Power Up Your Performance: Top Supplements for HYROX Events and Training

HYROX. If you have your finger on the fitness pulse you’ll know all about it.  Launched in Germany in 2017, it has rapidly become the fastest growing fitness sport in the world and has already hosted events in 11 different countries in over 30 different cities (London, Manchester and Birmingham representing the UK to date).

If you’re not sure what HYROX is, let us explain…

For starters, expect to work hard.

It’s a continuous race comprising of a 1km run, 1000m on the ski erg, 1km run, 50m sled push, 1km run, 50m sled pull, 1km run, 80m of burpee broad jumps, 1km run, 1000m row, 1km run,  200m Farmer’s carry,  1km run, 100m of sandbag lunges, a 1km run and a high volume -of wall balls ( 75 – 100 to be slightly more specific).

Wow, it’s exhausting writing this let alone doing it. The braver athletes among us can choose to do this on their own but there is plenty of opportunity to mix it up as same sex doubles, mixed doubles or even relays.

As the organisers say, it’s a sport for everyone.

People who have done it are converts. It is a real mix of strength, endurance, stamina, technique, athleticism and grit.

But where do you start when it comes to supplementation? 

Well, as always, we’d suggest looking at the big picture – getting your body fuelled for such a long yet intense session is key. So don’t overlook your nutrition. If you feel this is an area you need to work on, start by putting your stats into our calorie calculator and follow our on page help to refine things from there. Knowing the amount of calories you need each day plus how to break them down is one of the simplest things to get right but can often be overlooked. Fuel the engine. 

HYROX is a long event which takes even the world record holder (Hunter McIntyre) 54 minutes and 7 seconds (whom our Founder Ben Coomber Interviewed on his podcast Ben Coomber Radio Episode 225 – available on all podcast platforms). So, it’s fair to say the majority of us will require a fair bit longer than this.

The first thing to consider when participating in Hyrox is that you need to expect to sweat. A lot. And what happens when we sweat? We lose water and salt. And if you know much about endurance events, you’ll know that a loss of water and salt can lead to a very sharp decline in performance if not dealt with on the go. Because of this, an electrolyte supplement is going to be essential, and depending on how long it's going to take you, it’s highly likely that you’ll want to take a tri-carb blend during both training and competing. After all, prolonged peak performance is the goal, and taking on board simple sugars during training is going to greatly benefit this outcome. 

To keep it simple, if you’re going to be training or competing for longer than an hour, you need to take on carbohydrates on the go to keep you optimally fuelled and therefore able to perform at your best.

Our Awesome Hydrate & Endure bundle would be a good start here, and a very cost effective supplement pair to have in your arsenal: Hydration and fuel looked after in one click of a button!

After looking at optimised hydration and fuelling, it’s then worth looking at other things we can do to stay one step (or several wall balls) ahead of the other competitors when going for glory.

Fuelling peak performance

As always, Awesome Supplements have the perfect recipe to fuel for a Hyrox event because we are so passionate about peak performance, and also, we can benefit from the research being strong in this area. 

Although race day is where our thoughts will wander to when considering fuelling, the training journey is where we should start as training will often be longer, and harder, to fully prepare you for what you will put your body through on event day. 

Although there is a LOT of running (8km to be precise) and lots of other full body cardio movements, there is also a lot of strength required. Those sleds are not going to push and pull themselves! A Farmer’s Carry and sandbag lunges are no mean feat, especially whilst under fatigue, so although there is a big emphasis on cardiovascular fitness, neglecting your strength training is asking for disaster.

To reap the benefits of a strength programme, and to recover optimally, ensuring your protein intake is optimal will be key. If you’ve used our calorie calculator this will give you a starting point. For quick reference you’ll want to aim for around 1.6-1.8g per KG of body weight. As well as getting your protein through your diet, a scoop of protein powder can help you reach your daily protein target, and make it easy with a post training shake. Our Awesome Protein, which has won 5 awards to date, will give you over 21g of protein per serving. And at less than £1 per serving, it is one of the cheapest ways to get quality protein into your diet, that’s also dead tasty. 

So that’s rule one, ensure you’re getting an adequate daily serving of protein.

The next key ingredient that we can’t get enough of is a mix of creatine and beta alanine. Fans of CrossFit may know that 5 times Fittest on Earth champion, Mat Fraser gave away the secret of supplementing his workouts with beta alanine after retirement. As a result, the US experienced huge supply issues of this amino acid! The reason Fraser was such a fan was because it is known to help anyone doing high intensity exercise. And believe us when we say that HYROX is performed at high intensity!! 

Mixing beta alanine with creatine looks after both strength and power and is THE supplement to use in your training. As we understand the benefits of both these compounds, we’ve created Awesome Power to look after this area of your supplementation easily. All you need is to add it to your daily drinking water and sip it throughout the day. 

So now the big one – looking after your health and recovery from all this training

This can easily be overlooked, not because you don’t care, but because you can get so carried away from all the hard training and pushing your numbers up, or down, that you lose sight of where your recovery status is.  All it takes is a couple of rough night’s sleep, a visit a friend's house with poorly kids and hey presto your immune system which has been under huge strain has now knocked you out with a virus. And with a virus comes a stop to your training.  Recovering from a virus can often mean taking several steps back in order to go forward. So yes, recovery isn’t always top of us our list until it’s too late.

So, before we talk about health supplementation, remember that it's key to ensure that sleep is a big focus and as optimal as you can make it. Periodising your training in a way that you are getting the recovery you need is also an essential point, giving time and credit to those welcome rest days. Ultimately, our resting phase is where we get stronger, faster and fitter.  So make sure you factor rest and recovery into your programme – a term known as periodisation – which hopefully your training program is covering. 

Even with great rest, most individuals who push their body, end up being magnesium deficient.  This is because it is involved in the ATP energy cycle which is taking a beating every day of training. Most individuals in the UK, even in the summer, are deficient in Vitamin D, and there are often a few fringe deficiencies on top of that like Iron, B12, selenium, zinc and calcium (depending on your diet, of course). This increases the argument for a high quality, research dosed multi-vitamin, and that’s where we’ll fly the flag for Awesome Defence. Built for people seeking optimal health, recovery and performance. It's worth checking the ingredients to see what you are getting. We think you’ll be impressed. 

Add to that Awesome Omega (again most are deficient in Omega 3 fats – diet depending of course), which can aid recovery, heart health and to get the anti-inflammatory benefits. Top this off with Awesome Joints, our high strength Curcumin formula aimed at easing aching joints, with anti-inflammatory benefits too. 

Less aching, less inflammation and more energy to train and perform can only be a good thing in our eyes.

So that’s our 101 to training and racing nutrition, while also accounting for your health and how that impacts your chances of optimal recovery, and thus, performance the next day. 

Depending on your budget and commitment to training for HYROX, here is that list again of the supplements we recommend, in order of benefit to your overall physical performance in case you have to choose (based on your budget): 

• Awesome Hydrate
• Awesome Endure
• Awesome Power
• Awesome Defence
• Awesome Protein
• Awesome Omega
• Awesome Joints

As HYROX is still a relatively new sport and growing by the day, take this knowledge and use it to your advantage to get ahead in the game. And if you’re reading this but haven’t yet given HYROX a go, check it out. You’ll be fitter for it. And don’t forget – get your supps right for a head start.

Any Qs? As ever hit us up on social media and we’ll help.

Looking to supplement your HYROX training?  Then our Hybrid Athlete bundle is the one for you.  Learn more and buy HERE.