I am not the strongest athlete. I’m pretty strong for an endurance athlete, but I’m not the one you find in the gym pulling out some crazy max rep deadlifts. However, I believe I can get myself as strong as I need to be on race day without compromising my one strength: pure endurance.
The way I think about training weights and their relationship to race day weights falls into three categories:
- Training heavier than race weights
- Race weights for power endurance
- Specificity for race day
Each has a place in my training at different times, for different objectives. Let’s get into it.
Training Heavier Than Race Weights – Strength Development
Whilst I may personally not be the biggest fan of heavy lifting, there is no doubt that it’s needed. I’m not out here suggesting you need to go to the Commonwealth Games like Tia-Clair Toomey, but building max strength and power undoubtedly helps you handle race day with less fatigue.
How: When I am focused on pure strength, I generally begin to incorporate compound lifts—squats, benches—for sets of 4–8 reps at 65–85% of my one-rep max. For stronger athletes, this may look a little different!
Race Weights for Power Endurance
Me and my coach George have really been giving this our focus over the last few weeks. Whilst Hyrox ultimately requires pure strength, it mostly requires the ability to repeat functional movements under notable fatigue—aka one hundred wall balls after an hour of racing.
How: We’ve been working on running on tired legs, using weights closer to race weight for high-rep sets to work through continual load and build muscular endurance.
Specificity for Race Day
Whilst Hyrox races are undoubtedly one of the tougher sports, there is one huge plus—the race format never changes and by proxy, none of the weights do either. We know that for wall balls, it’s 4kg for Women’s Open, 6kg for Pro. You can use this to your advantage.
How: Get familiar with the weights you’re going to be working with during training, especially as you begin to get closer to your race. Not only will you feel more comfortable with the load, but psychologically you’ll feel like you’ve done the work before—and it felt easy in training.
