparation into their routine without adding more days: it is a matter of orientating some of those sessions towards the specific patterns.
Most common preparation mistakes
Neglecting the running. Many functional box coaches design Hyrox preparation focused almost exclusively on the stations. The result is athletes who arrive at each station with their legs already burning. The running is not the complement: it is half the race.
Practising the stations when fresh. In training, it is easy to do 100 wall balls when you are rested. In competition, you do them after 7 km of running and 7 stations. If you are not training the stations with prior fatigue, you are not training for Hyrox.
Ignoring pace management. Hyrox is won with an intelligent distribution of effort, not with partial sprints. Athletes who go out too fast in the first run or on the SkiErg pay the price at stations 5, 6, 7 and 8. Teaching pace management is part of the coach’s job.
Not practising transitions. The time between stations and running segments also counts. An athlete who knows how to enter and exit each station smoothly can gain one or two minutes over someone technically similar but less trained in transitions.
How it fits with functional training at your gym
Hyrox preparation does not require building a parallel programme from scratch. In a well-equipped functional box, most of the tools are already there: rowing, wall balls, kettlebells for farmers carry, jump ropes. What changes is the orientation of some sessions and the inclusion of a sled and SkiErg if you do not yet have them.
The simplest way to integrate Hyrox into your existing offering is to create a specific preparation group that trains 2 days a week dedicated to Hyrox, while maintaining their regular functional training days. This group works as a unit towards the race, creates its own team dynamic and generates a differentiated product that you can sell with a defined price and dates.
Hyrox and CrossFit: rivals or complementary?
The question many box owners ask. The short answer: complementary.
CrossFit athletes have an advantage in the technical stations (they know the movements), in tolerance to high-intensity effort and in the competitive mindset. Where they tend to need more work is in the aerobic running base and in pace management throughout a long race.
Many CrossFit athletes discover Hyrox and find in it a fresh motivation: competing in a format that is more accessible to the social circle they have outside the box. And many runners discover Hyrox and end up joining a functional gym to work on the stations. In both cases, the gym that was already positioned as a Hyrox preparation space captures that flow.
The competition calendar: how to organise yourself as a coach
One of the most common mistakes made by coaches who are starting to prepare athletes for Hyrox is not planning far enough in advance. Races fill up quickly and the coach needs to know what dates are on the horizon in order to organise preparation cycles for their athletes.
For 2026, there are confirmed races in several Spanish cities. Knowing that calendar in advance allows you to:
- Organise preparation groups with clear dates
- Design 12- or 16-week cycles without overlaps
- Plan your service offering (individual, group, online preparation) according to demand peaks
The 2026 fitness competitions guide for gym owners contains the updated calendar and the keys to making the most of it as a business.
Conclusion
Hyrox is not a passing trend. It is a format that combines running and functional work in a predictable, competitive and accessible structure, and it is growing in Spain at a speed the fitness industry has not seen in a long time.
For a coach or gym owner, preparing athletes for Hyrox is a concrete opportunity: a product with a defined start and end, a motivated audience with a date in the calendar and a market where there are still few well-positioned spaces.
The preparation that works is not complicated to design, but it does require a clear understanding of what the race demands — the 8 km of running as much as the 8 stations — periodising purposefully towards the target date and teaching athletes to manage their pace throughout a 60- to 90-minute competition.
The gyms that are growing in Hyrox are not the ones with the newest SkiErg. They are the ones with the clearest preparation system.
Do you want the complete framework for managing all the functional training at your gym, beyond Hyrox? Here is the guide for owners: Functional training at a gym: complete guide for owners.
