Can a beginner do HYROX?
Yes. HYROX is open to everyone, with no qualification to earn first; you only need to be at least 16 on race day. Every Singles, Doubles and Relay division runs the same eight runs and the same eight stations in the same order, and none of the movements takes long to learn: two ergs, two sleds, burpee broad jumps, a carry, lunges and wall balls.
What makes it hard is how long you keep going. HYROX UK puts the average time on the course at 90 minutes, and every break from running is a station. HYROX UK also says 99% of its athletes cross the finish line. If you can train three times a week for three to four months and you are willing to walk some of the running, the race suits you. How hard it feels, and how it compares with a marathon, is in why HYROX is hard.
Choose your format and goal first
Decide who you race with and what you want from the day before you plan a single session. Both change the training.
- Singles: you do all eight runs and all eight stations alone. The fullest test, and the one the plan below is written for.
- Doubles: you and a partner run every kilometre together and split the station work between you. More in how doubles works.
- Relay: a team of four, each running 2 x 1 km and doing two stations.
- Open or Pro: Pro is the same course with heavier sleds, bells, bag and ball. Race your first in Open, and read when to move up to Pro afterwards.
Every division and age group is laid out in choosing your division.
Finish, or chase a time
For a first race, finishing is the honest goal: every station completed to the standard, no penalties, and a clear picture of how the day works. A time goal makes sense once you have something to measure against. The HYROX PFT gives a rough steer: HYROX UK suggests Open for a PFT time of 25 to 35 minutes, Doubles for 30 to 40, Relay for 35 to 45 and Pro for 15 to 25.
The 26/27 rulebooks set no overall time cap, though an unfinished station is a disqualification; check your event's athlete guide for anything it adds, and see what a good HYROX time is.
A 12-week beginner plan of three sessions
PureGym's plan says in its FAQ that most beginners need 12 weeks, that you do not need to run 8 km before you start, and that a comfortable 5 km makes the training more enjoyable. PureGym's 12 weeks assume four or five sessions most weeks. For three days a week, the coach in Red Bull's three-day guide recommends starting at least 15 to 16 weeks before race day, so if you have the time, spend three or four weeks on easy running and light strength before week 1, and take all of them if you cannot jog for 20 minutes yet. Find your starting point in how long to train for HYROX.
The weeks below are adapted from PureGym's free 12-week Hyrox plan by PureGym PT Andrea Marshall, published in September 2024 and last updated on 10 September 2025. PureGym's version asks for several circuits as fast as possible. This adaptation keeps three sessions, scales the loads and slows the early circuits down. It is an illustration of how a published plan can be cut to three days, not a prescription. Each week is a table you can print or screenshot; there is no PDF.
How the 12 weeks fit together
PureGym repeats one four-week cycle three times. Run it like this, and see training for HYROX for how longer plans work back from race day:
- Weeks 1 to 4: learn every movement at a light load and get used to training three times a week.
- Weeks 5 to 8: two more interval rounds, heavier loads in the circuits, and every station once at your division's race load.
- Weeks 9 to 12: eight interval rounds in week 9, the first four stations at race load a little quicker in week 10, then two lighter weeks: week 11 is the usual lighter week, and PureGym makes week 12 a deload with one session turned into rest. Then race.
Leave a day between sessions where you can. Why the order of hard and easy days matters more than their number is in how many days a week to train.
Weeks 1, 5 and 9: running endurance
| Session | Adapted for three days | PureGym's version |
|---|---|---|
| Intervals | 1 km at an easy pace, then walk for as long as it took. 4 rounds in week 1, 6 in week 5, 8 in week 9. Run-walk the kilometre if you cannot run it yet. | 8 rounds of 1 km, then rest or walk for the same time |
| Strength circuit | 3 rounds at a steady pace, not for time: 400 m SkiErg, 10 thrusters with a light bar or two dumbbells, 10 burpees, 10 Romanian deadlifts. Finish with 3 sets of 10 wall balls to the target: a light ball in week 1, your race ball in weeks 5 and 9, every squat below parallel. | 4 rounds as fast as possible: 400 m SkiErg, 20 thrusters, 20 over-the-bar burpees, 20 Romanian deadlifts. Wall balls come in a separate session. |
| Easy run | 20 to 30 minutes in week 1, 30 in week 5, 35 to 40 in week 9, at a pace you could talk at, building towards 5 km | 5 km easy run |
Weeks 2, 6 and 10: building the engine
| Session | Adapted for three days | PureGym's version |
|---|---|---|
| Lower body | 3 rounds: 25 m walking lunges with a light sandbag, 25 m sled push (two 12.5 m lengths) at a load you can keep moving, 8 sandbag squats | Lower-body strength: sandbag lunges, a 50 m sled push and a sandbag RDL clean and squat complex |
| Station practice, stations 1 to 4 | 1 km easy run, then a station; repeat for the SkiErg, sled push, sled pull and burpee broad jumps. Week 2: half the distance at a light load. Week 6: the full station at race load, steady. Week 10: race load, a little quicker. | A half run-through of the first four stations at race pace |
| Conversation run | 25 minutes in week 2, 30 to 35 in week 6, 40 minutes or 5 km in week 10, at a pace where you could hold a conversation | An easy 5 km |
Weeks 3, 7 and 11: a lighter week
| Session | Adapted for three days | PureGym's version |
|---|---|---|
| Full body, light | 300 m easy row, then 3 sets of 12 to 15: goblet squat, push-up or bench press, assisted pull-up or lat pulldown, dumbbell shoulder press | Done twice: 300 m row, then 4 sets of 15 to 20 of bench press, squats, assisted pull-ups and shoulder press, and hollow rocks |
| Intervals | The 1 km intervals from weeks 1, 5 and 9, two rounds fewer than last time | 8 rounds of 1 km, then rest or walk for the same time |
| Short circuit | 5 minutes of 100 m on the SkiErg at the start of each minute. Then 3 circuits: 10 m walking lunges, 10 push-ups, 10 bodyweight squats, a 30-second plank. Finish with one easy 25 m sled push. | Done twice: the same 5-minute SkiErg block, 4 circuits with squat jumps and military planks, then a 50 m speed sled push |
Weeks 4, 8 and 12: station week
| Session | Adapted for three days | PureGym's version |
|---|---|---|
| Dumbbell circuit | Easy 300 m row, then 2 rounds of 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off: walking lunges, renegade rows, front-rack squat, bent-over row, 20 m farmers carry, push press, Romanian deadlift | Done twice: easy 300 m row, then 40-second intervals of eight moves, as many reps as possible, including the devil press |
| Station practice, stations 5 to 8 | 1 km easy run, then a station; repeat for the row, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls. Week 4: half the distance or reps at a light load. Week 8: the full station at race load and standard. Week 12: rest. | A half run-through: the last four stations with 4 x 1 km runs. In the third cycle it becomes a rest day. |
| Easy run | 30 minutes, or 5 km, at a pace you could talk at | 5 km easy run |
PureGym uses the station practice days for half run-throughs at race pace. Here the same layout runs at an easy effort with scaled loads first, so it teaches each standard before it tests your fitness. Because week 12 is rest, stations 5 to 8 get one full session at race load, in week 8; to meet them again before the race, do the carry, lunge and wall ball workout below at race load in week 9 or 10. Run-throughs as workouts are covered in HYROX workouts by training block.
Running: from steady runs to eight kilometres between stations
For recreational racers, running is most of the race. In a study that timed a simulated race in a gym, 11 recreational athletes with a median 18 months of HYROX experience took a median 86.5 minutes, and 51.2 of those were running against 32.8 at the stations. Faster finishes went with a higher VO2max and more endurance training. Build the running before anything else.
- If you cannot jog for 20 minutes, start with run-walk. The NHS Couch to 5K plan opens with 1-minute runs and 90-second walks, three times a week, and ends at 30 minutes without stopping in 9 weeks or longer. More in HYROX for non-runners.
- Keep most runs easy. A pace you could hold a conversation at, which PureGym uses for its 5 km runs. Easy running is what lets you train three times a week without dreading it.
- Use 1 km repeats to reach 8 km. The interval session in the sample weeks grows from 4 to 8 rounds of 1 km with a walk between, which is the race's own pattern: eight runs of about a kilometre with work between them.
- Then run off a station. The first minutes after a sled push feel nothing like fresh running. The station practice sessions give you that from the second week, at an easy effort. More in compromised running.
The rulebook has no rule against walking parts of a run. What costs time is a missed lap, so find out how many laps each run is at your venue. How much to run, and how to mix easy, hard and long runs once you are past your first race, is in running for HYROX.
Every station once at race weight
A gym sled and a race sled are not the same thing, a wall ball after 8 km of running is not the one you threw in a warm-up, and nobody judges your lunges in the gym. HYROX UK tells racers to learn the movement standards so they train the exercises the right way. So do every station once at your race load, to the standard a judge watches, while you still have weeks to fix what goes wrong.
| Station | Work | Open load, women / men | What the judge watches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SkiErg | 1,000 m | No load. The damper is preset to 6 and you may change it. | Your feet may lift, but neither may touch the floor. A heel may hang over the edge of the platform. |
| 2. Sled push | 50 m (4 x 12.5 m) | 102 kg / 152 kg, sled included | The whole sled crosses the 12.5 m line before you turn it. Stay in your lane. |
| 3. Sled pull | 50 m (4 x 12.5 m) | 78 kg / 103 kg, sled included | Pull standing, from inside the racer box, without stepping on its lines while holding the rope. |
| 4. Burpee broad jumps | 80 m | Bodyweight | Chest on the floor every rep. Both feet take off and land together. Hands no more than 30 cm in front of your front foot. |
| 5. Rowing | 1,000 m | No load. The damper is preset to 6. | Stay seated until the 1,000 m is done and a judge confirms it. |
| 6. Farmers carry | 200 m | 2 x 16 kg / 2 x 24 kg | Arms straight by your sides. You may set the bells down to rest if they do not move forward. |
| 7. Sandbag lunges | 100 m | 10 kg / 20 kg | Back knee touches the floor, stand tall at the top of every rep, bag on both shoulders throughout. |
| 8. Wall balls | 100 reps | 4 kg to 2.70 m / 6 kg to 3.00 m | Hips below knees, ball strikes the target. A fault is a no-rep straight away, with no warning. |
Scaled first, then race load
- Learn it light. Half the distance or reps at a load you can move without stopping: a sled you can keep sliding, a light sandbag, a lighter wall ball. Film a set and check it against the standard in the table.
- Do it once at race load, steady. The full station at your division's weight, unhurried, with someone watching for the standard: knee to the floor on every lunge, hips below knees on every wall ball, chest down on every burpee.
- Then do it quicker. Race load at a harder effort straight off a run, because that is how every station arrives on the day.
For a movement fault on stations 1 to 7, a judge gives one warning per station before penalties start. At the wall balls there are no warnings: each rep is a rep or a no-rep, and you stay until 100 valid ones are done. In the same study, heart rate, lactate and effort all peaked at the wall balls. Practise your depth on tired legs. More in training wall balls.
The sled weights include the sled, and a sled moves differently on a different floor, so treat a gym sled time as a guide. The full standard for each station, and how to train it off a run, is in the eight HYROX stations.
Three beginner workouts with scaled loads
Three short sessions of about 25 minutes, our own examples, for a day when the plan session will not fit or the kit is free. Pick loads that let you finish every round with the standard intact, and add load before speed.
1. Run and sleds
3 rounds: 400 m easy run, sled push for two 12.5 m lengths, sled pull for two lengths, then 2 minutes walking. Start the sleds at a load you can move without stopping and add a plate each time it feels smooth.
2. Carry, lunge, wall ball
4 rounds: 50 m farmers carry with kettlebells a step below race weight, 20 m sandbag lunges with a light bag, 15 wall balls to your target with a lighter ball, then 90 seconds rest. Every lunge touches the knee down; every squat goes below parallel.
3. Ergs and burpees
4 rounds: 250 m row, 250 m SkiErg, 10 m of burpee broad jumps, then 2 minutes walking. Keep the ergs at a pace you could hold for twice the distance. On the burpees, land both feet together and keep your hands close to your front foot.
Race day in one paragraph
The one pacing rule for a first race is to start slower than feels right, because HYROX UK says it sees racers run the first kilometre at personal-best pace, again and again. Check-in, warming up, transitions and the rest of the day are in HYROX race day tips, and the last fortnight before it is in how to taper.
After your first race
Take the first days easy. How long recovery takes and how to ease back in over the following weeks is in recovering from a HYROX.
Then open your results. Your splits show where the time went: runs that slowed after the sleds, a long stop at the wall balls, a station that took twice what you planned. Compare your runs with each other rather than with someone else's at a different venue, because courses and floors differ. That tells you what to train next, and finding where your time goes shows how to read them.
How Smash Coach sets up a first race
A printed plan cannot see your football on Tuesday or the week you are away, so moving sessions around them falls to you. If you are weighing up apps, the questions worth asking are in how to judge a training app for HYROX. This is how Smash Coach starts a first-timer.
When you add your race you set the date, your division and format, your experience, and whether you are chasing a time or aiming to finish. None of it has to be perfect, and you can edit all of it later.
Sign-up also asks your longest run. It starts at I don't run, so move it if you run, and once your longest run is 5 km or more, set your time for it or tap Don't know.
Your coach writes your plan from those answers, with Pro or during your trial. Your first week is a baseline week: real training in which each session also takes one easy measurement, so your coach can size the next weeks from what you actually did.
After the race, open it and add your finish time. Your coach uses it as a reference for what comes next, with Pro or during your trial. More in getting your first plan and races and events.