If you’ve spent any time on TikTok recently, chances are you’ve seen someone dragging a weighted sled across a warehouse floor while looking simultaneously exhausted and exhilerated. Welcome to the world of Hyrox: the fitness event attracting everyone from marathon runners and gym lads to super-shredded 70somethings.
Part race, part functional fitness event, Hyrox combines eight 1km runs with workout stations including rowing, ski ergs, lunges, burpees and a truly distressing sled push. And while people online love describing it as ‘fun’, your first Hyrox can feel more like being repeatedly humiliated for two hours in public – all while a professional photographer eternalises it on film.
The good news? You absolutely do not need £300 trainers and a bougie gym membership to survive it. In fact, some of the things that made the biggest difference when I entered the Red Bull Night Shift Hyrox Invitational were surprisingly cheap – and made all that difference when I nearly gave up 6km in.
A giant hoodie
If you take one thing from this article, let it be this: get there early. Hyrox is unbelievably busy. There are queues for bag drop, queues for toilets, queues for warm-up areas and roughly 5,000 people all foam-rolling aggressively at the same time. The last thing you want is arriving stressed, flustered and sprinting round the venue before you’ve even started.
I made the mistake of thinking I could casually rock up an hour beforehand and immediately realised everyone else had treated it like Glastonbury gates opening. Most locations are set out like huge warehouses, which means not only is it tricky to beat the crowds, but also to find your bearings.
And because you often end up hanging around beforehand, a giant zip-up hoodie or oversized sweatshirt becomes essential. There’s a really effectively-run bag drop, so you don’t need to worry about ditching it at the start line, as with many organised races.
Plus afterwards, you’ll want something comforting to throw on while sitting on the floor trying to remember how legs work.
Grippy gloves
Nobody really warns you how sore your hands get during Hyrox. Between sled pulls, rowing and kettlebell carries, your palms take an absolute battering – especially if you don’t regularly do functional fitness training.
The sled pull in particular suddenly becomes much harder when your hands are sweaty and your grip strength disappears halfway through. A cheap pair of grippy gym gloves makes a huge difference, especially during the later stations when fatigue kicks in properly.
And unlike some Hyrox gear, you can get perfectly decent pairs on Amazon for under £15 rather than spending loads on branded kit you’ll probably never use again.
Lightweight trainers
I massively underestimated how much the running matters. Because yes, there are strength stations, but there’s also EIGHT separate 1km runs – which means your trainers suddenly become very important very quickly.
A lot of people make the mistake of wearing heavy lifting shoes because they’re worried about the sled push. But in truth, lighter trainers with decent support make a huge difference once fatigue kicks in and your body starts feeling heavy.
You also spend so much of the race transitioning quickly between running and stations that clunky shoes become annoying fast. By the final few kilometres, you basically want anything that makes your legs feel even slightly less terrible.
You don’t need fancy carbon marathon shoes, but something breathable and comfortable that’s designed for hybrid training will make the whole thing significantly easier.
Proper running socks
Possibly the least exciting purchase imaginable, but genuinely one of the most important. Because while everyone obsesses over trainers, your feet are spending a huge amount of time sweating, rubbing and repeatedly slamming into the floor. Cheap little trainer socks from the back of your drawer are basically a one-way ticket to disgusting feet for the next two months.
Not to mention once your feet start hurting, the entire race suddenly becomes about 50% more mentally difficult. Especially because there’s no point where you’re properly stopping – you’re constantly moving between stations, running and walking around the arena.
A decent pair of cushioned running socks that actually stay in place makes the whole experience far more comfortable, particularly once sweat gets involved (trust me, it will).
Electrolytes
I don’t think I have ever sweated more than I did during the Hyrox (including when I ran the marathon in 22C heat). Which is why electrolytes matter far more than people realise.
Loads of first-timers focus heavily on protein but completely forget about hydration until they’re feeling weirdly dizzy after the runs. And because the atmosphere is so intense – loud music, crowds, adrenaline – it’s easy to underestimate how much fluid you’re actually losing.
You also don’t need expensive influencer wellness sachets in aesthetic packaging. Basic electrolyte tablets from Boots work perfectly well and make a massive difference afterwards, particularly if you don’t want to wake up the next morning feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus.
A running belt for gels and snacks
One of the strangest parts of Hyrox is how quickly your energy can disappear. You can feel absolutely fine one minute, then suddenly hit a wall out of nowhere because of the stop-start nature of the rounds.
Having somewhere to stash a gel, sweets or electrolytes without awkwardly carrying things around makes life much easier, particularly if it’s your first event and you’re not entirely sure how your body will react.
There’s also something psychologically reassuring about knowing you’ve got emergency Haribo available if things become bleak (during the final wall balls, they will). A cheap running belt from Decathlon works completely fine – you really don’t need anything fancy. Just make sure it doesn’t ride up and annoy you on one practice run.
A Red Bull waiting for you halfway round
Is it elite sports nutrition? Probably not. Did it feel unbelievable halfway through? Absolutely.
If you’ve got friends or family watching, get them to hold a cold Red Bull somewhere around the middle of the race. By that point, your legs are usually on fire, your energy has dipped dramatically and morale is hanging by a thread.
Seeing caffeine appear from the crowd after the sled push felt like, I kid you not, the best thing that had ever happened to me. And honestly, the tiny psychological boost alone probably carried me through another couple of stations.
You can book upcoming Hyrox races here
