How fit do I need to be to start Hyrox training?

You need to be able to run a few kilometres continuously and perform basic strength movements safely. If you cannot yet, spend four to eight weeks building that base before starting a race block.

How many days a week should I train for Hyrox?

Five is a good target for a first race: two strength, two easy runs and one compromised running session. Four works if life is busy. Six only if recovery is genuinely handled.

Should I do the singles or doubles division for a first Hyrox?

Doubles is a gentler entry because you split the station work with a partner. Singles gives you the complete experience. Either is a legitimate first race.

HYROX

How do I train for Hyrox as a beginner over 40?

Give yourself twelve to sixteen weeks. Run three times a week with most of it easy, lift twice, and add one session per week where you run immediately after a station so your legs learn what compromised running feels like. Practice the sled and the wall balls specifically, because those two decide most first races.

ANSWERED BY SELINA LEBLANC · UPDATED AUGUST 11, 2026

The format is fixed: eight runs of one kilometre, each followed by a station. Ski erg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, row, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, wall balls.

The weekly structure that works

2 strength days. Squat, hinge, press, pull, carry. Six to ten reps, progressive load. Keep these in the plan all the way to race week.
2 easy runs. Conversational pace. This is where the aerobic base actually gets built, and it is the part beginners skip because it feels too easy.
1 compromised running session. Alternate 400m to 1000m of running with a station. This is the single most race-specific thing you can do.
1 optional station skills day. Sled technique, wall ball rhythm, burpee broad jump pacing.

The two things that decide a first race

The sled. It is heavier than people expect and it punishes bad technique. Low body angle, short choppy steps, constant pressure. Train it with heavy pushes and pulls, or with heavy sustained leg work if you do not have a sled.

Wall balls. They come last, when you are cooked, and they are where races fall apart. Practice sets of fifteen to twenty unbroken when fresh, then practice them tired. Dual RX targets differ by division, so train to the standard you will actually race.

Pacing

Run the first kilometre slower than feels right. Almost everyone goes out too fast and pays for it from station four onward. The race is decided in the second half.

What being over 40 changes

Not the plan. The recovery around it. Keep hard days genuinely hard and easy days genuinely easy, keep protein up, and take the deload week when the plan says to rather than when your body forces it.

Three weeks out

Do one full or partial simulation so nothing on race day is a surprise. Then taper: keep the intensity, cut the volume.