Psychologist Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory posits that there are different kinds of intelligence: Linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic.
When God decided to hand out kinesthetic intelligence, I was probably in deep sleep. Since childhood, I had poor bodily coordination, undeveloped gross and fine motor skills, and a rather weak cardiovascular engine. I knew I had no future in sports.
I fell in love with running late in life. It was the only sport where I felt I didn’t really need talent; I just had to have endurance, which I thought I had plenty of. Running, particularly marathon running, is also a mass participation sport — one that is accessible to average Joes (and Janes), who get a chance to race alongside elite athletes.
Now, there’s a new mass participation “sport” that is taking the endurance/hybrid training world by storm — Hyrox.
Essentially, Hyrox is a race where participants do 8 different exercises: SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmer’s carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls. In between each exercise, participants need to run a one-kilometer distance, totaling to eight kilometers per race. Sounds simple, but deadly.
Given the diversity of the physical activities, people get pulled into the sport in a variety of ways. Runners get pulled in because a substantial part of the race is running. CrossFitters and weight geeks get hooked because of the strength aspect. Endurance sports enthusiasts appreciate how Hyrox maxes out one’s endurance within a relatively short span of time.
From its humble beginnings in 2017, Hyrox has now expanded to over 80 global races with around 600,000 participants and 350,000 paying spectators.
It was founded by Germans Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste and was first launched in Hamburg Germany. Now, it’s a multi million dollar global brand with participation at least doubling every year. It has achieved such a level of success that CrossFit, another mass participation event brand never achieved in its over 20 years of existence.
Hyrox events in major capitals like London and New York sell out in minutes.
Founder Fürste explained in an interview that Hyrox events are designed to make each and every participant feel like a world class athlete and Hyrox “evangelists” agree.
The founders barely spend anything on marketing because the Hyrox athletes themselves have successfully been spreading the word on various social media platforms.
Now, gyms and coaches are paying hefty sums to be affiliated with the brand. Hyrox’s partnership with Puma has catapulted the shoemaker to the status of market leader, leaving the more popular Adidas and Nike behind.
There’s talk that Puma Philippines is finally bringing the Hyrox race to our shores in 2026. Fingers crossed.
I’ve recently started Hyrox training and my puny 54-year-old body has been resisting it. What I realized though is that Hyrox is actually the perfect cross training for marathon running because of the focus on core and leg strength.
It’s a lot of hard work, but let’s see where this new journey brings me.