Why a steady split beats a fast start
Both monitors show your pace per 500 m on every stroke, and 1,000 m is two of those. So the sums are simple: hold 4 seconds per 500 m faster and you save 8 seconds on the station, whatever your level.
Eight seconds is real, but it is small next to what comes after. The SkiErg hands you to Run 2 and the sled push; the row hands you to Run 6 and the farmers carry. In our coaching judgement at Smash Coach, an erg pulled near your limit costs more than those 8 seconds on the run and the station after it, because your legs and your grip arrive spent. That is a coach's judgement, not a measured finding.
Concept2, who make both machines, give the same advice for HYROX. Ski at your 5,000 m pace if you have trained on the SkiErg; if it is new to you, pick an effort you would find very comfortable for four to five minutes. Row at your 5,000 m pace. With about 7 km of running and 7 stations still to go, they say, easing in on the SkiErg beats going all out at station 1.
| Your 5,000 m time | Split per 500 m | 1,000 m at that split |
|---|---|---|
| 17:30 | 1:45 | 3:30 |
| 19:10 | 1:55 | 3:50 |
| 20:50 | 2:05 | 4:10 |
| 22:30 | 2:15 | 4:30 |
| 24:10 | 2:25 | 4:50 |
| 25:50 | 2:35 | 5:10 |
The race results show where the time is. Across seven seasons of Pro racing, the fastest 100 men's results each season went from 3:57 to 3:48 on the SkiErg and from 4:13 to 3:56 on the row, while their running got about 8 minutes faster. These are the fastest Pro results of each season, so read the change, not the times: the ergs give back seconds, the running gives back minutes. Brandt and colleagues, who ran the first scientific study of the race, expect pacing to matter more as athletes improve.
- Set the damper, and on the rower the footplate, before your first pull.
- Use the first 10 strokes to find your target split, not to beat it.
- Hold the split by holding the stroke rate: Concept2 suggests 40 to 60 strokes a minute on the SkiErg and 24 to 32 on the rower.
- Save any push for the last 100 m, so you leave the machine able to run.
SkiErg technique: hinge first, arms last
Concept2 teaches the SkiErg as a cross-country skier's double pole, and the order is the technique: trunk, then hips, then arms. Your core and lats drive the handles down. The arms finish the stroke; they do not start it.
- Start tall. Feet shoulder width apart, about 45 to 60 cm from the flywheel, knees soft, hands a little above eye level with the elbows bent to about 90 degrees.
- Lead with the trunk. Brace, then drop your head, chest and shoulders. The arms follow.
- Hinge, do not squat. Push your hips back as you crunch forward, and let the knees bend after the hinge. Concept2's picture is slamming a medicine ball.
- Finish by your thighs. Hands alongside the hips, arms not fully straight, wrists not bent. Think hat to pockets: not too high at the top, not below the waist at the bottom.
- Come up slowly. Stand, lift the arms and breathe, taking about twice as long on the way up as on the pull.
Rising onto your toes at the start of the pull is normal, and the rulebook allows a jump as long as both feet land back on the base. Concept2's cues guard against two faults: the arms doing the work, like a triceps pushdown, and a deep squat on every stroke. In our judgement, the first tires the arms and grip before the sled pull, and the second spends the legs before Run 2 and the sled push.
Rowing technique: legs, body, arms
Rowing is a leg exercise with a handle. Concept2's sequence is legs, body, arms on the drive, and the same in reverse on the way back: arms, body, legs.
- The catch. Arms straight, shoulders level and relaxed, body leaning forward from the hips, shins vertical or as close as is comfortable. Heels may lift.
- The drive. Press with the legs first, swing the back through upright, then add the arms. The hands travel in a straight line.
- The finish. Lean back slightly, legs long, the handle held lightly below your ribs, wrists flat and grip relaxed.
- The recovery. Arms out until straight, lean forward from the hips, and only once your hands pass your knees let the knees bend and the seat slide forward.
For HYROX, Concept2 suggests a drive about half as long as the recovery, and breathing on the recovery. Put the straps across the ball of the foot so you get in and out quickly.
The fault to watch for is bending the arms before the legs have finished. It moves the work from the legs, which Concept2 calls the most powerful part of the stroke, to the arms and hands.
Which damper setting to use
Set the lever to the number you train on, between 3 and 5 if you have not settled on one, before your first pull, and leave it there. Concept2 recommends 3 to 5 on both the SkiErg and the rower. The race presets both machines to 6 and lets you move the lever as often as you like.
A higher number is not a faster setting. Concept2 compares the damper to bicycle gears: it changes how a stroke feels, not the work you are credited with. The monitor measures how quickly the flywheel slows between strokes, the drag factor, and calculates your work from it whatever the lever says. Higher settings make every stroke heavier and more of a strength effort, and Concept2 warns that too high a setting can tire your muscles before you get the full cardiovascular benefit. In our view, with sleds and a carry still ahead, that is the wrong trade.
Machines differ. A 3 on one rower can feel like a 4 on another, because temperature, altitude and dust in the flywheel housing change the drag factor. On race day, set your number and go.
Training the ergs: intervals and steady work
Concept2's HYROX advice for the SkiErg is two kinds of session: hard 1-minute intervals for power and 20 to 30 minute pieces for endurance. The same pair works on the rower. Add race-pace work and runs either side, and you have the four sessions below. They are our examples, not a programme.
- Steady. 20 to 30 minutes on either erg at an effort you could talk through in sentences, near the bottom of the race stroke rate.
- Short intervals. 8 to 10 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy.
- Race pace. 4 x 250 m at your target 1,000 m split with 1 minute of rest, building over the weeks to 2 x 500 m, then one 1,000 m.
- Bricks. 1 km run, 1,000 m SkiErg at your target split, 1 km run. For the second half of the race: 1,000 m row, 1 km run, 200 m farmers carry.
The bricks matter because the change of job is hard. Brandt and colleagues suggest that running straight after upper-body work asks the body to send blood back to the legs, and that this switch is worth training on purpose.
Pulling endurance is worth building too. In a study of 22 well-trained cross-country skiers, the 11 who combined standing double-poling pulls on a cable machine (4 sets of 30 with 90 seconds' rest) with their running intervals for six weeks cut their 1,000 m double-poling time on roller skis on a treadmill, tested after 50 minutes of steady poling. Their edge over the intervals-only group fell just short of significance, but a cable pull-down in the SkiErg pattern is the closest gym version.
No SkiErg at your gym? Training with limited kit has substitutes chosen for what each station taxes. If you swim, your shoulders already pull all week; swimming and HYROX covers how to space the two.
Workout mode walks you through a session one step at a time. Tap NEXT after a timed row and the logging panel asks how far you got. More in Train with workout mode.
With Pro or during your trial, if your gym has no SkiErg, tap the dumbbell symbol in workout mode, then Equipment missing. Your coach offers up to three replacements that train the same thing, for that session only: the workout stored in your plan is not rewritten. More in Swap an exercise mid-session.
The row and the carry: grip in the second half
Your hands work at the SkiErg, the sled pull and the row, and after Run 6 comes the farmers carry: 200 m holding two kettlebells of 16, 24 or 32 kg, depending on your division. You also reach the rower tired. In Brandt and colleagues' study, 11 recreational athletes ran Run 5, the one between the burpee broad jumps and the row, slower than any other: a median of 7.4 minutes against 6.8 for runs 6 and 8.
In our judgement, a row hauled with the arms and a tight grip costs more on the carry than it saves on the monitor. That has not been measured, but the fixes cost nothing:
- Hold the handle lightly. Concept2's finish has it held lightly below the ribs, wrists flat and grip relaxed. Hook your fingers round it rather than squeezing.
- Let the legs row. The arms join last on every stroke and finish it rather than haul it.
- No chalk on the ergs. Chalk is allowed only at the sled pull and the farmers carry, and only the event's own. Anywhere else costs 2 minutes.
- Train them in order. The second-half brick above, row, run, then carry, is the honest test of whether your grip lasts.
Carry technique and grip work are in the farmers carry guide, the rope pull that tires your hands before the row is in the sleds guide, and all eight in order are in the stations guide.