Format, stations, divisions, and race-day strategy. Season 25/26.
HYROX is a global indoor fitness race that pairs eight one-kilometre runs with eight functional workout stations, completed back-to-back in a fixed order. The format never changes — every athlete in every city covers the same distance, lifts the same loads, and performs the same number of reps. That standardisation is the whole point: a 1:12:30 in Berlin counts the same as a 1:12:30 in Los Angeles, and the global rankings are directly comparable.
It sits in a gap that road running and CrossFit don't quite fill. Marathons reward pure aerobic capacity. CrossFit competitions reward a wider mix of strength, gymnastics and unknown-unknowns. HYROX is closer to a hybrid endurance race — predictable, repeatable, and brutal in a very specific way. You're never lifting maximally, but you're running a heavy mid-distance race with eight strength interruptions that wreck your legs and force you to keep running anyway.
Events draw tens of thousands of athletes across more than 70 cities a season, and tickets for major venues sell out within hours of release.
1,000 m on the Concept2 SkiErg, performed standing with both handles. All divisions cover the same distance with no gender or Pro adjustment — only the time differs. Drive from the hips and lats, not the arms; finishing with shoulders fried makes the next 7 km of running miserable. The hardest part is going out too hot in the first 200 m.
50 m of pushing a weighted sled across event carpet. Loads (including sled): Women Open 102 kg, Men Open and Women Pro 152 kg, Men Pro 202 kg. Stay low, lock your arms, and drive through the balls of the feet — standing tall stalls the sled instantly. This is where most first-timers blow up; the legs come back slowly afterwards.
50 m of pulling a sled hand-over-hand using a rope, alternating walking back to the rope between pulls. Loads: Women Open 78 kg, Men Open and Women Pro 103 kg, Men Pro 153 kg. Sit your hips low, lean back, and pull explosively rather than nibbling at the rope. Grip and forearms are the limiter, not raw strength.
80 m of burpee broad jumps, no load — chest to floor, then a two-footed jump forward to the next rep. Identical for every division. Smaller, faster jumps almost always beat heroic long ones because they preserve heart-rate and rhythm. This is the cardiovascular crusher of the race; expect heart rate to spike higher here than anywhere else.
1,000 m on the Concept2 RowErg, same distance for every division. Coming in off three taxing stations, this is a forced recovery if you pace it — long, controlled strokes around 24–26 spm rather than thrashing for a PB split. The hardest part is resisting the urge to chase a hero number when your legs are already cooked.
200 m carrying two kettlebells. Loads: Women Open 2×16 kg, Men Open and Women Pro 2×24 kg, Men Pro 2×32 kg. You're allowed to put the bells down, but every restart costs time and grip. Walk tall, ribs stacked, eyes up — rolled shoulders crush your breathing on the next run.
100 m of walking lunges with the sandbag held on the upper back or front rack. Loads: Women Open 10 kg, Men Open and Women Pro 20 kg, Men Pro 30 kg. The trailing knee must touch the floor for the rep to count. By station seven your quads are already wrecked, which is exactly why this is here.
The finisher: 75 reps for Women Open, 100 reps for everyone else. Women throw a 4 kg (Open) or 6 kg (Pro) ball to a 2.70 m target; men throw 6 kg (Open) or 9 kg (Pro) to a 3.00 m target. Sets of 10–15 with short, disciplined breaks beat trying to grind through bigger sets. The "wall ball wall" — the moment your legs refuse to squat — is the most common reason first-timers blow up the back half.
The race format is identical between Open and Pro — same eight runs, same eight stations, same order. What changes is the load. Pro athletes push and pull heavier sleds, carry heavier kettlebells, lunge with a heavier sandbag, and throw a heavier wall ball.
Open is the default, and it is where the overwhelming majority of competitive amateurs race. The loads are challenging but achievable for someone with a year or two of consistent training. Pro is intended for experienced athletes who are confident handling the heavier weights at race pace and who are typically chasing a sub-1:10 (men) or sub-1:20 (women) finish. There is no qualification standard — anyone can register Pro — but going Pro before you are ready means longer station times, not a more impressive result.
Doubles and Relay teams also have Open and Pro variants, and the same rule applies: Pro Doubles uses Pro weights for the corresponding gender.
Singles is the headline format and the only one that produces a Pro-division world ranking. One athlete completes all eight runs and all eight stations alone, with the gun-to-tape time as the only result that matters. This is what most people mean when they say "I did a HYROX".
Doubles teams of two race together for the full distance, side by side on every run, and split the work at each station however suits them. Only one partner needs to be working at any given moment, but every metre and every rep still has to be completed before the team moves on. Most teams trade off in chunks — for example 50/25 wall balls, or alternating sandbag lunge lengths — rather than swapping rep-for-rep, because handovers cost time. Available in Men, Women and Mixed categories, in both Open and Pro.
Relay teams of four split the race into quarters: each athlete completes two runs and two stations in a fixed sequence (1–2, then 3–4, then 5–6, then 7–8), tagging the next teammate at the relay zone. Loads use the corresponding gender's Open weights. Relay is the most accessible team format and a common entry point for clubs, gyms, and corporate teams.
The most common rookie mistake is treating the opening kilometres like a 5 km race. The wheels almost always come off after the sled push or burpees if you do. A useful target is to run the first four kilometres about 15–20 seconds per km slower than your fresh 5 km pace, so you still have something left for the back half.
Body angle matters more than raw strength on the sled. Get your hips below your shoulders, lock your arms straight, and drive through the balls of the feet in short, choppy steps. Standing tall stalls the sled, and trying to muscle it standing up burns the legs you need for the next six kilometres.
The runs feel deceptively easy in training because you do them fresh. In a race you are running on legs that have just pushed, pulled, jumped or lunged. This "compromised running" is the actual sport — train it by doing short station-to-run intervals rather than only practising stations and runs in isolation.
Going unbroken on 75 or 100 wall balls is almost never the right call for a first-timer. Pre-decide your sets — for example 5×15 with 10-second breaks — and stick to the plan even when you feel good early. The athletes who blow up at station eight are almost always the ones who tried to wing it.
The farmers carry is a recovery station if you let it be. Stack your ribs over your hips, keep your eyes up, and breathe in through the nose — rolled-forward shoulders crush your diaphragm and make the next run brutal. Putting the bells down once is fine; putting them down four times is a tax you do not want to pay.
Walk the floor in your start-pack window if you can. Knowing exactly where each station sits, how the run loop turns, and where the water points are saves real time on race day. The 180-degree turns on the 1 km loop reward shorter, controlled strides over a long road-running gait.