I completed my first HYROX fitness race—here's how I prepared

A man holds up a black patch reading "HYROX London" to the camera, obscuring his face.

HYROX has managed to pull off quite the feat. It's beloved by the extremely fit—as you'll find out if the Instagram algorithm suspects you of even a passing interest—but it's also genuinely accessible to all fitness levels.

The race—which consists of running 1km then doing a functional exercise, and repeating that eight times—can be done individually or in teams of two or four. When doing it as a team you all have to complete every 1km run, but only one person needs to do the exercise and the other(s) can take a breather. The difficulty of the functional exercises are also adjusted according to division and sex.