Hyrox training in London, outdoors

You can do most of your Hyrox training outdoors, in a group, without a gym membership. The race is eight kilometres of running broken up by eight stations, and much of it is running, carrying, lunging and throwing, which is exactly what a coached outdoor bootcamp trains. What a park cannot give you is the machines and the sled. Here is how to cover both.

What Hyrox actually is

Hyrox is an indoor fitness race that runs in the same format everywhere. You run one kilometre, complete a station, and repeat that eight times. The stations, in order, are:

1,000m on the SkiErg
50m sled push
50m sled pull
80m of burpee broad jumps
1,000m on the rowing machine
200m farmer's carry
100m of sandbag walking lunges
100 wall balls

You can enter on your own in the Open or Pro categories, or share the work in Doubles or a relay team. London hosts races at ExCeL and Olympia, and the current dates are on the Hyrox race finder. Hyrox puts the average finish at around 90 minutes.

The part people underestimate is the running

Eight kilometres does not sound like much until you run each one straight after something that has emptied your legs. Running takes up a big share of the race time, which is why every sensible beginner plan starts there, and why it needs practising tired rather than fresh.

This is where Stave Hill earns its keep. A hill and a long flight of steps give you short, hard efforts with a run back between them, over and over, which is close to the rhythm of race day. It is a lot more like Hyrox than a treadmill is.

What an outdoor bootcamp covers well

Running on tired legs. Hill and step efforts are mixed in with the strength work, so you learn to run when you would rather not.
Carries. Kettlebell carries build the grip and the upright posture that the farmer's carry punishes.
Lunges. Walking lunges, loaded or not, are a bootcamp staple. The sandbag station is a hundred metres of them.
Burpees and throws. Burpees need no introduction, and slam ball work is the nearest thing to wall balls you will find outside a gym.
Pacing next to other people. Working in pairs teaches you what an effort you can hold feels like, which matters more than anything over an hour and a half.

When you book, tell us you are training for Hyrox and we will point you at the right sessions. HIIT the Hill on Thursday evenings and Hybrid Strength on Friday lunchtimes at Stave Hill are good places to start, and in Bromley the Wednesday evening Hybrid Strength sessions run at Beccehamians. Everything else on the timetable builds the strength underneath.

What it will not cover

There is no SkiErg, rowing machine or sled in a park, and four of the eight stations depend on them. You do not need to live on those machines, but you do need to have used them before race day, so the technique is not new when your heart rate is at its highest. One session a week at a gym that has them, or a Hyrox class, fills the gap.

A sensible way to build up

Most beginner plans allow eight to twelve weeks. A simple week in that time might look like this:

Two or three coached sessions for strength, carries and hard efforts.
One easy run on your own, building towards a comfortable 5km and then beyond it.
One session on the machines and the sled once you are a month or so in.
A rest day that is actually a rest day.

If this is your first race, Doubles is the kindest way in. You split the stations with a partner, which makes the whole thing far less daunting, and training for it together means neither of you skips the Thursday session.

Why training in a group helps

A big part of the appeal of Hyrox is that it gives you a date to train towards. That only works if you keep training in the weeks before it. Training at a fixed time with people who expect to see you is the most reliable way we know to make that happen. Our members already take on events like Tough Mudder and Spartan together, and a start line with people you know on it feels very different.

If you are thinking about your first Hyrox, come and train with us before you commit to a plan. The Trial Experience is £39 for four sessions within two weeks, and starts with a short call, so we can talk through your race date and where to begin. Every session is booked in advance, and it all starts with that call.