What is HYROX?
HYROX is an indoor fitness race. You run about a kilometre, complete one workout station, and repeat that eight times in an order that never changes: Run 1, station 1, Run 2, station 2, and so on until the last station, the wall balls. Miss the order and you are penalised; skip a station or a run and you are disqualified.
The rulebook calls it a mass participation competition, and that is the useful part for a first-timer. The person chasing an age-group podium and the person chasing a finish line race the same course, with the same stations, over the same distances.
- 8 runs of about 1 km each, so about 8 km of running.
- 8 workout stations, always in the same order.
- 100 wall balls to finish, in every Singles, Doubles and Relay division.
- 16 is the minimum age on race day. There is no qualifying race.
- No overall time limit in the 26/27 rulebooks.
Because the workout is fixed, you can train for the exact event months ahead. You know every station, every distance and every load the day you enter. Outside the Adaptive divisions, what changes is the weight you move and, between women and men, the height of the wall-ball target.
No single station is what makes HYROX hard. It is that you arrive at each one already breathing hard from a run, and leave it to run again. Every part of the race is done tired, and training for it means practising exactly that.
How far do you run in HYROX?
The rulebook sets eight run segments of approximately 1,000 m, adding up to 8,000 m: just under five miles (4.97 miles). The rulebook is metric only, so every mile figure on this page is our conversion.
Laps change from venue to venue
Each kilometre is laid out as laps that fit the hall, so one race might ask for four laps per run and the next for two. The Doubles rulebook puts it at 1 to 5 laps, depending on the venue. The first or last lap of a segment can be shorter or longer than the rest, and the difference is made up within that segment so the total still comes to 8,000 m. That is why these pages always say about 1 km.
You count your own laps
The rulebook leaves the tally to you, whatever the screen beside the course shows. Running short is priced by the layout: 3 minutes per missed lap where a run is four laps, 5 where it is three, 7 where it is two, and disqualification where a run is a single lap. An extra lap run by mistake earns nothing back. Missing a whole run is a disqualification. The full list is on the rules and penalties page.
Faster runners use the Fast Lane
A line splits the run course into a smaller inside Fast Lane and a larger outside Running Lane. If you are running 4:00 per kilometre or faster, you must use the Fast Lane; everyone else stays in the Running Lane.
Running is about half the race
A 2026 analysis of Pro and Elite results from the first seven seasons found that running made up about half of total race time in the top 100 Pro results of each season, and that faster running accounted for most of the improvement over those seasons. In a simulated Open race, 11 recreational racers took a median of 86.5 minutes overall, with medians of 51.2 minutes running and 32.8 minutes at the stations.
Running also tracks where you finish. In the 2026 analysis, running times lined up with overall placing more closely than any station did, while slower Pro racers lost disproportionately more time at the strength-based stations, such as the sleds and the lunges. In the simulated race, the quicker finishers had a higher VO2max and did more endurance training. The plain reading: build your running engine first, and build enough strength that the loaded stations do not stall you.
The Roxzone, the area between the run course and the stations, adds more walking and running on top of that. It has its own time on the results pages, covered below.
What are the eight stations?
In order: a 1,000 m SkiErg, a 50 m sled push, a 50 m sled pull, 80 m of burpee broad jumps, a 1,000 m row, a 200 m farmers carry, 100 m of sandbag lunges and 100 wall balls. The standard each judge watches and how to train each station off a run are on the stations page.
Four things to know before you look closer:
- Distances and reps never change between Singles, Doubles and Relay divisions. Pro is heavier, not longer.
- Sled weights include the sled. Every load by division, in kilograms and pounds, is on the weights page.
- Every station must be finished. An incomplete station is a disqualification, however good the rest of your race was.
- The wall-ball target goes by sex: 2.70 m for women and 3.00 m for men, Open or Pro.
The order shapes the race as much as the stations do. The sled pull, the row and the farmers carry all lean on your grip within the middle of the race, and the sandbag lunges hand tired legs straight to the wall balls.
Which format and division can you race?
HYROX sorts racers two ways: by format, which is who you race with, and by division, which sets the loads you move. The divisions page helps you choose.
| Format | Racers | Divisions | How the work is shared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singles | One | Women, Women Pro, Men, Men Pro | You do every run and station |
| Doubles | Two | Women, Women Pro, Men, Men Pro, Mixed | Run every segment together, split each station as you choose |
| Relay | Four | Women, Men, Mixed (two women, two men) | Each racer does two runs and two stations |
| Adaptive | One | Thirteen, by impairment | Distances, loads and standards set per division |
Open or Pro
Open is the standard race. Pro covers the same distances with heavier loads: women in Pro move the men's Open loads, and men in Pro move the heaviest set. When the step up makes sense is on the Open or Pro page.
Doubles and Relay
In Doubles, both partners run every segment together, with a 1-minute penalty if one runs ahead, then enter and leave each station together and share the work however they like. In a Relay, each of four racers does two runs of about 1 km and two stations, and the team decides who takes which, back to back or not.
Adaptive
HYROX Adaptive has its own rulebook and thirteen divisions for racers with permanent impairments, each racer classified into one. Running or pushing distances, loads, reps and standards vary by division, and temporary injuries do not qualify.
Age groups
Results are ranked overall and by age group. In Singles that means 16 to 24, then five-year bands up to 85 to 89, set by your age on race day. Doubles teams go by their average age, and Relay teams race Under 40 or 40+ by the average of all four.
Who can enter, and is there a time limit?
Anyone who is at least 16 on race day. There is no qualification and no entry standard: you choose an event and a division and register for it on hyrox.com.
Younger athletes have their own format, HYROX Youngstars, for ages 8 to 15, with workouts adapted to each age group.
The 26/27 rulebooks set no overall time limit, and HYROX's US FAQ says there is no time limit to complete a race. Read the information for your own event before the day all the same, in case it says anything different.
If you are injured, the rulebook asks you to get clearance from a qualified health professional before you race. Any change to a movement, load or rep count has to be agreed with HYROX in advance, and the result is then marked Out of Competition: you get a finish time but no ranking.
How is a HYROX race timed?
Your timing chip is read at points as you move between the run course, the Roxzone and the stations, and again at the finish. After the race, the HYROX results pages at results.hyrox.com show your finish time, your place overall and in your age group, and two tables:
- A workout summary: Running 1 to Running 8, the eight station times, Roxzone Time, Run Total and Best Run Lap.
- A race replay: every chip read in order, with the time of day and the gap from the read before.
Two things on your results page catch first-timers out. Roxzone Time is the sum of 14 timed transitions: from the Roxzone entry into each of stations 1 to 7, and from each station back out to the Roxzone exit. The wall balls have no Roxzone read in front of them, so the clock on Running 8 keeps going until you arrive at the wall balls. On the Berlin 2026 Pro result cited below, Running 2 to Running 7 read 2:34 to 2:48 and Running 8 read 3:51.
Each hall places its Roxzone differently, so the same effort can land in a different column at another venue. Set your splits against your own earlier races at the same venue. What every line times, and how to find where your race went, is on the getting faster page.
Results go up as soon as each event ends, ranked from fastest to slowest in each division and age group. Penalties can still be added or results amended for up to 48 hours afterwards, so a time can still change in the two days after the race. If you race the same division twice at one event, only your faster time is ranked.
How long does it take, and how hard is it?
HYROX's US FAQ puts the average finish in 2024/25 at 1.5 hours, without splitting it by division; yours depends on your division, the venue and the base you bring, as the finish times page explains.
It is hard in one particular way: the stations replace rest rather than give it, and in the simulated race above, heart rate, lactate and effort all peaked at the wall balls, the last station. The full answer is on is HYROX hard.
How is HYROX different from CrossFit, and what are the Worlds?
HYROX is not CrossFit: every HYROX race runs the same workout, where CrossFit competitions change theirs. CrossFit, DEKA and Spartan are compared side by side on HYROX vs others.
Each season builds to the World Championships. Slots go by placing in your age group at regular HYROX races: under 60 in the Pro divisions and Doubles Mixed, and from 60 in Open. How it works this season is on the World Championships page.
Where should you start training?
Start from the race and work backwards. A date gives every week of training a job, and the format you pick decides how much of each station is yours.
- Choose an event, a format and a division. If you are unsure about Pro, race Open first; the course is the same.
- Build your running on its own. It is about half the race, and in the 2026 analysis running tracked overall placing more closely than any station.
- Do every station once at race weight and standard, then practise them straight after running, the way the race delivers them.
- Plan the day itself. Pacing the first runs and moving through the Roxzone are covered on the race day page.
How to build a plan that works back from race day is in Training for HYROX, and a first race has its own guide on the beginners page.
Add your race from the plus on Home or Agenda: choose Add event, pick HYROX, then fill in the date, your division and format, your experience, whether you are chasing a time or aiming to finish, and how hard you want to commit. None of it has to be perfect, and you can edit all of it later.
With Pro or during your trial, your coach builds your plan towards that race and the time you have until it. Not booked yet? Tick Date not decided yet and your coach writes race-specific training without building towards a peak until you set the date. See Races and events.