Hyrox world champion Meg Jacoby reveals the key to getting a better Hyrox time

It takes a fair bit of training simply to finish a Hyrox race, so when I asked reigning Hyrox world champion Meg Jacoby what her typical training week looks like, I expected it to be demanding. But I wasn’t prepared for just how intense it would be.

Jacoby doesn’t take days off, instead splitting her time between strength training sessions, machine-based conditioning work, Hyrox simulations, CrossFit workouts and running – lots, and lots, of running.

Below she reveals how she found the sport of fitness racing, and shares the intimidating details of her gruelling training regime. Read on, enjoy, and for 99.9 per cent of people, don’t try this at home.

Meg Jacoby: How I found Hyrox

Hyrox’s booming popularity belies its fledgling status as a sport. It was created in 2017, when experienced race event organiser Christian Toetzke and three-time Olympic medal-winning hockey player Moritz Fuerste put their heads together.

What they came up with was eight one-kilometre running intervals, with a challenging functional fitness station such as a sled pull, sled drag, SkiErg or farmer’s carry between each one – in their own words, “the fitness competition for every body”.

It’s a winning formula which has tongues wagging. Everyone who takes part in a race assumes an unofficial brand ambassador role, and through word of mouth the sport’s stock continues to rise. That’s how Jacoby found out about it.

“I found Hyrox through a friend,” she says. “We were doing workouts similar in style, and he had heard of the race through the OCR (obstacle course racing) community and thought I’d do well at it. So I signed up for Hyrox New York in 2022 with a few friends.”

Her friend was right; within two years she would become world champion. But while Jacoby came to the sport for the challenge, she stuck around for the community.

“HYROX does an amazing job of creating a positive and fun atmosphere at the events,” she says. “Besides the competition itself, that’s what drew me in the most. Its accessibility and repeatability allow for anyone to participate and easily track their progress.”

Hyrox world champion crossing the line and winning the Elite 15 race in Nice, France (Hyrox)

Meg Jacoby: How I Train

“My training split is pretty high volume,” Jacoby tells me. This is an understatement.

“I do four lifting sessions per week – two upper body and two lower body, with a heavy upper, dynamic upper, heavy lower and dynamic lower day.”

This sounds a lot like “the conjugate method” to me – a strength and conditioning system developed by Westside Barbell, which splits gym sessions into maximal efforts and dynamic efforts.

As the name suggests, maximal effort sessions involve maxing out with heavy weights, and varying the exercises you do on a regular basis to prevent training plateaus. The dynamic effort sessions, on the other hand, involve lifting a lighter load explosively to develop power. Both sessions also include higher-rep strategic (or accessory) exercises to support strength gains by “building muscle and eliminating weaknesses”.

Following the conjugate method alone is enough for most people. But to ensure she’s Hyrox-ready, Jacoby’s training doesn’t stop there.

“I run six days per week, do one Hyrox simulation-style workout, and on my day off from running I do a higher volume erg [exercise machine] workout. I also do CrossFit one or two times per week.”

Jacoby says that, while there are many similarities between Hyrox and CrossFit, the former is “far more aerobic”. But she believes the two modalities “complement each other well if you know how to find the right balance”.

“For Hyrox you really need to spend a lot of time in [heart rate] zones two and three, as well as some quality sessions in zone four, learning how to improve your lactate threshold. You have to have a big aerobic base to really succeed,” she explains. “Whereas in CrossFit, I’d say the opposite is true. You need far more power, so it pays to train in higher heart rate zones for shorter durations.”

Hyrox athlete Meg Jacoby celebrating after becoming world champion (Hyrox)

Meg Jacoby: Three top tips on how to train for a Hyrox race

Hyrox is a demanding sport, and doing well means developing multiple factors of fitness; muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and speed. But according to Jacoby, there’s one skill that reigns supreme: running.

“Focus on your running the most,” she advises. “This is where you have the most to gain as you do this eight times, whereas you only do the other stations once.

“The best way to improve your running is to train like a runner. [During a week of running sessions] I do one threshold workout, one tempo workout and a Hyrox sim-style workout, and then the rest of my running days are zone two efforts with one long run.”

Her second tip is to “get comfortable on the sleds”, particularly when your legs are already tired, as this is how you’ll face them on race day. Her go-to Hyrox simulation workout below is a good way to practise this.

And finally, Jacoby recommends “practising wall balls and movements that compliment them like thrusters, squats, the push press and the overhead press”. Doing this will develop muscular endurance in your legs and shoulders, helping you power through the 100 wall balls which await you at the end of a Hyrox race.

“This is the station that tends to break people,” Jacoby warns, so it pays to be prepared.

Meg Jacoby: Go-to Hyrox training workout

Run 1km
SkiErg x1,000m
Run 1km
Sled push x50m (the women’s pro division weight is 152kg)
Run 1km
Sled pull x50m (the women’s pro division weight is 103kg)
Run 1km
Burpee broad jump x80m
Run 1km
Row x1,000m
Run 1km

Each week, Jacoby does a Hyrox simulation-style workout, and her go-to test (above) involves working through the first six running segments and the first five stations of the race in order. During this workout, she tries to push the pace “harder than I ideally would in a race”, with the aim of increasing her speed in each section over time.

Looking for more recommendations? I tried an Olympic swimmer’s two-move method for building strength and power, and it’s brilliantly simple