The lifts that carry over to each station
Every HYROX station rests on a movement you can train in a gym. Match the lift to what the station asks of your body, not to how the station looks, and a short list covers all eight.
| Station | What it asks of you | Lifts that carry over |
|---|---|---|
| SkiErg, 1,000 m | Pulling down from overhead with a hip hinge, stroke after stroke | Pull-ups or lat pulldowns, straight-arm pulldowns, kettlebell swings |
| Sled push, 50 m | Leg drive with your body leaning into the sled | Front squats, split squats, step-ups |
| Sled pull, 50 m | A rope pulled in while you stay standing inside your Racers Box | Deadlifts or Romanian deadlifts, bent-over rows, seated rows |
| Burpee broad jumps, 80 m | A burpee with your chest touching the ground, then a jump forward with both feet together, over and over | Push-ups, squat jumps, broad jumps |
| Rowing, 1,000 m | A leg drive, then a hinge and a pull | Deadlifts, squats, rows |
| Farmers carry, 200 m | Two kettlebells held with your arms extended at your sides as you walk | Heavy carries, timed holds, deadlifts, dead hangs |
| Sandbag lunges, 100 m | Lunging with the bag across both shoulders, your back knee touching down on every step | Walking lunges, Bulgarian split squats, step-ups |
| Wall balls, 100 reps | A squat with your hips below your knees, then a throw to 2.70 m (women) or 3.00 m (men) | Front squats, goblet squats, thrusters |
Read down the right-hand column and five movements keep coming back: a squat, a hinge, a single-leg lift, a pull and a carry. Build your sessions on those five, add push-ups or a press for the burpees, and you are training every station. Technique for each one is in the station guides: the sleds, sandbag lunges and wall balls, with all eight in race order in the stations guide.
How much strength HYROX needs
The loads are fixed and published, and nobody asks you for a one-rep max. The heaviest are the sleds, which you push and pull rather than lift, and two kettlebells of 16, 24 or 32 kg carried for 200 m, depending on your division. Every figure is on HYROX weights.
So the target is enough: strong enough that your loads stay controlled when you reach them tired, after a run and several stations. Past that point, extra strength probably buys less than extra running. In the first published study of the race, 11 recreational athletes in a simulated Open race, grip strength and weekly resistance training showed no clear link with finish time while aerobic fitness and endurance training did, though grip was the only strength test.
Fresh, do each loaded station once at your division's weight, or as close as your gym allows; a gym sled on a different floor will not feel like the race one. If one is a grind even fresh, that is where your strength training goes first. If they all feel like steady work, try the hardest one again straight after a hard 1 km run: if it only falls apart then, the fix is more running and race-pace practice, not more strength.
Pro uses heavier sleds, kettlebells, sandbag and ball, which makes strength a bigger share of the job; Open or Pro covers that decision.
How heavy and how often
The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand, an overview of 137 systematic reviews in healthy adults, gives the numbers. The one change for HYROX: you also have running to recover from.
- How often. At least twice a week: in the ACSM's overview, two or more sessions built more strength than one. For people who also run, a review of 24 studies in distance runners found two sessions a week likely to be enough.
- How heavy. Strength grew more with heavy loads, at least 80% of a one-rep max, for two to three sets per exercise through a full range of motion, lifted at the start of the session. In the runners' studies, moderate loads of 60 to 80% improved running economy about as well as near-maximal ones.
- How hard. Finish each set with a rep or two left. Training to failure made no consistent difference in the ACSM's overview, the runners' review calls it unnecessary for strength, and the extra fatigue lands on tomorrow's run.
- How to progress. Once you can do one or two reps more than planned, add a little weight; the ACSM's earlier 2009 position stand suggested 2 to 10%. New to lifting? Start with one or two sets of each lift and build from there.
- Front squat or goblet squat: 3 sets of 5 to 8.
- Romanian deadlift: 3 sets of 8.
- Bulgarian split squat: 3 sets of 8 on each leg.
- Pull-ups or bent-over rows: 3 sets of 8.
- Farmers carry with bells heavier than race weight: 3 lengths of 30 to 40 m.
- Push-ups: 2 sets, stopping a few reps short of failure.
For a second session, swap the squat for a deadlift and the split squat for walking lunges or step-ups.
Strength for runners: economy and resilience
Lifting also makes the running cheaper. A 2018 review of 24 studies in distance runners found that adding strength training improved running economy, the oxygen cost of holding a given pace, by 2 to 8% against running-only groups in most of the studies that measured it, and time trials from 1.5 to 10 km tended to improve. Maximal oxygen uptake typically did not change: the gain is efficiency, not a bigger engine. A review of trained runners and cyclists by Rønnestad and Mujika agrees: heavy or explosive lifting added to endurance training improved running economy and running performance.
Then there is resilience. A meta-analysis of 25 randomised injury-prevention trials pooled the four that tested strength training on its own, three in football and one in military recruits, and the injuries they targeted fell to under a third of the rate in the comparison groups, while stretching showed no benefit. Those athletes were not racing HYROX, but eight runs, two sleds and 100 m of lunges put real load through tendons and joints.
The runners' review favours a mix over time: heavy lifts plus jumps with modest landings, such as skipping, hopping and low drop jumps from a 20 to 30 cm box. A few sets fit at the start of a strength session, while you are fresh.
Holding strength through the race block
Building strength takes more sessions than keeping it. As your race gets closer and running takes the extra time, you can cut lifting back hard: keep the weights you built up to and lift them less often.
In a 2011 trial, 70 adults new to leg training lifted three days a week for 16 weeks. Then 40 of them spent 32 weeks on one session a week at the same 8 to 12 rep loads, with either three sets per exercise or one, while 16 stopped. Both one-session groups, young and older, kept their strength and even added 7 to 8% on the knee extension; the group that stopped lost about 7% but stayed well above where it started. Every lift was a leg exercise, so read it as evidence that strength is easy to keep, not as a plan. The runners' review reports a similar result from one 40-week study: dropping from two sessions a week to one, built on explosive lifts and jumps, held the strength and physiological gains through the racing season.
- Keep the load, cut the sets. Two or three sets of your main lifts at the weight you built up to.
- Keep the race kit in it. A carry with race bells or lunges with your race sandbag can close a session, so the grip and the standard stay familiar.
- Ease off with everything else at the end. The taper guide covers the last week or two.
Lifting and running in one week
Running and lifting compete for recovery. The runners' review recommends more than three hours between hard running and a strength session, and many of its studies used separate days. When both share one session, the authors of the 11-athlete HYROX study suggest doing whichever matters more first. Keep heavy leg work away from the week's key run. The research on order and gap is in running and lifting on the same day.
- Coming from CrossFit or lifting? You likely have enough strength already; the job is holding it while the running grows. See HYROX and CrossFit.
- Want to keep your size too? That is HYROX and bodybuilding.
- No barbell or sled? Dumbbells and kettlebells cover nearly every lift in the table, and training at home has a substitute for each station.
Strength in Smash Coach
Go to You and tap Coach sessions to set how many strength, conditioning and mobility sessions a week your coach plans on top of the sports you already do, and roughly how long each one is. With Pro or during your trial, your coach programs them, and saving a new number rebuilds your plan around it. On the free plan the number is saved, but your coach is paused. More in Set how often you train.
To make strength a priority, tap MANAGE next to YOUR GOALS on Home and add a goal: OTHER GOALS offers ones such as a pull-up or a stronger core, or type your own. Your race stays at the top, and the higher a goal sits, the more of your training goes to it. With Pro or during your trial, one rebuild runs when you leave the page. More in Set and rank your goals.
In workout mode, tap NEXT after an exercise and a panel slides up with wheels for reps and weight. They start on what you entered for the previous round, and on a first set on your coach's target reps and the heaviest weight you used in your last workout. More in Train with workout mode.