Here’s why you need to enhance your grip strength for HYROX.
Admittedly I went into my first HYROX slightly unprepared as a last-minute entry, but I had a good base of fitness from regular swimming and knew I would survive the runs, even if I wasn’t very fast.
Similarly in the workouts I was confident that I would at least get through them all. So it was very much to my surprise that I almost got DQ’d in the Sandbag Lunges as my grip reached failure.
The lunges have strict movement standards and the sandbag must remain on the shoulders for the duration of the station. A first infringement results in a 15-second penalty and a second infringement means instant disqualification.
Fortunately I managed to balance the bag across my shoulders well enough to take most of the pressure off my forearms and stay in the race, but by the end of this station I would have struggled to pick up my phone.
So how had my grip failed to such an extent?
Firstly, the limited preparation I did was focused on the obvious stuff. I went on long runs, did burpees and squats, and ran around my garden with some dumbbells. Doing a HYROX sim would have immediately surfaced this weakness, but instead my grip got neglected until race day.
Second, cumulative fatigue really builds up over the stations. Most of the HYROX workouts place a lot of strain on the legs, but the SkiErg, Sled Pull, 1000m Row and Farmer’s Carry all test grip strength and grip endurance to different degrees.
The Sandbag Lunges are actually less an examination of grip than the aforementioned stations, the problem was that by the seventh workout station, and having just done the Farmer’s Carry, my forearms were fried.
Exercises to Improve Your Grip Strength for HYROX
So having a strong grip is important in HYROX. Now, how to make sure you are ready?
- Dead Hangs
Hang from a pull-up bar with your arms fully extended. If this is a new exercise for you, start by aiming to hold for 30 seconds. Then take a 30 second break before repeating again. Do 3 sets.
Aim to build to 3 sets of 60 seconds. This is a great exercise to do at the end of the workout, not only for the benefits to your grip, but also as a way to decompress your back and get a good stretch.
- Farmer Carry Walks
Take a heavy dumbbell or kettle bell in each hand. Normally you’d want to train with weights heavier than your race weights, but at first just find what you can carry for at least 50 meters without stopping. Focus on keeping your posture upright and maintaining a tight grip.
Do 5 rounds and aim to build up to 200 meters in a single round with a weight heavier than your race weight.
- Towel-Grip Rowing / Towel-Grip Pull-ups
Place your towel over the handles of a rowing machine, or over a pull-up bar and grip the towel instead of the handle/bar. The thicker, unstable grip forces your hands to work much harder. Aim for 500 meters on the rower and see how you feel!
- Plate Pinches
Start with a 5-10kg plate and hold it between your thumb and fingers. Aim to hold it for 30 seconds and do 3 sets per hand. As you improve, hold for longer and increase the weight. This one leads to crushing grip strength!
One key thing to keep in mind with this exercise is not to go to failure again and again in your first session. The hand is a complicated structure with lots of tendons and ligaments and you need to take your time to strengthen them.
Fitness races and endurance events are great at exposing weaknesses that don’t show up in our day to day training. For me, it was my grip. Hopefully for you, if you follow these tips, that won’t be an issue.
