Is HYROX the same as crossfit??
Short answer: No — but they’re cousins.
HYROX and CrossFit share some DNA, both combine strength, endurance, and functional fitness, but they are built for very different purposes.
CrossFit is a training methodology designed for daily life. It’s based on constantly varied workouts involving weightlifting, gymnastics, Olympic lifting and cardio. One day you might be lifting heavy, performing an Olympic lift, the next mastering gymnastic skills, sprinting, or rowing. The goal is simple: to build a broad, adaptable fitness base that prepares you for whatever life throws at you. Every day is different. Every workout challenges a different part of your fitness. CrossFit is about building sustainable, lifelong athleticism — not just peaking for a single day.
HYROX, on the other hand, is an event, a standardized fitness race. Every HYROX event across the world follows the same format:
1-km run
One functional fitness movement (sled push, sled pull, rowing, burpees, farmers carry, wall balls)
Repeat eight times.
You train for months for a HYROX race, which might happen once or twice a year in your city. Just like Ironman athletes train at local pools, cycling studios, and in triathlon clubs — not by doing an Ironman event every day — HYROX training happens at local gyms that have the right equipment.
To properly prepare, you need access to sleds, rowers, wall balls, running space, ski ergs, heavy carries — and most CrossFit gyms already have all of this. That’s one reason CrossFit athletes are so well-positioned to step into HYROX: they already train with the tools and movements needed.
In short:
CrossFit = constantly varied daily training for the unknown and unknowable.
HYROX = a known, standardized race you train specifically for.
Both build incredible fitness but HYROX isn’t the finish line, it’s a great challenge along the way.
We can work toward it, push ourselves, and celebrate the achievement — but our training doesn’t stop once the race is done. Fitness is a lifelong journey.
After HYROX, the path forward is simple: keep showing up, keep pushing yourself, and keep embracing the constantly varied workouts at your local CrossFit gym.
Because there’s always more to discover about yourself and real progress happens when you keep turning up, one workout at a time.
Train for the event. Crush it. Then keep building.