What is Hyrox? The race, the 8 stations, the weights, explained

What is Hyrox? It's a fitness race: you run 1 km, do one functional workout station, and repeat that eight times. Eight kilometers of running, eight stations, one finish time. That's the entire concept, and it's the reason a sport built out of sled pushes and wall balls now fills large indoor venues.

This guide covers what the Hyrox race actually is, the format, the stations in order, the weights, the divisions and the rules that catch people out. Every race fact here comes from Hyrox's own site and the current official rulebook, season 26/27. If you already know you're racing and want the training sorted, that's what a Hyrox training app is for. If you're still working out what you signed up for, read on.

What is Hyrox, exactly?

Hyrox calls itself "a global fitness race for Every Body", and the important part of its own description is that everyone, everywhere, competes in the exact same format. A race in one city is the same race as one on another continent. Same distances, same stations, same order, same weights per division. Everyone wears a timing chip and gets an official time that's comparable across events, divisions and age groups.

That standardization is the whole appeal. A marathon has hills, wind and course quirks. A CrossFit competition changes its workouts every time. Hyrox doesn't. You can race in spring, race again in autumn, and know exactly whether you got fitter.

It's also why the sport is so trainable. Nothing is a surprise. You know the eight stations, you know the order, you know the loads. The only open question is how well you'll do them on tired legs, which is something you can prepare for with a 12-week Hyrox training plan rather than hoping for the best.

Hyrox is open to everyone and requires no qualification to enter, according to the singles rulebook. You don't need to be a runner, a lifter or a CrossFit regular. You need to be able to keep moving for a long time while things get heavy. If you want the deeper version of the prep, start with how to train for Hyrox.

The Hyrox format: 8 runs, 8 stations

The Hyrox format is simple enough to fit on a napkin, and the rulebook is strict about it:

• ›Run 1 km, then complete station 1. Then run 1 km, then station 2. Repeat until you've done 8 runs and 8 stations.
• ›The running total is 8 km in every division. Weights and reps change between divisions. The running never does.
• ›Order is fixed. Run 1, station 1, run 2, station 2, and so on. You can't skip ahead.
• ›Every station must be completed in full. Not finishing a station is a disqualification, not a penalty.

The rulebook also notes that each run segment is roughly 1,000 m and may be split into several laps depending on the venue, with the lap lengths adjusted so the total still comes to 8,000 m. You count your own laps. Miscount and the penalty is your problem, not the timing system's.

What changes between divisions is the load: sled weights, kettlebell weights, sandbag weights and wall ball weights. The full table of Hyrox weights by division lives in its own post, but the headline is that Pro is heavier than Open, and the Women Pro loads match the Men Open loads.

Why the format is harder than it looks

Eight kilometers is not far. Neither is 100 wall balls, in isolation. The difficulty is the interleaving: every run starts on legs that just pushed a sled or carried kettlebells, and every station starts with your heart rate already high from the run. Nothing is done fresh after the first kilometer.

That makes Hyrox the purest test there is of training like a hybrid athlete: you need an aerobic engine big enough to run 8 km comfortably and enough strength that the stations don't wreck the runs that follow. The engine part is mostly built slowly, which is why zone 2 matters for lifters who are coming at this from the gym. The strength part is built in the gym, and fitting both into one schedule without them fighting is the whole skill. If that's your problem, start with a week that fits both runs and lifts.

The 8 Hyrox stations in order

Here are the stations, in race order, with the distances or reps from the rulebook. These are the same for every individual division; only the weights change.

Each of these has its own movement standards, and each costs time in its own way: the sleds through raw load, the lunges and wall balls through legs that are already tired. What each station involves and how to train it is covered in the 8 Hyrox stations in order. Short version:

• ›SkiErg: a standing ergometer you pull down on. Upper body and lats first, but good technique uses the hips.
• ›Sled push: heavy, short, and brutal on the quads. Four lengths of 12.5 m.
• ›Sled pull: hand-over-hand on a rope from a marked box, then walk back and do it again. Grip and back.
• ›Burpee broad jumps: a chest-to-floor burpee, then a two-footed jump forward. For 80 m.
• ›Rowing: 1,000 m on a rowing machine. The station where people try to "recover" and accidentally lose a minute.
• ›Farmers carry: two kettlebells, arms by your sides, 200 m.
• ›Sandbag lunges: a sandbag on your shoulders, alternating lunges, trailing knee touches the floor each rep. 100 m.
• ›Wall balls: squat below parallel, throw a medicine ball to a target, 100 times. The finish line is on the other side of rep 100.

Hyrox divisions

The main race page lists four ways to race: Open, Pro, Doubles and Relay. The rulebooks then break those down further. The full breakdown of Hyrox divisions gets its own post, but here's the structure as the 26/27 rulebooks define it:

Doubles comes in Women, Women Pro, Men, Men Pro and Mixed according to the doubles rulebook. Relay comes in Women, Men and Mixed according to the relay rulebook, with Relay members racing the Open weights for their sex.

Individual results are ranked overall and by age group, in five-year bands from under 24 up to 85-89. That matters more than people expect: you're not racing the 25-year-old former college runner, you're racing your age group.

Which division should you pick?

If it's your first race, pick Open. Pro is not "Open for people who are serious". It's a meaningfully heavier race, and the sleds in particular get very slow very quickly if you're not strong enough for them. Open first, then decide.

A reasonable next question is what counts as a good Hyrox time. It depends heavily on division, sex and age group, which is why comparing yourself to a random finish time on social media is pointless. Compare yourself to your own last race.

If you come from a pure running or pure lifting background, the hybrid side of this is a skill in itself, and becoming a hybrid athlete is mostly about patience: building the weaker side without losing the stronger one.

Doubles, Relay and Adaptive

Doubles is the friendliest way in. In Hyrox Doubles both partners run every kilometer together (the rulebook gives a 1-minute penalty if one runs ahead) and share the station work, swapping as they go. The rulebook's own example is one partner rowing a self-selected distance, then switching. The resting partner has to stay on their feet.

Relay splits the race four ways: each member runs 2 x 1 km and does 2 stations, and the team decides who does which.

Adaptive racing has its own categories and standards, and Hyrox Adaptive divisions explained properly would take more than a paragraph, so the short version here is that it has its own rulebook with its own standards.

What does Hyrox cost, and is it hard?

Entry prices vary from event to event, so the honest answer to how much does Hyrox cost is: check your event's ticket page. What you don't need is expensive gear. Running shoes you're comfortable in for both the runs and the lunges, and clothes you can move in, cover most people.

As for how hard is Hyrox: it's as hard as the pace you choose. The format guarantees you'll be tired, because nothing is done fresh. But you control the pace on every run and every station. Plenty of first-timers go out too fast on run 1 and pay for it on the sled push.

Hyrox rules you need to know

The rulebook is long. These are the Hyrox rules that actually trip up first-timers:

1. ›Age. Racers must be at least 16 on race day. So the answer to how old do you have to be to do Hyrox is 16 for the adult race.
2. ›Station order is fixed. Doing stations out of order is a 3-minute penalty; doing more than one out of order is a disqualification.
3. ›Missed run laps are expensive. The penalty for a missing lap is 3 to 7 minutes per lap depending on the venue's lap setup. Count your laps.
4. ›Movement standards are judged. On stations 1 to 7 you get one warning for a standards breach, then time penalties. Wall balls have no warnings: it's a rep or a no-rep.
5. ›Use the right weight. Doing the farmers carry or the lunges with the wrong weight means repeating the whole station with the right one, or a disqualification.
6. ›No headphones, no phones. Both are on the forbidden list.
7. ›Closed-toe shoes, except at wall balls, where you're allowed to take them off.
8. ›Chalk only where provided. Event chalk is allowed at the sled pull and the farmers carry. Bringing your own, or using it elsewhere, is a 2-minute penalty.
9. ›Fast lane. If you're running 4:00/km or faster, you use the inside fast lane.

If you're arriving from a box, the big mental shift in Hyrox vs CrossFit is that the workout never changes. There's no announcement, no surprise movement, no scaling on the day. That makes Hyrox easier to train for and harder to excuse.

The Roxzone

The last thing to understand is the area between the run course and the stations. The rulebook says every course combines the run course, the Roxzone and the station distances, and you enter and leave it through IN and OUT arches. Use the wrong arch and it's a 2-minute penalty. Water is available at least once on each pass through it.

The Roxzone matters because your clock is running the entire time you're in it. Walking through it, adjusting your shirt, looking for your sled lane: all of that counts. It's where well-trained athletes quietly give away minutes, and the Roxzone is worth practicing like any other station: move with purpose, know where you're going, and start the next thing.

How exrsz handles Hyrox

exrsz builds a periodized plan from your race date, your schedule, your level and the equipment you actually have, with the running and the station strength work in one plan instead of two. It adapts each week to how your training went and reshuffles the sessions you miss, so a lost Tuesday doesn't turn into a lost block.

FAQ

What is the Hyrox race format?

A Hyrox race is eight 1 km runs, each followed by one workout station, for a total of 8 km of running and 8 stations. The order is fixed: SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls.

What are the main Hyrox rules?

Complete every run and station in order, meet the movement standards at each station, and use the correct weight for your division. Missing run laps, using the wrong arch in the Roxzone and doing stations out of order all carry time penalties or disqualification under the official rulebook.

Is Hyrox the same everywhere?

Yes. Hyrox states that participants around the world compete in the exact same format, so the distances, stations, order and division weights are the same at every event.

Do I need to be fit to do Hyrox?

You need to be able to keep moving for the whole race, but there's no qualification to enter. Pick the Open division or Doubles for a first race and train the running and the stations together.

How old do you have to be for Hyrox?

The singles rulebook says racers must be at least 16 years old on race day.