The short answer
Half of HYROX is running, so the plan starts there
HYROX is eight 1 km runs, each followed by a workout station: SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls. Running takes about half of the race time for the fastest racers and more for everyone else, and the hard part is running well on legs that have just pushed a sled. This free plan trains exactly that over 8 weeks, three days a week: a run, a strength day with the stations, and a session of running straight off the stations. It has three levels, a test to pick yours, the official weights for every division and a PDF.
At a glance
- Length
- 8 weeks, the last one is race week
- Days and minutes
- 3 days a week, 35 to 60 minutes
- Kit
- A gym with a sled and ergs, or the home swaps below
- Levels
- 3, set by your 5 km and how often you train
Download the plan (PDF)Free, no email needed. Print it or keep it on your phone.
What HYROX is
HYROX is an indoor fitness race. You run 1 km, do one workout station, and repeat that eight times in a fixed order, so every race is 8 km of running and 8 stations. The format is the same at every venue, which is why all the results go on one global ranking.
Between the run course and the stations is the Roxzone, the transition area you cross to get in and out of each station. The clock keeps running there too. Anyone aged 16 or over can enter, and there is no qualifying. A 2026 study counted 278,063 participants in 145 races across 22 countries from the first race to the 2023/24 season, with every division growing year on year apart from 2020/21.
You can race it four ways. Open is the standard race, and Pro adds weight for experienced racers. In Doubles two people run every kilometre together and share the station work. A Relay is a team of four, each running 2 km and doing 2 stations. There is also an Adaptive division, with its own rulebook, for racers with a physical impairment.
The 8 stations and the weights for every division
The weights below are from the official HYROX rulebooks for the 2025/26 season. They are unchanged in the 2026/27 rulebooks and match hyrox.com as of October 2026. Women and Men without the word Pro are the Open divisions, and Women Pro races at the men's Open weights.
| Station | Women Open | Men Open, Women Pro | Men Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SkiErg | 1000 m | 1000 m | 1000 m |
| 2. Sled push | 50 m, 102 kg | 50 m, 152 kg | 50 m, 202 kg |
| 3. Sled pull | 50 m, 78 kg | 50 m, 103 kg | 50 m, 153 kg |
| 4. Burpee broad jumps | 80 m | 80 m | 80 m |
| 5. Rowing | 1000 m | 1000 m | 1000 m |
| 6. Farmers carry | 200 m, 2 × 16 kg | 200 m, 2 × 24 kg | 200 m, 2 × 32 kg |
| 7. Sandbag lunges | 100 m, 10 kg | 100 m, 20 kg | 100 m, 30 kg |
| 8. Wall balls | 100 reps, 4 kg ball | 100 reps, 6 kg ball | 100 reps, 9 kg ball |
A few standards decide how hard each station feels. Women throw the wall ball to a 2.70 m target and men to 3.00 m, Pro or not, and every squat has to go below parallel. The sled lanes are 12.5 m long, so 50 m is four lengths. On the lunges the sandbag sits across both shoulders and your back knee touches the floor each step. Every burpee broad jump starts with your chest on the floor, and both feet take off and land together. Both ergs are set to damper 6 at the start, and you may change it.
| Division | Weights |
|---|---|
| Doubles Women | Women Open column |
| Doubles Men, Doubles Mixed, Doubles Women Pro | Men Open, Women Pro column |
| Doubles Men Pro | Men Pro column |
| Relay Women | Women Open column |
| Relay Men | Men Open, Women Pro column |
| Relay Mixed (2 women, 2 men) | Each racer at their own weights, women's or men's |
What decides your time
Mostly the running. A 2026 analysis of 39,696 Pro and Elite results from HYROX's first seven seasons found that in the top 100 results of each season, running made up about half of total race time, between 47 and 51%. The top 100 times got about 13 minutes faster for men and 17 for women over those seasons, and roughly 8 and 10 of those minutes came from faster running.
The stations matter more further down the field. In the same analysis, the strength-heavy stations shuffled the rankings more than the runs did, and they cost slower racers the most extra time.
For everyday racers the running share is even bigger. In the first scientific study of HYROX, published in 2025, 11 recreational racers did a simulated Open race in a median of 86.5 minutes, and 51.2 of those minutes were running. Faster finishes went with a higher VO2max, more weekly endurance training and less body fat. Heart rate, blood lactate and perceived effort all peaked at the last station, the wall balls.
Then there is what happens to the pace. At HYROX Madrid in 2025, a study timed 24 Pro men who ran their first kilometre at 16.1 km/h, about 3:43 per km, and their eighth at 13.6 km/h, about 4:25. Their slowest speed of all was in the Roxzone. The authors concluded that holding a higher share of your aerobic capacity across all eight runs is what shortens the total.
Running on legs that have just worked is called compromised running, and it runs through this plan. Session A builds your pace on fresh legs. Session B builds the strength the sleds, the carry, the lunges and the wall balls ask for. Session C sends you out to run straight off the stations, the transition the race makes you do eight times.
The level test
Your level depends on your running and your training now, not on whether you have raced before. Before week 1, run 5 km on a flat route at an even pace and time it. Then count how many days a week you have actually trained over the last 3 months. HYROX's own level questionnaire asks much the same: how often you train, how far you can comfortably run and how many push-ups you can do. If you sit between two levels, take the lower one. If you trained regularly in the past but have had 3 months or more off, take Training regularly and do week 4, the lighter week, before you start week 1.
| Level | The level test |
|---|---|
| New to training | You cannot run 5 km without walking yet, or you train fewer than 2 days a week. |
| Training regularly | You run 5 km without stopping and have trained at least 2 days a week for 3 months. |
| Chasing a time | You run 5 km in under 25 min, train at least 3 days a week and have finished a HYROX. |
The 8-week plan
Three sessions a week: A on Monday, B on Wednesday and C on Friday, with a rest day after each. The tables show week 1, with your move and dose in your level's column, and the table under them says what changes each week. 5 × 1000 m means five repeats of 1000 m. In the station rows of B, and in all of C, the first number is rounds. Book your race for the weekend at the end of week 8. For a 12 week plan, do weeks 1 to 4 twice and then go on to week 5. With a fourth day, train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, the order Aion uses for a four-day HYROX week. New to training adds 6 × 400 m on Monday, comfortably hard with 90 s of walking between, and moves A to Thursday. The other two levels keep A on Monday and add a long easy run on Thursday: 55 minutes for Training regularly, 70 for Chasing a time. In both cases B moves to Tuesday.
Session A: Run
Warm up for 10 minutes: 5 minutes of easy jogging, 10 walking lunges and 10 leg swings on each side. New to training: run 4 minutes and walk 1, over and over, at a pace you could talk at, then the strides, each one 20 s of relaxed fast running with 60 to 75 s of walking back. Training regularly and Chasing a time: 1000 m repeats at your goal race pace, about the effort you could hold for a half marathon. Jog 90 s between them, or 75 s for Chasing a time. Every repeat should come in at the same split, which means the first should feel too easy. After the run, do the other two rows for your level, with 45 s of rest between sets.
| Exercise | New to training | Training regularly | Chasing a time |
|---|---|---|---|
| RunEven effort from the first minute to the last | 20 minEasy run/walk (run 4 min, walk 1 min) | 5 × 1000 mRun at goal race pace | 6 × 1000 mRun at goal race pace |
| After the runStrides smooth, never a sprint. Dead bugs slow, back flat | 4 × 20 sStrides (walk back between) | 3 × 8 per sideDead bug | 3 × 8 per sideDead bug |
| Standing calf raiseFull range, pause at the top | 2 × 12 | 3 × 15 | 3 × 15 |
Session B: Strength and stations
Warm up for 10 minutes on a rower or bike, then do two light sets of your squat. Lift first, while you are fresh. Rest 2 min between squat sets (2.5 min on the back squat) and 2 min between deadlift sets. Do the pull and the push-ups as a pair, resting 90 s after both. End every set with reps to spare: about 4 for New to training, 3 for Training regularly, 2 for Chasing a time. Then the station circuit: sled push, sled pull, carry and wall balls back to back as one round, with 2 min of rest after each round. In those four rows the first number is rounds. New to training uses a light sled and a lighter ball and learns the low position first. Chasing a time pushes race weight or more. Carry a weight you can hold for the whole distance with a tall chest.
| Exercise | New to training | Training regularly | Chasing a time |
|---|---|---|---|
| SquatHips below the knees, the depth wall balls need | 3 × 10Goblet squat | 4 × 6Back squat | 5 × 5Back squat |
| Romanian deadliftHips back, weight close to your legs | 3 × 10 | 3 × 8 | 3 × 6 |
| PullArms fully straight at the start of every rep | 3 × 10Lat pulldown | 3 × 6Pull-up | 3 × 6Pull-up |
| Push-upChest to the floor, like the bottom of a burpee | 3 × 8 | 3 × 12 | 3 × 15 |
| Sled pushArms long, hips low, short fast steps | 3 × 15 m | 4 × 20 m | 4 × 20 m |
| Sled pull (rope, hand over hand)Sit low, heels down, hand over hand | 3 × 15 m | 4 × 20 m | 4 × 20 m |
| Farmers carry (a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand)Tall chest, quick steps, grip hard | 3 × 30 m | 4 × 50 m | 4 × 50 m |
| Wall ballsBreak before your squat depth goes | 3 × 10 | 4 × 15 | 4 × 20 |
Session C: Run off the stations
Warm up as for A. Do the four moves straight through as one round, with no rest between them, so the first number in each row is rounds. Then rest: 90 s after each round for New to training, 2 min for the others. New to training runs easy, at a pace you could talk at, and rows 10 calories on the rower's monitor. The other levels run every 1000 m at goal race pace and hold it when the first steps off a station feel heavy. Step back out of the burpee if jumping out costs you, and jump a distance you can repeat. For the lunges, hold a dumbbell at your chest, or put a sandbag across your shoulders the way the race does.
| Exercise | New to training | Training regularly | Chasing a time |
|---|---|---|---|
| RunHold your pace through the heavy first steps | 4 × 3 minEasy run | 4 × 1000 mRun at goal race pace | 5 × 1000 mRun at goal race pace |
| ErgStrong strokes you could repeat every round | 4 × 10Rower, calories on the monitor | 4 × 500 mSkiErg | 5 × 500 mSkiErg |
| Burpee broad jumpsChest down, then a jump you can repeat | 4 × 5 | 4 × 10 | 5 × 12 |
| Walking lunges with a loadBack knee touches softly, stand fully tall | 4 × 15 m | 4 × 20 m | 5 × 25 m |
Week by week
| Week | Days | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1: learn the sessions | Mon A · Wed B · Fri C | Do every session exactly as the tables say. Write down your squat and sled weights and how long each run takes. |
| Week 2: a little more | Mon A · Wed B · Fri C | A: 1 more repeat, or 5 min more running for New to training. B and C as written, a little heavier if every set in week 1 ended with reps to spare. |
| Week 3: harder | Mon A · Wed B · Fri C | A as in week 2, with 60 s jogs. B: a heavier squat and sled than in week 2. C: 1 more round. |
| Week 4: lighter | Mon A · Wed B · Fri C | A: 1 repeat fewer than in week 1, or 15 min for New to training. B: 2 sets of each lift, 3 of the squat, and 2 station rounds. C: 3 rounds. |
| Week 5: the second block | Mon A · Wed B · Fri C | A: 1 more repeat than in week 1, with 60 s jogs, or 30 min for New to training. B: heavier than in week 3. C: 1 more round than in week 1. |
| Week 6: the hardest week | Mon A · Wed B · Fri C | A as in week 5. B: the heaviest squat of the plan. C: 1 more round than in week 5 for New to training. The others keep week 5's rounds and add a 50 m sled push after the first run. |
| Week 7: race rehearsal | Mon A · Wed B · Fri C | Back to the sets, rounds and minutes of week 1. Run all of C at goal race pace, with your race weight on the lunges. B is your last heavy session before the race. |
| Week 8: race week | Mon A · Wed C | Monday: A with 3 repeats, or 15 min for New to training. Wednesday: C with 2 easy rounds. No B. Race on Saturday or Sunday. |
Race week and the taper
Tapering means training less in the last days so you arrive fresh, and few things in endurance sport have been studied as often. A 2007 meta-analysis of 27 studies found the best results from a taper of about 2 weeks that cut training volume by 41 to 60% and kept both the intensity and how often the athletes trained. A 2023 review of 14 studies in endurance athletes landed on the same 41 to 60% cut, and time-trial performance improved after it. Week 7 of this plan drops back to week 1's volume. Week 8 roughly halves it, keeps your race pace, and counts the race as its third session.
- Read the venue's athlete map before the day. Each 1 km may be several laps, you count your own, and the rulebook adds 3 to 7 minutes for every lap you miss.
- You do not choose your sled lane or your equipment. The judges assign them, so the sled you get is the sled you push.
- Leave the headphones at home, because they are banned on the race floor. Run week 7's session C without them.
- Knee sleeves, gloves (not grips), a lifting belt, wristbands and a hydration pack are allowed. Anything that is not on the list is banned by default.
- Start run 1 slower than feels right. Even the Pro men in the Madrid study lost about 2.5 km/h between their first run and their eighth.
- Eat what you would eat before a hard training day. Water is offered on every pass through the Roxzone.
Training without a sled, wall balls or an erg
Most gyms have no sled track, and a home setup almost never has a SkiErg. You can still follow this plan. When your kit rules a move out, Aion puts in what a coach would set instead, rewrites the dose for the new move, and keeps the round count so a circuit stays one circuit. These are the swaps it uses, and they work just as well on paper:
- Sled push: walking lunges over the same distance with heavy dumbbells at your sides. With no weights, 20 s hill repeats, walking back down between them.
- Sled pull: a heavy one-arm dumbbell row, 10 each side, pulling to the hip and pausing at the top. A bent-over row of 12 also works.
- Wall balls: dumbbell thrusters for the same number of reps, with the dumbbells at your shoulders, a full squat and a press straight up.
- SkiErg: the rower for the same distance. With neither machine, 15 kettlebell swings a round, or 10 burpees.
The farmers carry and the lunges need nothing more than a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells. New to training gets no stand-in harder than its level, so the hill repeats go to the other two levels, and a beginner with no weights lunges with body weight. Before race day, push and pull a real sled at least once. HYROX's own race page gives the same advice for the sled push. Lunges load the legs a sled uses, but they cannot teach you how 152 kg feels from a standing start.
Training for Doubles or a Relay
In Doubles you run all 8 km together. The rulebook adds a 1 minute penalty if one of you runs ahead, and you enter and leave every station together. The station work is yours to split however you like. The rulebook's example is "you go, I go" on the rower: one rows while the other waits, and you swap after a distance you choose. The partner who is resting has to stay on their feet the whole time.
So Doubles halves your station work and none of your running, which makes running an even bigger share of your race. Follow the plan as written, and in week 7 do session C together and practise the handovers. Agree on who takes the first turn at each station before race day.
A Relay team is four racers: four women, four men, or two of each. Each racer runs 2 × 1 km and does 2 stations, and the team decides who does which. For a Relay, keep A and B as written and turn C into your own two stations at race weight, each one after a hard 1000 m.
Mistakes that cost the most
- Training the stations and not the running. Running is about half of race time even at the top, and this plan gives it two of your three days.
- Running the first kilometre at a pace you can hold once. Run it at the pace you can hold eight times.
- Meeting a sled for the first time on race day. Push and pull one before the race, at your race weight if you can.
- Going unbroken on the wall balls until you fail. Plan your sets before you start, and break before your squats stop reaching below parallel, because a shallow rep is a no rep.
- Entering Pro for your first race. Pro puts 50 kg more on the sled push for women and men alike and is meant for experienced racers.
Questions people ask
How long should I train for my first HYROX?
Eight weeks is enough if you can already run 5 km without stopping and you train two or three days a week, which is what this plan assumes. If you cannot run 5 km yet, give yourself 12 weeks: do weeks 1 to 4 at New to training twice, then weeks 5 to 8. Count back from race day so that week 8 ends with the race.
Can a beginner do HYROX?
Yes. The race is open to anyone 16 or older and there is no qualifying. The Open divisions carry the lighter weights, and in Doubles you share the station work with a partner. What a beginner needs most is enough running to cover 8 km on tired legs and a few practice runs on a sled. Start this plan at New to training, and leave Pro for a later race.
What are the HYROX weights for women and men?
In the Open division, women push a 102 kg sled, pull 78 kg, carry two 16 kg kettlebells, lunge with a 10 kg sandbag and throw a 4 kg wall ball to 2.70 m. Men push 152 kg, pull 103 kg, carry two 24 kg kettlebells, lunge with 20 kg and throw a 6 kg ball to 3.00 m. Women Pro uses the men's Open weights with the 2.70 m target. Men Pro goes up to 202 kg, 153 kg, two 32 kg kettlebells, a 30 kg sandbag and a 9 kg ball. Every sled weight includes the sled.
Is HYROX harder than a marathon or CrossFit?
It is shorter than a marathon and more predictable than CrossFit. A marathon is 42.2 km of running and HYROX has 8 km, and by 2024/25 the median elite finish was about 57 minutes for men and 63 for women. The recreational racers in the 2025 study took a median of 86.5 minutes. CrossFit competitions change the workouts and include heavy lifts and gymnastics, while HYROX is the same eight stations every time. The 2025 study rated its demands on maximal strength, coordination and mobility as moderate to low next to other high-intensity functional training. What makes it hard is that the effort never lets up: the racers in that study spent most of the race at heart rates rated hard or very hard.
What shoes should I wear for HYROX?
The running shoes you train in, as long as the soles grip. You run 8 km in them, so comfort comes first. The one HYROX-specific need is grip on the sled push, and HYROX's race page tells you to try the sled before your race and to get grippy shoes. The rulebook asks for closed-toe shoes for the whole race, except at the wall balls, where you may take them off.
Sources
- HYROX Rulebook Single, season 25/26 (archived copy)HYROX World GmbH, 2025
- HYROX Rulebook Single, season 26/27HYROX World GmbH, 2026
- HYROX Rulebook Doubles, season 26/27HYROX World GmbH, 2026
- HYROX Rulebook Relay, season 26/27HYROX World GmbH, 2026
- The Fitness RaceHYROX, 2026
- Longitudinal performance development in PRO and ELITE HYROX competitions across the first seven competitive seasonsFrontiers in Physiology, 2026
- Acute physiological responses and performance determinants in Hyrox© - a new running-focused high intensity functional fitness trendFrontiers in Physiology, 2025
- Relative Running Intensity and Pacing During an Official HYROX PRO MEN Competition: The HYScience StudyInternational Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2026
- Prevalence, burden and risk markers of health problems in HYROX athletes: a 12-week prospective cohort studyFrontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2026
- Hyrox©: A Descriptive Analysis of Participation Trends Among Over 275,000 Athletes in the New Fitness ModalityResearch Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 2026
- Effects of tapering on performance in endurance athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysisPLoS One, 2023
- Effects of tapering on performance: a meta-analysisMedicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2007
Figures on this page come from the sources above. How claims are checked and updated: How the guides are written.