HYROX is the sport for everyone... even busy parents!

DISCIPLINE. For an athlete it’s part of the job. For a parent, it’s part of life.

So when personal trainer and father of soon-to-be-three Stephen Cassells began his journey in HYROX, the latest sport to sweep the world, he had to strike the balance between being a parent, business owner and athlete.

Cassells, who runs his own gym in Queenslie industrial estate in the east end of Glasgow, has only been participating in HYROX for around seven months and already it has taken over his life. Previous to that, he’d never found a sport that kept him interested for long. HYROX changed everything.

‘I played football growing up, wanted that to be my life but realised I was rubbish,’ he says. ‘But it was never my intention to be a PT either. I was just an overweight kid that played football because that’s what boys did.

‘Since then, I’ve just been going to the gym and messing around with my programming. I became a PT, dabbled in bodybuilding, powerlifting, physique stuff, following Strongman programmes and then HYROX came around.

‘All of a sudden, HYROX has become my main focus and probably the most consistent I’ve been with a sport.

‘For me, I’ve never really been consistent. I’ve always gone from programme to programme and never found a proper love for it. Whereas with HYROX, I don’t know if it’s because you know your abilities on it and you’ve got something there that drives you forward a bit more, but it’s definitely the most consistent I’ve been with my training.

‘Because you can see the progression in it so quickly, it’s so rewarding. When I was playing football, if a result didn’t go our way, you just put it off. It was just a case of continuing to do the same stuff in training. Training would never change, it would never progress. You lost? Okay, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. You won? We’ll keep doing what we’re doing.

‘Whereas with HYROX, it’s been great because it has taken me out my comfort zone for starters. I despise running but I’ve seen so much progression there; getting faster, getting fitter, getting stronger. It makes it so much easier to stick with the sport as you can see things clicking.

‘There’s no skill work involved in HYROX, it really is for the general population. I’m a simple person, give me something skilful to do and I’ll just get frustrated with it, things like boxing. Failing to hit combinations were stressing and frustrating. But at least now the only person I can get frustrated at is myself.’

Whilst Cassells admits to having a good base fitness level he’s built up over the years, he concedes that being fit enough isn’t enough for HYROX. You need that mental strength as well.

The 31-year-old’s journey in the sport has been anything but easy, however. Having started training in November, he signed up for his first competition in Manchester in January. Knowing where he was physically and mentally, Cassells expected to stroll the competition and qualify for the World Championships in early June. Things could not have gone any differently.

‘I did my first kilometre run in around 3minutes 40seconds, something I’d never done before,’ he admits. ‘Got to the ski-erg and that’s where it started to go wrong. I was breathing heavily, didn’t know where I was going. Came in from my third lap and I couldn’t really see anything or take anything in. I was getting snapshots of different parts of the arena.

‘I looked at my watch and my heart rate was at 195. I went into the sled pull and just collapsed.

‘All I can remember is being in the hospital thereafter. Apparently I was able to walk out the arena having withdrawn from the event on medical grounds, got back to the hotel and I’ve had what can only be described as a seizure. So we got an ambulance and went to the hospital for testing.

‘The cause of it was down to me pushing myself too much. My heart rate skyrocketed and there was too much troponin in my blood. The worry was that it was the starting signs of a heart attack and/or a stroke. So it was a bit of a wake-up call.

‘We ended up going to the cardiologist and one of the guys said that there are a lot of Premier League footballers they see and it is happening more and more with them as well. But once I’d finished all my checks, it was a case of just getting rest.’

Once Cassells had recovered, the aim was to get back into the competition mindset and gather data before deciding his next step. He credits his wife Natalie in playing a big role in helping him succeed.

Having gone to Vienna and competed there, HYROX Glasgow was announced and the couple knew it was something they couldn’t miss. So Cassells and 36 clients from his gym signed up for their hometown event.

‘What I’m learning now about HYROX is that it’s more a mental battle than a physical one,’ he says. ‘You need to be willing to suffer, especially if you want a good time.

‘It’s going to hurt, and it’ll hurt in a way that you need to push through mentally to keep going. The only thing that got me through Glasgow was the 36 clients who were also competing. I didn’t want to feel as though I was a fraud. I knew if I’d quit, then some of them would quit. So it was like: “You need to show up, you need to deliver”.

‘When things get hard, you still need to acknowledge it. Show up on the day, take ownership and do the work.’

That’s exactly what he did, setting a new personal best of 1 hour and 18minutes. Having set his own bar, completing an event in the pro division, and reflecting on it with Natalie, Cassells knew he could do better and so booked a last-minute spot in London, where he earned his spot at the World Championships where around just two per cent of around 172,000 registered competitors will go to Nice and compete to be crowned best in the sport.

For Cassells though, family comes first.

‘I knew I wouldn’t be able to go as baby No 3 is due on June 11, the race is two days before that,’ he adds. ‘It’s a bit catch-22 in a way because I would love to go and experience the atmosphere more than anything.

‘The way it’s presented to you, it’s as if you’re going to the Olympics. There’s an opening ceremony on the Friday where you get your t-shirt that’s personalised with your name and country’s flag, the crowds, the excitement building, seeing the Elite 15 competition. That first day is the pinnacle of the sport.

‘So I’m gutted to miss all the hype and all that sort of thing. But there’s the acknowledgement of the fact that I’m not where I want to be physically for it. I don’t want to just go and be a stat.

‘My goal is to get a sub-60min, so would like to hit that first before I go to the Worlds. You need to be deserving of your place there, for me. And that sub-60 would be deserving.

‘So it is bittersweet that I can’t be there but looking at the bigger picture, I’ll be there for the birth of my third child. For the first few days it was gutting not to be there but the more I thought about it, it was always just a bonus to qualify for it.’

FIRST launching in 2017, HYROX is the latest craze taking over the fitness industry.

In the 2023-24 season, there were over 40 registered competitions from Taipei to New York, with the World Championships being held in Nice, France in June.

Each competition and workout is the same, with the differences including running route and race conditions. Every workout is made up of eight functional fitness stations, including ski-erg, row, burpee broad jumps, farmers walk, sled push, sled pull, sandbag lunges and wall balls, with a 1km run in between each station.

Competitors start in running waves, so there is always the likelihood that you will share the competition floor with the elite of the sport at some stage, even if it is only in passing. Because of the way the competition works, there is a chance that someone finishing in two hours could cross the line at the same time as someone who takes an hour.

There are four categories for athletes — pro, open, duo and relay. Each has it’s own variations of weights being used and distances covered to suit the sport. In each division, competitors are not only competing for the overall title, but are grouped via age range as well, so can see how they compare to athletes in the same range as them.