In addition to keeping any possible boredom at bay, I also feel I’m being a little more productive with my time. I’m working my aerobic engine with the zone 2 running, but my mind is also active and engaged.

If you want to take this a bit further, in addition to listening to Podcasts for entertainment, you can choose one with an educational focus to help you improve as an athlete by increasing your training knowledge too.

Today’s list features some of our favourite Hyrox Podcasts. The rules we’ve set ourselves are simple. Either:

• They must by athletes who have completed a Hyrox
  or
• They must be primarily about Hyrox or Hybrid Racing

Alright, let’s help you find a new podcast!

The Roxzone

The RoxZone is a great entry point into the world of Hyrox Podcasts. Essentially, you have three mates who stumbled across Hyrox discussing the sport. None of the hosts Ben, Max or Tom have their sights set on the Elite 15, but rather they’ve fallen in love with the community aspect of the Hyrox, the style of training it requires and the amount of fun each event offers.

Being close friends long before finding Hyrox, the conversation is always easy and there’s plenty of banter between the three guys. What sets The RoxZone apart from many Podcasts I’ve listened to in this space is that the focus is on Hyrox as a hobby. The RoxZone does offer solid training advice and they cover events too, but it’s with the goal of breaking down barriers and boosting everyone’s enjoyment of the sport.

If I’m doing a long-run and feeling a bit bored, I’ll often chuck on The RoxZone and find myself laughing at the lads ripping each other whilst covering a topic I find interesting such as ‘Juggling Hyrox With Work’, ‘Breaking Down The Hyrox PFT’ or ‘Best Shoes For Hyrox’. Some of the podcasts that can really put you at ease in the early days of your training include ‘Movement Standards’, ‘Hyrox Mythbusters’ and ‘Training For Your First Hyrox’. Their coverage of Hyrox events is good fun and often released just a few days after the event has wrapped up. They have regular interviews too.

Who: Max Schlummer, Ben Rawls. Tom Previte & Lucy Mitchell (Guest Host)

What: Three friends discuss training for Hyrox and having fun whilst doing so

Back Catalogue: 36 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | RSS Podcast

Reinforced Running Podcast

I probably shouldn’t have favourites, but I’m certainly partial to Rich Ryan’s Reinforced Running Podcast. And not just for the alliteration. Even before I got involved with Hyrox, I’d been listening to Rich Ryan’s Podcast where he deep dives into how to train as an athlete wanting to be competitive in functional fitness and hybrid racing.

Rich Ryan is probably the best runner in Hyrox right now. He was a Spartan Pro, is a reigning Deka World Champion, and a Hyrox Elite 15 athlete too. He’s also been involved in CrossFit for over 10 years. Many people will favour him to be on the podium for this year’s Hyrox World Championship.

As an athlete who wants to be competitive myself, I love how Rich’s Podcast really go into detail on how to improve as an athlete. ‘Pacing A Race’, ‘Preventing Burnout’, ‘Tapering Tactics’, ‘Compromised Running’, ‘Pre-Race Routines’, ‘Off-Season Training’, ‘Should You Take Creatine’ – over the course of 3+ years of Podcasting, Rich has covered pretty much any question you can find yourself asking. Rich also covers his race strategy after each event, interviews some of the leading athletes in Hyrox, and also brings on industry experts.

Who: Rich Ryan

What: Content for athletes seeking to be more competitive

Back Catalogue: 264 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | Buzzsprout

The Hybrid Approach

James Muscart is one of the top five Hyrox Pros in the UK and one of the people who got me interested in Hyrox due to his enthusiasm and love of the sport showcased through his YouTube Channel: JayFit. In The Hybrid Approach Podcast, James teams up with fellow Hyrox Ambassador and Hyrox World Championships qualifier Joe Patrick.

Both James and Joe are competitive athletes and are training hard to improve their race times further. James and Joe have a fun dynamic and aren’t afraid to poke fun at each other, which makes the Podcast very easy to listen to.

Content revolves mainly around improving your Hyrox performance through intelligent training, observations about the sport, and coverage of races. There’s a lot of non-Hyrox related content too, especially during the off-season, where Joe is working on his running and James is taking part in all kinds of functional fitness events across Europe as a MyZone athlete. Many episodes also feature a high-profile guest and both James and Joe do a good job of bringing them into the conversation and getting a lot of insight from them. Hint: Any episodes featuring the Hogans are laugh-out-loud funny

Who: James Muscart and Joe Patrick

What: Training discussion and Hyrox event coverage for all

Back Catalogue: 26 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | Podbean

Rox Lyfe

If you’re looking for something a bit more data-driven and analytical then The Rox Lyfe could well be what you’re looking for.

I’ve no idea what host Greg Williams does for a living, but I imagine it’s something with spreadsheets and projections. If you’re the kind of person wanting to know how fast in seconds you should be doing your burpee broad jumps compared to the rest of the field to be competitive or are curious about how the differences between venues could hurt/help your performance than Greg is the go-to source for this kind of information.

All that being said, The Rox Lyfe and Greg himself is certainly not boring. All the information is broken down and explained in an interesting way so that it should appeal to newer and more experienced athletes whether they are looking to be competitive or just finish a race. This analytical study of Hyrox is clearly working for Greg too as his personal Hyrox times have tumbled from 1:29 down to 1:12.

I have especially enjoyed the Race Recaps that Greg does where he goes into detail on the season’s races – covering winners, average times and any records set – and his interviews with some of the sports leading and upcoming names.

Who: Greg Williams

What: Data-driven Hyrox coverage

Back Catalogue: 26 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | Anchor

Fitness Racing Podcast

If you’re in the UK, then you’ve probably heard about the Fitness Racing Podcast as the hosts are very active in the UK Hyrox Facebook Group.

I really love this show as the goal of it seems to be building and promoting the UK hybrid scene. If some podcasts are like journals and others are like newspapers, I’d say that the Fitness Racing Podcast is more of a magazine.

Host Ian Kay interviews a wide range of people involved in the sport from judges to new entrants with an interesting story to tell to YouTubers to elite athletes. Ian is an experienced host and conversations with guests are always seamless. They also do a great job of providing in-depth race previews and reviews of UK events.

If I’m on a long-run and want something really easy to listen to I’ll often chuck this on and find myself enjoying the run a lot more.

Who: Ian Kay

What: Interviews and UK race coverage

Back Catalogue: 60 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Nitty Gritty Training

Although it’s not exclusively Hyrox focused, Nitty Gritty Training is one of my favourite podcasts to listen to on a run.

Each show has a set topic and the two hosts, Faye Stenning and Jessica O’Connell, chat through them drawing upon their experiences and expertise. Faye was on the Spartan Pro Team and had more podium finishes than any other female athlete over the past decade; she also has a degree in Kinesiology. Jessica O’Connell is an Olympic runner, specializing in the 5000m with a personal best time of 15:06 (wow!); she has a degree in Exercise Physiology. So, basically, they’re pretty qualified! But if you’re still not convinced, Faye has done a Hyrox and she won it maintaining running splits between 3:35 – 4:08 for the entire event.

What I enjoy about Nitty Gritty Training is that it’s very easy to listen to. Faye and Jess have known each other and trained together since they were at school and so couldn’t be more comfortable chatting with each other. And, essentially, that’s how the show comes across: as a conversation between two friends.

Topics are always relevant to the masses too. Whether it’s ‘Breaking Through Plateaus’ or ‘Training For Multiple Different Events’ or ‘Building A Home Gym’ or ‘Sleep’ or ‘Types Of Run Workouts’. They also run regular Q&As where they answer questions submitted through Instagram and have done interviews with Hyrox Athletes such as Hunter McIntyre and Lauren Weeks.

Who: Faye Stenning & Jess O’Connell

What: Running and OCR topics by a Spartan Pro and Olympian.

Back Catalogue: 70 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | Stitcher

Race Brain Podcast

Another Podcast hosted by Rich Ryan and featuring a reoccurring panel of Brakken Kraker, Jack Bauer (not the badass from 24, sadly?), and Kirk DeWidnt! If you’re not familiar with these guys, their expertise come from being a mixture of Spartan Pros, coaches, authors, stats gurus and popular podcast hosts. As a result, this Podcast is super slick, professional sounding and very in-depth.

This Podcast is geared more towards those who want detailed coverage and analysis of all things OCR, hybrid fitness, and endurance racing. If you’re new to this world, you may initially feel a little lost with this one. However, if you’re familiar with the various events and athletes involved then this is one of the very best to get your news and deepen your understanding of the sport.

Hyrox is a relatively small piece of the overall OCR/Hybrid Racing puzzle, and so if that’s your only interest there may be limited episodes you choose to listen to, but there are some great episodes previewing the season and reviewing record-breaking performances that you should make time to check out.

Who: Brakken Kraker, Jack Bauer, Kirk DeWidnt, and Rich Ryan

What: OCR & Hybrid Racing Coverage by top level athletes and creators

Back Catalogue: 38 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | Buzzsprout

OFX Podcast

This is an enjoyable, professional-level Podcast that covers Hyrox when there’s a race on in the US, but focuses primarily on the Spartan branded events such as Spartan OCR and Deka. The hosts are Dave Claxton (VP of Obstacle Sports Canada) and Bethany McChesney (an accomplished Spartan Pro).

Many of the Podcasts on this list are based here in the UK and primarily cover the European scene. OFX, being based in Canada, covers mostly North America. What’s quite nice about this is that Dave and Bethany often invite guests onto the show and these guests often include some of the Elite 15 Hyrox Athletes you don’t regularly hear from on the European Podcasts – even if they are mostly talking Deka or Spartan.

Bethany and Dave have a great dynamic and are incredibly knowledgeable on the OCR and Hybrid Racing scene. Episodes are often over an hour, but never seem to drag, so make perfect listening for your longest run of the week.

Who: Dave Claxon and Bethany McChesney

What: North American Hybrid Racing coverage by an industry pro and pro athlete

Back Catalogue: 109 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | PodcastRepublic

Obstacle Racing Media

Matt B. Davis is one of the most well-known commentators on Obstacle Course Racing and his Podcast has been running seemingly forever. If you think of Rich Ryan as a Podcasting veteran, with over just over 250 episodes in the bag, Matt dwarfs that with over 850!

This Podcast certainly isn’t Hyrox specific, in that it covers news related to all kinds of OCR and Hybrid Racing events, but many episodes will mention and cover Hyrox. You also have regular interviews with athletes, event organisers, industry professionals (e.g. there’s a great episode with Lauren Rantala and Marc Howe of Hyrox America for example).

Because Matt is so experienced as a host and knows many athletes personally, his podcasts always flow seamlessly. When it comes to interviews, Matt can ask questions to athletes others may feel intimidated to ask and often has a more open conversation with them.

If you want a news show in the style of a show you’d find on talkSPORT Radio then this is it.

Who: Matt B. Davis

What: The longest-running show for OCR & Hybrid Racing coverage

Back Catalogue: 859 Episodes

Where: Apple | Spotify | RadioPublic

Attributes

Image of woman running in snow by gpointstudio on Freepik

In the third episode of THE HYBRID EXPERIMENT, we speak with Ryan Gibney about how Hyrox athletes can improve their strength. In this interview, Ryan tells us why strength and explosiveness is so important to even a running dominated sport like Hyrox and how to program for the best results on each station.

The general consensus is that if you pick a shoe with poor grip, a lack of stability, or one that doesn’t allow you to run at your best, you’re going to lose vital seconds, even minutes, during your race. This can make all the difference if your goals are to break into that Elite 15, hit the podium, or simply PR your finishing time.

With all that in mind, it makes sense to have a think about what shoes you’ll be wearing and the built-in ‘technology’ – such as grips, foams, plates, shape, etc – that may help or hinder you.

As we explained in the last article, there is some evidence that leading super shoes can improve running economy by as much as 3%. Equally important, some shoes will have a steeper drop that will be useful for wallballs, more stability that could help with landing during burpees or balance during lunges, overly pointed heels that can be a nightmare getting in/out of the rower, and grips (such as the PUMAGRIP) that can really help you on the sleds.

With this article, we wanted to let you know which shoes the best Hyrox Women were using in the 2022/2023 season and why they had picked them. We also wanted their opinion on whether shoe choice can make a difference. What I think is important to know is that every shoe on this list put the person suggesting it inside the Top 30 rankings during the season (many in the TOP 15 Elite race in Manchester). So, at very least, you know that the shoes are capable of carrying athletes to elite times and not the main limiter should you not be an Elite 15 athlete

This is the second in a series of 4 planned articles. The first was the shoe choices of the male elites. This one is the shoe choices of the women elites, the third will be a breakdown of the shoe choices (looking for any patterns), and the final one will be a group test (should we be able to get hold of all of the shoes!).

Final note: The shoe choices listed are the shoes the women used during the majority of the 2022/2023 season or prior to the World Championship race in Manchester. A number of women switched to the Saucony Endorphin Pro 3 for the final races of the season (e.g. Megan Jacoby and Lauren Weeks). However, we thought for the sake of variety and as they had been their primary shoes for the season, we’d stick with what they ran the most races in. Then, we’ll update them next season should they continue on with them.

Let’s goooooo!

I wore Reebok Floatride Run Fast Pro.

I choose them because my boyfriend saw on an old livestream of the North American champs where David Magida was talking about Ryan Kent wearing them and how good they were so I looked them up on EBay and found them.

They don’t actually make them anymore so they are really hard to get old of.

I think shoe choice makes a HUGE difference! I say that because I’ve had 2 shoe disasters!

In my first Pro race the grips of my favourite New Balance running trainers disintegrated in the sled push! I was sliding all over the place with no grip at all left on the bottom. I have never lost so much sweat in my life pushing that thing. It took 8 minutes (but felt like 80 minutes) and I was destroyed for the rest of the race. I actually tested the shoes many times before (including in the warm up zone) and they were fine but that race carpet is something else!

Then in a mixed doubles race I tried more of an all round Inov8 shoe but it was soooo slippery on the run surface (very good on all the exercises) in Maastricht I lost time skidding around the corners so ditched that one too!

For now the Reebok Floatride Run Fast Pro are ok for me and I’ve had good feeling with them on all the stations and runs but I’m still looking for better!

I’m not a fan at all of any of the carbon or thick soled shoes that most others wear. I tried them in a run store and they just aren’t for me! I prefer to feel the ground!

So basically to summarise shoe choice is extremely important. I think mine are really good. I want to find even better!

My shoe in my last race was the Saucony Endorphin Pro 2.
I chose this one because it’s comfy and I like the grip during the sleds
I don’t know if it made a difference. In Las Vegas I raced with Puma and that went well too

I have races in NoBull trainers (NYC 2022 and World Championships), Brooks Hyperion (nyc 2023), and Brooks Ghost 14 (EU Championship)

I don’t mind more of a barefoot style running which is why I don’t mind running in NoBull trainers. They’re also great for stations.

The Brooks Hyperion slipped too much on the sleds. Brooks Ghost was a good mix of both.
I’ve also tried the saucony endorphin pro 3 with carbon fiber plate which I felt too unstable on

I think you can pick your shoe based on your weakness – if you’re not a good runner, go with a running shoe. If you’re not good on stations, pick a shoe that optimizes performance there.
If you’re a balanced athlete, a standard running shoe like Brooks Adrenaline, Brooks Ghost, or Brooks Launch would be a great choice

Also consider the surface you’ll be running on – typically polished pavement with spilled water

Note: If you have any foot / ankle questions, Doctor Alandra Greenlee would be a great person to ask.
Drop her a DM!

I like to use the New Balance 1400 because they are a light shoe with decent grip on the bottom.

I will say there is not much cushion. So running on the concrete floor can hurt peoples shins. So I would recommend with caution.

I think you can definitely make a bad shoe choice. But I also there there are lots of shoes that could be the right answer too! Not just one good one.

Note: Lauren wore the Saucony Endorphin Pro 3 during the World Championships.

I wear Salomon Phantasm and the race before I wore the Saucony Ride 15.

I like both and I think it is important to have a lightweight running shoe that still has plenty of grip for the sled.

I wear the Saucony Endorphin Pro 2.

I choose them because, even if they are not perfect for the sleds, I can manage to push and pull well using my strength and body weight. The good part is that I feel so much better during the run. They are the shoes I used just for the speed workouts in training but then, becoming stronger with the sleds I tried them in Dallas and I was very pleased with them.

I think that a shoe can make a big difference especially if it is the wrong one. First of all it has to be comfortable. Once you have a comfortable shoes the grip you can manage and the feeling in the run are the 2 most important factors.

I use the New Balance 1080 v12

They are normal running trainers for the hard surface running with good support and cushion, good grip for sleds too.

I’m not sure it makes much of a difference it’s just what I’m most comfortable in so I don’t have any concerns during the race.

Note: Megan switched to the Saucony Endorphin Pro 3 for her World Record and the World Championship race.

I wear the Saucony Endorphin Speed.

It’s a good short- middle distance shoe. As a slower runner, I need good running shoes.

There is no right or wrong shoe, it depends on your running style.

If you are a midfoot or forefoot runner, how much grip you need on the sled: it depends on the athlete.

Hahahah people love their shoes! I wear the Brooks Hyperion Tempo.

I choose them because… see meme!

I don’t come from a running background, so I don’t notice too much of a difference between shoes, so I’m mostly concerned about grip on the sleds, support, and that they don’t feel super bulky.

I think a lot of shoes accomplish those things (hopefully) so I don’t think it makes too much of a difference, but I might try a shoe with a higher heel down the line to help with my squat mobility.

The never ending shoe debate!! Love this topic and really enjoy hearing about people’s choices too!

This season I’m wearing Saucony Endorphin Pro 3

Mainly because they are an elite running shoe with a carbon plate built for speed, they are really lightweight and super comfy.

I think shoes make a huge difference!! My first season I used Nike Pegasus which I was happy with at the time however since upgrading to Saucony it’s given me an edge. I call them my fast shoes I also do my speed sessions and long runs in a training pair of Sauconys and notice how much more supportive they are on my knees and calves which has reduced injury and tightness.

I use the Altra – Riveras.

Kris R (below) got me on them

I think shoes are huge when it comes to the sled and sharp turns.

You do not want to be slipping out there on the course.

I wear the Altra Riveras. I’ve been wearing them for a year now, because they’re a comfortable healthy shoe for my fit. They have a nice amount of cushion for all the cement running, and they have great grip on the sleds!

Shoes aren’t going to make an athlete, but they can play a big part in breaking them. My shoes aren’t the reason for any success or failure I may have, but because I wear comfortable well fitted shoes every day in training, on race day they’re a shoe that I know will work well and one less thing I ever have to think about

Currently I run with Saucony Endorphin.

I feel like I’m in slippers and I like the way they respond in CAP.

I cannot say what they bring more or less, above all I look at the comfort and the sensations that I feel.

I tried the Nike Vaporfly and the test was not conclusive on past events but I intend to test these shoes again during a race but not immediately in HYROX.

You definitely need a shoe which has a flat sole with a good Grip on the Carpet for the sleds. Also a flat sole gives you More stability for the Single Workouts. AND it has to be a good Running shoe.
So I know really good running shoes for example the Nike Alphafly. It Is a Carbon shoe which will help you to get a faster Running time. But because of the thick sole with no grip underneath (bad Grip on the Carpet ) it’s just unsuitable for the Workouts.

For example a Nike Metcon would be a perfect shoe for the Workouts but not for the Running.

So my first shoe for hyrox was the new balance 1500v6. It was a recommendation by Tobi Lautwein and it is definitely a Perfect shoe for Hyrox.

Then I Switched to the Puma Deviate Nitro which is also a really good shoe for Hyrox.

Both shoes are good Running shoes, have a good Grip on the Carpet and gives a enough stability on the Workouts.

My current go to shoe to race in is the Brooks Hyperion Tempo.

I like shoes that have a direct feel to the ground and not such a thick sole as some of the high end carbon plate marathon shoes.

I feel like the Hyperion Tempo is a pretty good mix of running and workout shoe.

Despite the simplicity of the shoe, it feels very fast to run in.

Love the good grip it has on the sled stations as well.

I wear the Hoka Evo Jawz (no longer produced ).

I love lightweight shoes that fit my very narrow foot. These particular shoes are trail runners with pretty dramatic lugs, which are probably unnecessary for Hyrox but they definitely helped my grip in the sleds! Honestly, they are just my favorite shoe and make me feel light so I love racing in them. They remind me of racing in spikes when I was in track.

I think having the right shoe for YOU is what’s important and definitely makes a difference but I don’t think there is a single best shoe. My Hoka Jawz are ripping from the toe box in 2 places but I chose to race my 2nd Hyrox in them instead of my normal trainers (Sauncony Kinvara) because they help put me in a racing mindset. It may have all been mental, but I felt the difference with my favorite shoes.

I wear Puma Velocity Nitro trainers when I compete and when I run.

I love the comfort and they are secure when I am using the sleds too. The last thing you want is a shoe slip and you see it all too often when people compete.

I used to run in a different brand and used to get a lot of hip and Achilles issues, since switching these shoes have more cushion and adsorb shock a bit better and I haven’t had these niggles.

Plus they have super cool range of colours!

I normally wear the Saucony Endorphin Speed 3 now, but switched to the New Balance RC Elite v 1 because I was worried about the sleds in Chicago and these shoes have the best grip.

The run is great, soft but responsive. I have really bad arthritis in my feet and these shoes don’t bother my feet. They have decent grip and are fairly stable. The upper fits snug, much better than the pro in my opinion.

I think shoes make a lot of difference, because if my foot hurts then will affect not only my running but sled, lunges and farmers carry so keeping my foot healthy is important

I think in hybrid it’s important to trust your shoes to do what they need to do, especially with the sleds.

For my last race, I decided to wear the Nike Streakfly.

The shoe gives me a very good running feeling, because the Streakfly is really light and you don’t have the feeling of having shoes on your feet. In addition, I have often worn the shoe in training and had the feeling that I can also cope well with it on the sled push and pull.

However, the shoe also has a disadvantage. It offers little stability. For me, that’s fine, but anyone who generally has problems with twisting, should possibly be careful. In the lunges, I therefore often feel a bit wobbly.

I think the wrong shoe you can really mess up a lot. There are models with which you can only slide when pushing or pulling the sled, which is super annoying and costs extra energy. Running can also be really difficult if the shoe is simply not a good running shoe. So stay away from bad running shoes Hard to say how big the difference is in the end. But with a bad shoe, I might have lost 5 minutes

Note: Alina switched to the Saucony Endorphin Pro 3 for her World Championship race.

And that’s it! A dozen or so shoes recommended by 19 of the world’s fastest Hyrox athletes.

I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to the amazing Hyrox women who replied. It means a lot you were willing to share your shoe choice, experience and advice with our community.

And, readers, before you go: let us know in the comments which shoes you’re using for your next Hyrox and why…

In this interview, James tells us why he’s such a huge advocate of coaching and the many benefits it can offer many Hyrox athletes over programming.

Perhaps even more importantly, James gives advice to upcoming Hyrox athletes on how to decide whether coaching or programming is right for them and how it could boost their Hyrox performance.

In our first episode of The Hybrid Experiment, we speak with the winner of the HYROX Virtual Championships, Elite Hyrox competitor and hugely popular coach: Markus Frison.

Drawing on his experience not only from Hyrox, but competing as part of the German National Cycling Team and as a top-level powerlifter, Markus joins us to discuss what an off-season is, why it’s vital to improving your Hyrox performance next season, and how exactly to train during it.

To check it out, just hit the play button below!

In Hyrox, your feet and legs are always working. Whether it’s during your runs, your lunges, your wall balls, rowing or even farmers carries… they never get a break.

So, it makes sense to have a think about what shoes you’ll be wearing and the built-in ‘technology’ – such as grips, foams, plates, shape, etc – that may help or hinder you.

There is some evidence that leading super shoes can improve running economy by as much as 3%. However, this research is obviously focused on fast-running individuals in distance racing scenarios.

In Hyrox, we need to consider not only how fast a shoe can allow us to run, but how stable it is for exercises such as lunges, what kind of drop it has for wall balls, how it allows us to press through our forefoot on the row, and whether it helps/hinders our jump and balance in the burpee broad jumps too.

What we wanted to achieve with this article is to let you know what shoes the best of the best Hyrox athletes are using and why. We also wanted to get their opinion, as elite athletes, on whether shoe choice makes a difference. As you will see, some athletes had lots of thoughts and opinions on their shoes. Others didn’t really care too much about shoes at all. The takeaway for me is that any shoe on this list has proven itself capable of running a sub 1:02 Hyrox… So, at very least, if you pick a shoe from this list then you know the shoe isn’t your limiter for the Top 30

This is the first in a series of 4 planned articles. This one is the shoe choices of the male elites, the second will be the shoe choices of the women elites, the third will be a breakdown of the shoe choices (looking for any patterns), and the final one will be a group test (should we be able to get hold of all of the shoes!).

Final note: We invited all male athletes with a time in the Top 30 of the 2022/2023 season to take part. 26 of 30 replied. If any of the top 30 end up reading this and aren’t on the list… check your Instagram DMs

I’ve chosen these shoes because I’ve been on the lookout for a super shoe. A super shoe is a shoe which has a PEBA foam (polyether block amide foam) compared to conventional EVA foam (Ethylene vinyl acetate foam).

These new foams absorb a lot more shock and give a lot more response back, so they’re a little bit bouncier, they have good cushion, and feel really good on the floor.

In addition to the foam, there’s a carbon plate in the shoe that helps compress the PEBA foam, which further helps with the energy return and propelling you forward.

Just in general, I’ve found I work really well with super shoes, I’ve raced pretty fast in them and just generally enjoy the experience.

Until the Pro 3s, I actually hadn’t had much luck finding a super shoe that has enough stability for the corners and grip for the carpets, but this shoe seems to fit the mold for both. I’m also testing our a pair of HOKA Rocket Xs, but I don’t think I’m going to change out of the Endorphin Pro 3s this year.

I think the difference a shoe makes is minimal to a certain point. As long as you meet the requirements of having enough rubber on the bottom that allows you to move the sleds and grip the concrete. Where there’s a big difference is if your shoes are inappropriate for the carpet, because then you’ll find you cannot grip or move the sleds and that’s where the difference really is.

So, the right shoe isn’t necessarily going to make you that much faster, but the wrong shoe could end up making you much slower.

I recently made the switch to this shoe (from the New Balance RC Elite V1s); in part because I train in the Saucony Endorphin Speeds for the majority of my run training and also because I feel the shoe has a little more bounce. It feels as though it runs closer to a Nike Vaporfly than any other shoes does: I like the high stack (and it’s a very high stack!), and it really feels like I’m getting some extra propulsion out of it. Also, the grip, unlike the previous model, really suits the run course.

This shoe for me has been very successful. In part, this is because I’m comfortable running in a shoe like this. I have not lost in this shoe yet. But, I will point out and caution people that if you’re not used to a high stack shoe it can be challenging, because cornering and doing functional fitness exercises won’t feel natural in a shoe like the Endorphin Pro 3, so that’s something you need to be prepared for.

I really think you want a shoe with a Carbon plate. It takes some of the beatdown off your legs, which really makes a difference, and lets you be really springy. But, at the same time, you want a shoe with a somewhat low profile that lets you do lunges and such without feeling feeling awkward.

If you’re a person racing in trainers: you’re doing it all wrong. Every shoe has a purpose. There are shoes that are meant for training and there are shoes that are meant for racing. Get yourself a race shoe so that you can feel like a streamlined butterfly when you’re full go and ready to race. It really makes a huge difference when you slap on a light shoe with a carbon plate. There’s a physical advantage, but also a mental advantage knowing you’re throwing on your fast shoes.

I have tried a few different shoes (Nike Pegasus; Adidas Takumi Sen; Nike Vapor Fly; Saucony Endorphin Pro. All, except the Pegasus, have very little grip for a 70-72kgs athlete but I know they work for heavier athletes. The Pegasus are “heavy” and slow).

It is a difficult compromise between speed and grip (On any type of “non-long” races I take comfort out of this equation. High level, high intensity sports are never comfortable).

After a few tests I have been using the New Balance RC FuelCell Elite Version 1 (4 races now); they are medium-fast shoes with a carbon plate but unlike the other carbon plate shoes, they have a great grip that works both when moving forwards and backwards.

Running shoes are made for running. The grip on the outsole is designed to help on that frontal dislocation movement. On a sled pull we are walking backwards. So it is very difficult to find shoes with a good grip to Hyrox.

A good carbon running shoe can take 4-5 seconds off of each KM on a good/fast runner (sub 4´/km).

But a bad grip can make a lighter athlete lose 30-45 seconds on each sled and waste lots of physical and mental energy.

We also need to consider that on Hyrox events the floor is usually is slippery, especially around aid stations and on the corners.

If one has to opt: Grip over speed without any doubts.

I prefer to feel the ground when I run vs a big stack height. And the rubber bottom is pretty nice too.

Proper shoes will help some, but it’s your fitness that really separates the athletes from one another.

It’s a very important question actually, one I’ve obsessed over in the passed and one I’ll continue to obsess over…

At the end of the day what you really want is a fast running shoe for running and a stable, grippy shoe for everything else.

Obviously those two are mutually exclusive.

So then it’s a calculation, how many seconds is a particular shoe going to eat from what, and is it worth it in terms of what it’ll gain me back somewhere else?

Which boils down to an estimation because if you’re just one person that’s going to be next to impossible to measure.

Anyway, more than half of the race is running + roxzone (in the Elite field anyway) so any % gained there will have a bigger impact than a % gained somewhere else.

In my experience a shoe that isn’t grippy / stable will hurt you the most on the sleds and perhaps the lunges, and it’s somewhat annoying on the farmers carry.

But they’re really small penalties… which is why you’ll see most of the field in super shoes, because they offer a proven advantage while running, and subjectively I find them even more beneficial if you’re running on wobbly legs

So then you’re just looking for a shoe that’s good _enough_ so you won’t bleed too much time on the sleds

So basically a super shoe with appropriate grip so you won’t slip on the sleds

I did my first few races in the New Balance RC Elite V1, which is still a good choice, though it’s not made anymore so basically impossible to get now

I made the switch to the Saucony Endorphin Pro 3 a few months back, which has enough rubber and a bit of a tread pattern that grip isn’t really an issue, and it has a super bouncy foam and an aggressive rocker that I really like.

Oh and there is a station where a super shoe might actually be an advantage: I don’t mind an extra 39mm under my heel when I’m doing wall balls…

I already have and will use the Adidas Prime X Strung in the future.

The sole is very grippy (Continental). That’s an important factor. But the shoe also has a carbon plate. This definitely makes you faster. In addition, there is good cushioning that absorbs tired muscles. The damping is also a small disadvantage. The shoe is not that stable. Running in turns and lunges can become unstable. But that is also a matter of getting used to.

I chose the Endorphin Pros as they have a carbon plate and are very grippy on sleds.

In terms of difference, I’d say around 2-5 secs per km faster.

I’ve started using the Puma Nitro Elite, because it’s a light and stable shoe.
Before, I used to run with the Nike Vaporfly, which was very good for running, but not very stable for stations like the lunges or wall balls.

I work in sales for a sporting goods manufacturer. So I don’t have much comparison to other brands as I haven’t experimented and tried much.

I did my first races with the Cloud X. For the workouts optimal, when running I lacked cushioning.

I then switched to the Cloudflow. Unfortunately, my feet fell asleep during two races, which is very disadvantageous when running.

So I then came to the Hyperion Tempo from Brooks, with which I have contested most competitions to date.
The shoe is for me a perfect blend of comfort and dynamics with low weight. And during the workouts, the shoe offers sufficient grip and stability.

This season I have completed a few races with the Cloudmonster, with which I have also gained good experience. The comfort compared to the Brooks is significantly higher. However, I do not have the impression that I lose energy. In the workouts it lacks a little stability, but that does not really bother.

I’m eagerly awaiting the Cloudboom Echo 3 – I think the shoe is the perfect blend of the Hyperion Tempo and the Cloudmonster.

I think that the choice of shoes can make a difference of maximum 20-30 sec – considered on the whole race.

You need a shoe where you have grip, good stability and also a good feeling whilst you run.

I think one point to consider is that an individual will like different things about different shoes for him/herself specifically.

I’ll start by saying when I was young and could run fast I was sponsored by brooks so I’m slightly biased to them as I’ve worn almost solely brooks for 20 years. But they are also the best shoes!

So my hyrox shoe of choice is the Hyperion tempo for a few reasons:
1) it’s light and feels super fast, basically an old school type racer before carbon was a thing
2) it’s really grippy which is essential for the sleds
3) it’s small stack height makes it ideal for lunges and wall balls where stability is what you need.
4) and I think this is important brooks don’t tend to change much I’d be confident you’ll still get this shoe without changes for a few years yet.

The big with shoes that’s rarely addressed is athlete weight. The only elite athletes wearing carbon shoes are those who are physically the biggest. The reason they can get away with them is their weight in relation to the sled. They don’t need the grip to push that a smaller athlete needs.

I have tried the brooks Hyperion elite which is brooks carbon shoe but the sled takes so much energy that I end up losing time wearing them.

These are a directly, fast, lightweight trainer with good grip.

Shoes make a big difference. You need to decide what you need. Speed or grip!

I love talking about shoes, especially when it comes to Hyrox! I’m using pretty special shoes: S/Lab Pulsar 2s, which are a kind of trail running race shoe. It’s a very, very light shoe. Probably one of the lightest, but it still has many of the abilities of a trail running shoe. For example, it does very, very well on the sleds.

I have tested a lot of them. I own many, many shoes and have Soloman as a sponsor. Before that though I’d tested many Under Armour shoes, Nike shoes like the Vaporfly, and others too, but I am happy with the S/Lab as it’s the lightest and most stable with the best grip of all the elite shoes.

On whether it makes a difference… I think it depends. I think for average athletes completing their Hyrox in around 90 minutes to 2 hours, it’s not going to result in a huge difference. You have many other things you can work on to boost your potential. But, when it comes to the elites, every percentage and every second counts. A few seconds can be the difference between 1st and 2nd place, a spot on the podium, or in elite races it can even mean winning prize money or not.

These are a light, fast and direct shoe with a lot of grip.

In terms of how much difference a shoe makes: not so much. Maybe 5 %. The sled push is most important for which shoe you should wear.

I chose the Winflos because they have a good mix of being a comfortable shoe to run in, not too heavy, and a pattern on the bottom that I like for sled pushing. I love for small ridges and triangle or pyramid patterns for grip.

I think poor shoe choice with the sleds can kill your race and you have to be smart to look at the sole pattern. Being comfortable on the runs matter but the sleds are the biggest place a shoe can really mess you up.

Right now I’m wearing Brooks Ghost 14. It’s my second pair and I’ll stick to them, at least for this season. They have good grip and are light with a big heel, so perfect for fast running. What was very important for me, was the perfect fit and I need them to be very tight at the front part of my foot, so they deliver my whole strength directly on the floor!

A good shoe is very important, especially for the Sleds/Carpet and if you are racing Pro (heavier weights). For the Open category you can choose just a very good running shoe: a bit of grip is still necessary, depending somewhat on how strong you are, but most grips will be enough for those weights. Any shoe you buy you should test on a run and also test the grip on a carpet (if possible with a sled, or try pushing something).

If you do pro and you get to the sleds without any grip, that could be the end of your race.

Test them both ways: push and pull. Some shoes are just helpful for pushing and you’ll slide on the pull!

Only reason I use these shoes is because I’ve been wearing them for all things fitness for so long, so why change?
To be honest, I don’t know and I don’t care how much difference they make. My shoes aren’t going to make me faster or stronger. My training is!

The main message from me is that everyone should put more energy in there training than shoe wear.

I’ve gone with these because Tom Hogan recommended them and I trust this guy.

They feel light and comfortable for the runs but also stable for lunging and squats, and good traction for the sleds so I’ll be using them again in the future.

For me I think psychologically it makes a very small difference knowing I’ll be comfortable and stable in my shoes. But people definitely blow up the importance of shoe choice. As long as it’s a decent runner it won’t make or break your race so much. My opinion

My general opinion concerning the shoe topic is “back to basics”. As you have to run 8k at a fast pace it is important to wear a running shoe which is very direct and has enough grip for the sled workouts. In my opinion carbon shoes are not very useful for a Hyrox, because most of the tracks have direction changes or square curves. For this most carbon shoes are too spongy, I think these shoes do not fit for most of the workouts (too instable). In general I really like carbon shoes for street races, but not for a Hyrox.

I have chosen the Adidas SL20 for my last race, because of the facts above (direct, good stability for the workouts, good grip for the sleds).

I think the shoes can make a difference (specifically: it can go wrong if you use shoes which are not stable enough), but the most important thing is, that you feel comfortable with the shoes.

The Saucony Pro 3s are light, carbon fiber and feel fast. I think they make a big difference.

When competing as an elite it opened up my eyes to other shoes that are available. I was using Brooks launch 9 and they are comfortable, but I don’t believe they are as fast. So I changed.

The reason why I have chosen this shoe is because of the robustness and support they provide along with its light weight and sole with studs that help traction on sleds.

The sole of the shoes can be decisive, and I think these have the ideal sole for Hyrox race.

Until now I have always given more priority to having a shoe that holds well, especially in the heel, arch and toecap, condemning a bit the lightness and propulsion.

For running I have always used the Asics Kayano and this is the first time I have tried Mizuno, and I have to say that I am very happy.

I have never used shoes with a carbon plate, but it is an option that I am considering for next season.

Shoe choice is very personal and in my case I think I will continue giving priority to the stability to perform better and more comfortably the stations, losing some speed and lightness on the run.

There are athletes who have other priorities when choosing the characteristics of their shoes.

I chose this shoe as I prefer a shoe with a carbon plate and feel like I get more of a bounce forward.

It’s always down to the athlete on how the performance goes, but if you find a shoe that you think you can run faster in, then that’s what counts. Hyrox is a head game as much as a fitness game. I’ve just got it in my head that a carbon plated shoe makes me run faster, so it’s good for my mental state for the race. Ha!

In the pro division it can come down to a shoe when it comes to shifting the prowlers. You could lose seconds with the wrong choice of shoe, and that can be the difference of winning or losing. So something grippy as well as bouncy suits me personally.

With the Open category, I’d say pick a shoe that you like.

These are fast shoes with great stability and very good grip.
I think they are very good shoes for the running but the huge difference with others shoes is the great stability. This makes a difference with the lunges and wallballs.

I have been competing in Nike Zoom Fly 4, but recently I bought Zoom Fly 5 and have just done one race in them. I am not sure if the Zoom Fly 5 are better than the Fly Zoom 4 though. Definitely the shape of the heel is not very good for rowing. Both shoes will helps you run faster for sure and the 5s are more stable for lunges.

Both shoes have solid uppers which helps with pushing and pulling: they’re not just socks with a sole. And both are enough comfortable and soft when your running style goes to hell

Well balanced shoes. Good grip for sleds while providing good stability for wall balls and lunges. Probably not the best for running, but a balanced choice
Shoes make a difference at the elite level, especially on the running due to the carbon plate. Might improve your 1km by 3-5 seconds

I use the SCOTT Speed Carbon RC as it’s a shoe that offers me plenty of comfort during not only the running (due to the full Carbon), but also as a result of the super nice stability during the exercises. It also has amazing grip!

I used a Nike shoe for the first time in the World Championships in Las Vegas last year, and on the first sled push I broke them! I looked for a light shoe with a sole with good grip for the sled and that is the Puma Deviate Nitro. I’ve found this shoe very good for sleds and running, although it is a bit unstable in the lunges and the wallballs. I think this shoe helps me cut 2-3 minutes overall.

Hunter said he is currently using the Puma Deviate Nitros and he feels shoe choice “makes a big difference”.

The Puma Deviate Nitros are a change from what he has previously worn: the Brooks Launch 8.

In a YouTube video, Hunter said: “When it comes to racing and training, it’s all about the shoes that I wear. I want to have the best performance in my body, and this transfers all the way into the ground where I’m going to get most of my performance from.”

On the sleds specially, he added: “The most important thing is to have as much rubber contact as possible, just because the carpet lifts up and if you don’t have maximum surface area on it then you have less traction.”

He also warned: “I showed up for my first ever Hyrox in a trail shoe. Because of the sleds, I thought for sure ‘this is gonna have so much grip. I’m gonna be the tough guy.’ But, they did not stick at all and I had the slowest sled time of almost anybody from the pros. So one tip: don’t wear a trail shoe!”

And that’s it! 18 shoes by 28 different Elite athletes.

Before you go though, let us know in the comments which shoes you’re using for your next Hyrox and why.

Each week, we will be publishing a workout by an elite Hyrox athlete or coach.

These workouts will not be the ‘sexy’ or ‘brutal’ workouts you often see on social media, but instead they’ll be designed to give you a deeper insight and understanding of a certain style of workout these athletes and coaches run regularly as part of their training.

We will then sit down with the coach and discuss why they program this type of workout, what the aim of it is, what sort of scores athletes should be looking for, and more… I’ve even committed to doing the workouts, so you’ll get to hear my experiences of doing them (as a not-so-elite athlete) too!

The goal for this series is for you, as someone training for Hyrox events, to be able to take away the principles behind these workouts and apply them to your own training.

Athlete/Coach: Tiago Lousa

Tiago Lousa is head coach of The Lousa Way, the most dominant team in Hyrox.

In the Elite 15 race of the European Championships, 4 out of 15 athletes on the Men’s side were following Tiago’s programming. And, going into the race, Tiago, himself, held the fastest time of the season (57:54), which was then beaten by one of his athletes, Alexander Roncevic (57:26).

It speaks volumes that going into that race, over 25% of the Elite athletes were trusting Tiago for their programming. Clearly, they have a strong belief in Tiago as a leader and in his programming. It’s not just the Elite athletes seeing success either, Tiago has numerous Pro and Open athletes on the Men’s and Women’s side seeing big leaps in performance and shedding minutes off their Hyrox times throughout the season.

So, I was keen to invite Tiago to share a workout with us, so we good get an insight into the kind of workouts that he and his athletes are doing to improve their performance.

The Workouts: Improving Capacity & Pacing

We have three workouts here, each in a different time domain.

A. Short (12 minutes)

Every 3 minutes x 4 sets
Row Calories (see below target number based on ability)
20 Stationary Sandbag Lunges @ race weight
Ski Calories (see below target number based on ability)

Notes: 

1. Start standing 10m away from the rower.
2. Alternate the order of the ergs on every set
3. Very hard to pace. The rest is very short.
4. Elite: 20/14 Calories, Pro: 18/12, Standard: 16/10 Calories.

B. Medium (30 minutes)

Every 5 minutes x 6 sets 
25 Burpees – Must touch a 6 inch overhead target (e.g. pullup bar)
400m Run
13.5m Sled Push @ race weight

Notes: 

1. Goals – Elite: sub 3´20 / PRO: Sub 3´45 / Standard: Sub 4´15)
2. If you take over 4 minutes on Set #1, adjust to: Every 6 minutes x 5 sets

C. Long (45-60 minutes)

Every 15 minutes x 3 or 4 Sets
3 Minutes Bike Erg @75% FTP*
1 Minutes Bike Erg @110% FTP*
1k Run @5k+10″
50 WB unbroken @race

Notes: 

1. FTP is Functional Threshold Pace. This is a hard pace, but one you ‘could’ hold for 60 minutes.
2. *You should remain seated on the bike with a steady, consistent pace.

Purpose of this workout

The purpose of these workouts are to improve your pacing and capacity.

Tiago explains that ‘pacing’ is hugely important to a Hyrox athlete. Each athlete must understand their capabilities and understand the impact of accumulated fatigue. How many times have we seen an athlete start a race strong, but gradually fade over the course of a race only to have them tell us afterwards they went out to hot? Tiago says that athletes who train using workouts in the style he presents above will quickly begin to understand the impact lactate will have on them, even when their heart-rate and breathing seems OK. This will allow them to maintain a more consistent effort throughout the race, knowing when to push and when to hold themselves back, getting them a much better time overall.

Similarly, by including a variety of exercises within these workouts, athletes will begin to understand which exercises impact each other most extremely: e.g. how much worse a run will feel after burpees, lunges or a sled push.

It’s not all ‘mental’ and ‘intelligence’ benefits though, although these are massively important in improving your Hyrox times.

These workouts will help improve your lactic tolerance and lactic clearance.

Lactic tolerance refers to the body’s ability to withstand the accumulation of lactate (also known as lactic acid) in the bloodstream. When the body is working at a high intensity, it produces lactate as a byproduct of anaerobic metabolism. The accumulation of lactate leads to muscle fatigue and that all-too-familiar burning sensation in the muscles – which is essentially what will slow you down. By improving your lactic tolerance, you will have a greater ability to tolerate this lactate accumulation.

Lactic clearance refers to the body’s ability to remove lactate from the bloodstream. Essentially, this allows you to recover quicker between efforts. The more quickly lactate is cleared, the faster the muscles will recover ready for another effort. In a sport like Hyrox, where many athletes are flirting with that red line on the stations and then using the early part of the run to recover, this is an essential skill. If you can’t recover quickly between efforts, you will not do well at a Hyrox.

And if that’s not enough, you will also get the indirect benefit of bumping your VO2 (the amount of oxygen your body can consume and process during intense exercise) and system efficiency (the amount of energy used to perform a given task). Taken together, a more efficient system requires less energy to perform the same task, and, therefore, you can sustain a more intense effort for longer periods of time.

Goals for this workout

For the short workout, you want to go as hard as you can whilst being able to maintain the pace across all rounds. So, imagine you are doing 400m track intervals every 3 minutes: Lets say you can just about manage to do the 400m in 1 minute and 30 seconds with a 1 minute and 30 second rest for multiple sets – that’s perfect. What you don’t want to do though is do the first one in 1 minute and 20 seconds, the second in 1 minute and 24 seconds, the third one in 1 minute and 35 seconds and the forth one in 1 minute and 44 seconds – if that happens you’ve gone out too hot. Similarly, you don’t want to just coast the workout. So, if you are capable of doing the intervals in 1 minute and 30 seconds without dropping off, you shouldn’t do them in 2 minutes – this will have close to zero impact in improving your performance as the work rate is too low. Apply that same logic to the short workout.

Moving on to the medium and long workouts, each athlete will approach them slightly differently. Tiago explains that the pace you go depends a little on your characteristics as an athlete. Tiago, says he, personally, prefers: “to go out a little to hard and have some time to rest.” But explains: “I have very good recovery rates. That might just be one of my biggest strengths. There are athletes that would rather use almost all the time available and just take a few short breaths before going back into it!”

Tiago says he would advise athletes to be mindful of the following things during these workouts as well:

Transitions: keep them fast, don’t lose time between exercises.
Even effort: There shouldn’t be drastic differences in time between repeated rounds.
Slowest interval is your score: This helps keep an honest, even effort.
Recover where you can: Learn where and how you can recover best and use it.

How often should you do them?

Tiago explains that this depends a lot on your level as an athlete and how much time you spend on your training.

The shorter workouts are typically used on the early mesocycles, and after a strength session (like a finisher). You can use them as much as 2-3 times a week: similar to how you would in CrossFit classes.

The longer pacing workouts are used in the second half of the season or around 6-8 weeks coming up to an important race. They are used only about once a week and usually on a Saturday.

Tiago warns that the “medium” workouts are the most mentally taxing, so need to be inserted into your programming carefully. They can really mess with an athlete´s motivation, especially if you have other stronger athletes to compare performances to. He recommends they only make an appearance around every other week.

My Experience

To begin with the short intervals: these felt aggressive! I decided to go for the 18 calories (Pro) level on the row and the ski, with 20 lunges at 30kg between them. I tried to keep both the ski and the row at 1400 calories/hour (which had me done in around 45 seconds) and then go through the lunges as quick as I could (around 45 seconds as well). That’s 2:15 without transition times, so you can see why Tiago said to be mindful of transitions. I was getting around 25-30 seconds rest per round, my fastest round was 2:30 and my slowest was 2:35. Although my ‘output’ each round was roughly the same, the mental demand to maintain that effort definitely increased. I can see why Tiago’s recovery is so impressive, because exposing yourself to these type workouts you are desperately paddling, trying not to drown in building fatigue!

Moving on to the medium intervals: It would be very easy to go out too hot in the early rounds of this workout. For me, my running is not where I’d like it to be and so I aimed to get each round done in around 4 minutes, so I could have a 1 minute rest. The 25 bar touch burpees took me around 1 minute and 20 seconds, the 400m run on an Assault Runner was 2 minutes, and the 202kg Sled Push for 13.5m was 40 seconds. Rounds one and two I thought maybe I’d gone a little too conservative, but those burpees into run into sled push began to really sap me by round 4. Round 5 and 6 I really had to dig deep to stay near my first round times. Inevitably, I did fall off a little, but there was only 12 seconds between my fastest and slowest round, which I feel is acceptable. My warning here would be that you could very easily break too much on this workout. You could pause between each burpee. You could stop between stations. You could break the sled push. You really want to think about whether you ‘need’ to break or if you just want to. If you ‘need’ to… maybe you went out too hot.

Moving on to the long intervals: These have a very different feel to the first two. They certainly aren’t easy, but they’re more like borderline threshold efforts. They suck, but they always feel achievable. For me, personally, the workout really began at the runs – the work on the bike was just enough to make that 5k+10 seconds feel worse than it should and then those 50 wall balls were about hanging on for dear life. I’m not particularly great at wall balls, but 50 is manageable for me – just miserable! I liked how this workout puts you in a spot similar to the end of a Hyrox… where you REALLY want to drop that wall ball, but you’re almost finished and so really shouldn’t. You get a much longer rest on these intervals. Around 4 and a half minutes for me.

Takeaways

This is a great set of workouts that each challenge you in slightly different ways.

Adding these kinds of workouts into your training you will become a better athlete.

Your power output will improve, you will become more efficient, you will recover better, and perhaps most importantly: you will learn a lot about yourself as an athlete. These workouts force you to consider: How fast can you or should you push on a run or station? How fast can you recover? Are you resting too long between stations? Do you need to break or just want to?

I really liked that the EMOM format allowed me to focus on the work being consistent. So, as an example, I was able to keep an eye on the clock and say, ‘right, I need to finish this row within 45 seconds. I need to get to the lunges by 50 seconds. I need to by back on the ski by 1 minute and 40 seconds.’ That’s all I needed to focus on. This can be especially useful if you’re an athlete (like me) who trains primarily alone as you have motivation pre-built into the workout.

I also think it’s very measurable over time. So, this time round I was doing 18 calories on the ERGs, but if I begin to improve then I could eventually up the ergs to 20 calories (as Tiago suggests for more advanced athletes in the notes).

Want more?

If you enjoyed these workouts, Tiago offers three levels of Hyrox Programming: Open, Pro and Elite at a very reasonable price. He also offers programming for Doubles athletes. If you are keen to join Tiago’s team, he provides his athletes with 5-6 days of training a week, with sessions lasting between 60 and 120 minutes a day, depending on the level you sign up to. Training is delivered through an app with clear explanation and guidance given for each workout. There’s also an active community to interact with and leaderboards too. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, you can see the training options here.

Each week, we will be publishing a workout by an elite Hyrox athlete or coach.

These workouts will not be the ‘sexy’ or ‘brutal’ workouts you often see on social media, but instead they’ll be designed to give you a deeper insight and understanding of a certain style of workout these athletes and coaches run regularly as part of their training.

We will then sit down with the coach and discuss why they program this type of workout, what the aim of it is, what sort of scores athletes should be looking for, and more… I’ve even committed to doing the workouts, so you’ll get to hear my experiences of doing them (as a not-so-elite athlete) too!

The goal for this series is for you, as someone training for Hyrox events, to be able to take away the principles behind these workouts and apply them to your own training.

Athlete: James Kelly

James arrived on the Hyrox scene with a bang at the start of the 2022/2023 season.

James runs a Hybrid Training business in Australia that he wanted to make a name for… So, he signed up to the largest ever Hyrox event, hopped on a plane to the UK where it was taking place, and ended up taking first in the Pro division of his first Hyrox with a sub-60 time!

Sounds like a good Netflix documentary, right?

I’ve been following James since this win and what’s clear to me is how smart and focused he is when it comes to training. In addition to his own training, the athletes he coaches through JK Hybrid Training seem to be increasingly competitive at Hyrox events and look incredibly comfortable when racing.

I asked James if he could provide the community with a workout that is a staple of his training and the athletes he coaches…

The Workout: Compromised Running

Every 3 minutes on the minute for 24 minutes (8 rounds):

• 400m Run (Road or Assault Runner)
• In the remaining time: Max Burpees

Your score is the total number of burpees in the 24 minutes.

Purpose of this workout

The purpose of this workout is to improve your ability to run under fatigue.

This workout is brutal, both physically and mentally. The run makes you tired for the burpees and the burpees make you tired for the run. There’s no where to hide, which is what makes this workout so powerful and helpful for training that feeling of fatigue you will inevitably experience during a Hyrox.

James says that comprised running is a key skill for anyone training for a race such as Hyrox or Déka. In fact, he takes it a step further, saying that, in his experience, “the athlete who wins any particular race, is the athlete who is the best at running under fatigue [and] the Hyrox race is all about it.”

Asking James to give an example of how training compromised running can make the difference come race day, he explains: “There are 15 transitions in a Hyrox race, going from station to running, running to station. The athlete who can recover the quickest to deliver the best 1000m splits will win. My athletes know that it’s so important to attack the first 20 seconds of each run, after finishing a station. This is were you can make up so much ground! Comprised running is Hyrox and Deka. The athlete who can recover from work the quickest will win.”

Goals for this workout

Beginner: 120 Burpees
Intermediate: 180 Burpees
Elite: 200+ Burpees
Note: James has a PB of 247 Burpees!

How often should you do it?

James has his athletes do this workout around once every 3 weeks.

This is a staple of his training program and it allows him to regularly measure where his athletes are in terms of their ability to run compromised.

My Experience

On paper, this workout didn’t look that bad. It’s only 24 minutes… I’m pretty good at burpees and my running isn’t terrible.

I measured out 200m from the gym door (so I could run there and back to make the 400m) and would do burpees just inside of this door to keep the transition time basically zero. I used SmartWOD, which is an App that allows you to set an EMOM clock, and I set it to beep every 3 minutes for 24 minutes.

My goal was to start out steady and pick things up as the rounds progressed.

Here’s a short video highlight of my attempt with a voice over too:

Round one felt pretty good. I did the 400m in around 90 seconds and comfortably hit 22 burpees in the remaining 90 seconds. Round two I lost around 8 seconds on the run, so ended up with 20 burpees.

It was round three where the workout really hit me and I realised I wasn’t going to be able to pick up my pace. In fact, I couldn’t believe that just 7-8 minutes into a workout I was feeling as bad as I did. My legs were heavy, my breathing was erratic and I began questioning my life choices… it was a very similar feeling to that which you get around the first third of a Hyrox.

I should explain that I regularly do longer conditioning pieces of 60-90 minutes and higher-paced running intervals too. It was the blend of two unskilled movements back-to-back that was hurting me.

By round four my runs were down to just under 2 minutes per 400m and that was becoming hard to maintain. I was down to 16 burpees.

Round five I hit that point where you are able to maintain, but it hurts and it isn’t impressive to watch. I held the run at around 2 minutes and got 14 burpees for the remaining 4 rounds. My score was 132 burpees – just managing to pass the ‘beginner’ threshold of the goals James sets out above.

Takeaways

This is a powerful workout that I’d recommend to anyone who isn’t sure how compromised running will affect them come race day. I’d then recommend doing this workout or something very similar regularly, especially as your race approaches.

I’ve put a lot of time into running over the past 6 months or so and my splits across all distances have really come down. I have a pretty extensive CrossFit background and so my functional movements are pretty good too. However, my Hyrox results to date haven’t been where I’d like them to be…

This workout showed me a significant reason why.

If, as James says, compromised running IS Hyrox then I’m not very good at Hyrox yet. I might be OK at running and good at functional movements, but once you put them together to create a new sport I’m just not able to perform.

So, for me, this workout was a huge lesson in what Hyrox actually is and showed the importance of getting comfortable and conditioned to run under fatigue, especially as the race gets nearer.

A huge thank you to James for the lesson and if you do try this workout, be sure to tag me and James on Instagram – letting us know how it went!

Want more?

If you enjoyed this workout, James Kelly offers individual Hyrox training where he works on a one-to-one basis with athletes to develop their mindset and performance. James has the goal of ensuring each athlete goes into a race feeling confident they will do well because they have confidence in how they have trained. If you’re looking for a Hyrox coach, drop James a DM on Instagram or set up a 30 minute call to discuss your Hyrox training.

The best coach for me is not necessarily the best coach for you. Your best bet for finding the perfect coach for you is research: check out the coach’s experience, what they specialise in, who their athletes are, their demands in terms of time commitment and current skill level, their training style, and how much they charge.

One of the biggest choices you will need to make when it comes to online coaching is whether you choose to go for a rolling group/template based program or an individualised program. Group/template programs are typically cheaper as the coach is investing less time into you specifically, but instead coming up with a training program for a group of people. An individualised program will be written specifically for you. How custom this is will depend on the coach, but generally you’ll have at least a monthly consultation with your coach to talk about your goals, training level, time-constraints, and they’ll program with all of this in mind.

An area I think is often overlooked, but at least as important as the above, is the type of communication and interaction the coach/group offers. Some people love group training because you often get the option of joining a Facebook Group or using Leaderboards to compare scores, ask questions, moan about how horrible workouts were, share success, and have a team of people pushing you on. Others are less keen on this, but want a coach they can DM/call to ask questions about how to attack a workout, seek motivation, change their workout on the fly, or even cry to after the worst day ever in the gym.

With so many coaches offering so many kinds of training, we wanted to put together a list of coaches we follow and respect a great deal. Although we haven’t been coached by each and every one of those listed below, we’ve taken a great deal of time to research who’s currently coaching Hyrox athletes, what style of coaching they are offering, their communication methods and more besides.

We hope it’s useful and if we’ve missed anyone out, drop it in the comments or send us a DM on Insta. Equally, if any coaches want to reach out to expand on what we’ve written below or add their names then please do!

Team Hogan Coaching

Introducing the Hyrox Power Couple. When you think about how many people completed a Hyrox in the 2021/2022 season (tens of thousands!), it’s incredible to think that husband and wife – Tom and Dena Hogan – each made the Elite 15 race in Vegas. There’s often an argument that the best athletes in a sport like Hyrox are genetically gifted, but I think Tom and Dena show it can be as simple as hard work and intelligent training.

Dena and Tom have a strong running/endurance background and wide-ranging experience in coaching people to get fit. They provide athletes with a good blend of strength and running, but the best part of their coaching has to be the creatively brutal, but fair workouts they come up with that offer you that ‘oh s**t’ feeling a Hyrox gives.

Dena and Tom are some of the most friendly and recognisable people on the Hyrox scene. They make a point of showing up to events year round and even volunteering (when not competing!). I know Dena and Tom are very responsive to their clients via message and often promote their hard work (or joke with them) through Instagram stories. So, if you want a friendly coach who’ll push your hard, but you can also share some banter with then Team Hogan should be on your shortlist.

Summary

• Who: Hyrox Power Couple Tom & Dena Hogan
• Notable Athlete Achievements: Tom & Dena have each made the Elite 15.
• Type of training: Individualised
• Communication: One-to-one via DM or E-mail
• Cost: £60 per month / €68.50 Euros per month / $72.75 dollars per month
• Link: https://www.instagram.com/denahogan1/

Team Skillen Coaching

Jade is one of the most visible Hyrox athletes/coaches we have and works tirelessly to promote the sport. She’s in Facebook Groups replying to posts asking for advice, uploading high-quality videos with absolutely top-quality tips, she does Instagram lives and regularly features in popular podcasts too – she comes across as being very approachable, whilst keeping all her content super slick and professional.

Jade is the UK’s Hyrox Master Trainer. One of only two, I believe (George Edwards is the other I know of). Jade has a strong professional sporting background and brings years of knowledge having worked with some of the world’s top coaches. She works with the ‘every workout should have a purpose’ philosophy and places strong emphasis on getting athletes used to ‘compromised running’. I hear the weekly mindset sessions Jade holds for her athletes are transformational. She has multiple coaching options that range from more templated options (HYROX PERFORM) all the way through to a mentorship that covers not only your training, but mindset and nutrition too (HYROX COMPETE).

Jade has a strong background in Hybrid racing as a Spartan Pro and is herself competing as one of the top women in Hyrox today. Her stacked client-base includes people like Rebecca Mason (World Champ 35-39), Ciaran Parkinson (British Record Holder) and Beatrice Ardelt (Elite 15 Athlete & World Record Holder in Mixed Doubles). In total, Jade has coached 86 Podium Athletes, 69 World Championship Qualifications and 12 AG World Champions (Wow!). If you are looking for an incredibly knowledgeable coach with a strong sporting pedigree and ability to push and motivate you to new levels then drop Jade a message.

Summary

• Who: Jade Skillen – Hyrox Master Coach
• Notable Athletes: Jade Skillen, Rebecca Mason, Ciaran Parkinson, Beatrice Ardelt.
• Type of training: Generalised (Perform) & Individualised (Compete)
• Communication: One-to-one via DM or E-mail
• Cost: Varies depending on level of coaching
• Link: https://smashyourhyrox.com/

Markus Frison Coaching

Markus landed on everyone’s radar when he won the HYROX Virtual Championships. Covid meant Hyrox had to move online and they ran a competition fairly similar to the Crossfit Open. Markus surprised even himself by beating out former Hyrox champions and decided to transition from Crossfit to Hyrox.

What’s interesting about Markus is that he does not have the running background that so many Hyrox Athletes have. His background is a distant high-level cycling career, more recent power-lifting achievements, and then dedicated Crossfit training. Markus was one of the strongest competitors on the stations, but had to really ramp the running up in order to catch many of his competitors who had been running in some cases their whole lives. This ‘tried and tested’ aspect of Markus’s programming should serve as motivation to other athletes who may be stronger or have a Crossfitting background as Markus’s running is now up there with the best of them.

Markus aims to offer one of the lowest priced individualised coaching programs available for his athletes, whilst still being available for weekly video calls and daily messaging. His coaching style is all based on progressive overload and periodisation – essentially tried and tested methods of progressing your fitness/strength overtime. Markus has his athletes spend much less time doing Hyrox-sims compared to other coaches, saying that most athletes need to work on improving the individual pieces (running/strength/functional stations) before blending things together closer to races.

Summary

• Who: Markus Frison
• Notable Athlete Achievements: Markus won the HYROX Virtual Championships
• Type of training: Individualised
• Communication: One-to-one via DM or E-mail. Weekly video call.
• Cost: £39.30 a month / €44.90 Euros per month / $47.70 dollars per month
• Link: https://www.markusfrison.com/

TM Programming

Michael Sandbach and Tim Wenisch recently beat Hunter McIntyre and Tom Hogan’s ‘Male Doubles World Record’. Hunter and Tom are such amazing athletes that this turned a lot of heads. Michael and Tim then followed this up with individual Hyrox performances where they both went under an hour.

Either of these two guys could end up being European/World Champion in the very near future. Their programming style relies a lot on getting their athletes comfortable with being uncomfortable. You will find yourself doing Hyrox sims once a week and your training around this will include regular strength sessions, running sessions, and then Crossfit style WODs. It’s a nice variety of work and should stop athletes ever getting bored. Both Tim and Michael have made big improvements over the past few years, so whatever they are doing is working.

Tim and Michael are very approachable and I know they often encourage their athletes to reach out through DM to them. I’d take them up on this too: Tim is an incredible runner and Michael is super strong. Both are great at functional movements. So they’re a great team to have in your corner.

TM Programming offer a few unique aspects, which I think really makes their coaching worth considering. First, they offer different levels and each level has times you should be aiming for during the workout. So, for example, if you sign up to their ‘Sub 70’ program, then you will have advice from Tim/Michael on each workout as to what splits you should be rowing/running if you really want to be a ‘sub 70’ level and so on. Second, they offer programs for teams, so if you have a partner you’re training with for a doubles event then you can sign up and get your workouts for doubles competition. I feel Doubles and Individual are very different races and so the ability to have a program tailored to you as a doubles competitor is excellent.

Summary

• Who: Tim Wenisch & Michael Sandbach
• Notable Athlete Achievements: Tim Wenisch & Michael Sandbach – Double WR Holders & Elite 15 Individuals
• Type of training: Group Training
• Communication: One-to-one via DM or E-mail
• Cost: £39.99 a month / €45.70 Euros per month / $48.50 dollars per month
• Link: https://tmprogramming.wodify.com/OnlineSalesPortal/

JK Hybrid Training

James Kelly is probably the newest coach to arrive on the Hyrox scene amongst those listed. James runs a Hybrid Training business in Australia that he wanted to make a name for… So, he turned up in the UK and took first place in his first ever Hyrox race – in the Pro division of the biggest ever event no less! What a way to get it done!

James takes the ‘volume is king’ approach to training and I think that’s why he has done so well in Hyrox. His workouts are often long and grueling, just like a Hyrox. Crossfit fans will be familiar with the phrase “Hard Work Pays Off” and every time I see a workout pasted by James or his athletes I can see this is how he trains. Long EMOMs of ERG work hitting calorie targets or functional movements hitting repetition numbers seem to be a staple.

It’s worth noting that James has his own style of ‘Hybrid Training’ and he has been doing this for quite a few years. So, although he is new to the Hyrox scene, he has been successfully competing in Hybrid Sports and coaching Hybrid Athletes for quite some time. All of the programs James writes are tailored to individuals and he works closely with each member he takes on to develop their mindset and performance.

Summary

• Who: James Kelly
• Notable Athlete Achievements: James Kelly qualified for European Championships in his first race.
• Type of training: Individualised
• Communication: One-to-one via DM or E-mail
• Cost: Price on enquiry
• Link: https://www.trainerize.me/checkout/jkhybridtraining/James.Kelly?planGUID=67d5e42d0a8d4bb68a80fc08824a2785

Endurance Zone

Tiago Lousa has assembled perhaps the scariest team of podium athletes in the whole of Hyrox. This speaks volumes about him as a person, because to be trusted to lead such a large group of athletes capable of making the top 15 you need to know what you’re doing.

In addition to this Elite Group (which is invitation only), Tiago’s ‘Endurance Zone’ offers a ‘Pro’ and ‘Intimidiate’ Level. These programs take the same concepts and structure Tiago uses to train his Elite Team, but brings it down a notch so that it’s more management in terms of volume. Don’t think this means it is easy though, the ‘Pro’ level assumes you are already, or believe yourself capable of, going sub 70 in a Men’s Pro Hyrox. At time of writing, the season has been going around 3 months and already 23 Endurance Zone athletes have qualified for the World Championships.

In terms of programming style, I think Tiago is very tuned-in to the demands of the sport. There’s lots of running at different speeds, but equally you have a lot of time spent doing mixed modality work. One thing I liked to see is that you’re not only doing things you see in Hyrox – you’ll also pick-up barbells and dumbbells from time-to-time, do some gymnastics and hit the bike. It’s very well-rounded and true to the name, is a program that focuses heavily on really pushing your endurance to top levels.

Endurance Zone is a Group Program where you follow a rolling program. You will peak for certain events (although Tiago does offer advice if you can’t make the event the team is going to) and you’ll have different priorities throughout the year. Being in a group, you have the ability to speak with other team members and see a leaderboard.

Summary

• Who: Tiago Lousa
• Notable Male Athletes: Tiago Lousa, Alexander Roncevic, Peter Schiller, Dominic Molzahn & Patrick Grewe – all have times between 57 minutes 54 seconds and 1 hour 30 seconds.
• Notable Female Athletes: Daniela Couto & Carolina Silva – have achieved 1 hour 9 minutes fifty-five seconds and 1 hour 10 minutes 30 seconds
• Type of training: Group Training Program
• Communication: Via Group Chat
• Cost: Basic: £21.75 / €24.90 / $26.40 / OR Pro: £34.75 / €39.75 / $42.20
• Link: https://app.fitr.training/t/Endurance_Zone_HYROX_PLAN/

Reinforced Running by Rich Ryan

Most coaches on this page began coaching Hybrid athletes online following their success at Hyrox events. However, Rich Ryan has been doing this longer than most due to his background and success in Obstacle Course Racing. Rich Ryan is well-known in OCR circles as he was a member of the Spartan Racing Pro Team, which led him to set up his educational and training platform: Reinforced Running. More recently, Rich has transitioned into Hyrox and Deka events – which he feels is an even better fit – and has proven this by not only making the Hyrox Elite 15, but becoming DekaFit World Champion. As such, Rich has expanded Reinforced Running so that it now offers programming to Hyrox/Deka Athletes too.

The first thing to say is that Rich is probably the most talented runner in all of Hyrox and Deka with a 5000m time of around 15 minutes (let that sink in!). Second, adding to his Spartan resume, he has been competing in CrossFit at various levels since 2011. With all this in mind, Rich is probably more familiar with the various aspects of Hyrox than anyone else out there. Not only has he been running since childhood; he has been moving barbells, doing burpees and throwing wall balls for over 10 years!

Rich is very methodical in his programming. He uses progression based blocks for all aspects of running, strength and hybrid endurance work. Each week is written to build on the previous. You will find very few ‘just-for-fun’ WODs in the sense that everything is programmed for a reason and to fit with the goals of the current block. Rich’s coaching is primarily group based and there is a fairly active community posting about upcoming events and asking questions. Rich also posts into this group a very detailed video at the start of each training phase covering the purpose of each workout.

• Who: Rich Ryan
• Notable Athletes: Rich Ryan (Hyrox Elite 15 athlete & DekaFit World Champion), Megan Jacoby (took Women’s Pro Record in 2022), Bridget Brown (3rd at the DekaFit World Championships) & Jarrett Newby ( 2nd place at the GoRuck Games – just behind Hunter McIntyre).
• Type of training: Group Training
• Communication: One-to-one via DM or E-mail
• Cost: £32.11 / €36.75 / $39.00
• Link: https://reinforcedrunning.com/

JayFit PT – James Muscart

James is probably the most down-to-earth guy I’ve met in Hyrox. He does almost every event he can get to, smashes them, and then goes home smiling. In fact, every time I see James he looks like he’s having the time of his life (which is hard to do in Hyrox!).

All that being said, James is a serious competitor and could easily work himself into the Elite 15 soon. James is very active in the community and you can see that he intends to be around Hyrox for a good while – engaging with members of the UK’s Hyrox Facebook Group daily, launching a Podcast and offering coaching.

James has a strong endurance background, but also worked as a PT. This means that he is used to working with people and improving their performance. James uses structured blocks for his training and boosts an athlete’s strength and cardiovascular numbers up carefully. All that said, I see a lot of fun (and sometimes nasty-looking) AMRAPs posted by his clients.

With James, you are going to get top class communication by someone who absolutely loves the sport and is themselves pushing the very highest-level athletes come race day. If you want to work hard whilst enjoying the process then I imagine James would be a great fit.

Summary

• Who: James Muscart
• Notable Athlete Achievements: James is easily ranked top 5 in the UK.
• Type of training: Individualised or template based
• Communication: One-to-one via DM, E-mail, WhatsApp & Video Calls.
• Cost: Varies depending on program
• Link: https://www.jayfitpt.com/

George Edwards – Hyrox Master Coach

George found success in the early days of Hyrox in the UK. Hyrox (the company) very quickly chose him to be one of their Hyrox Master Coaches and in addition to regularly competing he has been spending his time coaching an increasing number of Hyrox athletes.

George is very knowledgeable when it comes to coaching, with Personal Training being a big part of his life even before Hyrox. He is a business partner of Tom Hogan and Hunter McIntyre and spent a good amount of time training with Hunter in the run-up to him becoming World Champion.

George offers personalised programming that is tailored towards the athlete. He puts a strong emphasis on compromised running and building the body to handle the various weight requirements and volume a Hyrox race depends on. He makes himself available via text and phone to his athletes.

A bonus for athletes trying to decide whether George is the right coach for them is that due to his role as a Hyrox Master Coach there’s loads of interviews with him online in the form of Podcasts. You’ll quickly see he’s a really fun guy to chat with, but also extremely knowledgeable. If you’re looking for a coach who you can have a laugh with but who is also incredibly smart and well researched when it comes to exercise science then George is a great choice.

Summary

• Who: George Edwards
• Notable Athlete Achievements: George Edwards & Tom Hogan took 3rd place in the Hyrox Doubles Division of the 2021/2022 season’s biggest event. George had battled Covid the week before!
• Type of training: Individualised
• Communication: One-to-one via DM or E-mail
• Cost: Cost on enquiry
• Link: https://www.georgeedwardstraining.com/

HAOS Training – Hunter McIntyre

Hunter McIntyre is probably the only name on this list that people outside of Hyrox will recognise. Hunter is well known across Hybrid sports, whether that is Hyrox, CrossFit or OCR. Unlike most athletes in Hyrox that tend to have a very humble online presence, Hunter is well-known for his loud personality that can come across as ‘trolling’, but is more often just the supreme confidence that comes with being a dominant World Champion in multiple sports.

Hunter McIntyre actually retired from Hyrox last year after becoming World Champion and smashing the Hyrox World Record. A big reason for this retirement was so that he could invest time into his programming platform called ‘HAOS’.

Because Hunter is so outgoing, I think it’s easy to under-estimate just how smart he is. Hunter has worked with some of the best coaches in the world and obsessively researched all kinds of world-class athletes to find what has worked for them and add it to his program.

HAOS offers a Pro and OCR track that each vary a lot throughout the year, but often go through Hyrox cycles and Ultimate Engine cycles. Both contains lots of strength training, WODs, Hyrox-specific work, EMOMs, running, compromised running and always felt very familiar to me as someone who has done Crossfit. It’s very well suited to someone who likes a lot of volume, a good amount of variety, and don’t want to be overly Hyrox specific all year round. They also have perhaps the most active and supportive community of all the programs listed. Their Facebook Group has hundreds, if not thousands, of posts a month.

Summary

• Who: Hunter McIntyre
• Notable Athlete Achievements: Hunter McIntyre is the Hyrox World Champion
• Type of training: Group Training with multiple tracks
• Communication: Group based chat that is very active and has multiple coaches
• Cost: £32.11 / €36.75 / $39.00
• Link: https://haostraining.com/

LukeFit – Lukas Storath

Lukas Storath was the first ever Hyrox World Champion, the first ever athlete to complete a Hyrox in under an hour, is current holder of the Hyrox PFT World Record and until recently held the Hyrox Mixed Doubles World Record too. In recent years, Lukas has spent his time coaching people both online and through his Hyrox Training Camps. Few people have had the ability to work with as many athletes as Lukas and as such I believe he is very well placed to train people across a range of different abilities and according to their goals.

Lukas has a strong belief in getting athletes very strong and capable with the basic movements and then pushing their performance levels from there. He has a strong background in endurance sports, but has transitioned into a much more explosive athlete himself as a result of Hyrox. As you will see from his Instagram pictures, these days he’s pretty jacked – far from the slim build many triathletes have! This background in endurance and experience growing himself as a more explosive athlete means he has knowledge across all aspects of cardio, strength and functional movements. I also really like that Lukas promotes the importance of not being overly Hyrox specific with all your training – i.e. pushing sleds is not the only way to get better at pushing sleds and thrusters replace wallballs in much of his training.

Lukas seems like a really fun guy. Much of his online content is in German, but he coaches people in multiple languages (English included). Lukas offers individualised coaching and makes a point of getting to know his clients personally so that he can train them physically, but also help build their mental state. In addition, he has structured 4 to 12 week plans available through the Fitr platform. Even when not competing, Lukas is often seen around Hyrox events speaking with athletes.

Summary

• Who: Lukas Storath
• Notable Athlete Achievements: Lukas Storath was the first ever Hyrox Champion, first athlete to go under 60 minutes, holds the Hyrox PFT World Record, and until recently held the Mixed Doubles World Record.
• Type of training: Individualised
• Communication: One-to-one
• Cost: Available on enquiry.
• Link: https://lukefitcoaching.com/?lang=en

FIT4ROX – Ciaran Parkinson

Ciaran Parkinson has taken his time building himself up in the Hyrox Open division, where just a few months ago he took the British record for the fastest time ever. In his Pro debut, Ciaran landed a time of 1:03.14 and has his sights firmly set on sub-60 by World Championships.

Ciaran is an incredible runner. His zone 2 paces are close to other athletes’ interval paces and the speed he does his intervals are mind blowing at times. What I find exciting about Ciaran is that he is always improving as an athlete and so his method of training clearly works.

Ciaran works as a PT and has done for many years, so is experienced working with people at all different levels. He has a very active Instagram page and shares a lot of his training, so you can get a good feel for the kind of person he is and the workouts he puts his athletes through. I think with Ciaran you’re going to get a very friendly and experienced coach who will challenge you with a good mixture of running, strength training and hybrid endurance / circuit work. His programs vary from a more-affordable template style through to individualised coaching and even nutritional guidance.

Summary

• Who: Ciaran Parkinson
• Notable Athlete Achievements: Ciaran Parkinson – British Open World Record holder
• Type of training: Template or Individualised
• Communication: One-to-one
• Cost: Varies depending on program.
• Link: https://fit4rox.pages.ontraport.net

Hyrox Partner Programs (FiiT and RUNNA)

Before Hyrox went into partnership with FiiT and RUNNA, they had a .PDF on their website that was a very good introduction to Hyrox Training. However, this was removed from their website at the end of last season as Hyrox begin to point people towards their partner training suppliers.

FiiT is sort of like the Peloton of functional fitness. It feels like it’s in its early stages and still growing, but when you sign up, you are given loads of different classes that range across all kinds of training styles and fitness levels. Most of what you’ll find is circuit-based HIIT workouts. This platform certainly isn’t geared towards someone who wants to podium in Hyrox, but if you’re entering your first event and keen to get fit in the comfort of your own home then this will certainly get you started. It’s also very, very affordable.

RUNNA is a pretty cool little running app that builds a program based on your running goals. Funnily enough, there’s not actually a Hyrox plan, or even OCR plan, but there are multiple plans to improve your 10km or half-marathon times, which most people agree are the distances with most carry-over to Hyrox. I think RUNNA is actually a great option for a strength or CrossFit athlete that doesn’t want to give up their current training, but wants to add running on top. It’s also very affordable if you can’t afford a coach.

Summary

• Who: Hyrox Partner Companies
• Notable Athletes: FiiT: None yet / RUNNA: Olympians and respected running coaches involved.
• Type of training: FiiT: Pre-recorded Classes / RUNNA: Templates.
• Communication: FiiT: None / RUNNA: Online coaching team.
• Cost: Fiit: £7.99 / €7.99 / $7.99 / RUNNA: £15.99 / €15.10 / $15.99
• Link: https://fiit.tv/ & https://www.runna.com/

Wrapping Up

I hope this post was useful in helping you find a coach to guide your training.

I would just like to finish by saying that I think all of these coaches are capable of getting you to where you want to be in the sport of Hyrox. Their methods are tried and tested. It’s all about about finding the one you best connect with and which has a training style that suits you as an athlete.

If you enjoyed this post, give us a follow on Instagram (here, here, here!) as we’re hoping in the future to expand this page, interview a few of the coaches, and even give some of their staple workouts a try!