Three ways to split 100 reps
You reach the wall at the most tired point of your race. In the first scientific study of HYROX, 11 recreational athletes raced a simulated course in a gym, and their heart rate, blood lactate and perceived effort all peaked at the wall balls. Make your plan before race day, not at the wall.
For a yardstick at Pro weights, the 100 fastest Pro men's results of 2024/25 averaged 3:55 for the station and the 100 fastest Pro women's 3:59. That is about 2.4 seconds a rep, breaks included. Across seven seasons of Pro results, the wall balls were one of five stations where a racer's rank at the station strayed furthest from their final rank; running stayed closest to it. Three plans, and where each comes from:
| Plan | Sets | Breaks | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Even sets | 10 x 10, or 5 x 20 if you are strong at it | Three to five breaths | The idea behind it: rest redistribution, from weight-training research |
| Descending ladder | 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 | Short, and the same each time | Red Bull's guide to its 100-rep challenge, July 2025 |
| Doubles turns | 10 each, then 5 each as you tire | Your partner's set | Your choice: the Doubles rulebook sets no split, only a hand-over or a drop (8.8) |
Even sets
Strength researchers call this rest redistribution: the same rest, spread into shorter, more frequent breaks. In two 2026 meta-analyses of weight training, it kept the bar moving faster than straight sets (one review of 37 studies, which also covered cluster sets) and gave higher average power with a lower rating of effort (15 trials, 346 people). Nobody has tested it at a wall, but the idea carries: rest before your legs fail, not after.
Descending ladder
Red Bull's guide suggests starting at 16 and taking one rep off each set down to 9. The big sets come while you can still move, and each set is shorter than the last, which makes the end feel closer.
Doubles turns
You choose how to share the 100. The ball changes hands by a hand-over or a drop; a throw your partner catches in the squat is a no-rep, and the resting partner stays in the marked area under the rig. Short turns keep both of you fast. More in how doubles works. In a Relay the fourth racer throws all 100 alone, with the team under the rig.
After a 1 km run, do one set and stop at the first slow or shallow rep. Race sets about half that size. Count the breaks in breaths, not seconds, and hold the ball at your chest while you breathe: a ball on the floor costs you an extra squat to pick it up, and that squat does not count.
Is unbroken worth it?
Red Bull made a challenge of it, the Red Bull 100. As its July 2025 guide describes it, 100 unbroken wall balls at the end of your race earn a finisher patch, in Open and Pro singles only. Its definition of unbroken is strict: no walking away from the station, no letting the ball rest on the floor, and no deliberate pauses.
Do the sums before you try it. At 2.5 seconds a rep, 100 reps take 4:10. Ten sets of ten with five-second breaks add 45 seconds to that. So unbroken saves you 45 seconds, but only if your rep speed holds to the last rep and the judge counts every one. Stall at rep 60 for 20 seconds, then crawl through the rest in small sets with long breaks, and the attempt costs more than the plan would have.
- Go unbroken if you have done 100 unbroken in training, with full depth, straight after lunges and a run, more than once.
- Otherwise, plan sets from rep one and stick to them even while you feel fresh. The breaks you bank early keep your late reps deep.
- Then use the finish. Nothing comes after this station but the finish line, so if you still feel strong with 20 or 30 reps left, drop the breaks and go.
Technique that survives fatigue
The ball weighs 4 to 9 kg, the lightest load of the race. What fails is the squat underneath it: the depth goes first, then the height of the throw. So build a movement you can repeat on legs that have already done 100 m of lunges.
- Stand about an arm's length from the wall, feet a little wider than your hips, toes slightly out. Too close and the ball comes down on your face; too far and you throw forwards instead of up.
- Hold the ball at chin height, hands under and behind it, elbows down. The closer it sits to your chest, the less your shoulders work between throws.
- Catch high and ride it down. The catch is the start of the next squat, not a pause at the top.
- Sit between your heels, chest up, knees tracking over your toes, until your hips pass your knees.
- Stand up hard and let your legs throw the ball. Your arms finish the throw as you reach full height. Throw up, not out, and aim at the middle of your target: tired throws fall short first.
- Breathe in on the way down and out on the throw, and keep your eyes on the target the whole time.
For the last 30 reps, two cues are enough: sit lower, look up.
Training wall balls on tired legs
By the wall balls your quads have pushed a sled, jumped 80 m of burpees and lunged 100 m. A fresh set in the gym tests a different athlete. So once your technique holds up, do most of your wall balls after something that tires your legs:
- Lunges into the wall. Three or four rounds of a 400 m to 1 km run, 20 to 30 m of walking lunges (with a sandbag if you have one) and 25 wall balls in your planned sets. Walk for two or three minutes between rounds. See the sandbag lunges guide.
- Squats, then a finisher. Four sets of five to eight front or goblet squats, then four sets of 20 wall balls with a minute's rest. How heavy and how often to lift is in the strength guide.
- Every minute on the minute. Ten to twelve wall balls at the top of each minute for ten minutes, resting for whatever is left. It teaches short, fixed breaks. Add reps to each minute before you add minutes.
- The race finish. A 1 km run, 100 m of sandbag lunges, another 1 km run, then 100 wall balls with the exact plan you will race. Use it to test the plan, not as a weekly session. Running well on legs like that is its own skill, covered in compromised running.
Progress by adding reps to each set before you cut the breaks, and film your squats from the side now and then: depth that slips in training will slip in the race. If 100 reps in one session leaves your legs sore for days, start at 50 to 60 and build.
In workout mode, tap NEXT after a set and a panel slides up with wheels for what you did. On a set of wall balls it logs your reps; on timed wall-ball work it asks for the weight of the ball instead. The wheels start on what you entered for the previous round, so most sets need only SAVE. More in Workout mode.
When you finish, one slider from one to ten asks how hard it felt, with a word beside it from VERY EASY to MAX EFFORT. Under ANYTHING FOR YOUR COACH you can add what the numbers cannot say, like a target at the wrong height. More in Mark a workout done.
Avoiding no-reps
A no-rep costs a rep's time and counts for nothing, and there are no warnings. Here is what the judge checks, and how to stay on the right side of it.
Depth
Your hips must go lower than your knees at the bottom of every rep. Fatigue raises the squat a few centimetres at a time, so train to a marker: a box or a medicine ball set so that touching it puts your hips just below your knees. Touch it, never sit on it, and take it away once the depth is automatic.
Target
The ball has to strike your target: 2.70 m for women, 3.00 m for men. If your gym marks its targets in feet, 9 ft is 2.74 m and 10 ft is 3.05 m, a few centimetres above the race heights, which does no harm in training. Where there is no digital screen, you leave for the finish only once your judge confirms 100.
Shoes
You may take your shoes off once you reach your target. They go under the rig, and you carry them to the Finisher Stage, because you cannot come back for them. Try it in training, after a run, before you do it in a race.
The squat depth box
A judge may use a squat depth box to check your depth. It is their call: you cannot ask for one, and it is a depth marker only, never a place to sit or rest.
Two last costs: powdered chalk at the wall balls is a 2 minute penalty, and so is using a station the race crew did not assign you. Every penalty is on the rules page, and the other seven stations are in the stations guide.