A fitness competition which combines running with a full-body workout is booming in popularity among gym-goers over 35.
Hyrox, dubbed by its organisers as a “global fitness race”, has become the talk of gyms across the UK among those who want to “go one better than a Parkrun” but have had enough of “hardcore obstacle courses” like Tough Mudder, said The Times .
The hype around 2024’s latest fitness craze has become “huge”, and that’s partly because the target market for the race isn’t sporty triathlon or marathon types, but “regular gym-goers seeking an outlet for a previously untapped competitive streak”. The event’s popularity has grown enormously since its inception, said the BBC , with a “1,000% increase in participation in the past five years”.
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What is Hyrox?
The premise of the race is simple. Participants run 1km and then complete a functional fitness exercise. “Rinse and repeat eight times, and you have yourself a Hyrox race,” said GQ .
Each functional workout station is standardised, so they remain the same regardless of where you are participating. These stations are a 1,000m SkiErg, 50m sledge push, a 50m sledge pull, 80m burpee broad jumps, 1,000m of rowing, a 200m farmer’s carry, 100m of sandbag lunges, and finally 100 wall ball throws.
It’s certainly an intense workout, but it’s also a competition you can work through at your own pace. There are no qualification entry requirements or finishing time restrictions. And each Hyrox race consists of waves of starters every 10 minutes throughout the day, so “there’s no fear of finishing in ‘last’ place”, said GQ. It is an “own-pace, own-race event” where amateurs and pros work alongside each other to complete the event.
More than 175,000 people are due to take part in 65 Hyrox races this year, which is already packing out some of the UK’s biggest arenas, such as Birmingham’s NEC and London ExCel. Entries to the London Olympia event “sold out months ago”, said The Times, with some 125,000 people expected to take part.
Christin Tötzke, founder of Hyrox, has even bigger ambitions for the competition, telling The Times that he wanted to see it “become the gym-goer’s equivalent of the London Marathon for runners”.
Why is it so popular?
Primarily Hyrox is popular because people don’t have to compete alone; many are in pairs or teams of four.
It’s also a challenge yet stays within the realms of possibility for most regular gym-goers: the functional stations “aren’t highly technical and don’t require brute strength but are pitched so that even people with little circuit training experience can have a stab at them”, said The Times.
The race has become particularly popular with 35- to 39-year-olds, with the average participant at the latest London Hyrox race aged 37. But there is no upper age limit to participate – Hyrox said its oldest finisher is 74 “and still going strong”.
And as with many of today’s most popular trends, part of its success lies with social media. The hashtag ‘#hyroxlondon’ has garnered “millions of views on TikTok and tens of thousands of Instagram posts”, said the BBC.
Hyrox classes are also increasing in popularity as more gym-goers become interested in participating in the races, as well as the opportunity the classes offer to train in groups while using a range of equipment.
The Gym Group told the BBC it first offered Hyrox classes in March last year at one of its venues and has since expanded into 14 gyms across London. A top Gym Group trainer, Jenni Tardiff, told the broadcaster that Hyrox classes “really quickly became the most popular class in the gym.
“It started off with members who maybe knew about Hyrox and then it just exploded into everybody,” she said.
