Preparing for HYROX on three sessions a week

What the race actually demands

The underrated part of HYROX is neither the strength nor the endurance, but the switching between them. You run a kilometre, do a station, then run another kilometre on legs that feel slightly different. Anyone who only trains the two separately finds that out on race day.

The three days

• •Day 1, strength: the heavy compounds that carry the stations. Squat or deadlift, a push, a pull, and farmers carries. This is your base and you do not drop it.
• •Day 2, stations and switching: alternate short runs with a station. Sled push or pull, wall balls, burpee broad jumps, rowing. This is the session that mimics the race.
• •Day 3, running: one longer easy run, or a tempo block every other week. This builds the engine you spend on day 2.

Do not put day 1 and day 2 back to back. Your legs carry both sessions, and two heavy leg days in a row does not add stimulus, only fatigue.

If your gym has no sled

That is the rule rather than the exception in most gyms. A heavy sled can be replaced with a weighted hill walk, a treadmill at a steep incline without holding the rails, or heavy split squats immediately followed by running. For wall balls, a dumbbell thruster works. What matters is the stimulus, not the machine.

This is general training information, not medical advice. Build station work up gradually, especially sled and burpees.