The organization dropped its 2026/27 race schedule, and the numbers are pretty staggering.

Was CrossFit ever this popular? Remember that?

More than 2 million athletes are expected to compete across 107 race weekends on six continents, up from roughly 1.5 million last season. New host cities are landing in San Diego, Portland, Bari, and Nagoya. Some majors, like Amsterdam and Manchester are stretching from single-day events into multi-day residencies just to handle the volume of people trying to get in.

The explosion of the sport is real, and we’re not here to sell you on HYROX being the next big thing, because it already is the big thing, and the calendar proves it. What we care about is what you do with that information. Because “there’s a race near you now” is not the same as “you’re ready to participate.” Those are two different problems, and most people training for their first (or fifth) HYROX only ever solve one of them.

So here are a few tips:

Pick Your Race Like an Adult

With 25-plus events now on the North American calendar alone and new cities added every season, the temptation is to sign up for whatever’s closest and figure out the training later.

Don’t.

Treat one race as your A-race. Everything else on your calendar — local meetups, smaller regional events, your buddy’s “let’s just do it for fun” pitch should be a B and C priority.

Make your A-race the priority and get in the real prep: a minimum of 10-12 weeks of structured training, not 10-12 weeks of I’ll figure it out.

Also. Pick a destination you’ll get excited about because at the end of the day, to do a HYROX, all you need is shoes and a carry on suitcase. This isnt Ironman where you need 70lbs of equipment. Make the destination part of the excitement. Do the race and then have fun with friends.

And if you’re brand new, look at the expanded 2027 calendar and find something 12+ weeks out, not the next available date. Rushing your first HYROX to hit an earlier event is how people end up walking the last two 1km runs instead of racing them.

Build the Engine Before You Chase Times

Every HYROX athlete wants to talk about wall balls and sled pushes. Almost nobody wants to talk about the boring aerobic work that determines whether those stations feel manageable at kilometer 7 or feel like a death sentence.

Here’s the truth: HYROX is firstly a running race. There are eight 1km runs and eight stations, and the running is what breaks people. Not because running is hard, because running on already-fatigued legs, over and over, for 60-90+ minutes, is a different sport than running a standalone 10K.

What this means for your training:

• Zone 2 is not optional. Most of your weekly running volume should be at a pace you could hold a conversation. This builds the aerobic base that lets you recover between stations instead of arriving at each one already cooked.
• Add threshold work once you have a base. Once you can comfortably run 3+ times a week, layer in one harder session, like intervals at or near race pace, so your body learns to clear fatigue at a faster rate.
• Run more often than you lift. If you’re coming from a strength or CrossFit background, this is an adjustment you need to make. HYROX rewards running economy under fatigue more than it rewards raw output.

Train Each Station Like They’re Part of the Run, Not a Break From It

The biggest rookie mistake in this sport isn’t weak wall balls. It’s treating each station as a reset, like you get to recover there before the next run starts. You don’t. The clock doesn’t care, and neither does your heart rate.

Build your strength sessions around:

• Sled pushes and pulls — This station humbles everyone who skipped leg day for cardio, and the one people most underestimate before their first race
• Farmer’s carries — They’re grip and core endurance you can’t fake with a strong bench
• Walking lunges — These are unglamorous, universally hated, and directly responsible for how your quads feel in the last two kilometers
• Wall balls — They are conditioning disguised as a strength movement; train them at the end of a workout, not the beginning

Once a week, stack a run directly into a station. For example, do a 1km run, straight into sled work or burpee broad jumps. And no rest in between. That’s the closest simulation you can do as a lead up to race day without actually racing.

Respect the Taper

When you’re two weeks out, the instinct will be to squeeze in one more big session to “test” your fitness. But resist doing that. This is when your overall volume should come down, intensity stays sharp but short, and your job in the final stretch is arriving fresh, and not proving something to yourself in the week leading up to the race.

The Bigger Picture

HYROX expanding to 107 race weekends and new markets across four continents is a signal this sport has real staying power, and isn’t just a pandemic-era fitness fad with a shelf life. Whether you’re doing your first race in a new host city or chasing a Pro division time at an established major, the fundamentals don’t change with the calendar: build the aerobic engine, train the stations under fatigue, and pick one race to actually peak for instead of collecting bibs.

And more races on the calendar just means more excuses removed. Go pick one and see what the hype is all about.