Reading a list of the eight stations tells you what happens. It does not tell you what any of it feels like, which is the part that actually helps you prepare.
So here is the list with the useful information attached: what each station asks of you, where it hurts, and whether it deserves the worry people give it. For exact loads and distances by division, the station weights guide has the full tables.
Where your race is actually decided
Before the walkthrough, the thing worth knowing: the stations are not equally important. People distribute their anxiety very differently from how they distribute their lost minutes.
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Where amateurs typically lose time
How much time a station tends to cost a first or second-time racer relative to a well-executed version. Coaching judgement from watching races and coaching athletes, not a measured dataset.
- Wall balls10/10Last station, most reps, worst legs. This is where races unravel.
- Sled push8/10Costly when people panic and stop repeatedly. Cheap when they stay low and keep moving.
- The runs8/10Not a station, but eight kilometres. Pacing the first one badly taxes all the rest.
- RoxZone7/10Invisible time. Walking transitions across a whole race adds up quietly.
- Sandbag lunges6/10Long, grim, and where no-reps creep in.
- Sled pull5/10Technique and grip. Less feared than the push, often costs similar time.
- Burpee broad jumps5/10Slow and demoralising rather than genuinely hard.
- Rowing3/10Most people can row. Easy to overcook and pay for later.
- Ski erg2/10First station, fresh legs. Rarely the problem.
Notice that two of the top four are not stations at all. The runs and the RoxZone between them account for an enormous amount of lost time and get almost none of the training attention.
1. Ski erg
What it asks: A thousand metres of upper-body-led pulling, arriving fresh off your first run.
Where it hurts: It mostly does not, and that is the trap. You are fresh, the crowd is loud, and it is very easy to attack this and arrive at the sled with your heart rate already through the roof. The ski erg is where good races quietly start going wrong.
Verdict: Low difficulty, high strategic importance. Go steady.
2. Sled push
What it asks: Heavy leg drive over a short distance, immediately after the ski erg.
Where it hurts: The first metre. A stationary sled needs far more force to start moving than to keep moving, so every time you stop you pay that cost again. Athletes who stop three times pay it four times.
Verdict: The station people fear most and one of the most fixable. Get low, keep your arms locked, take short steps, and do not stop. Our sled push technique guide covers the body position properly.
3. Sled pull
What it asks: Pulling the sled back to you hand over hand, with your grip already tired.
Where it hurts: Grip and lower back. It is more technical than the push and people underestimate it because it comes second.
Verdict: Underrated. Sit back, use your body weight rather than just your arms, and keep the rope moving.
4. Burpee broad jumps
What it asks: Repeated burpees with a jump forward, covering the distance.
Where it hurts: Everywhere, slowly. It is not maximally hard at any single moment, it is just relentless and it puts your heart rate somewhere unpleasant right before a rowing station.
Verdict: The most demoralising station rather than the hardest. Find a rhythm you can hold and accept that it will be slow.
5. Rowing
What it asks: A thousand metres, roughly halfway through the race.
Where it hurts: Less than you expect during, more than you expect afterwards. Rowing hard uses your legs, and you have three leg-heavy stations still to come.
Verdict: The most tempting station to overcook, because rowing feels productive. Hold back. You are not going to win the race here and you can certainly lose it.
6. Farmers carry
What it asks: Carrying heavy weight in each hand for the full distance.
Where it hurts: Grip, and then your traps, and then your grip again.
Verdict: Mostly a grip test, and grip is trainable and widely untrained. If you must set them down, do it deliberately once rather than three panicked times.
Grip is the most under-trained thing in this sport. It limits two stations directly and it goes long before your legs do.
7. Sandbag lunges
What it asks: Lunging the full distance with a sandbag on your back, on legs that have already done seven kilometres and two sleds.
Where it hurts: Quads, and morale. This is the longest-feeling station in the race.
Verdict: Genuinely hard, and the one where no-reps creep in as the trailing knee stops touching the floor. Practise it to standard when tired, not fresh.
8. Wall balls
What it asks: A large number of squat-and-throw reps, at the end, on nothing.
Where it hurts: Legs, lungs, shoulders and resolve, roughly in that order.
Verdict: The station that decides races. Everyone can do a wall ball. Almost nobody can do the last twenty to full depth without a plan, and depth is exactly what the judges are watching for by then.
Break them into planned sets before you start. Sets of ten with a short breath between beats going to failure and then improvising, every single time.
What this means for your training
Two things follow from all of the above.
Train the runs. Half of this race is running and it is the part most people neglect in favour of the stations, because the stations are more interesting. Compromised running, which means running after a station rather than fresh, is the single highest-value thing you can practise.
Train the last station first. Whatever the wall balls will feel like on race day, they will feel worse than they do at the start of a fresh session. So put them at the end. Always.
If you would rather have that structured for you than assemble it yourself, the free plan maker builds a twelve-week outline around your race date and puts the station work where it belongs in the week. If you already have a race in the diary and want to talk through where your time is going, book a call and we will look at it properly.
[ FAQ ]
Frequently asked
What are the 8 HYROX stations in order?
Ski erg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, wall balls. One kilometre of running comes before each one, and the order never changes at any event.
Which HYROX station is the hardest?
Depends who you ask, which tells you something. Most people say wall balls, because they are last and because a hundred reps on dead legs is genuinely brutal. The sled push generates more fear beforehand and less suffering during.
Which station costs the most time?
For most amateurs it is the wall balls, partly because there are so many reps and partly because it is where technique falls apart. The sleds cost the most time for people who panic on them and stop repeatedly.
Do you do the stations in the same order every race?
Yes. The order, the distances and the loads are identical at every HYROX event worldwide. That consistency is what makes finish times comparable between cities and what makes the race properly trainable.
What comes between the stations?
A one-kilometre run before each station, eight in total, plus the RoxZone transition area you move through each time. The clock never stops for any of it.
Written by
Benjamin SutherlandFounder · HYROX Elite 15 athlete
Ben races in the HYROX Elite 15, competing in Doubles with his brother Harry. Pro Doubles wins include Rotterdam and Glasgow. He coaches athletes from their first race to professional level.
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