Elevate Your HYROX Training with Concept2 Ergs

When training for HYROX, it can become daunting when trying to best prepare for your race. With eight demanding stations and more than half the race spent running, the format can feel overwhelming on paper. But if you take a step back, at it’s core, HYROX is simply an endurance sport. Having an engine that is strong and capable to keep chugging along with your foot on the gas for over an hour is vital. The Concept2 SkiErg and RowErg make up a quarter of the stations that you’ll tackle during HYROX, but the benefits they can bring to your training shouldn’t be overlooked. 

The Concept2 RowErg and SkiErg were first created to help on water rowing athletes and Nordic skiers train in the off season or when the outdoor conditions did not allow. Both rowers and cross country skiers are known for their incredibly high VO2 max and their superior aerobic capacity. But the secret is out, and HYROX athletes are taking advantage of the RowErg, SkiErg and BikeErg as incredible tools to make their aerobic engines as efficient and strong as possible.  Whether using Ergs to supplement running, in HYROX simulations for conditioning, or mixing it up with intervals and threshold work, we’re sharing our favorite workouts below. 

Erg Workouts to Help You PR Your Next HYROX 

Pacing: Knowing and executing the correct pace is for workouts is incredibly important to avoid overtraining, going out too fast, or not pushing yourself hard enough for the prescribed effort. We recommend using your maximum heart rate to establish heart rate zones for the following workouts. As a rule of thumb, we recommend using your 5000m personal best on the SkiErg and RowErg as your pace for the SkiErg and RowErg stations come race day.

Base Building Bricks – Zone 2 Work
On your Erg of choice, complete 30 minutes to over 2 hours of steady work, depending on your current training volume, staying within your cardiovascular zone 2.  

Why You Should Do It: We’re sure you’ve heard a lot about zone 2 cardio, but for good reason. It simply works. While not very exciting, zone 2 workouts a few times a week will improve your aerobic base, support endurance performance, and enable training load consistency with minimal stress. Zone 2 work on an Erg can easily replace easy runs when feeling worn down or having a little injury. Erg work decreases the amount of pounding on the body, and prepares you to be ready for more intense workouts. In HYROX you need an engine that can keep going, and zone 2 work helps you with just that. It helps you raise the ceiling of what is capable, so when it is time to go hard, you can go faster and farther.  

Intervals Pay the Bills
On your Erg of choice: 10-20 minutes easy warm up. Tip: We like to warm up and cool down on the BikeErg before workouts on the SkiErg or RowErg. 

10 x 250 meters at faster than goal race pace/5000m PR pace, with 90 seconds rest between sets.  

OR  

6 X 3 mins at goal race pace with 90 seconds rest between sets. 

Focus on being efficient with your form and technique as well as breathing techniques that you’ll use on race day.  

Why You Should Do It: Interval training, while taxing, is an extremely important workout to incorporate if you want to get faster for HYROX. Intervals help you become more efficient with your form and economy, making it easier for you to be speedy and not use excess energy during your race. Intervals help you become familiar with pacing and gauging effort, so come race day, going hard won’t be a shock to your system. Most importantly, intervals boost Vo2 max as well as mental toughness for during the race when fatigue sets in. 

Hurting Politely: aka Threshold Work
On your Erg of choice: 10-20 minutes easy warm up. 

15-40 mins steady (depending on your training load), staying in heart rate zone 3 to low zone 4. This should be slower than race pace, and be “comfortably uncomfortable”. If you are having a difficult time staying in zone 3, either slow down, or break the tempo work up into sets. One of our favorites is 3 x 10 minutes with 1 minute recovery in between sets. 

Why You Should Do It: Threshold, also known as tempo work, is incredibly important when trying to improve your cardiovascular capacity because it teaches your body to sustain a hard effort for longer. Tempo workouts raise your lactate threshold, making it so you are better at clearing and reusing lactate. That means on race day you can go faster before the fatigue sets in. Thresholds are also notorious for building mental toughness- the ability to sit with discomfort and continue grinding is not only important physically, but also mentally for race day.  

Erg Conditioning with HYROX Specific Stations
10-20 minutes easy warm up on the BikeErg into a 20 min EMOM 

Minute 1 RowErg 

Minute 2 Sandbag lunges heavier than race weight 

Minute 3 SkiErg  

Minute 4 Wall Balls heavier than race weight 

OR 

10-20 minutes easy warm up on the BikeErg into stations of 1:30 work, 30 seconds rest for 10 rounds total 

Sled Push 

SkiErg 

Farmers carry heavier than race weight 

RowErg 

Burpee broad jumps 

Spicy Partner Finisher: 2000m SkiErg x Max Wall Balls
Set a SkiErg to a single distance workout of 2,000m. Have one person start on the SkiErg and the other on wall balls. Do as many wall balls as you can without stopping. Once you hit your limit, switch with your partner and keep going until there are no meters left on the SkiErg. Keep track of your overall time and how many wall balls you are able to complete to see how you improve over time. 

Why You Should Do It: HYROX station specific conditioning workouts are key if you want to train your body to perform well when you are already fatigued. These workouts teach you race realism and how to pace yourself during your race. They also help you improve on transitions on and off the Ergs. If you are able to physically and mentally push through the tough parts of these workouts, come race day you will be more likely to maintain form under stress.