The 8 HYROX Stations: Technique, Pacing & Training

The station order never changes: every HYROX in the world runs the same eight, in the same sequence, each preceded by a 1 km run. That predictability is a gift — you can rehearse the exact race. The catch is that you enter every station already breathing hard, which is full HYROX training demands in miniature: nothing here is hard fresh, and none of it happens fresh. For each station below: what it taxes, where the time goes, and how to train it in a normal gym.

The eight HYROX stations

1. SkiErg — 1,000 m

An upper-body aerobic effort driven by the lats and trunk, not the arms. It opens the race, which makes it the most commonly botched station: adrenaline says sprint, and every second under your sustainable pace here is repaid on the next seven runs. Train with 3×1,000 m pieces at a controlled, even split, learning the hinge-and-pull rhythm. Time lost: going out at maximum and drifting 20 seconds slower per 500 by the end.

The most common technique mistake is pulling with the arms and finishing the stroke with a bicep curl, which burns the smallest muscles in the chain within 300 metres. The fix is to start every stroke tall with straight arms, drive the handles down by hinging at the hips and letting your bodyweight fall, and only then finish with a short pull past the ribs. Reset by rising fully before the next stroke. If your damper is above 6, drop it to 4–5: heavy drag hides poor sequencing and costs you the last 400 metres.

2. Sled Push — 50 m

The biggest leg-strength tax in the event, and the station where race day surprises people most — competition carpet is far slower than any gym track. Time is lost by stopping mid-lane and by pushing too upright: get low, arms locked, and drive with short punchy steps. Train heavy prowler pushes (6×20 m with full recoveries) and high-bar squats. No sled? Steep-incline treadmill hiking with the power off, or heavy plate pushes on turf.

The mistake almost everyone makes is pushing too upright with bent arms, which turns the sled into an upper-body exercise it was never meant to be. The fix is a straight line from hands to heels: arms locked, hips low, chest well ahead of your feet, so your legs drive through a rigid frame rather than through your elbows. Take short, punchy, continuous steps rather than long lunging ones — the sled slows the instant you stop, and restarting a stationary sled costs several times more than keeping a slow one moving.

3. Sled Pull — 50 m

Posterior chain and grip: hand-over-hand rope pulling that exposes any weakness in your back, hamstrings and forearms. Time is lost pulling with the arms alone and letting slack build in the rope — brace, lean back, and pull with your hips and lats in long strokes. Train hand-over-hand cable rows and heavy rack pulls; towel-grip pulldowns are a fine substitute for the rope.

The common error is standing tall and reeling the rope in with the arms while the feet stay planted, which leaves slack in the line and lets the sled stop between pulls. Fix it by sitting back into a low, braced position with the hips loaded and the rope kept under constant tension, pulling in long strokes from the lats and driving through the heels. Many athletes also forget the rules allow you to move within the box — stepping back as you pull and gathering the rope efficiently is worth more time than raw back strength.

4. Burpee Broad Jumps — 80 m

Deceptively aerobic — the station that redlines heart rate fastest. The mistake is jumping far: maximum-distance leaps feel productive and cost double. Smooth, submaximal reps at around 60–70% effort, landing soft and stepping straight into the next burpee, beat explosive ones every time. Train it in sets of 10 at that deliberately restrained effort until the rhythm is automatic.

Beyond over-jumping, the technique mistake that costs the most is standing all the way up before jumping, adding a wasted rep of hip extension eighty times over. The fix is to land the jump, drop straight into the burpee from where you are, and come out of the chest-to-floor position into the jump without an intermediate stand. Keep the arms swinging in rhythm and breathe on a fixed count — the athletes who redline here are usually holding their breath through every rep without noticing.

5. Rowing — 1,000 m

The one station where good athletes recover. Legs and back share the load, and if you resist the urge to sprint the first 300 m you can settle your heart rate noticeably while still moving well. Train 2,000 m pieces at a conversationally-hard split so race pace feels routine. Time lost: attacking the first ten pulls and paying for it on the lunges two stations later.

Technically, the recurring fault is opening the back too early — leaning away from the machine before the legs have finished driving, which shortens the stroke and loads the lower back on a station that should be restful. The sequence is legs, then hips, then arms, with the reverse order on the recovery. Aim for a low stroke rate with strong pulls, around 24–26 strokes a minute; high rates with weak strokes cost breathing you need for the farmers carry that follows.

6. Farmers Carry — 200 m

Grip, traps, and trunk stability under load. The only real failure mode is putting the weights down — every drop costs 10–15 seconds and they get harder to pick up each time. Train heavy carries, 4×40 m, heavier than race weight, so the race-day kettlebells feel routine. Dumbbells or a trap bar substitute fine.

The mistake is gripping the handles as hard as possible from the first metre and shrugging the weights up towards the ears. Both accelerate forearm failure. Hook the fingers rather than crushing the handles, let the shoulders sit down and back with the ribs stacked over the hips, and take quick short steps so the weights swing as little as possible. Plan a single deliberate reset at the halfway turn if you need one — a chosen pause is far cheaper than an emergency drop at 160 metres.

7. Sandbag Lunges — 100 m

Late-race leg endurance with a bag on your shoulders, and the station that most brutally audits your strength reserves. Time is lost through short shuffling steps and repeated rests with the bag down. Train walking lunges — back-loaded, building toward 100 m unbroken — and the race version becomes a grind instead of a crisis.

The technique fault that ends most lunge stations is letting the torso fold forward under the bag, which shifts the load onto the lower back and shortens every step. Fix it by carrying the sandbag high across the traps with the elbows down, ribs stacked, and eyes forward, then taking a consistent step length that you could hold for the full hundred metres rather than the longest step you can manage fresh. Knee to the floor lightly each rep — bouncing off the ground is a no-rep risk and a quad tax you cannot afford this late.

8. Wall Balls — 100 reps

The finisher. Legs, shoulders and breathing fail together, and the no-rep judge is watching your squat depth. Time is lost to shallow reps that don't count and to long breaks between sets — plan your break structure before you start (say, 25/20/15/15) instead of going to failure. Train high-rep sets, 3×25 building toward 100 with minimal breaks, on legs that are already tired — the 8-week plan pre-fatigues legs before wall-ball practice deliberately.

The mistake that decides this station is throwing with the arms once the legs are tired, which produces shallow squats and short throws — no-reps at exactly the moment you have nothing left to repay them with. The fix is to keep every rep a squat: catch the ball high on the chest, drop below parallel, and let the ball leave your hands as the hips finish extending, so the throw is powered by the legs throughout. Breathe out on the throw, in on the catch, and break on a plan rather than on failure — sets you choose cost seconds, sets the judge chooses cost minutes.

Threshold's session library maps every one of these stations to strength and engine work you can do in a normal gym — and its plans decide when each shows up in your week.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 8 HYROX stations in order?

SkiErg 1,000 m, sled push 50 m, sled pull 50 m, burpee broad jumps 80 m, rowing 1,000 m, farmers carry 200 m, sandbag lunges 100 m, and 100 wall balls. A 1 km run precedes every station.

Which HYROX station is the hardest?

For most athletes the sled push — it is the biggest leg-strength tax in the race and race-floor carpet is slower than any gym surface. Wall balls are a close second because they arrive last, when your legs and shoulders are already spent.

How do I train for HYROX without the equipment?

Substitute: heavy prowler or plate pushes (or steep-incline treadmill hiking) for sled push, hand-over-hand cable rows or heavy towel pulls for sled pull, dumbbell or trap-bar carries for farmers carry, and standard wall balls at 6/9 kg. The engine work — SkiErg, row, run — transfers from any equivalent cardio machine.

What weight are the HYROX sleds?

Open division: sled push 152 kg for men and 102 kg for women (including the sled), sled pull 103 kg / 78 kg. Pro adds roughly 50 kg to the push. Numbers occasionally change season to season — check the current ruleset before racing.