HYROX has truly took the fitness world by storm to become somewhat of a global phenomenon, booming in popularity to quickly establish itself as the fastest growing fitness sport in the world.
With the 2025/26 season set to hit over 1.3 million competitors across , I decided to see for myself what all the fuss is about down at Jersey CrossFit, where I took on a class headed up by local coach Adam Harrison.
Fitness, exercise and lifestyle have never been more prominent in society, with an infinite number of influencers and trends filling up social media feeds making it almost inescapable.
Many trends come and go, but Hyrox has risen above the rest to reign supreme and really is here to stay. This fitness sport’s main draw seems to be it’s accessibility, with a great range of categories allowing for more to get involved with a varying degree of fitness.
What is Hyrox?
Although Hyrox occupies a huge amount of space in the fitness world, many in the general public are still yet to hear about it, with most participants being between 20 – 40 years-of-age.
For those still in the dark, Hyrox is a global indoor functional fitness race designed to be accessible for all. Athletes run a total of 8km – broken up into 1km blocks – while following up each kilometre with one of the eight workout stations.
Olympic field hockey champion Moritz Fürste and Christian Toetzke founded Hyrox, first introducing the event in Hamurg, Germany in 2017. The first event saw an attendance of 650 participants, and it’s only skyrocketed from there.
Now, there’s over 100 races taking place across the world this season, with over 1.3 million people taking part exhibiting the sport’s exponential growth.
Hyrox races always follow the same order when it comes to workout stations, going as follows: 1km Ski Erg, 50-metre Sled Push, 50-metre Sled Pull, 80-metre Burpee Broad Jump, 1km Row, 200-metre Farmers Carry, 100-metre Sandbag Lunges and finally the 100-metre Wall Balls.
It may sound like a brutal workout – but the great range in categories allow there to be a spot for all.
“Essentially, Hyrox is an indoor functional fitness race that blends in several different elements which is accessible to most people. If you have a reasonable base of fitness, then you’re good to give it a go,” said Harrison.
“It’s really boomed in popularity over the last few years, here at Jersey CrossFit we’ve been holding classes for about 2 – 3 years now, and it’s consistently getting more popular – there’s a real uptake of people trying it out.
“I think that the accessibility of Hyrox has been the key reason for why it’s gotten so popular. Functional Fitness used to be heavily skill-based and there was a barrier to entry with it, but Hyrox has done a great job at reducing this barrier for a lot of people and made competing accessible to all – if you can move healthily and safely, then there’s a division for you.”
With this explosion of popularity, many have caught the competitive bug, as competitions are often selling out their spots at rapid rates.
Harrison added: “Hyrox can completely transform your view on health and fitness and the quick results can make it quite addictive, as people are keen to push their capabilities and see how far they can go.”
Another element Hyrox brings into frame is the art of variation, battling the tedium and monotony of usual body-building workouts through consistently switching up workouts each week, hitting the required aspects of fitness through a plethora of different movements and techniques to “keep people engaged”.
Many nowadays prioritise one component of fitness over another – strength, stamina, whatever it may be. But, Hyrox has the ability to work all ten aspects of fitness – which are cardiovascular endurance, respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy – to create complete and all-round athletes.
Having such an all-round approach to fitness brings with it many benefits, as Harrison continued: “This form of training really does improve your lifestyle, using fitness to make your life easier – which doesn’t take long to notice.
“Apart from the huge physical benefits, the community aspect of Hyrox goes a long way towards bettering your mental and social health as well. Partner and team events give you the opportunity to train together for a unified goal, and the community we have down here is just brilliant, everyone always sticks around after sessions to socialise and have a chat.”
Jersey CrossFit are making it easier than ever before for people to make their start in this sporting phenomenon, offering an eight-week Hyrox challenge to develop complete beginners into completing a full Hyrox race.
“Here at Jersey CrossFit, we run an eight-week Hyrox Challenge with up to 15 slots per window, with the intention to make complete beginners Hyrox-ready,” said Harrison.
“We start with a private group session to teach the correct techniques and help develop their understanding, to ensure everyone is safe when going to do their workouts. Then, participants will be able to attend as many classes as they’d like – while also having private coaching sessions and guidance with nutrition – before experiencing a full race simulation.
“Hyrox is a great gateway sport to other forms of Functional Fitness, such as CrossFit. It encourages all-round fitness and the lower barrier to entry is a really great thing for the Functional Fitness community, so I’d encourage anyone with an interest in competitive fitness to give Hyrox a try.”
Time to give it a go!
After all the hype, it was finally time to try it out for myself. Although the barrier to entry is significantly lower than that of CrossFit, it was still anything but easy!
I was all signed up to complete a ‘sweat’ session to work on endurance, just seeing the name alone made me realise that I’d made this hard on myself! As is the issue for many, it’s been a struggle to get fully back into the swing of things following the Christmas period in regards to my fitness regime, so I came into this with no expectations whatsoever.
Adam, the coach, kicked off the session by walking everyone through the agenda of the day, listing out the workout while also fielding any questions. What became apparent from the off was Adam’s enthusiasm for getting people fit and active – he had such a positive and outgoing personality which really helped make an immediate impression.
Following a quick dynamic warm-up, we were off! The session consisted of everyone taking on an AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) circuit of five push-ups, 10 ring rows and 15 bodyweight squats, completing as many of those in the allotted five minutes, before then either getting on the Ski Erg, Row or running for the remaining five minutes.
After about a ten-second rest, participants went back to the AMRAP circuit, and this was all repeated a total of three times.
My opening attempt at the AMRAP circuit went alright, especially after Adam stepped in to make a slight tweak to my squatting form. As much of my training is predominantly strength-based, my gym background came in handy.
Then, the first machine I tried out was the Ski Erg, which I’ve never really used before. Once again, Adam was fantastic in quickly stepping in, analysing technique and explaining where I could improve, making any necessary tweaks to instantly improve results without breaking up the workout – which really is a skill in itself.
After it was all explained, then it would be all easy from there right? No, I was dead wrong, it was brutal! As you’re pulling down on the ropes you see the distance creep up and up, but the sweat was already kicking in and muscles were aching – and that was just the first ten minutes!
Going back into the circuit once again, I already noticed my pace slightly drop off, the Ski Erg really took it out of me. I knew my lack of cardiovascular endurance training would come back to bite me at some stage, but not this quickly.
However, I was once again able to manage it relatively well, but as I was going for another push-up, the buzzer went off, signalling a return to the dreaded cardio segment.
This time around, it was the Row that called to me. Since I got on the machine with the Jersey Rowing Club a few months ago, I thought there was hope there to pick up the pace.
Going straight into it, Adam was quick to compliment my technique, which certainly boosted my aspirations. But, getting through it was a real struggle, and I was off in a flash once 1km was reached, desperate for just a quick sip of water.
Now, we were on the home straight. By now, I was pretty much completely gone, the workout was so intense! Now, more than aware of my fitness limitations, I managed the final round of the circuit to ensure that I completed the workout, gritting my teeth to fight through the fatigue.
I couldn’t tell you why, but I picked the Ski Erg once again as my final form of cardio – you’d think I’d learn from past mistakes! Now dripping with sweat and entering the territory of fatigue where, somehow, I’d lost control of my own face (as exhibited in the picture to the left, for your own enjoyment), I was keen to finish strong.
It was up and down pace-wise, but my motivation never wavered, and I remember the rewarding feeling once I saw that final 1km was accomplished. Sure, I could hardly feel my legs, but it was an amazing feeling to be finished, feeling that you really did accomplish something and improve your fitness – all within the brief slot of one’s lunch break.
To have this level of a workout in such a brief period really amazed me, I already felt fitter!
Hyrox’s ability to train all-round fitness is pretty hard to match, and the incredible benefits it brings, the variation of workouts and the rewarding feeling of accomplishing each class makes for a super positive experience.
It may not be the cheapest form of training in the world, with Jersey CrossFit’s 8-week challenge coming with a £270 admittance fee. However, the remarkable results you can achieve through this all-round training, and the sport’s fantastic community, makes for nice payback on your investment into your health and fitness.
