Hyrox has become popular lately as it’s easily accessible fitness racing. Their appeal is to people who want a competitive outlet, maybe they’re aging out of GAA, football or rugby, and want something different to simple long distance running events. It deliberately has no complex barbell movements or gymnastics/bodyweight skills to keep its mass appeal. And it’s the same race each time so you can compare your scores quite easily from one event to the next.
CrossFit’s philosophy is that you’ll be your healthiest and general fittest when you have a wide range of training stimuli – i.e. different exercises. We’re the gym for people who never found a workout routine that was rewarding, inclusive or enjoyable. We believe that in order to get as healthy, strong and as fit as possible, you’ll do your best by doing lots of different things. Learning how to move a barbell from the floor to overhead will teach your body a lot of coordination and accuracy. Practicing pull ups, handstands, single leg squats, rope climbs etc will keep your joints healthy for longer. Playing with the skipping rope, no matter how often you trip up, builds agility and strengthens your bones for later life.
When you constantly change up your workouts, you keep it interesting, avoid burnout and overuse injuries, and actually can get fitter than by just doing the same thing over and over again.
Competition can be great, and for some people having something to aim for can give meaning to your training. We think it’s good to get out of your comfort zone but to make sure you do it in a safe, and healthy way. We’ll have mini comp days sprinkled into our calendar for fun and excitement. Competitive training can (not always) go from healthy to unhealthy if training is excessive and recovery is lacking. For us, we’re all about that balance of fitness, health and happiness.