Five questions to ask any HYROX app
A plan library looks good on a store page. What you are paying for is what happens in week five, when your week no longer matches the plan. Ask these five before you subscribe, and get each answer from the app's own help pages, not its advert.
1. Does it plan around your sports and classes?
If you play five-a-side on Tuesdays or take an indoor cycling class on Thursdays, that is training. A plan that does not know about it can put heavy lunges the night before your match or a hard run the morning after your class, and your week ends up heavier than the plan thinks it is. A review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine argues that sharp rises in training load, rather than training itself, are likely behind a large share of non-contact soft-tissue injuries, and that load should be measured up to twice a day, over weeks and months. A match the plan cannot see is load it does not count.
The distinction that matters is between an app that plans around a sport and one that only lets you log it afterwards. Logging keeps a record. Planning around it changes what the app gives you that week. Our guides to HYROX alongside other sports and HYROX around a class timetable cover the balance in detail.
2. What happens when you get hurt?
A sore knee or a tight calf can turn up in any build. Ask what the app does when you tell it: does the plan change around the sore area, does it only ease everything off for a few days, or is there nowhere to tell it at all?
Then ask what it says about getting help. An app is not a physio. A good one says so plainly and sends you to a professional instead of guessing at a diagnosis.
3. What if your race date moves?
Plans change: you switch to a closer city, a friend talks you into Doubles, or work takes your weekend. Ask whether you can change the date and have the plan rebuilt towards it, or whether you start again from scratch. A plan written for a race sixteen weeks away is the wrong plan for one ten weeks away, because the build and the taper both move.
Ask too whether it handles a second race, and what happens to your training once the first one is done.
4. What happens after a missed session?
You will miss sessions. Some apps reshuffle the week straight away, some wait for a weekly review, and some leave everything where it was and let you decide. Each approach has a cost. An app that rebuilds after every change can churn your week until you never know what Thursday holds. An app that never rebuilds leaves the fixing to you.
Look for one that tells you what changed and why. Whether it should rebuild on its own or wait for you to ask is a matter of taste, so check which kind you are buying.
5. Does it work with your watch?
If you train from your wrist, check the brand list before you pay. Support varies more than you would expect: in the table below, one app lists five watch brands, and another works only with Apple Watch, on iPhone and on its paid plan. Ask both directions: do sessions reach the watch, and do finished workouts come back to the plan?
Timing the race itself is a different job from following a plan. If that is what you want on a Garmin, Hybrid Smash, a watch app from the maker of Smash Coach, compares the watch apps built for it.
Fixed plans, adaptive apps and human coaches
Most options fall into one of three types, and each one does a different job well.
A fixed plan
The same plan for everyone at a level: a PDF, a twelve-week program inside an app, a block from a coach's website. It is cheap or free, easy to judge before you start, and works well when your week is steady and your race date is set. The catch is that you make every adjustment yourself. Miss a week and you decide whether to repeat it or skip ahead.
An adaptive app
It builds the plan from what you tell it, then changes it when something changes. How well that works depends on two things: what it asks you, and what it is allowed to change. An app that asks for your race date and training days but never your sports will adapt around the wrong week. Ask which events trigger a change, and whether it tells you what it changed.
A human coach
A coach who watches you train can see wall-ball squats losing depth or a stride starting to limp, which no app can. HYROX runs a directory of performance coaches who coach in person or online. It costs more than an app, and how quickly the plan changes when your week does depends on the coach.
- A steady week, HYROX only, a set date: a fixed plan is enough.
- Other sports or classes, a week that shifts: look for a plan that adapts to them, not just to you.
- Doubts about technique or a podium goal: a human coach who can see you.
- Pain that does not settle: a physio or a doctor first, then a plan.
What five HYROX apps say they do, checked 15 October 2026
Five apps that sell a HYROX plan or are built for HYROX: three from the hyrox.com partner list (Runna, Centr and FORMD) and two HYROX-only apps (ROXFIT and RoxHype), each read on its own site, help centre or store listing. Each row reports what the app says about itself. It is not a test of the app.
| App | What it is | Other sports and classes | When plans change | Injuries | Watches |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runna | Running plans. Its Hyrox plan covers the running; strength sessions can be added. | Strength, yoga, Pilates and stretching can be added. Other sports are logged, not planned around. | Change the race date in Manage Plan and the plan rebuilds. | Not Feeling 100% eases the plan for 3 to 14 days. Longer or serious: take a break and see a professional. | Garmin, COROS, Fitbit, Suunto, Apple Watch. |
| Centr | A 12-week HYROX program, with plans for newcomers and experienced racers, inside a general fitness app. | Not stated on its listings. | Not stated on its listings. | Not stated on its listings. | Apple Watch, Wear OS. |
| ROXFIT | A free core app for workouts, race goals, race tracking and results, with paid extras. No multi-week plans yet. | No plan to fit them into. | No plan to change; its assistant builds single workouts. | Not stated. | Apple Watch, Garmin, Wear OS. |
| RoxHype | A plan to your race date, built from your training days and kit. | A class can be quick-logged. Planning around a sport is not stated. | Rebuilt each week from what you did. Tell its coach in chat about a missed session and it changes the plan. | Its weekly check-in asks how you feel and builds the next week around it, and its coach remembers anything bothering you. No separate injury feature is described. | Apple Watch, Garmin. |
| FORMD | A plan built from your race date, training days, fitness and weak stations. | Not stated. | Regenerate the plan any time your situation changes. | Not stated. | Apple Watch on iPhone, on its paid plan. No Android watch sync yet. |
Read across the rows and three things stand out.
- Other sports are the least answered question. Only Runna's help centre answers it directly: sports and matches can be logged but not scheduled or used to change the plan. RoxHype lets you quick-log a class, Centr and FORMD do not say, and ROXFIT has no plan to fit them into.
- Three of the five rework the plan, each in its own way. Runna rebuilds when you change the race date, RoxHype rebuilds each week from what you did, and FORMD lets you regenerate the plan when your situation changes.
- ROXFIT is a different kind of tool. Its core app is free and built around workouts, race splits and results, and it says plainly that it has no multi-week plans yet. It pairs with a plan from somewhere else rather than replacing one.
Only Runna describes a dedicated feature for feeling unwell or sore, and it draws a clear line: a short adjustment for minor problems, a healthcare professional for anything longer or more serious. RoxHype's weekly check-in asks how you feel instead.
Where Smash Coach fits, and where it does not
Smash Coach was built around the first question, for athletes who race HYROX and will not give up the other sports in their week. If HYROX is your only training and your week looks the same every week, you do not need an app that plans around things you do not do: a fixed plan or one of the apps above can serve you well.
Here are its answers to the five questions, in the words our help centre uses, limits included.
Your sports and classes. Tell your coach what you already do and, with Pro or during your trial, it plans around it instead of on top of it. A class counts as training you have done, so your coach adjusts what it gives you instead of adding more on top.
An injury. With Pro or during your trial, report it and your plan is rebuilt around it. Your coach is a training tool, not a medical service: it will not diagnose you or suggest treatment, and it tells you to see a physio or a doctor.
A change of plan. With Pro or during your trial, change your sports, goals, race or how many coach sessions a week you want, and your plan is rebuilt. Moving a session does not rebuild your plan, and neither does skipping one: one move should not reshuffle the week. The full list of what rebuilds your plan is in the help centre.
Asking why. With Pro or during your trial, ask your coach in chat about your week. Any change it proposes appears on a card first, and nothing reaches your plan until you tap Confirm.
Your watch. Your next three days of sessions go to your Garmin. You train from the watch, it records a normal Garmin activity, and the result comes back to your plan.
The limits. One race at a time: a second has to wait until the first has passed or been removed. HYROX is the race you can add today; ATHX, DEKA, GYMRACE and running races from 5K to the marathon are coming soon. Garmin only, with no Apple Watch, Polar, Suunto or Coros app. It does not predict your finish time, plan your meals or split the work for a Doubles pair. On the free plan your coach is paused and writes no new sessions.
Free options, and when they are enough
Free covers more than you might think, as long as you are the one who adjusts it when your week changes.
- A plan you can print. RoxHype publishes a free eight-week plan in three levels. Our guide to training for HYROX works back from race day with sample weeks, and the first-race guide has a free 12-week beginner plan of three sessions a week.
- A free app for workouts and race splits. ROXFIT's core app is free, including its workouts, race goals, race tracking and results. It does not write a multi-week plan.
- A free tier. FORMD offers one with no trial clock, alongside its paid plans.
- Free trials. Most paid apps offer one. Check whether it needs a card and whether it rolls into a subscription when it ends.
When free is enough
Your week is the same every week, HYROX is your main training, your race date is set, and you are comfortable moving a session yourself when life gets in the way.
When it is not
You play a sport or take classes that change from week to week, you are coming back from an injury, or you keep rebuilding the plan yourself on a Sunday night. That is the work a paid plan should be doing for you.
Every new athlete gets two weeks of Pro with no card, so the trial cannot roll into a paid subscription: it just stops.
After that, on the free plan your coach is paused. It does not write new sessions, rework your plan or answer in chat. Your calendar, the sessions already written, logging, your history, workout mode and your Garmin watch keep working.
How the apps were checked
Every app in the table was checked on 15 October 2026 against its own website, help centre or app store listing, and nothing else; where its pages do not answer a question, the table says so. hyrox.com lists 21 online training partners and Smash Coach is not one of them. It is left out of the table on purpose and described the way our help centre describes it. There is no ranking, and apps change quickly, so read an app's page before you pay.