Nutrition for HYROX training

Carbohydrate: plan it by the day

Carbohydrate is the main fuel for the hard running and repeated high-effort stations that HYROX demands. Rather than eating the same every day, match your intake to what you are doing.

• Rest days and light days: around 3 to 4 g per kg of body weight. Normal meals with moderate portions of starchy foods.
• Normal training days, one session: around 4 to 6 g per kg.
• Long sessions, simulations or double days: around 6 to 8 g per kg, with extra carbohydrate in the meals before and after.

For a 70 kg athlete, that ranges from around 210 g on a rest day to 420 g or more on a big day. In food terms, the difference is mostly bigger portions of rice, pasta, potatoes, oats and bread, plus fruit and a pre-session snack. Our guide to carbohydrates for performance goes into more detail.

Many people training for HYROX fit sessions around work, early in the morning or in the evening, which means pre-session snacks do a lot of the work. A banana, toast with honey or a small bowl of cereal an hour before a hard evening session makes a noticeable difference to how the last 20 minutes feel.

Protein and recovery

Sled pushes, sandbag lunges, wall balls and heavy carries create a lot of muscle damage, especially in the legs and grip. Protein supports repair. Aim for 1.6 to 2.2 g per kg of body weight a day, split across three or four meals of 25 to 40 g, with one of those meals within a couple of hours of training.

Iron deserves a mention here too. Running and heavy training increase iron losses slightly, and low iron is more common in women and in people who eat little red meat. If you feel unusually breathless, tired or pale despite good training, ask your GP about a blood test rather than self-prescribing supplements. Our guide to iron and training explains more.

Recovery also depends on sleep, total energy intake and sensible programming. If you are constantly sore and tired, more protein is rarely the whole answer. Our guide to HYROX recovery covers the other pieces, and our eating for recovery guide explains how food fits in.

Fuelling long sessions

Sessions lasting more than about 75 to 90 minutes, such as a full race simulation or a long run followed by stations, are where fuelling during exercise starts to matter. They are also the best place to practise what you will do on race day.

1. Eat a familiar carb-based meal two to three hours before, or a smaller snack an hour before.
2. For sessions over an hour, aim for around 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour from a sports drink, gel, jelly sweets or diluted juice.
3. Drink to your sweat rate, and add electrolytes if the session is long, hot or very sweaty.
4. Note what you took, when, and how your stomach felt. Adjust next time.

Many people find their stomach copes better with fuel the more they practise, so starting early in your training block pays off. For drinks and salt during long sessions, see our guide to electrolytes.

Losing weight while training for HYROX

Plenty of people sign up for HYROX partly to lose weight, and it can be a great motivator. But a big calorie deficit and a hard training block pull in opposite directions. The deficit leaves less energy for recovery, and training quality drops.

If fat loss is a goal, keep the deficit modest, around 300 to 500 kcal a day, protect protein, and keep carbohydrate highest around your hardest sessions. Plan any significant fat loss for the early part of your preparation, and eat at maintenance for the last few weeks before the race. Our guide to fat loss while training for HYROX covers this in depth.

Women training hard are particularly at risk of low energy availability. Missing or irregular periods, frequent illness, stress fractures or constant fatigue are warning signs that you are not eating enough for your training. Speak to your GP if these apply.

Race week and supplements

In the days before the race, training volume drops and carbohydrate should stay normal or rise slightly, especially the day before. Keep fibre and fat moderate so your stomach is settled. Race morning is for a familiar breakfast, not experiments. HYROX race day nutrition walks through the day itself.

A few supplements have reasonable evidence for this kind of event. Caffeine can help performance if you tolerate it. Creatine can support the strength-heavy stations and training quality, though some people notice a small rise in body weight. Everything else is optional. If you are training for a race at Lycan Strength, an official HYROX affiliated gym, use your hardest class weeks to test what you eat before and after, so race day holds no surprises.