The gym has become more than the training; it’s the event itself
Over the next few weeks, thousands of amateur athletes will flock to Hyrox events all over the world. From Rome, Boston, São Paolo, and Cairo–it’s a global affair. Despite being all across the globe, the running of the fitness festival remains the exact same. It starts with a 1000m ski, pushing your arms and shoulders to the limit before a 100m sled push and pull. After a strenuous start, you then face an 80m burpee broad jump, 1000m row, and 200m farmers carry. Before the end is in sight, contestants then face a 100m lunge, and to top it all off, 100 wallball throws. Oh, also, don’t forget the eight kilometre run in between.
Spectators can expect a display of sweat dripping, legs leaden, hearts-racing, lungs pumping and exhausted athletes, pro or beginner, pushing themselves to the limit. The interesting thing is, this is not a punishment for those involved. They’re doing it for fun. But why?
Gym culture has expanded massively over the last few years. Plenty of Glasgow students have walked through the doors of ‘The Stevie’ on campus to get their new gym membership, promising themselves discipline for the year ahead. Being a fellow gym goer, you constantly hear the discussions of what they’re now able to bench and how much protein is in their meal. It’s a common discussion between uni students and beyond.
For sports stars, going to the gym is essential for high performance and being able to play at the best of their ability. In order to compete with the younger prospects in his sport, tennis legend Novak Djokovic said he dedicates ‘quite a bit of time with my new fitness coach to build the endurance, physical strength and capabilities that I need in order to play…’
The gym has always been in service to sport, and if you want to excel in your sport, you need to put in the hours pushing weights and building your body. But, going to the gym by itself has never been an actual sport; it’s always been the key component of training – Hyrox changes that.
The competitive element of Hyrox flips the casual nature of ‘going to the gym’ on its head, turning basic training into a contest. Hyrox makes training not only a means to an end but instead, the end itself.
Like anything, Hyrox doesn’t come without criticism. Just recently, the image of Australian athlete, Joanna Wietryzyk, sprinting across the finish line after soiling herself mid-race during a Hyrox event taking place in China, went viral on social media, outing itself to judgement from many all over the world. This brings up the question: where is the line drawn between those who train for fun and those who have a sick relationship to competition? Is Hyrox safe? If further casualties happen, the question will only be raised more.
Between those who are gym-rats for fun and those who push their body to dangerous places, it’s hard to deny Hyrox will only grow in the future, and this is seemingly just the beginning of a whole new type of sport.
