Fitness racing rules, timing and penalties
8 runs of 1 km, 8 stations, one finishing time
A fitness race in the HYROX format is a 1 km run followed by a workout station, repeated eight times: SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and 100 wall balls. The result is the finishing time, ranked from fastest to slowest within each division and age group. Weights depend on the division (Open or Pro, women or men), judges add time penalties of 15 seconds to several minutes for broken movement standards, and an incomplete station means disqualification.
JudgeMate for Fitness Racing
Everything runs in the browser — phone, tablet or laptop, nothing to install.
What JudgeMate Does for a Fitness Race
Sixteen Segments, One Finishing Time
A fitness racing category runs on the timed-attempts engine: the organiser sets the segments, the timekeepers record splits, the server adds. It does not implement the HYROX rulebook; it times the race the way the rulebook describes it.
The 16 segments preloaded
Pick Open, Pro, Doubles or Relay as the category type and the segments appear in the official order, from Run 1 and the SkiErg to Run 8 and the wall balls. Rename or reorder them for the club's layout; recorded times stay with their segment.
A stopwatch in the timekeeper's phone
The time is captured the moment the finger touches the screen. A split can also be typed by hand, corrected or voided, and the last one undone within five seconds. Blank paper scoresheets export as PDF.
Penalties in seconds, with a reason
A timekeeper adds a penalty to the segment where it happened — 15 seconds for a no-rep, 2 minutes for the wrong arch — and writes why. The organiser can add a penalty, a DSQ or a tie-break decision later, each logged with its reason.
Open, Pro, Doubles and Relay as categories
Each division is its own category with a women's, men's or open label. A doubles pair or a four-person relay team registers as one entry with one finishing time, and start numbers can be drawn.
Total time, DNF and a live ranking
The server adds the segment times, truncates to the chosen precision, marks a skipped or failed segment as DNF and ranks each category from the fastest. Results are live on the event page and export to PDF and CSV.
Fitness Racing Formats & Officiating
Competition Formats
Singles: Open and ProA single racer completes all eight runs and eight stations alone. Open (Women, Men) and Pro (Women Pro, Men Pro) share the course and the distances; Pro adds weight at the sled push, sled pull, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls, and Women Pro uses the same weights as Men Open.
A single racer completes all eight runs and eight stations alone. Open (Women, Men) and Pro (Women Pro, Men Pro) share the course and the distances; Pro adds weight at the sled push, sled pull, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls, and Women Pro uses the same weights as Men Open.
Results are also ranked in age groups of five years, from Under 24 (16–24) to 85–89, by age on race day; the minimum age is 16. Pro is open up to the 80+ age groups at regular races, while athletes aged 60 and above qualify for the World Championships through Open and race there with Open weights.
Doubles and Team RelayIn Doubles two racers run every 1 km together and share each station on a you go, I go basis, splitting the distance or the reps as they choose. A partner who runs ahead costs the team 1 minute, and more than three such penalties take the pair out of competition.
In Doubles two racers run every 1 km together and share each station on a you go, I go basis, splitting the distance or the reps as they choose. A partner who runs ahead costs the team 1 minute, and more than three such penalties take the pair out of competition.
A Team Relay is a four-person race: each member runs 2 × 1 km and does the two corresponding stations, in any split the team chooses, with handovers in a transition zone. Relay divisions are Women, Men and Mixed (two women, two men), with age groups Under 40 and 40+ by the average age of the four.
How a Fitness Race Is Timed and Judged
Every station has a judging team under a head judge, and the race directors have the final word. The chip records the finishing time and some infringements, such as the wrong use of the IN and OUT arches of the Roxzone; the judges watch movement standards and rep counts and apply the rulebook's penalties. Five things decide a result.
- sequence
- The sequence — Run 1, station 1, Run 2, station 2, eight times over: SkiErg 1000 m, Sled Push 50 m, Sled Pull 50 m, Burpee Broad Jump 80 m, Rowing 1000 m, Farmers Carry 200 m, Sandbag Lunges 100 m and Wall Balls 100 reps. Every run segment is about 1000 m, in one or more laps depending on the venue.
- weights
- Weights by division (season 26/27) — Sled Push 102, 152 and 202 kg including the sled for Women, Women Pro / Men and Men Pro; Sled Pull 78, 103 and 153 kg; Farmers Carry 2 × 16, 2 × 24 and 2 × 32 kg; Sandbag Lunges 10, 20 and 30 kg; Wall Balls 4, 6 and 9 kg to a 2.70 m target for women and 3.00 m for men.
- penalties
- Time penalties — on stations 1 to 7 the first infringement earns a warning, the second is a no-rep with a time penalty, usually 15 seconds, and each further one adds the same again. Kettlebells not returned upright cost 30 seconds. The wrong arch, equipment or lane, chalk outside the sled pull and farmers carry, outside assistance, littering and spitting cost 2 minutes each. A missed run lap costs 3, 5 or 7 minutes depending on the lap layout. Wall balls get no warnings: a rep counts or it is a no-rep.
- dq
- DNF and DQ — a station not completed in full means disqualification, as does a missed run, a missed sled lane, the wrong weight at the farmers carry or lunges, or starting in the wrong wave. Only a race director can disqualify. A racer who does not finish a station gets no result and may continue without a time; a racer without the chip is listed as DNS.
- ranking
- Ranking — the fastest time in each division wins, and every age group has its own ranking. Penalties can be amended for up to 48 hours after the event, and a racer who starts twice in one division keeps only the faster time.
At an official race the chip does the timing and the judges do the penalties. JudgeMate does the club version: a fitness racing category comes with the 16 segments preloaded in the official order, a timekeeper runs a stopwatch in the phone or types a split, a penalty goes on a segment in seconds with a reason, and the organiser can add a penalty, a DSQ or a tie-break decision later. The server adds the 16 splits into the finishing time, marks a skipped segment as DNF and ranks each category from the fastest. There is no chip or photocell integration, and each segment is timed on its own, up to 60 minutes per segment.
Frequently Asked Questions About Fitness Racing
Primary Sources
More about Fitness Racing
4 sections · Fitness racing — the HYROX format in one paragraph · Where Fitness Racing Is Raced · Fitness Racing Equipment · The History of Fitness Racing
More about Fitness Racing
4 sections · Fitness racing — the HYROX format in one paragraph · Where Fitness Racing Is Raced · Fitness Racing Equipment · The History of Fitness Racing
Fitness racing — the HYROX format in one paragraph
The HYROX rulebook describes the race in a single sentence: a 1 km run followed by one workout station, repeated eight times. Racers complete the runs and stations in the prescribed order — Run 1, station 1, Run 2, station 2 — until they have covered 8 km and all eight stations, wearing a timing chip on the ankle the whole way. The result is the finishing time, and every division ranks from the fastest to the slowest.
Races start in waves, usually every 10 minutes, and a wave holds only racers of one division: Women, Women Pro, Men or Men Pro. Divisions differ in weights and, at the wall balls, in target height, never in distance. Most athletes also race the format unofficially months earlier, in a gym simulation with lighter sleds and a coach holding a stopwatch — the event this page shows how to time.
Where Fitness Racing Is Raced
One global series with a season from late summer to early summer, a World Championship at the end, and thousands of gym simulations in between.
HYROX World Championships
The season finale. Every qualifying event hands out a limited number of slots per division and age group; a racer who qualifies in Pro races the Pro weights at the championships, and the 60+ age groups race with Open weights.
The 2026/27 calendar
HYROX announced 107 race weekends for the 2026/27 season (endurance.biz, 2026). In Poland the season visits Gdańsk on 10–11 October 2026, Poznań on 20–22 November 2026 and Katowice on 19–21 February 2027.
Fitness Racing Equipment
The stations use standard gym equipment, but the rulebook fixes the settings and the weights — what a club copies for a simulation.
SkiErg and rower
1000 m on each, damper preset to 6, rower footplates at 4, monitor reset by a judge. Both feet stay on the SkiErg base, the racer stays seated on the rower, and a judge confirms the station.
Sled push and sled pull
Both run 4 × 12.5 m in an assigned lane, and the whole sled crosses the line before the turn. Weights include the sled: 102, 152 and 202 kg for the push, 78, 103 and 153 kg for the pull.
Kettlebells and sandbag
Farmers carry over 200 m with 2 × 16, 2 × 24 or 2 × 32 kg kettlebells, colour-coded white, grey and black, returned upright to the box. Sandbag lunges over 100 m with 10, 20 or 30 kg on both shoulders, the trailing knee touching the ground.
Wall balls and targets
100 valid reps with a 4, 6 or 9 kg ball to a 2.70 m target for women and 3.00 m for men, squat below parallel. Digital targets may count, but the physical target and the judge decide.
The History of Fitness Racing
Hamburg, 2017 — and 1.5 million racers
HYROX was created in Hamburg in 2017 as an indoor mass-participation fitness race; the rulebook credits the idea to co-founder Christian Toetzke and the race design, including the rulebook itself, to Mintra Tilly. Participation grew from about 570,000 in the 2024/25 season to roughly 1.5 million in 2025/26, with a target of 2 million athletes and 107 race weekends announced for 2026/27 (endurance.biz, 2026) — and with it the unofficial gym simulation.
A rulebook that changes every season
The 2025/26 edition replaced distance-based penalties at the burpee broad jumps, sleds and lunges with a flat 15 seconds after one warning and added a 2-minute penalty for spitting. The 2026/27 Single Rulebook opens Pro to age groups up to 80+, lists age groups up to 85–89 and restricts chalk to the sled pull and the farmers carry. Weights and distances have stayed the same.
Time your club's fitness race on JudgeMate
Set up Open, Pro, Doubles and Relay as categories of one event, send your timekeepers a link and publish one ranking per division.
Runs in the browser on the phones your coaches already carry. No app store, no card.