Hyrox – Fuelling For One Of The Fastest Growing Sports

We got in touch with ambassador John Carroll to find out more about Hyrox, and how Active Root can help fuel you for it. Here's what he had to say!

Having been introduced to the sport of Hyrox in early 2023, I have now raced over 20 times in multiple categories. The locations may change but the challenge remains the same: 8 x 1km runs each followed by a functional workout station; a true test of all aspects of fitness from endurance to strength and overall conditioning.

Hyrox has grown from 650 participants at its inaugural event in Hamburg 2018 to over 650,000 competitors in the 24/25 season. The numbers are expected to top one million in the current season, making Hyrox the fastest growing mass participation sport.

The repeatable nature of a Hyrox race makes it ideal to train for, build consistency and measure performance. Running constitutes to around 50-60% of the total race, this has seen lots of high-level runners cross over into the sport, qualify for the Elite 15 and compete at the World Championships.

If you’re new to the sport or looking to improve your Hyrox times my top tip would be to identify your areas of weakness. With a typical race lasting 60-90 minutes or more your training should reflect this. The sport requires a strong foundation, focus should be on lower body strength and aerobic endurance to start with, once the foundations are solid you can look to add threshold efforts and more race specific sessions.

Training for Hyrox requires my nutrition to be on point, from long runs to hard race prep sessions in the gym. Active Root has been the ideal race partner, the Sports Drink Mix works perfectly for pre and intra race training, helping to provide a steady source of carbohydrates. On race days my go to products are the Green Tea Sports Drink pre-race, which has added caffeine helping to lower the RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion). During the race, the Energy Gels provide a convenient mid race source of energy to help keep me going through the final two workout stations, the leg burning lunges and 100 wallballs.

With the sport continuing to grow and finishing times getting faster, the podium spots are becoming harder to reach. However, with the predictable nature of the sport the race against myself is always on, keep training, keep pushing and who knows if a podium flag is around the corner? If not, then the aim is to go unbroken on the wallballs and earn myself a new patch!