Optimizing Performance in Hyrox: Physiological Demands, Ergogenic Strategies, and Training Interventions

Hyrox is a rapidly expanding hybrid endurance and functional fitness sport that combines eight 1-km running intervals with eight standardized functional stations, including the SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, and wall balls. This repeated transition between running and high-force functional exercise creates complex demands involving aerobic capacity, anaerobic energy contribution, lactate management, maximal strength, muscular endurance, neuromuscular resilience, and movement efficiency. Although extensive research has examined endurance sport, resistance exercise, and combined training, the physiological demands and ergogenic requirements of Hyrox and related hybrid events remain insufficiently characterized. Current evidence supports the relevance of pacing, carbohydrate availability, caffeine, buffering capacity, nitrate supplementation, and sport-specific conditioning, but findings from isolated endurance or strength settings may not directly translate to race conditions. Important questions remain regarding station-specific fatigue, interactions between running and functional tasks, individual responses to ergogenic aids, and the transferability of laboratory outcomes to real-world competition. A more integrated evidence base is therefore needed to guide safe, effective, and practically relevant performance strategies.This Research Topic aims to establish a scientific foundation for ergogenic interventions and performance optimization in Hyrox and other hybrid endurance events. It will examine the mechanisms through which nutritional, physiological, psychological, training, recovery, and technological strategies influence performance, fatigue, adaptation, and safety. Particular attention will be given to pacing across running and functional stations, energy substrate utilization, neuromuscular function, recovery kinetics, and the variability of responses according to sex, age, training history, body composition, competitive division, and performance level. The Research Topic also seeks to identify evidence-based protocols, clarify potential risks and regulatory considerations, and bridge the gap between controlled testing, field-based assessment, and race-day implementation.To gather further insights into evidence-based ergogenic interventions, physiological profiling, and performance-enhancement strategies for Hyrox and comparable hybrid fitness events, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:- Nutritional and supplementation strategies, including caffeine, beta-alanine, sodium bicarbonate, dietary nitrate, carbohydrate availability, hydration, and electrolyte replacement.- Physiological demands and metabolic profiling across running intervals and functional stations.- Concurrent strength-endurance fatigue, oxygen-uptake kinetics, lactate responses, energy-system interaction, and neuromuscular function.- Pacing strategies, exercise transitions, station-specific economy, and race-execution optimization.- Training methods for muscular endurance, resistance to fatigue, muscle damage, and recovery between high-intensity efforts.- Cognitive and perceptual factors, including pain tolerance, perceived exertion, central fatigue, attentional control, and psychological skills.- Recovery interventions, including sleep, active recovery, compression, cooling, and other evidence-based modalities.- Technology and analytics, including wearables, field lactate testing, continuous glucose monitoring, motion analysis, and data-driven load management.- Individual variability related to sex, age, body composition, training status, and Pro, Open, Doubles, and Relay divisions.- Regulatory, ethical, and safety considerations surrounding ergogenic practices in amateur and elite populations.We welcome original research, systematic reviews, clinical trials, and brief research reports. Topic editors: Nejmeddine Ouerghi, Safaa Mostafa Elkholi, Nidhal Jebabli Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/87059/optimizing-performance-in-hyrox-physiological-demands-ergogenic-strategies-and-training-interventions