After missing out on an official Hyrox event, fitness fanatic Shea Karssing undertook the physical challenge at home.
Scroll through Instagram for long enough and you’ll stumble upon the fitness corner of the internet — toned bodies in seamless co-ords, high ponytails and biceps that could open jars with a glance. Among them? Almost a million #hyrox tags and counting.
I haven’t got the abs, the confidence, nor the crop top — but I do have a stubborn streak and the urge to prove I’ve still got it. Before having my daughter a year ago, I’d completed an Ironman and several ultramarathons (including a 100-miler), plus a few CrossFit competitions. These days, I squeeze in what I can, usually a 30-minute run or gym session. Then Hyrox started flooding my feed.
I’d missed the only Hyrox event near me in 2025, so decided to recreate it solo in my gym. Just me, a stopwatch and the inner monologue of someone making increasingly poor choices. Let’s unpack how that went.
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What is Hyrox?
Think part functional fitness, part endurance event and part psychological experiment in stubbornness.
The format is simple in theory: eight 1km runs, each sandwiched between a functional workout. Sounds doable, until you realise what those workouts are.
For the Open Women’s division, the line-up looks like this:
- 1km run
- 1km SkiErg
- 1km run
- 50m sled push (102kg including sled)
- 1km run
- 50m sled pull (78kg including sled)
- 1km run
- 80m burpee broad jumps
- 1km run
- 1km RowErg
- 1km run
- 200m farmer’s carry (2×16kg)
- 1km run
- 100m sandbag lunges (10kg)
- 1km run
- 100 wall balls (4kg)
Yikes.
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Hyrox race day
I woke up with sore arms from a charity swimathon I’d been roped into the day before (don’t ask), plus the beginnings of a scratchy throat. But an official race wouldn’t let me postpone, so neither would I.
My husband and I set up the gym, and then I had no excuse but to begin.
The challenge
My strategy was to keep my heart rate at a manageable level so that I didn’t blow (or die).
Thanks to my endurance background, the 1km runs served as recovery. Not something elite Hyrox athletes would ever do, but I wasn’t there to win. I was there to finish.
When it was time for the sled push and pull, I was relieved that I was able to heft the weights. My technique left much to be desired (I don’t think any pros trip over the rope — twice), but I got them over the line.
Then came the brutal broad jump burpees that spiked my heart rate and had me questioning my recent life choices. The row felt easy by comparison. The farmer’s carry and lunges were long but steady.
After the final 1km run, it was time for wall balls, which I’d been dreading thanks to the aforementioned (silly) swimathon. I planned to knock them out in five sets of 20, which quickly dropped to sets of ten.
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The aftermath
I crossed the metaphorical finish line in one hour, 19 minutes — better than expected. Though the next morning, putting on jeans required a pep talk.
Still, I felt alive. Not #fitspo alive. Not ‘new PB’ alive. But proud alive. Like I’d reminded my body (and brain) that I can do hard things — even in a mismatched sports bra and a sleep-deprived haze.
So, should you try Hyrox?
Would I recommend doing Hyrox without training? Absolutely not.
But is Hyrox for everybody? If you can run 5km and physically do all the activities, I’d say yes.
If you’re waiting until you’re ‘fit enough’ to try, don’t. You’re already more capable than you think. You just need stubbornness, a basic level of fitness and a willingness to look stupid while hauling a sled across the gym floor.
Hyrox isn’t just for the shredded. It’s for anyone who wants to remember what they’re made of. Turns out, what happens is: you finish. You hurt like hell. And you sign up to do it again.
Feature image: Shea Karssing / Canva
