Fitness as a lifestyle is still finding its footing in India. It is often treated as a phase or as a short-term goal rather than a long-term commitment. Against this backdrop, a committed community continues to grow. These are the early risers at marathons, the cycling groups that take over highways at dawn, and the tight-knit fitness communities across cities, including Chennai. While such formats have long existed, a new challenge now draws attention.
Chennaiites who see fitness as a way of life have trained for weeks, if not months, and even travelled to Karnataka recently to compete in what is emerging as a serious test of endurance and strength globally: Hyrox.
Hyrox is a global fitness race where participants run one kilometer and then move into a workout station, repeating this pattern eight times. The eight stations include SkiErg, Sled Push, Sled Pull, Burpee Broad Jumps, Rowing, Farmer’s Carry, Sandbag Lunges, and Wall Balls. The goal is to complete all eight runs and workouts as quickly as possible, either alone or in a relay format with a partner, or a group.
This fitness race first grew popular in the West before making its way to India in 2025. The debut race in Mumbai in May last year drew only a few thousand participants and the numbers grew by a small margin in the Delhi and second Mumbai editions in July and September respectively. However, a few weekends ago, at Hyrox Bengaluru, the participant numbers jumped to 8,000, underlining how quickly it has found a dedicated following in India.
The momentum was felt in Chennai too, with many heading to Bengaluru to compete. Each had their own reason for signing up for this fitness test.
For Aditi Mammen Gupta, co-founder of Origin Nutrition, who participated in the doubles category with her husband, Hyrox felt like the perfect challenge. “My husband and I turned 40 a couple of months ago and we decided to do something that was a bit different in the health and wellness space. Something that can challenge us. For us, Hyrox was that ‘something’ to do and accomplish together,” she says.
Lavanya Mohan, a chartered accountant and author, believes that Hyrox is the only playing field for her to compete in within the realms of fitness, since she has only recently begun her fitness journey. She reasons, “I am not a power-lifter to be in a power-lifting competition and I am not a runner. So marathons are out of the picture. What Hyrox does is give space for people in the middle like me. More than competing with the others, it pushes me to compete with my own performance.” She goes a step further and says that it is her mid-life crisis that drew her to Bengaluru.
Akkil Srinaath, CEO, founder, and head coach of Momentum Studios, Chennai, recalls hearing of this format of competing for the first time in 2023 in London. “What I saw there was a lot of people coming together to train for Hyrox. I saw a community being built and it gave them all a purpose. That fascinated me a lot and I participated in London,” Akkil says. He adds that it inspired him to equip Momentum Studios with training facilities for Hyrox in 2024 even though the race then had not come to India. “Momentum Studios is the first Hyrox-affiliated gym in Chennai,” he declares, adding that his early intervention yielded results for a community of 17 people who participated in Hyrox Bengaluru.
In these experiences, a common thread emerged. They all admitted to feeling a deep sense of accomplishment and expressed joy of working towards a goal, measured in the time it took to complete the race.
While the journey felt effortless for some, for others it was marked by challenges and setbacks. Sabari Krishnan U, a senior coach at Momentum Studios, recalls the hurdles that came his way. Despite having trained for months, a viral fever 10 days before the event posed challenges for him. “My body was completely dehydrated after the fever. By the second kilometre run at Hyrox, my quads started to cramp and I couldn’t run fast. Although I recovered in the stations inbetween the runs, in my final lap my calf muscles pulled and I had to slow down. Somehow I finished the race.” Akkil also admits to cramping up in the final leg of the race, slowing him down by four minutes to achieve his target time.
Lavanya, meanwhile, says she made it through easily. “I had a really comfortable race to the point where after the race I went out for dinner and I partied. I had a lot of energy.” Aditi and her partner, too, had a smooth race overall, with the exception of the Sled Push station. She felt the lane had already been worn down and had extra friction that made the push significantly more difficult.
Training ground
The format demands overall fitness from participants as it requires people to run and showcase their strength, but to also do it all, continuously, over a prolonged period of time. Sabari explains, “People will normally take more than an hour-and-a-half to complete the race and so they have to sustain physical activity for a prolonged period of time. That is the main challenge.”
But training for it can look different for different people, depending on their personal fitness levels. For instance, beginners might have to train for at least six months to aim to finish the race, and those who have a fitness base, who have been strength training or doing recreational runs, can make do with three to four months of training, Sabari informs.
Akkil adds that one should typically aim to train at least four or five times a week and focus on two strength programmes: one full-body and another tailored to Hyrox stations for skill-building. He believes that adding three or four cardio sessions weekly, including long runs, compromised running, and threshold training can help. But he also advocates not relying on running alone. “One might get injured, especially if they aren’t used to running. I encourage cardio with off-feet equipment where the feet aren’t touching the ground by using bikes or by rowing or even swimming.”
While Chennai’s fitness centres are well-equipped for cardio training, they largely lack the specialised equipment needed to build skills for Hyrox-specific stations. Lavanya says, “Almost all the gyms aren’t Hyrox-affiliated. Bengaluru has many of those but in Chennai there is only Momentum Studios.” She even adds that coaching support for Hyrox is scarce in the city as the trend is only just catching up. “Even my coach is not a Hyrox coach and is just my strength training coach. But since he was also training for Hyrox with us, we were just learning things on the fly,” she says. Aditi, too, admits to training at a gym that only had some of the equipment that one will need to work with at Hyrox.
The cost of availing training support is also high due to the need for specialised equipment and dedicated coaching support. At Momentum Studios a group session will cost around Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 a class and a one-on-one personal trainer can cost double. “But I would say people should focus on group sessions six to eight times a month and that will roughly cost between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000,” Akkil informs.
Maintaining fitness also comes with the cost of proper nutritional support. Hyrox, in particular, demands higher intake of protein and carbohydrates to build muscle and sustain energy for prolonged physical activity. Additionally, the race registration costs around Rs 8,000, making it a pursuit that’s largely accessible only to the privileged. Despite acknowledging this, these fitness enthusiasts find value in the expense.
Though some argue that Hyrox derives its appeal from being Instagrammable and offering a sense of online validation, these participants acknowledge this aspect but insist it isn’t the sole reason. The value, Lavanya says, is found in data. “I don’t think I have seen any other sport giving in-depth data like Hyrox does. Every run, every split second, the time you spent at each exercise, they give you data on it all. When you look at it you’ll be like, ‘If I had done burpees a little bit faster I could have done that’, or ‘If I ran a particular lap a little bit faster, things could have gone differently’. I think that’s what makes Hyrox so addictive because data is the drug.” Akkil corroborates and adds that Hyrox allows one to compare their performance with others in their age category too, allowing one to focus on weaker areas and make progress accordingly.
And it is this factor that makes them all want to do Hyrox again. Aditi and her partner have, in fact, already signed up for Hyrox Delhi to be held in July, aiming to hit their target time and make up for the time lost while pushing the sled in Bengaluru.
For details on upcoming Hyrox event and to register, visit: www.hyrox.co.in