Everyone Is Talking About Hyrox, but Is It Actually Any Different Than CrossFit?

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Hyrox isn’t new new—the German-born workout started in 2017—but it’s recently been picking up steam in the US. So much so that “what is Hyrox?” videos are popping all around GymTok. Give any one of these a watch and you’ll see loads of people participating in what looks to be a super-intense fitness competition, packed with exercises like burpee broad jumps, sled pushes, sandbag lunges, and running. Lots of running.

There’s a lot going on in Hyrox, but to break it all down, it can pretty much be described as the “marathon of functional fitness,” Bethany Robinson, CPT, an online fitness coach and Hyrox competitor in the UK, tells SELF.

And while that surely doesn’t sound accessible to the masses, Hyrox is actually a pretty welcoming and inclusive activity that’s doable for many different types of exercisers, Robinson says. Plus, unlike other forms of movement that focus on just one component of fitness—say, cycling to boost your cardio or weightlifting to elevate your max strength, for example—Hyrox ticks multiple boxes at once. “It’s one of the more well-rounded athletic competitions,” Casey McNutt, MS, CPT, a HYROX Level-1 coach in Evans, Georgia, tells SELF.

Curious to know more? Read on for a beginner’s guide to Hyrox, including what “type” of workout it delivers, the eight different exercises involved, how it compares to CrossFit, and how to get started with Hyrox at home.

So what kind of workout is Hyrox, anyway?

In a nutshell, Hyrox is a race that combines running and resistance training, which means it’s both a cardio and a strength workout. There are four competition categories: pro, open, doubles, or relay. In a Hyrox competition, people in the pro and open categories run a total of eight kilometers (about five miles), which really challenges the cardiovascular system.

They also complete a series of eight functional exercises (more on those in a minute), which ticks the box for resistance training. Specifically, those functional moves really hone muscular endurance (your muscles’ ability to work for long periods) and power (how quickly you can move a load), Robinson says. And they cover “all of the patterns in human movement,” McNutt says—from pushing and pulling to lunging, squatting, hinging, and carrying. This comprehensive approach to strength training, combined with the strong cardio element, makes Hyrox a well-rounded fitness program, McNutt says. (Folks competing in the doubles and relay categories divide up all the running and exercises among multiple people.)

People who train for Hyrox can boost their cardio fitness and improve their full-body strength, while also reaping some pretty awesome mental perks. Because it’s such an intense competition, “it gives you a sense of pride when you finish,” McNutt explains. In fact, the one thing McNutt hears more than anything from her clients who participate in Hyrox-style workouts? They feel like “absolute badasses,” she says. “It’s empowering. It’s satisfying.”

Keep in mind: You don’t have to sign up for a Hyrox competition to be involved—you can always just join a Hyrox-affiliated gym (or do online Hyrox-style workouts) and participate that way, Robinson says.

What are the eight exercises in Hyrox?

Let’s dig into the nitty gritty, shall we? Hyrox involves eight 1,000-meter runs around a track—giving you that 8K total when all is said and done—and eight functional exercises, completed in the area inside the track, known as the “rox zone.” In Hyrox, you alternate between the two, starting with running. The order for your functional exercises is always the same:

Depending on the participant, the goal is to complete these exercises as fast as possible—or to simply finish. Keep in mind there are specific form rules for these exercises to keep everything on a level playing field. For example, your back knee must touch the ground in the sandbag lunge, and you have to squat below 90 degrees during the wall balls.

How is Hyrox different from CrossFit?

At first glance, Hyrox might seem like a carbon copy of CrossFit: Both attract high-level athletes, merge cardio and strength work, and involve challenging exercises performed during spirited competitions. In fact, a lot of people find Hyrox “really intimidating” at first because they think it’s similar to CrossFit, Robinson says. But the truth? “It’s completely different,” she says. And if you want to know—what is Hyrox truly about?—it’s important to understand the variances.

One key distinguisher is that Hyrox is “really accessible functional fitness,” says Robinson (who, FWIW, is a former CrossFitter herself). This means it has a strong carryover to movements in daily life. What’s more, many of the exercises—like the farmer’s carry and sled push, for example—are a lot easier, skill and technique-wise, than common CrossFit moves, like handstand walks and pull-ups, for example. And unlike CrossFit, Hyrox doesn’t involve Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting movements. “You’re not going to be expected to load up a barbell and put it over your head at any point,” Robinson says. That makes it doable for a wider range of people, she explains.

Beyond that, Hyrox involves lots of running. “The inside joke is Hyrox is basically for runners who can push weight,” McNutt says. And while CrossFit workouts do incorporate some lacing up, it’s not as much as Hyrox, Robinson says. That said, you don’t have to run the full 8K in Hyrox—it’s completely acceptable to take walk breaks during your 1,000-meter laps, Robinson says.

Another key difference between the two is that Hyrox entails more steady state workouts (think: zone three on a five-zone model), whereas CrossFit is “very high intensity” (think: zones four and five), Robinson says.

Lastly, Hyrox has large-scale, in-person events that are suitable for lots of different fitness levels, whereas CrossFit competitions are more geared toward high-level athletes, Robinson says.

How can you get started with Hyrox?

First, scope the official Hyrox website to see there’s a Hyrox affiliate gym near you. Call and ask if you can come in for a performance fitness test (PFT), McNutt says, which is basically an introduction to some of the Hyrox movements, along with a suggestion of which category you’d be best suited to compete in.

The catch: Hyrox is still relatively new to the US, so there may not be an affiliated gym in your area—at least not yet. If that’s the case, “there’s loads of resources online,” McNutt says. She recommends following some of the official Hyrox Instagram accounts—like Hyrox365, HyroxWorld, and HyroxAmerica—for workout ideas and suggestions. You can enlist the help of an online Hyrox coach, or if you have a baseline knowledge of strength and conditioning, you can train yourself in the Hyrox-style, which is “doable because you know what the movements are going to be,” Robinson explains.

From there, you can try to book a spot at a Hyrox competition (you don’t need to qualify, unless you’re gunning for a spot in the championships), though fair warning: This is easier said than done. Right now “tickets are selling out like crazy,” Robinson says. (She recently tried to snag a spot at a Hyrox event in London to no avail. “There were like 12,000 people on the [online] queue to get tickets,” she says.)

If you are able to get a spot, budget at least 12 weeks to prep before a competition, though six months (or more) is ideal, Robinson says. What your training looks like will depend on what fitness level you’re starting from. But as a general rule of thumb, Robinson suggests devoting two to three days a week to running (doing a mix of speed intervals, long easy runs, and tempo workouts) and two to three days a week of functional strength training involving the moves you’ll see in competition, focusing on building your muscular endurance by doing lots of reps, and honing your power by performing reps at a fast pace.

It’s also important to do workouts that combine running and strength training so you get used to striding with tired legs. This can look like alternating between treadmill intervals and strength moves, or tacking on a dose of running at the end of a gym workout, Robinson says. Ideally, you should be comfortable working out for about an hour straight (or slightly) more, before doing a competition, since it’ll likely take you more than 90 minutes to complete, Robinson says.

Hyrox isn’t for everyone. People who don’t like running, or don’t think they could learn to like running, should probably avoid it, since that is such a big focus of it, Robinson says. And because it does involve high-impact movements (in the form of running and jumping), people with a history of joint issues or injuries should seek advice from a physical therapist before giving it a go, Robinson says.

Last tip? Hyrox “looks really serious on social media, but it doesn’t have to be that serious,” Robinson says. Yes, there are lots of elite athletes that do it, but it also attracts plenty of everyday exercisers, she explains. So you can train intensely for it and try to get the best time possible. But it can also just be a “fun goal.”