In this episode of the Fitness Edda, Coach Erik explains the similarities and differences between CrossFit and Hyrox, as well as how to train for Hyrox in general, and how to transition from CrossFit to Hyrox. The transcript is below the video.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:47 What is CrossFit?
03:35 What is Hyrox?
05:16 Similarities and Differences
10:21 How to Train for Them?

Introduction:

What’s going on everybody? Coach Erik Castiglione here from Viking Athletics, and welcome back to the Fitness Edda! I am your host as always. It’s been a little while since we’ve done one of these. Been a hectic few months and obviously there’s a lot going on and I try not to wade too far into the realm of public health – vaccines and all that. So, I’ve largely stayed out of things for the last three months or so.

In any case, today’s topic: we are discussing CrossFit versus Hyrox. There was an April Fool’s joke that was going around that the two had merged and they were forming CrossRox. Pretty funny. I have a member in our gym that’s routinely sending me Instagram reels making fun of Hyrox since we are a CrossFit affiliate. And there’s some confusion as to which is which, what the differences are, what the similarities are, and to the uninitiated they may seem like the same thing.

It is amusing to me how territorial CrossFitters get. We’ve seen this throughout history with other events that I call yuppie fun weekends, Spartans, Tough Mudders, Bone Frogs, all that fun stuff. I don’t understand the hate. I really don’t. You know, do what makes you happy. But we’re going to dive in a little bit. We’re going to talk about similarities, the differences, what each one is. So, if you’re brand new to this you’ll hopefully get some clarity.

What is CrossFit?

So, we’re starting off what is CrossFit, and I’ve highlighted constantly varied. That is a key point. CrossFit is defined as constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity. The goal is to improve work capacity across broad time and modal domains. In layman’s terms, you are building general fitness. You’re trying to be good; I shouldn’t say good; you’re trying to be proficient at numerous things.

Whether that is endurance, you want to have a solid base. Whether that is high power output, you want to be powerful, you need to be able to move your body through space, you need to be able to manage external objects, whether they’re dumbbells, medicine balls, rowers, bikes, etc. And the goal is to prepare for the unknown and the unknowable. So that is the idea of general fitness. You can handle whatever gets thrown at you.

On top of that, this is from World Class Fitness in 100 Words by Greg Glassman: “Eat meat and vegetables, nut and seeds, some fruit, a little starch and no sugar. Keep intake at levels that will support exercise but not excess body fat.” So the nutrition piece is also important when it comes to CrossFit. It is not just exercise, it is not classes, it is a training and nutrition methodology. It all goes together. Just doing a class does not mean that you are following CrossFit. It is a methodology and it pretty much dictates how you live your life for the most part.

What is Hyrox?

Hyrox, on the other hand, is a fitness race. It is an event, and it is always the same. It is eight stations with a one kilometer run before each station. So, the whole list is right here. It’s a one kilometer run, a 1k ski, a 1k run, and a 50 meter sled push. You’re going down and back 25 meters and the weights are up to 202 kilos. That’s including the weight of the sled and that depends on which division you’re in. So, the heaviest division is the men’s pro. Those are the weights that I have listed here because that is what you may get up to.

1k run, 50 k row, 1k run, 200 meter farmers carry, 1k run, 100 meter sandbag walking lunges, 1k run, and then 100 wall balls. So, if you are a professional male athlete you have to be able to push a sled that weighs 202 kilograms. Multiply that by 2.2 and you’ll get that in pounds. So that’s what is that? 404 plus 40.4 about  450 pounds you’re pushing down and back. Sounds like a lot. For sled push that’s really not terrible. We have ladies in our gym that are routinely pushing upwards of 300-400 pounds. It’s doable.

What’s the Difference?

So why is there confusion between the two? Well, it’s largely because of the movements. You will see all of these movements more or less in CrossFit classes. CrossFit is focused on building well-rounded fitness. So, it basically pulls from every other discipline out there, whether that’s gymnastics, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, running, rowing, biking, skiing.

The founder of CrossFit used to have days where people would show up to the gym and he would tell them “Your workout today, you’re going mountain biking. Here’s a bike. Have at it!” Again, the goal was to be very, very well rounded. So, you’re going to do a little bit of everything.

Wallballs are not commonly seen outside of the CrossFit space. CrossFit has also really popularized sled work. Farmer’s Carries, the CrossFit Games, have showcased that a lot. And they’ve made significant use of Concept2 machines like SkiErg and rowing. So, because of the movements that are used in both, people get confused and they see it as kind of the same thing.

I listed the time domain, which is both a similarity and a difference. I believe the average Hyrox time is around an hour and 45 minutes. If you’re taking a CrossFit class, your classes are going to run about an hour. If you are following the methodology throughout your whole life, not just taking classes. If you follow CrossFit.com, I think it was the most cherry-picked workout of all time. Cherry picking is what we call it when you only do the workouts that you want and avoid the other ones.

You will occasionally see a 10k run pop up and I think very few people would do that one. Another one is a hero workout called Clovis. I’ve done it I think twice in my life. Never again. And that is a 10 mile run and 150 burpee pull-ups. And again, that’s right around the hour 45 to two hour mark. So, the occasional CrossFit workout is going to push that super long time domain.

But I would actually call it more of a difference than anything else. The vast majority of your CrossFit workouts are shorter and high intensity. You get the occasional hero WOD. Murph tends to run 40 minutes to 70 minutes, but for the most part, CrossFit workouts tend to be shorter.

So, the time domain for Hyrox is always longer than CrossFit. All right, I’m sorry, it’s not always longer, but it’s always that length. You’re looking at, I think the world record is like 53 minutes. So, contrast that with CrossFit workouts that are known for being 7 to 10 minutes. You get a difference in the time domain.

Another key difference is power versus endurance. The various movements that CrossFit uses, the disciplines that it steals from, tend to be cycling weights. I’m lifting a weight for multiple reps. So, I’m performing a power movement and then I’m resting to recover and then do it again. And it is your ability to recover from high power output and continue to display power. It is power versus endurance.

Yeah, there’s a little bit of power output in Hyrox events. That sled push doesn’t need to be fast. You’re not sprinting with it. You’re continuously moving. It’s a little bit more power than just straight running. It’s kind of equivalent to a hill climb. But the vast majority of what you’re doing in a Hyrox event is cardiovascular and muscular endurance. It is a much longer time domain, and you have to sustain constant output as opposed to the peaks and valleys of power output that you’re likely to see in CrossFit events.

CrossFit again, the goal is to prepare for the unknown and the unknowable. So, you’re going to do a little bit of everything. Hyrox is the same no matter where you do it. It is the same event. It is known; it is fixed. Lot easier to train for that because you know exactly what you need to do.

And again, general versus specific. So, CrossFit is designed to build general fitness. You will still be aerobically fit with Hyrox. You don’t need to have as much high power output. You don’t need to be able to squat 400 pounds to push a 450 pound sled.

How to Train for Them?

So how are you going to train for this? Again, CrossFit is a methodology. So, you want to try to follow that. Whether that means you’re following CrossFit.com, which is free. It’s always been open source. Or you can do CrossFit on your own. There are other paid programming outlets out there that follow the CrossFit methodology. There’s a ton of resources that you can pay for.

Or you can join an affiliate and have them do it for you. And you do what they tell you. You show up to class. You follow the methodology. You perform the workouts in class. And you check in with your coach when it comes to diet and nutrition. You’re going to be practicing a variety of different skills, again, CrossFit steals from many different disciplines, and you’re going to cross numerous different time domains.

I think the best affiliates out there tend to also sponsor fitness outside of the gym, whether you’re going for a hike or, you know, we’ve had people in the gym get together and actually do Spartan races. My last gym, we did a Tough Mudder together. Using your fitness outside of the gym, but the vast majority of what you’re going to be doing is following the CrossFit program, whether that’s an affiliate or on your own.

If you want to train for Hyrox, you need to focus on endurance above all else. You need to build a solid running base. So, if you wanted to transition from CrossFit to Hyrox, you’re going to need to supplement two to three days of CrossFit a week with a couple of days of longer runs just to build that aerobic base.

We mentioned power output versus endurance. Some of our most competitive athletes in my CrossFit gym, you tell them to sit on a rower for 30 minutes and keep their heart rate under 150 beats per minute and it was excruciatingly boring for them to do so. And they were very good at operating with a very high heart rate for a long time, but keeping their heart rate under 150 was difficult for them to do for that long.

So, what does that tell us? Again, a lot of, I shouldn’t say Games athletes, but if you’re looking at local level CrossFitters that are super high level, that was a gap in their training is that aerobic base. They had to row very, very slowly compared to their usual pace in order to keep their heart rate down. So, their zone two cardio is not very well developed.

So, if you’re going to go from CrossFit to Hyrox that would be my number one tip is start doing a lot more long slow cardio two to three days a week. Focus on running. You should be flying for a thousand meter row. We do that a lot in CrossFit anyway.

If you are new to the fitness game and you’re trying to train for Hyrox, training looks largely the same. Focus on endurance first. This is a long event. Start building up your running capacity. It’s eight kilometers total of running which is like 4.9, it’s just shy of five miles. You want to be able to build that base and then you want to start piecing it together, practicing various stations and coupling that with runs.

I would also attempt a trial run and see kind of where you’re lacking. So, It may mean that your 1k row took you six minutes. That means that you really need to improve your rowing. Great, continue running and then if you want to, you know, on your off days from running build your rowing. Focus on row power. Focus on strokes and your form and all that.

Practice each station and spend more time on the stations that are giving you the most trouble. It is a known event. It is very easy to find where you’re weak. Build those weaknesses into strengths. Find the next place where you’re weak. Make that a strength and keep working on it and eventually you get faster. So again, it really comes down to specific versus general when you know what your event is.

It’s a lot easier to train for, I shouldn’t say easy, it’s a lot simpler to train for. It is easy to come up with a training plan. If you’re putting in appropriate effort, it will always be a challenge.

Which one’s better? Again, we see a lot of hate from the CrossFit world making fun of Hyrox and I just don’t get it. It’s all exercise, do what you enjoy. If you want to be an endurance athlete, have at it. I would recommend that you supplement with strength work to keep your joints healthy and to strengthen your tissues so that you’re more resilient for injury. If you want to be a strength athlete, you still need to build your aerobic base so that you can recover and that your heart health doesn’t go to shit.

If you’re doing CrossFit, don’t let CrossFit become your life. Use your fitness outside of the gym, whether that’s mountain biking, hiking, doing a Hyrox event. It’s a lot more fun when you have variety. So, pick what you enjoy, challenge yourselves, and go from there.

And if you need help training for either event, whether you want to do CrossFit, whether you want to just get in shape, or whether you are specifically training for a Hyrox, feel free to hit me up. I’m more than happy to help train people for Hyrox and have in the past.

My last athlete to do one between her trial run and the actual event day, shaved like six minutes off her time. And that was largely due to us working on specific stations. So, reach out if you need help, but otherwise, like I said, it’s all exercise, there’s no wrong answer. Pick what you enjoy. We’ll see you guys’ next time.