The HYROX Story

Founded in Hamburg, Germany in 2017, the standardized race format—eight one-kilometer runs separated by eight functional workout stations—has proven remarkably scalable. Elite athletes can race the exact same course as first-timers, creating an experience that’s both competitive and accessible.

The numbers tell the story: More than 1.6 million people participated during the 2025-26 HYROX season alone, and the organization is already projecting that number will climb beyond two million competitors during the 2027 season. Most recently, eight thousand athletes from 98 countries competed at the PUMA HYROX World Championship at Strawberry Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

HYROX has effectively become the marathon of hybrid fitness, and it has aspirations to become an Olympic sport in the near future.

Arguably more important, however, is that HYROX has introduced hundreds of thousands of people to a style of training that doesn’t force them to choose between lifting heavy and building endurance. Instead, they’re encouraged to become well-rounded athletes.

HYROX’s massive success has, of course, led to competitors, all trying to get a slice of the hybrid race pie. Here are some of them:

DEKA Fitness Challenges

Created by Spartan, DEKA Fitness Challenges takes many of the concepts that made HYROX successful while lowering the barrier to entry, as there is considerably less running involved. That being said, the amount of running depends on which DEKA race you enter: DEKA FIT versus DEKA MILE versus DEKA STRONG.

• DEKA FIT is made up of 10 functional fitness zones, each separated by a 500-meter run, totalling 5 km of running. The DEKA MILE, on the other hand, consists of 10 functional fitness zones, but only 160 meters of running between them—totalling just one mile of running—while DEKA STRONG has no running at all.

In a nutshell, DEKA races are an approachable gateway into hybrid competition that might be more appealing to people intimidated by the volume of running required in HYROX.

The Deadly Dozen

Originating in the UK and now operating across more than 30 countries, The Deadly Dozen also follows a similar approach to both HYROX and DEKA.

• In the Deadly Dozen, athletes complete 12 functional fitness stations—including farmer carries, walking lunges, deadlifts, goblet squats, bear crawls and devil presses—with 400-meter runs separating each challenge.

The Hybrid Games

Founded in 2025 in the UK, the Hybrid Games format is arguably the most similar to HYROX of them all.

It combines all eight HYROX stations, plus two additional ones—the AirBike and 50 dumbbell snatches—for a total of 10 stations, each separated by a 600-meter run, complete with a 200-meter sprint finish.

Right now, registration fees are considerably lower than HYROX (they sit just over USD$100 for the Hybrid Games), but if the Hybrid Games catch on and begin to spread outside of the UK, it’ll be interesting to see if fees begin to rise.

The Turf Games

Also founded in the UK in 2018, rather than individual hybrid racing, The Turf Games leans heavily into teamwork and functional fitness.

• Competitors race in pairs or teams of six through approximately 40 to 60 minutes of high-intensity functional fitness, using equipment such as rowing machines, SkiErgs, Echo Bikes, sandbags and burpee broad jumps.

Unlike HYROX, as well as some of the other hybrid events today, The Turf Games does not offer a standardized test. Instead, similar to a traditional CrossFit competition, workouts change from event to event to provide variety to the competitors.

And although it’s much smaller than HYROX, the Turf Games have hosted events in many notable cities around the world since 2018, including London, Sydney, Dubai, Singapore, Dublin, Cape Town, Miami and Los Angeles.

The ATHX Games

Another UK-founded event, The ATHX Games, which started in 2023, gained significant momentum in 2025; more than 6,000 people participated in an event that year. This year, The ATHX Games expanded across Europe and made its U.S. debut in Miami, Florida. Unlike many other hybrid races and competitions, though, ATHX occupies a slightly different lane.

• Rather than one continuous race, each year there are three standardized tests that athletes must complete in a two-and-a-half-hour competition window: a strength assessment, an endurance challenge and a high-intensity functional fitness workout known as Metcon X.

Unlike HYROX, however, the three tests change each season, adding more variability than the other hybrid competitions today.

In many ways, ATHX sits directly between CrossFit and HYROX, giving athletes from both communities another standardized proving ground.

The Newest Player: XENOM

Backed by $15 million in seed funding, with Rogue Fitness as a foundational partner and led by founder Keith Barlow, whose public relations agency, FittestPR, helped grow HYROX from the beginning, XENOM entered the market in 2026 with significant resources and experience.

• Describing itself as “The Decathlon of Fitness,” XENOM, which held its first event in Dallas, Texas in June, 2026, consists of ten standardized events completed over two days, testing everything from maximal strength to gymnastics proficiency and aerobic endurance, including running.

On paper, it sounds like a CrossFit competition. In execution, however, it’s built more like HYROX in that it’s a mass participation, standardized event, so athletes can compare performances year after year and organizers can scale the competition globally.

After personally attending the inaugural event in Texas, one thing became immediately clear: This wasn’t an ambitious startup figuring things out on the fly. The event felt polished and professional, and delivered what Barlow promised it would: A world-class experience for everyday athletes.

So, Is Hybrid Fitness Here to Stay?

History tells us that most fitness trends eventually fade.

Bootcamps had their moment. Obstacle course racing cooled after their explosive rise. And even CrossFit, while still enormously influential, no longer dominates the cultural conversation the way it once did.

However, what CrossFit started cannot be underestimated: It created a space for people to actually measure their fitness and their progress, which was arguably missing from the various fitness fads that have come and gone through the decades.

That’s what I think is really driving the movement: People no longer want to simply exercise for the sake of exercising via aerobics or a spin class. They want to know if they’re getting fitter, stronger and faster. They want standardized benchmarks they can compare against their previous performances. Not only that, but many people want to train with others, not only for the motivation factor, but also so they can share their excitement about what they’re training for: Race day.

This is where the various hybrid races come in: They have provided something to train for, a place to put fitness to the test, and a shared social experience. And because of them, people no longer have to flounder at the gym, all the while wondering what they should be doing there, constantly frustrated they’re not seeing results. Now they have a plan and a program to follow that leads somewhere. And, for the most part, these races and competitions have created a more standardized, accessible path to measuring fitness than CrossFit did.

With all that being said, let’s break the original question—is hybrid fitness here to stay—into two parts: the events and the fitness methodology.

In terms of the specific hybrid races and competitions themselves—from HYROX, to XENOM, to DEKA, to The Deadly Dozen, ATHX, The Hybrid Games and The Turf Games—whether each of them will be around for a long time is yet determined, because building a profitable business around fitness events has never been easy. History has shown that even hugely popular concepts can struggle to maintain momentum over the long term.

In my opinion, though, one thing current hybrid races and competitions are doing very well is building their events for the everyday athlete, rather than for the elite athlete. That’s a critical distinction because mass participation is what will create sustainable fitness communities long term. Despite this, it can only be assumed that some brands will succeed, others will disappear, and new formats will likely emerge.

As for hybrid training, developing well-rounded fitness, and having a standardized way to prove it, this feels like a much bigger shift than a passing fitness trend.

Because, hybrid training has finally provided everyday fitness enthusiasts and gym go-ers a way to train with purpose. And that mindset is what I believe is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Author Bio:

Emily Beers is a fitness writer and journalist who has been working in the industry since 2009. She also spent a decade-and-a-half as a personal trainer and CrossFit coach, and competed at the CrossFit Games twice with a team and once as an individual.