A step-by-step guide on how to create your own Hyrox Training Program
Creating a Hyrox training program can feel overwhelming.
The event is simple, but the demands are incredible. It is easy to overload yourself when preparing for a massive effort like Hyrox.
Training for Hyrox does not have to be a beat down toward overtraining.
Take a few simple steps to understand the demands of Hyrox so you can get the best results possible.
This article will help give you clarity so you can understand the best places to start. 
After reading this article, you will learn:
- How to not overtrain.
- The best way to balance endurance and strength training.
- How to develop high-end speed.
- What to do to develop specific endurance.
So to get us started, let’s talk about the main principle that will guide your entire training program.
How often you should go hard and when you should go easy.
Off the jump, I want to let you know that I offer an extensive training app with my coaching partners Ryan Kent and Meg Jacoby. In the app, you will find 12-week programs from Hyrox and DEKAFIT, plus our favorite workouts for our training. You can start with a 7-day trial, then it’s just $14.99 per month.
Try a free 7-day trial of our Hybrid Training here.
How Much Intensity to do for Hyrox
As an endurance coach, I have worked with many athletes who reach a plateau. Unfortunately, one of the biggest traps they fall into is going too hard too often. Hyrox Training Program
It is simple to replicate the race day pace, and the feeling of improvement is addicting. But chasing outcomes in training will greatly slow or stall progress.
You need to recover to improve your race times and endurance. Hyrox Training Program
Hyrox is no different from any other endurance endeavor.
The intuitive way to train for a Hyrox event is to replicate the event as much as possible.
The predictability of the event can drive an athlete to work hard too often. The intensity will slow your recovery and will dampen your results. However, there is a time and a place to do Hyrox-style workouts which we will cover later in this article. Hyrox Training Program
But first, an analogy.
Imagine you are an architect building a skyscraper (I’m not an architect, but I can imagine what it is like to build a building. How hard can it be, right?! ha). The first step in building a structure up is to dig down.
Building a foundation is how you make a strong structure. Imagine you begin to dig the hole, but you rush the process, and the foundation is uneven. Then when you lay the cement and don’t wait for it to dry. Then you start to build the structure directly on the uneven and wet cement. Hyrox Training Program
It will eventually dry, but you will have a wobbly, messed-up building. So then, instead of fixing your mistakes, you continue to build upward because you are in a hurry.
If you push too hard too often, you won’t let the concrete dry.
It may appear like you are a healthy and fit athlete, but the structure of your fitness is weak and damaged because you did not allow yourself to recover. Hyrox Training Program
So don’t do Hyrox-specific workouts at a high intensity too often. Instead, I recommend doing two intense endurance pieces of training per week, with the rest of the work being the strength and aerobic development.
Read More on the Difference Between Aerobic and Anaerobic Training
Strength Training For Hyrox
Strength training for Hyrxo is a bit complicated. The event has some actual power output with the heavy sled, sandbags, and farmers’ walk. Hyrox Training Program
I recommend everyone takes time to help as a foundation of strength to make the demands of the event a bit easier.
I recommend two days a week of heavy compound lifts (squats, deadlifts, split squats, strict press, etc.), focusing on all athletes’ big weights and low reps. Hyrox Training Program
A good rule of thumb for most athletes working for strength on Hyrox is to keep the total reps under 10 for all sets. Something like 3×3 or 4×2 will ensure that the weight stays heavy and that the volume does not creep too high.
We want to improve strength while not overdoing it to recover for the quality session that will matter the most. 
Separate the strength from the quality endurance work.
There will be a time to mix the two and create a race-like stimulus. But as mentioned above, you will hit a plateau because hyrox style comprised workouts will not make you faster or much stronger. The demands of the event are so high that both your strength and speed output will suffer.
If you are brand new to lifting, you will undoubtedly see strength gains if you only compromise running workouts, you will hit a wall. Hyrox Training Program
If you try to build the structure of the building up while putting up the drywall, you will finish the project faster – but the finished product will be wrong, and you will have a building that no one will want.
Take your time adding strength and approach it with a 1-2 year plan. Not a 12-week plan before your next race. It won’t work.
How to Gain Muscle
This is a whole different article for smaller athletes who wish to put on size. But in short, you would need to phase through a long cycle of eating in a surplus and working in a hypertrophy rep range of 8-15 reps of heavyweight.
First, lifting and eating are what will put muscle on your frame. Then, once you have added muscle to your body, you can build strength in those muscles using the lower rep ranges.
Of course, you can and should still do aerobic work during your hypertrophy phase, but it will increase your eating demands. Hyrox Training Program
In short, do your strength on its own unless you are already extremely strong and extremely fast. And if you are already both of those things, get stronger and get faster. You need to work on them separately to get the best long-term results possible.
Try a free 7-day trial of our Hyrox and DEKAFIT Training App (12-week HYROX and DEKA programs included)
Endurance Training for Hyrox
Any event where you are constantly moving for more than two minutes is considered an endurance event. You have several systems that help you metabolize energy. For this conversation, we will focus on your aerobic (with oxygen) system and your anaerobic (without oxygen) system.
Depending on your intensity, your anaerobic system can only keep the energy coming to your muscle for 10-90 seconds.
A Hyrox event will take 60-100 minutes for most people. So, you need to spend time developing your aerobic system to handle the demands of this event.
However, during the race, there is a point (sled, lunges, wall balls) where we may be outside the aerobic system. So, we can not ignore our anaerobic systems completely.
But ultimately, you need to sustain an effort for a long duration. Training your aerobic system is how you make that happen.
A Hyrox event is an endurance endeavor. The most practical work you can do is to develop a solid aerobic base with long easy effort. Working in your aerobic range will help build oxygen, deliver pathways to your new, super-jacked muscles that you’ve gained during the strength phase, and help you sustain an effort for a long time.
Long easy efforts should be the focus for your entire training block. For example, you can accomplish your aerobic goals by running, biking, rowing, or skiing. You will achieve the same goal in developing your aerobic system when done at an easy pace.
Training your “anaerobic threshold” will be the goal of most endurance-focused training sessions outside of your easy work. Your anaerobic threshold is a pace that you can hold for generally an hour – this pace will be faster than your Hyrox race pace, which is impeded tremendously by the workout stations. Even though the pace differs in a race – the intensity and physical response are the same.
An example would be 3 x mile with 60 seconds recovery @ AeT pace.
The pace should feel comfortable but hard.
This training session can happen before moving into your race-specific phase to develop your energy system appropriately.
Speed Training For Hyrox
Speedwork typically refers to anything that isn’t just your slow “zone 2” pace. I don’t disagree with the definition because you are working on a speed that will help you run faster for your primary event.
But the pace you run for a 30-minute tempo run would be laughable for a 200 or even 400, which are closer to your traditional sprint races.
The only way that runners get slower is by not doing speed work. Running more, doing more strength, gaining more muscle have little to do with your overall speed. You get slower if you don’t run fast. Plain and simple.
Running sprints and doing speed drills is the best way to get faster.
Once you develop your energy systems through the work you are doing in Hyrox style training, putting some speed in place 1-2 x per week can go a long way to ensure your running keeps up with your fitness.
Using the building analogy, Not doing speed work is like outfitting the building with computers with tons of memory and cool features but very slow processors. As a result, your building will have the capabilities to perform well – but lacks the proper tools to execute.
Be a fast runner and a fast computer.
The workouts are simple.
Easy warm-up
10 mins speed drills
6 x 50 m sprints as fast as possible
2-3 minutes recovery
This is a simple workout that you can quickly progress by increasing the distance up to 150 m or adding a few more reps. You can also explore this maximum speed by running short hill sprints to help maintain and develop running power.
Read more about how to improve your running for Hyrox Here
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Compromised and Race-Specific Workouts for Hyrox.
Compromised running (coined by The Running Public’s Brakken Kraker) means running after doing something else that is not running. The other exercises will compromise your ability to run the way you would for a track workout. The effort and intensity remain the same, but your running pace will typically be much slower.
In a Hyrox event, you will most likely be running slower than your projected marathon pace, but it will feel like you 10k.
So, preparing for this feeling is crucial to be ready for race day.
Your compromised workouts can be very intense, or you can keep the intensity low to layer in volume.
Intense Compromised Running Workouts
Compromised Fast Tempo
4 Rounds
1200 m @ threshold pace
1:30 Burpees
“Up to All Good”
30 Burpee Buy-in
400 m run
22 Hanging Shoulder Taps (left/right = 1)
22 DB Thrusters
400 m run
16 Hanging Shoulder Taps (left/right = 1)
16 DB Thrusters
400 m run
10 Hanging Shoulder Taps (left/right = 1)
10 DB Thrusters
30 Burpee Cash-out
Aerobic Compromised Running
90 mins
2k Row
1 Mile Run
2k Ski
1 Mile Run
Now you might want to focus heavily on your compromised running workouts because that will be the most race-specific workouts.
I’ve seen people get carried away with this kind of training, which takes away from their maximum output. You still need to get strong and get fast independently. Doing compromised running workouts will help you get better at compromised workouts, but it will not make you as fast or as strong as possible.
Hyrox Specific Workouts
One of the best things about hyrox is that it is predictable. Being predictable allows us as athletes and coaches to dial in the details to feel similar and create a stimulus that will help us better prepare for race day.
If you live in a densely populated area where land is at a premium, you’ll need to build upward to get the desired space. You wouldn’t make a small bungalow in the middle of the city as you would be stifled with poor views and street noise. Building up is the way to go the same way you wouldn’t build a skyscraper in a rural area, making it more difficult to access nature.
Doing CrossFit or the WOD from random websites or tactical training sites will get you more fit, but it won’t be specific enough for the demands of the event.
In a Hyrox-style workout, I recommend understanding the feeling you hope to elicit during the workout. For example, do you want to get better at running after the sled or wall balls at the end of the race? Have a goal in mind.
7-day Free Trial for the RMR App. Featuring workouts from Hybrid Champions Ryan Kent and Meg Jacoby.
Create Fatigue for Big Results
One of the most challenging parts of Hyrox Training is inducing the appropriate fatigue so you can prepare for the race.
The build-up of difficult movements and running is very intense during a race – and doing a simulation of a Hyrox workout is a great way to understand the fatigue. Still, it is hard to work on the specific skills to improve each station when you only spend a short amount of time during a sim. Breaking the workouts into chunks and running intervals is a great way to build volume while creating an overload of fatigue.
An important idea around a Hyrox workout is to put them in the appropriate order.
Yes, it may help to do burpee broad jumps after wallball to create fatigue. But the two stations are very far from each other in the race, so the specific fatigue you would feel during a wall ball and burpee workout will not match those on race day. So instead, I would suggest breaking the movements into a category so you can understand each feeling, allowing you to be more creative with the workouts themselves.
Check the categories below:
Power Endurance
- Sled Push
- Sled Pull
- Walking Lunges
Machines Endurance and Power
- Row
- SkiErg
- Assault Bike (optional)
Strength Endurance
- Burpee Broad Jumps
- Wall Balls
- Farmers Walk
Try to put these in some semblance of order during your Hyrox workouts. Aim to have as much or more total volume for each movement by the end of the workouts.
For Example
3 Rounds
750 Ski Erg
800 m run
40 m Sled Push
800 m Run
– 2:30 rest
Or
3 Rounds
30 m Sled Push
1000 M run
750 M Row
Max Wall Balls
- Rest 2:30
Structuring these workouts leads to easy progression and can add rounds, distance in reps, or reduce rest.
And pretty much always finish with wall balls. ha!
Here is a template for How to set up your 12-16 week Hyrox program.
12-16 week training plan
Weeks 1-4
M: Strength Base + Aerobic Endurance
T: Aerobic Endurance
W: Strength Base + Aerobic Endurance (optional)
TH: Speed Drills and Fast Reps + Aerobic Endurance
F: Strength Base + Aerobic Endurance
S Rest or Aerobic Endurance
Sun: Long Aerobic
Weeks 5-8
M: Strength Power + Aerobic Endurance
T: Speed Drills + Anaerobic Threshold
W: Aerobic + Strength Power (optional)
TH: Speed Drills and Fast Reps + Aerobic Endurance
F: Strength Power + Aerobic Endurance
S: Speed Drills + Anaerobic Threshold Race Specific
Sun: Long Aerobic
Optional Weeks 9-12
M: Strength Endurance + Aerobic Endurance
T: Speed Drills + Lactate Tolerance + Anaerobic Threshold
W: Aerobic + Strength Power (optional)
TH: Speed Drills and Fast Reps + Aerobic Endurance
F: Strength Endurance + Aerobic Endurance
S: Speed Drills + Lactate Tolerance Race Specific
Sun: Long Aerobic
Week 9-12 (or 13-16)
M: Strength Endurance + Aerobic Endurance
T: Compromised Race Specific
W: Aerobic
TH: Strength Endurance + Aerobic Endurance
F: Speed Drills and Fast Reps + Compromised Race Specific Anaerobic Threshold
S Rest or Aerobic Endurance
Sun: Long Aerobic
Or Have the work done for you.
Try a free 7-day trial for the RMR Training APP for HYROX
My thoughts.
Hyrox is still about endurance. However, being stronger will help you infinitely and shouldn’t be ignored.
Don’t do everything at once. You will get better at a specific task, like a hyrox race, for a little while, but eventually, you will plateau.
Get stronger, and then get faster, and then do them both.
