Hyrox vs CrossFit: Which is the best workout?

Hyrox and CrossFit both promise to push people to their limits and test their strength, but in very different ways

Rowing is one of the eight functional fitness workouts in a Hyrox race (Hyrox)

More than 100,000 people took part in a Hyrox race in 2023 in 17 different countries, with hundreds of thousands of others doing the workout in their local gym as a way to tone up and get into shape.

After starting in Germany in 2017, it’s fast becoming a global phenomenon, combining short runs with the kind of fitness movements you find in many gym workouts. Walk down the road or have a jog around the park and you’re guaranteed to see at least one person with a black Hyrox-branded vest or baseball cap.

Of course, it’s not the newest fitness race on the block as CrossFit competitions have been taking place since 2000. Search Amazon Prime or Apple TV for movies like The Fittest and Fittest on Earth: Next Gen and you’ll see just how seriously it’s taken, with prize money of £300,000 on offer to the male and female winners of the Crossfit Games global event. What’s more, The CrossFit Games YouTube channel has 1 million subscribers. Wherever you live in the UK, you’re likely to be within driving distance of a CrossFit gym and a loyal community of WOD-ers, with the name WOD standing for Workout of The Day in the CrossFit world.

Whether you’re bored of going to the gym by yourself, want to incorporate some strength training alongside your running workouts or want to see what your body is capable of, both CrossFit and Hyrox promise to help you get fitter, faster and stronger. Read on to see how they compare.

What is Hyrox training and why is it so popular?

Hyrox races can be completed individually or as part of a doubles or relay team (Hyrox)

Hyrox is a functional fitness workout designed for everybody. Wherever you are in the world, the format is the same. A race involves eight 1k runs interspersed with eight different functional fitness movements. These are designed to be straightforward, natural, and do not require any specific skills, such as Olympic weightlifting or handstand walking that you might find at CrossFit.

The type of exercises you’ll do during Hyrox are sandbag lunges, burpee broad jumps, rowing and kettlebell carrying, all of which are fairly safe to perform and easily done by the average gym-goer so people can compete straight away, without needing to spend hours practising techniques.

“We wanted to create a competition that is accessible and replicates exactly what people were already doing in the gym,” says Hyrox co-founder Christian Toetzke who co-founded the fitness movement with hockey player Moritz Furste.

To make their events suitable for everybody, Hyrox provides four different race divisions to create an inclusive competition for all fitness levels. First up is open, a standard Hyrox race, which is challenging but accessible to most gym-goers. Doubles is where you work as a pair and both run the 1km races but split up the functional fitness exercises, which is similar to the relay teams that you can split between four individuals. Finally, there’s an individual pro race for more experienced athletes with heavier weights. A questionnaire on the website to help you determine your Hyrox fitness level.

Hyrox master trainer Jake Dearden says: “The atmosphere at every Hyrox is amazing. There’s a DJ, lots of vendors and the room is laid out in such a way that spectating is very easy, allowing you to watch a competitor from start to finish. This makes the whole day very entertaining, even if you’re not competing.”

How is Hyrox different to CrossFit?

While Hyrox and CrossFit are both high-intensity workouts that challenge the whole body, there are some key differences between the two. The first difference is the amount of running involved in competitions. Running makes up half of a Hyrox race, which is far more than you get in a CrossFit race.

The second is the exercises, as CrossFit workouts incorporate more advanced techniques that take months if not years to master – think walking handstands, gymnastics ring push-ups and double unders rope jumping. In Hyrox, most people could attempt all the exercises without practising much in advance. This means you normally need to go to a standalone CrossFit gym to do CrossFit workouts as you’ll be using a much wider variety of equipment. Hyrox workouts take place in partner gyms such as Fitness First or The Gym Group and you can search the Hyrox website to find your nearest partner gym.

If you’re planning on working up to competitions, you’ll find that Hyrox events are always the same. This is very different to CrossFit, where you need to practise several movements and you won’t know exactly what you’re doing until a few hours beforehand.

What does a typical Hyrox workout look like?

Wall balls are the brutal finisher in a Hyrox race (Hyrox)

A Hyrox race consists of the following (and is completed in exactly this order):

• 1km run
• 1km ski erg
• 1km run
• 50m sled push
• 1km run
• 50m sled pull
• 1km run
• 80m burpee broad jump
• 1km run
• 1km row erg
• 1km run
• 200m farmers carry
• 1km run
• 100m walking lunge
• 1km run
• 100 wall balls

To practise for this, it’s a good idea to combine running and strength and conditioning movements to develop your capacity and strength and understand how it feels to pair these movements together.

An example 60-minute workout supplied by Jake Dearden, Hyrox master trainer consists of five repetitions of:

• 0 to two mins - 400m run
• Two to four mins - 400m ski
• Four to six mins – 50m burpee broad jumps
• Four to eight mins – 50m walking lunges
• Eight to 10 mins – 100m farmers carry @ 2 x 16kg / 24kg
• 10 to 12 mins – 30 wall balls @ 3kg / 6kg / 9kg

What does a typical CrossFit workout look like?

CrossFit involves a variety of Olympic weightlifting moves (Unsplash / John Arano)

A typical CrossFit workout changes daily but at its core, it has four elements: a warm-up, strength work, workout of the day (WOD), and cool down. Each workout consists of a mixture of Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, gymnastics, and HIIT cardio.

The warm-up usually consists of light cardio such as two minutes on the Ski erg, assault bike or rowing machine, followed by stretching to open up the hip flexors and help with ankle mobility for squats. For the strength part, you’ll likely do back squats, front squats, bench, deadlifts, snatches or clean and jerks. The main part is the WOD, which changes daily, but you can expect to spend 20 minutes doing as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) of a set of exercises. One set could be 15 wall balls, 10 box jumps, 10 toes to bar and 50 double under jump ropes or 100 singles, repeated over and over for 20 minutes. You’ll have deserved a cool down after that.

How hard is Hyrox?

(Hyrox)

If you’re pushing yourself to get faster and fitter, Hyrox is satisfyingly challenging. The fastest time for a woman to complete a Hyrox race is 58 minutes and 58 seconds and the average finishing time is 1.5 hours, making it more of a commitment than your local ParkRun, for example. Pulling and pushing sleds will leave your arms, quads and glutes burning, especially if you’re aiming to do it in a certain amount of time.

In a race, the 100m of walking lunges at the end of the event are particularly painful on legs that are tired from running. The amount of running needed is another factor that makes Hyrox challenging and you do need to be comfortable running 8km if you want to take it seriously. If you’re not great at running, you may want to prepare.

How hard is CrossFit?

CrossFit has a reputation for being brutal, which can scare many people away. There are stories of athletes vomiting after pushing themselves to the limit and being unable to walk properly the following day. However, if you find a good CrossFit gym, the trained coaches will be well-practised in scaling workouts to people’s abilities, even beginners. Air squats could be performed to a more shallow depth, for example, and you could modify push-ups to knee push-ups or step onto boxes rather than jump.

Box jumps are one skill you’ll need to master for CrossFit (Unsplash / Megan Holmes)

Once you’ve worked your way up, CrossFit workouts are brutal with expert athletes mastering a variety of gymnastics and Olympic weightlifting skills. But that doesn’t mean you need to do that on day one. CrossFit will show you what you’re capable of right now and then push you a little harder at each workout until you have better technique and can do it faster.

Hyrox vs CrossFit: The verdict

Hyrox is more accessible than CrossFit and has the appeal of knowing what you’re getting yourself into as the races are the same around the world. If you enjoy running, it gives you a chance to work strength training into your fitness plan while still being able to hit the treadmill (or the pavements).

At the top level, CrossFit is harder, as you need to become an expert at hundreds of movements to prepare for the few that come up in a race. But Hyrox does offer progression with the opportunity to compete at a pro level and lift heavier weights once you’ve whittled down your time for a standard race.

Hyrox vs CrossFit FAQs

Are Hyrox and CrossFit good for weight loss?

Both Hyrox and CrossFit training sessions are intense and involve a mixture of cardio, strength, and endurance. Training for the event can help burn calories, which will result in weight loss if you stick to a calorie-controlled diet.

Hyrox expert Jake Dearden shares: “Hyrox training can certainly be a great tool for weight loss, it combines cardio with resistance training leading to a high caloric output. When accompanied by a calorie deficit and a good balanced diet it is a fantastic form of training to get in shape. However, it is important that you fuel yourself enough when training for a race in order to recover and perform at optimum levels.”

As Hyrox and CrossFit include functional movements and weights, you’ll find that they’re good for making muscles look toned so you look leaner.

How do I find Hyrox competitions in London?

The next Hyrox competition in London takes place in London Olympia in Kensington from 4 May to 6 May. To register for this event and be notified of other London events, sign up for the mailing list on the Hyrox website.

How do I find CrossFit competitions in London?

Unlike Hyrox, only the best people get invited to a CrossFit Games arena event. However, everyone can take part in the open events in their local CrossFit gym. Between now and 18 March, register on the CrossFit website to receive all the information you need to take part. You’ll receive scores at your local gym, and the top 25 per cent of participants by age group will be invited to the quarter-finals.

Have you not got time to go to a gym? Read our review of the best at-home gym equipment