What Is HYROX: the 8 Stations, the Weights by Division and How It Works

Below you will find the 8 stations in order, the exact weights for each division, how long it actually takes to finish and which Spanish cities host a race. The figures come from the four official rulebooks for the 26/27 season and from the competition’s results portal, checked on August 17, 2026. When a data point is not published by the organization, we say so instead of filling it in.

What is HYROX and what is it for

HYROX is an indoor fitness competition with a fixed format: 1 kilometer of running, one functional exercise station, and so on eight times until you reach 8 km and 8 stations. The order and the distances are identical in Madrid, Hamburg or New York, so times can be compared across venues.

What separates it from a gym class is that it is timed, judged and officially sanctioned. Every rep is validated by a judge, every time goes into a world ranking and every venue builds exactly the same course. It serves the same purpose as a marathon: putting a date and a bib number on your fitness, with a benchmark that thousands of other people have completed under the same conditions.

What do you do in a HYROX race?

In a HYROX you run 1 kilometer, enter the stations area, complete one functional exercise and head back out to run. That sequence repeats eight times, with a different exercise each time, until you have covered 8 kilometers of running and all 8 stations. It always finishes with 100 Wall Balls.

The eighth kilometer is run before the last station, not after it. Many people assume there is a final stretch of running to close out the race, and there is not: the race ends with the medicine ball in your hands, which is probably the worst possible way to finish anything.

How do you pronounce HYROX and what does it mean?

It is pronounced roughly “HIGH-rocks”. The organization has published no official explanation of what the name means, so any etymology you read elsewhere is third-party interpretation. What is constant across the competition’s documentation is that it is written in capitals, HYROX, and that it is a registered trademark.

Is HYROX a sport or a gym class?

Both. HYROX is an official competition with a rulebook, judges and a world ranking, held in indoor venues on a specific weekend. It is also a style of training that many affiliated gyms program throughout the year to prepare for that competition. The race is the event; the classes are the preparation.

The confusion is common because the name is used for both things interchangeably. If someone tells you they “do HYROX on Tuesdays,” they are talking about the training, not about competing every week.

Who created HYROX and who runs it?

HYROX was born in Hamburg in 2017. Its founders are Christian Toetzke, Moritz Fürste (a three-time Olympic hockey medalist) and Michael Trautmann. The brand and the organization belong to HYROX World GmbH, based at Bahrenfelder Straße 322 in Hamburg and registered under HRB 144750 in the commercial register of the city’s Amtsgericht (local court). Its managing directors are Jörg Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste himself.

What is the difference between HYROX and CrossFit?

HYROX always has the same course: 8 km of running and the same 8 stations in the same order, at any venue in the world. CrossFit changes its workout every day, and its competitions use events announced shortly beforehand. One rewards sustained pace; the other rewards variety and strength.

That comparison could fill a whole article, so we only flag it here: the debate would swallow any explanation of the format.

Which is harder, CrossFit or HYROX?

It depends on what you are weakest at. HYROX punishes anyone who cannot run while tired: 8 kilometers with a high heart rate and eight interruptions. CrossFit punishes anyone who lacks strength or weightlifting technique. There is no common scale between the two.

The honest answer is that people coming from CrossFit usually find the 8 kilometers weigh more than they expected, and people coming from running meet the sled. Everyone suffers at whatever they have trained least.

Is HYROX effective for weight loss?

A HYROX race is over an hour of continuous work at high intensity, so the calorie burn of the session is high. Body weight, however, depends on the energy balance of entire weeks, not on a single event. What does change habits is preparing for it: training regularly for months.

If weight loss is your goal, what counts is the routine in the months before and what you eat the rest of the day, not the number your heart rate monitor shows on a Sunday morning.

How a HYROX race works, step by step

A HYROX race is 8,000 meters of timed running, 8 stations and 16 passes through the transition zone: one entry and one exit for each station. The clock starts at the start line and never stops, not even while you walk from the track to the sled.

Four terms you will see on any results page or event poster:

• Roxzone: the transition zone between the running circuit and the stations, with an entry arch and an exit arch.
• Finisher: anyone who crosses the finish line having completed the 8 kilometers and the 8 stations to the validated standard.
• PFT: the HYROX Performance Fitness Test, a physical assessment under the same brand that is not the race.
• Elite Series: the elite circuit within the official hierarchy, below the Regional or Open Championships and the World Championships.

The exact order: 8 km of running and 8 stations

The sequence is always the same: 1 km, SkiErg, 1 km, Sled Push, 1 km, Sled Pull, 1 km, Burpee Broad Jumps, 1 km, Rowing, 1 km, Farmers Carry, 1 km, Sandbag Lunges, 1 km and Wall Balls. Eight running segments, eight stations, and the finish line right after the last ball.

There is a venue detail worth knowing: the rulebook guarantees the 8,000 meters in total, but allows each segment to be split into several laps depending on the layout of the hall, compensating any deviation within that same segment. In other words, it is not always eight identical laps of 1,000 continuous meters, although the total adds up. The circuit also has two lanes: the Fast Lane, mandatory if you run 4:00 per kilometer or faster, and the Running Lane for everyone else.

What is the Roxzone and why can it ruin your time?

The Roxzone is the transition zone between the running circuit and the stations. It has an entry arch and an exit arch, and that is where the refreshment points are. You pass through it sixteen times and the clock does not stop for any of the sixteen.

The detail almost nobody explains: the Roxzone is not part of the designated 8,000 meters of running, but you cover it all the same. The real distance you cover on race day is therefore more than 8 kilometers. How much more exactly, we do not know: none of the four rulebooks publishes the length of the Roxzone, so the figures circulating on forums and social media have no official backing and you will not read them here. What is clearly priced is the mistake: entering through the exit arch or leaving through the entry arch costs a 2-minute penalty every time.

Can you drink water during the race?

Yes. The refreshment points are in the Roxzone, the transition zone you pass through sixteen times, so you have water available between stations without leaving the circuit. The clock does not stop while you drink, and that is the real reason many people decide not to stop and drink.

We have written separately about what we have learned on hydration at summer races, including what to drink and when.

What happens if you don’t complete a station?

Every station has its own judge, and reps that do not meet the standard simply do not count: you have to redo them until you reach the required number. It is not a disqualification, it is time. In the Wall Balls, with 100 reps ahead and your hips required to drop below the knee on every one, you feel that arithmetic.

Beyond invalid reps, the rulebook provides for time penalties for specific course infringements, such as the Roxzone arch mistake that costs 2 minutes.

What happens if I don’t finish the race?

You are listed as DNF, meaning “did not finish,” and no time appears in the ranking. That said, there is no cut-off time that removes you for being slow: HYROX itself puts the completion rate at around 98-99%, so dropping out is far less common than people fear.

The 8 HYROX stations: distances and weights

The 8 HYROX stations start with the SkiErg and end with 100 Wall Balls. In between are a Sled Push that weighs 152 kg in men’s Open, sled included, a 1,000-meter row and 200 meters carrying two kettlebells. The order never changes.

What are the 8 HYROX exercises?

The 8 HYROX exercises are, in order: SkiErg, Sled Push, Sled Pull, Burpee Broad Jumps, Rowing, Farmers Carry, Sandbag Lunges and Wall Balls. Between each one there is always 1 kilometer of running, and the last kilometer is run before the Wall Balls.

1. SkiErg, 1,000 m
2. Sled Push, 50 m
3. Sled Pull, 50 m
4. Burpee Broad Jumps, 80 m
5. Rowing, 1,000 m
6. Farmers Carry, 200 m
7. Sandbag Lunges, 100 m
8. Wall Balls, 100 reps

What are the official HYROX weights?

The official HYROX weights range from 4 to 9 kg for the ball, 10 to 30 kg for the sandbag, 16 to 32 kg per hand in the Farmers Carry and 78 to 202 kg for the sleds, depending on division and sex. Here they all are, station by station.

How to read this table. The sled weights include the sled itself: the rulebook always writes them as a total weight. The Farmers Carry weight is per hand, meaning “2 × 24 kg” is two 24 kg kettlebells, one in each hand. Everything is in kilograms and meters, even at US venues: any figure in pounds or yards you come across is a third-party conversion.

Note also that the men’s Open and women’s Pro columns are identical. That is not a typo in our table: the rulebook groups both in the same column.

Data checked on August 17, 2026 against the official rulebooks for the 26/27 season. Source and updates: hyrox.com.

How heavy are the HYROX sleds?

The Sled Push moves 102 kg in women’s Open, 152 kg in men’s Open and women’s Pro, and 202 kg in men’s Pro. Those figures include the sled itself, which weighs 50 kg empty. It covers 50 meters, split into four lanes of 12.5 meters.

The Sled Pull comes next and with less load: 78 kg in women’s Open, 103 kg in men’s Open and women’s Pro, and 153 kg in men’s Pro, again with the sled included in the figure. The empty Sled Pull sled weighs 25 kg, half that of the push. With those two figures you can do the math almost nobody does: a man in Open does not push 152 kg of plates, he pushes 50 kg of sled plus 102 kg of plates.

And three stations carry no weight at all, which surprises anyone expecting a pure strength test: the SkiErg is 1,000 meters, the row is another 1,000 and the Burpee Broad Jumps are 80 meters of forward travel. What is measured there is your ability to keep moving with your heart rate through the roof.

How much does the HYROX wall ball weigh?

The wall ball weighs 4 kg in women’s Open, 6 kg in men’s Open and women’s Pro, and 9 kg in men’s Pro. It is 100 reps, and the target is set at 2.70 meters for the women’s divisions and 3.00 for the men’s. That height is the same in Open and Pro.

The other two loads you carry are the Farmers Carry, 200 meters with a kettlebell in each hand and your arms at your sides, and the Sandbag Lunges, 100 meters of lunges with the sandbag on your shoulders: 10, 20 or 30 kg depending on division. Your knee has to touch the floor on every lunge, and the sandbag cannot be put down on the floor along the way.

Which HYROX station is the hardest?

It depends on who you are, but there is a fairly clear consensus on which one hurts most: the Wall Balls, and not because of the weight of the ball. It is 100 reps of full squat with a throw, around minute 70 or 80 of the race, with your quads already drained by the sleds and the lunges. Technique breaks down, the judge starts refusing reps and the whole thing drags on.

The sled has a different kind of hardness: it is short, brutal and over quickly. The Wall Balls are not over quickly; you suffer through them from start to finish. If you have made it that far with your legs at their limit, it is worth knowing what to do with them afterward, because muscle cramps are the most common complaint in the finish area of any race this intense.

HYROX divisions: Open, Pro, Doubles, Relay and Adaptive

HYROX has five divisions: Open, Pro, Doubles, Relay and Adaptive. Between Open and Pro, five of the eight stations change, and the most visible difference is in the Sled Push: 50 kg more in Pro. The running course is the same in all of them.

What are the HYROX divisions?

There are five HYROX divisions (also called categories): Open (individual, standard weights), Pro (individual, heavier weights), Doubles (pairs), Relay (teams of four) and Adaptive (athletes with a permanent disability, with 13 divisions of its own). Within each one there are rankings by sex and by age group.

What is the difference between HYROX Open and Pro?

This is the question that gets answered worst online: the usual answer is “Pro is heavier,” and that leaves out what matters. Pro changes five of the eight stations, all of them with heavier loads.

• Sled Push: from 152 to 202 kg for men, from 102 to 152 kg for women.
• Sled Pull: from 103 to 153 kg for men, from 78 to 103 kg for women.
• Farmers Carry: from 2 × 24 to 2 × 32 kg for men, from 2 × 16 to 2 × 24 kg for women.
• Sandbag Lunges: from 20 to 30 kg for men, from 10 to 20 kg for women.
• Wall Balls: from 6 to 9 kg for men, from 4 to 6 kg for women.

And it leaves the other three untouched: the SkiErg is still 1,000 meters, so is the row, and the Burpee Broad Jumps are still 80 meters. The 8 kilometers of running do not change either, nor does the height the ball has to be thrown to. Put another way, Pro does not ask you to run more or jump more: it asks you to move more kilos at five specific moments. If your question is where to start preparing for that, the order in which you combine cardio and strength within a single session matters more than it seems.

How does HYROX Doubles work?

Here is the most widespread mistake on the whole topic, and it deserves a sentence in bold: in Doubles the running is not split. Both partners run the full 1,000 meters together between each station, so each of the two covers the entire 8 kilometers. It is not 4 and 4.

The only thing that is shared out is the station work, and it is shared freely: the rulebook itself gives the example of one partner doing 250 meters of sled, swapping with their teammate and repeating until the distance is covered. Both have to enter and leave each station together, and the pair’s official time is the slower of the two chip times. If one gets ahead while running, it is a 1-minute penalty; after three penalties the team is out of the competition and unranked.

Doubles has five divisions: Women, Women Pro, Men, Men Pro and Mixed. The weights are identical to individual, and the mixed pair competes with the men’s Open weights.

How does HYROX Relay work?

The relay is for four people, and there everything is shared: each member runs 2 × 1 km and does the 2 stations assigned to them. Four times two makes the usual 8 kilometers and 8 stations.

The handover happens in the Transition Zone with a hand tag, and there is a rule that catches many people out: even if the same runner has two blocks in a row, they still have to pass through the transition zone or take an automatic penalty. Relay has only three divisions (Women, Men and Mixed) and there is no Relay Pro. In the mixed division, the weight at each station depends on who performs it.

What is HYROX Adaptive?

Adaptive is the division for athletes with a permanent disability; the rulebook expressly excludes temporary injuries. Its statement of principles says the participant must be recognized “as an athlete first and for their diagnosis second,” and the structure lives up to the phrase: there are 13 official divisions, each with its own distances and weights.

It is not a watered-down version of the race, it is a different rulebook. The SkiErg and the row range from 500 to 1,000 meters depending on the division; the sleds are done in 2 × 12.5 meters in the “Major” divisions; the Farmers Carry is done with a single kettlebell in the upper-limb and seated divisions; and the Wall Balls can be 50 reps with a 2 or 4 kg ball and a target at 2.00 or 2.30 meters in the Short Stature division. Visually impaired athletes can compete with a guide, and in the seated divisions the sled is pulled with straps attached to the chair.

Are HYROX weights different for men and women?

Yes, though the ladder has only three rungs. The women’s Pro weights are exactly the same as the men’s Open weights: the rulebook groups both in the same column. The full progression is women’s Open, then men’s Open and women’s Pro on a par, and then men’s Pro.

The other split that orders the rankings is age. There are 14 bands of five years, from Under 24 (which starts at 16) to 85-89, and the group is set by the age you are on race day. In Doubles it is calculated from the average of the two partners, and in Relay there are only two blocks, Under 40 and 40+, based on the average of the four. The minimum age to compete is 16 years old on race day. Rankings are ordered by sex assigned at birth, and the rulebook allows entry by gender identity outside the official ranking.

How long does a HYROX take

The median for a man in Open is 1:27:24 and for a woman 1:34:50, calculated from the competition’s official historical ranking. The fastest time on record in men’s Pro is 52:00. Almost everyone who signs up falls somewhere between those two extremes.

What is the average HYROX finish time?

First, a warning that changes how to read any figure on this: HYROX does not publish an official average time. If you see a site giving “the official average HYROX time,” it has either made it up or calculated it itself without saying so. The medians below are our own calculation on the public data of the historical ranking, counting by result and not by athlete, and pooling all seasons.

Open and Pro times are not comparable with each other, because the loads are different. If you want a serious benchmark of your level, the column to look at is Pro.

What is the fastest HYROX time?

HYROX does not use the phrase “world record” on any of its pages, so we will not either. What exists is a historical ranking, and these are its leaders as of August 17, 2026: in men’s Pro, 52:00 by Alexander Roncevic (AUT) in Warsaw 2026. In women’s Pro, 54:26 by Joanna Wietrzyk (AUS), also in Warsaw 2026. In men’s Open, 50:38 by the same Roncevic in Cologne 2024.

The fourth is missing, and the omission is deliberate: we do not publish the women’s Open mark because the top of that ranking is corrupted. The top six places show times of between 6 and 47 minutes, physically impossible for a race of this distance, and they are timing errors nobody has cleaned up. Accepting that figure would mean copying an error, which is exactly what half the internet has done.

What is a good HYROX time?

The organization does not define this either, so the only grounded answer is statistical. Using the percentiles in the table above: a man who finishes under 1:17:41 in Open is in the fastest 25% of the historical ranking, and a woman gets there under 1:24:55. Finishing below the median, 1:27:24 and 1:34:50 respectively, already puts you in the better half.

For a first race, the useful benchmark is a different one: finishing. And then giving muscle recovery the time you cut from the last Wall Balls.

How long does the race take in Doubles or Relay?

Doubles and Relay times cannot be compared with individual ones, and for different reasons in each case. In Doubles each partner runs the 8 kilometers just like an individual, so the only thing that gets lighter is the station work; the time usually drops, but far less than people imagine before their first race as a pair. In Relay, on the other hand, each person does 2 kilometers and 2 stations, so the pace is one that would be unsustainable solo and the final clock falls into another league. Comparing a Relay with an Open is comparing different things.

What is the HYROX PFT?

The HYROX PFT is a physical assessment test that carries the same brand but is not the race. None of the four competition rulebooks for the 26/27 season regulates it, so its marks and protocol do not come from the same source as the data on this page.

HYROX in Spain: where to race, how to sign up and what you need

Spain has six HYROX venues on the circuit: Tenerife, Valencia, Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Málaga, plus a kids’ race in Valencia. None of them is a World Championships event. Registration is always done on the official platform and never on the website of a gym or a store.

Which Spanish cities host HYROX?

HYROX is held in six Spanish cities: Tenerife, Valencia, Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Málaga, checked against the official calendar for the 26/27 season, which lists 116 events worldwide.

• Tenerife, the only Canary Islands venue and the one that opens the Spanish season.
• Valencia, the only Spanish city that also has a kids’ race (Youngstars).
• Barcelona, which competes with a title sponsor in the event’s official name.
• Bilbao.
• Madrid.
• Málaga.

And now the part you will not read almost anywhere, because it is what Google autocompletes and nobody corrects: there is no HYROX in Mallorca. Nor in Seville, Zaragoza, Murcia, Alicante, Vigo or Granada. Zero matches among the 116 events on the official calendar. If you searched “hyrox mallorca” and landed on a page promising you a race there, that page is making it up or selling you something else.

As for not being a championship: the World Championships have been held in Oberhausen, Leipzig, Las Vegas, Manchester, Nice, Chicago and Stockholm. Spain has not been on that list yet. We give no dates and no calendar, since those go out of date fastest: that is what the official website is for.

How does HYROX registration work?

The mechanics are the same at every venue. Registration opens months in advance on the official platform, places are sold in tiers and the price rises as the race fills up. You do not have to qualify for anything, there is no minimum standard and no cut-off time. Starts are organized in waves every ten minutes, and you choose your division when you sign up.

What you should be clear on is that places at the big venues sell out, and anyone who arrives late pays more or misses out. Everything to do with signing up is done on hyrox.com, the official website. You cannot register from here.

How much does it cost to enter HYROX?

Checked on August 17, 2026 on the official platform, Spanish entries ran from €79 to €130 per athlete depending on division and venue. Open and Pro cost the same. Doubles and Relay are charged per person, not per team, and the price rises in tiers as the race fills up.

The exact figure goes out of date quickly, so take it as an order of magnitude and always check the price of the day on the official platform. On the date checked, entries for Madrid, Bilbao and Málaga were also not yet on sale, and the service fee is charged on top of the entry price.

Do you need a minimum fitness level to enter HYROX?

You need no previous qualifying mark and you do not have to qualify: in Open you register and that is it. The only hard requirements are being 16 years old on race day and completing the stations to the standard the judge requires. There is also no cut-off time that pulls you off the course.

Something else entirely is arriving at the start line without ever having touched a sled in your life. Preparing for that has its own manual and deserves a separate article.

Do you need an affiliated gym to do HYROX?

No. Registering for the race does not require belonging to any affiliated gym or going through a particular club. What an affiliate offers is specific equipment, the sled and the SkiErg above all, which is exactly what is hard to replicate when training on your own at home or in a conventional gym.

How many times a year can you do HYROX?

As many as you can fit into your calendar and your budget. Each city holds its race once per season, and in 26/27 the official calendar lists 116 events worldwide, six of them in Spain. Places sell out, so what matters is the registration opening date.

Do you need special shoes for HYROX?

None of the HYROX rulebooks requires a specific shoe model. A pair of running shoes with good lateral grip will more than cover you for a first race. There are models sold as HYROX-specific, but JustLoading does not sell footwear and will not recommend any.

We say this precisely because we have nothing to gain from saying it: our catalog is nutrition, not equipment. Anyone who sells you shoes as essential for finishing your first HYROX is selling you shoes.

How to eat and drink on the day of a race like HYROX

For most people a HYROX race lasts between one hour and an hour and a half at high intensity, and that range is exactly where muscle glycogen reserves start to make themselves felt. Planning, therefore, looks more like that for a fast half marathon than for a gym session.

It is also a format with a logistical particularity: you sweat in a closed hall with little ventilation and without the temperature cues that warn you when you run outdoors. On what is lost through sweat and how to replace it, we have a whole article dedicated to electrolytes, which we will not repeat here.

When should you take an energy gel during a HYROX race?

There is no official HYROX protocol on gels: the organization does not publish nutrition guidelines. In events of this length the usual approach is to finish your last full meal two to three hours beforehand and decide on intake during the race based on how you have rehearsed it in training.

Two reads that help you make that decision with confidence: the difference between the types of isotonic drinks, which determines how quickly the stomach empties, and the general guidelines on what to eat before training. If you are someone who trains nutrition the way you train the sled, the intra-workout drink is where all of this gets rehearsed.

What we have learned supplying aid stations at races

We have not been at a HYROX, and we will not pretend otherwise. Where we have been is at the aid stations of quite a few races: La Desértica, the Zurich Maratón de Sevilla or the Pirene Xtreme Triathlon, among others. And what you see from behind an aid station table is quite different from what you read in the guides.

The first difference from a format like HYROX is about the clock. In a desert ultra you plan by stages and by hours, with room to correct: if something does not agree with you at kilometer 30, you have four hours left to fix it. In a race of 70 or 80 minutes there is no room for correction. What you take with you at the start is what you have.

The second is about geography. In a road race the aid station comes up every five kilometers and you do not have to think. In a hall, the aid point is in the Roxzone and you pass it sixteen times, always in the same place, always with the decision in your hands. It is more control and, curiously, more people forget to use it.

And the third is the usual one, the one that repeats race after race and never changes: race day is not the day to try anything new. No new flavor, no new format, no new brand. What you have not tried in training, do not try with a bib on.

At an indoor event, what you carry on you comes down to what fits in a pocket or a belt, and the rest has to be waiting for you in your bag. This is what we have in our catalog for that format:

Who wrote this. The JustLoading team. We have spent years putting product and hands into the aid stations of the races we sponsor, from city marathons to desert ultras and MTB races. We have not been at a HYROX: everything above comes from the official rulebooks and the results portal, not from our experience.

Trademark notice. HYROX is a registered trademark of HYROX World GmbH (Hamburg, Germany). JustLoading is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by HYROX World GmbH, and this page is neither official information from the competition nor a substitute for its rulebook. The weight, distance, rule and division data come from the official rulebooks for the 26/27 season and from the results portal, checked on August 17, 2026. To register, check the calendar or verify any figure, the source is hyrox.com.