The Perfect HYROX Station Workout

The perfect HYROX® station workout is all eight stations in race order, each cut into pieces: 4 x 250 m ski erg, 4 x 12.5 m sled push, 4 x 12.5 m sled pull, 4 x 20 m burpee broad jumps, 4 x 250 m row, 4 x 50 m farmers carry, 4 x 25 m sandbag lunges and 5 x 20 wall balls. Add it up and it's exactly one race of station work, with rest where the 8 km of running would be.

It's for anyone with a HYROX on the calendar: first-timers who need to meet every station before race day, and lifters who want race work instead of another leg day. Open or Pro, men or women: the loads change, the workout doesn't.

Why these stations, in this order?

Race order, because that's the order you'll meet them. The sleds come early, on fresher legs, like on race day. The lunges and the wall balls come last, on tired legs, like on race day.

Every dose adds up to the race distance. 4 x 250 m is the 1000 m ski. 4 x 12.5 m is the 50 m push. 5 x 20 is the 100 wall balls. You do the whole race's station work, in pieces small enough to hit hard.

That matters, because the stations are not the small part of HYROX. In the 2025/26 season the eight stations were 44% of the average Open man's race and 43% of the average Open woman's. And the last one separates finishers the most: Open men who finished in 1:35–1:40 spent 2:31 longer on the wall balls than men who finished in 1:15–1:20, more than on any other station.

The workout, station by station

Warm up for 10 minutes first. Load is race weight for your division unless the station says heavy: then it's race weight or more. Race times are the 2025/26 medians for the full station: 174,215 Open men and 98,478 Open women.

First station of the race, and the easiest place to blow up: fresh legs make everyone go out too hard.

• How: Start tall, arms up. Drive the handles down with your lats and a hip hinge, knees soft, and finish with your hands past your hips. Let the handles pull you back up.
• Rest: 1 min.
• Scale down: 4 x 200 m. No ski erg? Row the same distance.
• Scale up: cut the rest to 30 s.
• Race time: 4:35 for the median Open man, 5:18 for the median Open woman.

Same pace all four. Legs and hips, not arms.

Where lifters make their money. Heavy legs here, heavy legs for the rest of the race, so learn to push it fast without emptying the tank.

• Load: race weight or heavier. Open 152 kg (335 lb) men, 102 kg (225 lb) women. Pro 202 kg (445 lb) men, 152 kg (335 lb) women. The sled counts.
• How: Hips low, back flat, arms straight or bent. Short fast steps to break it loose, then long drives. Whole sled over the line, then change ends.
• Rest: 2 min.
• Scale down: a lighter sled, same 12.5 m. No sled? Push a weight plate along turf.
• Scale up: the Pro load, or 90 s rest.
• Race time: 3:07 for the median Open man, 2:56 for the median Open woman.

Hips low. Never let it stop.

Straight after the push in the race, so it comes straight after the push here. Your grip and your back do the work; your biceps just hold on.

• Load: Open 103 kg (227 lb) men, 78 kg (172 lb) women. Pro 153 kg (337 lb) men, 103 kg (227 lb) women.
• How: Sit back, heels down, arms long. Pull hand over hand and lean your bodyweight into every pull. Keep the rope in a pile beside you, never under your feet.
• Rest: 90 s, until your grip is back.
• Scale down: a lighter sled. No sled? A rope-pull machine, or heavy rows.
• Scale up: the Pro load.
• Race time: 4:59 for the median Open man, 5:48 for the median Open woman.

Sit back. Let your bodyweight pull.

Steady, not fast. 80 m in the race is a lot of burpees, and the jump you can repeat beats the jump you can't.

• Standard: chest to the floor on every burpee, both feet leave the floor together on every jump.
• How: Step or jump back, chest down, push up, then jump forward off both feet. Land, and go straight into the next one.
• Rest: 1 min.
• Scale down: 4 x 10 m, or step back and up instead of jumping.
• Scale up: 2 x 40 m, half the race each.
• Race time: 5:36 for the median Open man, 6:45 for the median Open woman.

Same rhythm, every rep.

The only seat in the race. Use it to hold a pace, not to set a personal best.

• How: Legs, then hips, then arms. Arms, hips, legs on the way back. Long strokes, not fast ones.
• Rest: 1 min.
• Scale down: 4 x 200 m. No rower? Ski the same distance.
• Scale up: cut the rest to 30 s.
• Race time: 4:53 for the median Open man, 5:32 for the median Open woman.

Push with the legs. Don't rush the slide.

It's walking with weights. Your grip decides how fast, so train it heavy and never put them down.

• Load: heavy means race weight or more. Open 2 x 24 kg (2 x 53 lb) men, 2 x 16 kg (2 x 35 lb) women. Pro 2 x 32 kg (2 x 71 lb) men, 2 x 24 kg (2 x 53 lb) women.
• How: Stand tall, shoulders down, squeeze the handles. Short, fast steps. Walk, don't stroll.
• Rest: 90 s.
• Scale down: lighter bells or dumbbells, still no set-downs.
• Scale up: the next bell up.
• Race time: 2:11 for the median Open man, 2:19 for the median Open woman.

Short fast steps. Don't put them down.

Seventh station, legs already gone, run 8 and the wall balls still to come. This is where the race starts to hurt.

• Load: Open 20 kg (44 lb) men, 10 kg (22 lb) women. Pro 30 kg (66 lb) men, 20 kg (44 lb) women.
• Standard: back knee touches the floor on every rep.
• How: Bag across your shoulders, chest up. Step long enough that your back knee lands under your hip, then drive up through the front heel.
• Rest: 90 s.
• Scale down: dumbbells, or walking lunges with no weight.
• Scale up: the Pro bag.
• Race time: 5:20 for the median Open man, 5:13 for the median Open woman.

Knee down every rep. Chest up.

Dead last, and the station that separates finishers most. Five sets of 20 teaches you to break the 100 before it breaks you.

• Load: Open 6 kg (13 lb) ball to 3 m (9 ft 10 in) men, 4 kg (9 lb) to 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in) women. Pro 9 kg (20 lb) to 3 m men, 6 kg (13 lb) to 2.7 m women.
• Standard: full-depth squat, and the ball hits the target.
• How: Squat to depth, drive up with the legs and let your hips throw the ball. Catch it high and ride it down into the next rep.
• Rest: a few breaths between sets, at the wall. That's it.
• Scale down: 5 x 15, or dumbbell thrusters.
• Scale up: 4 x 25, then 2 x 50.
• Race time: 7:11 for the median Open man, 6:51 for the median Open woman.

Break before you fail. Failed reps don't count.

How do you fit it into your week?

Once a week, as your station day. Everything around it is running, because running is the limiter in HYROX: the eight runs were 47% of the average Open man's race. Three rules:

1. 48 hours to your long run. There are two sleds in this workout. Keep it two days away from your long run.
2. No hard run the next day. A quality run on cooked legs builds fatigue, not fitness.
3. Keep your run after station work. Once a week, stations straight into 1 km runs. This workout doesn't replace it.

Around it, the week needs three runs: the run after station work, faster 1 km intervals and a long easy run. Put them where the three rules allow and the order is yours.

Race week, skip it: your last hard session is at least three days before the race. Want the whole week written out? The Perfect HYROX Week is the free plan.

Common mistakes

• Racing the rest. The rest is the point. It lets you hit every piece at race effort or harder. Cut it short and you've built a slow race.
• A light sled. Heavy means race weight or more, and race weight includes the sled. Weigh it.
• Wall balls to failure. In the race, a failed rep is a no-rep you do again. Break before.
• Half reps. Chest to the floor on every burpee, knee to the floor on every lunge, full depth on every wall ball. Train the standard or the judge will teach it to you on race day.
• Training all eight forever. Use this workout to find your two weakest stations, then give those two the next four weeks. Training all eight equally every week is the classic mistake.
• Skipping the running. This is the station half of HYROX. The running is the bigger half.

Want the numbers behind each station? The breakdowns for the sled push and the wall balls have the times for every division.