Races like HYROX: six alternatives compared, format by format

HYROX is the race most people picture when they hear "fitness racing": eight 1km runs, eight stations, one fixed order, the same format in every city. It isn't the only race built that way, and for plenty of people it isn't the best first one.

People go looking for HYROX alternatives for a handful of reasons. They want less running, or none. They want a team day with their gym rather than a solo grind. They'd rather race outdoors. Or they lift heavy and want that to count. Each of those has a race built around it.

This guide puts the best-known alternatives to HYROX side by side: DEKA (FIT, MILE and STRONG), ATHX, Turf Games, Deadly Dozen, MacTuffX and Battle Cancer. Every distance, rep count and team size comes from the organiser's own site or rulebook, checked in October 2026. Prices are left out because they change by event. Newer races such as GYMRACE and TRYKA sit outside this comparison for now. If mixing running and lifting is new to you, start with what hybrid training is.

What makes a race "like HYROX"?

Strip HYROX back and you get three ingredients: running between functional fitness stations, a standard format, and a result you can compare with anyone else's. Two design choices explain much of its pull. The format is the same everywhere, which is what makes its global leaderboards possible, and anyone aged 16 or over can enter without qualifying (HYROX Single Rulebook).

Every race in this guide keeps the functional stations, and most keep some running. The question that splits them is whether you're entering a race or a competition:

• Races are one continuous effort against the clock, and the fastest time wins. HYROX, DEKA, Deadly Dozen, MacTuffX and Turf Games' ENGINE work this way.
• Competitions split the day into separately scored workouts. ATHX scores weight, distance and time. Turf Games festivals rank teams workout by workout. Battle Cancer counts reps in fixed time windows and adds fundraising points.

Races reward pacing and an engine that holds up under fatigue. Competitions reward being good at several different things and recovering between them. Neither is easier. They hurt in different places.

HYROX alternatives at a glance

HYROX: the benchmark

HYROX is a 1km run followed by one station, eight times, in a fixed order: 1,000m SkiErg, 50m sled push, 50m sled pull, 80m burpee broad jumps, 1,000m row, 200m farmers carry, 100m sandbag lunges and 100 wall balls. It runs indoors, in large exhibition halls.

Singles race in four divisions: Women, Women Pro, Men and Men Pro. The distances never change, only the loads. The wall ball, for example, weighs 4kg, 6kg or 9kg depending on division. Doubles partners run every kilometre together and split the station work however they like, and a partner who runs ahead earns a 1-minute penalty (HYROX Doubles Rulebook). Relay teams have four racers, each covering two runs and two stations (HYROX Team Relay Rulebook). Adaptive racers have their own rulebook, with 13 divisions.

You start in a wave with your division, wear a timing chip on your ankle, and get ranked by time within your division and age group. Miss a station or a 1km run and you're disqualified.

Who it suits: runners who can lift, lifters prepared to run 8km, and anyone who wants a time that means the same in Glasgow as it does in Paris. Our guide to HYROX divisions covers which one to enter, and our HYROX training plan covers the build. Sticking with HYROX? We have race guides for London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, plus Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris if you fancy a trip.

DEKA: the closest relative to HYROX

DEKA is Spartan's fitness race and the nearest thing to HYROX in spirit: one standard course, timed, with a global leaderboard. Instead of eight stations it has ten zones, always in this order (the RAM is a weighted roller):

1. 30 RAM alternating reverse lunges
2. 500m row
3. 20 box jumps or step-overs
4. 25 med ball sit-up throws
5. 500m SkiErg
6. 100m farmer's carry
7. 25-calorie air bike
8. 20 dead ball wall overs
9. 100m sled push/pull
10. 20 RAM burpees

DEKA MILE and STRONG swap zone 4 for med ball sit-ups and zone 8 for dead ball shoulder overs. Otherwise, what changes between formats is the running (DEKA competition formats). DEKA FIT puts 500m before every zone, so 5km in all. DEKA MILE puts 160m before each, one mile in total. DEKA STRONG has no running at all. At the extremes, DEKA ULTRA is 50 zones with 25km of running, and DEKA ATLAS is ten heavy zones with a 30-minute time cap.

Timing mats record your split in every zone, your transitions and your total, and the total becomes your DEKA Mark on the global leaderboard. STRONG and MILE are hosted by DEKA affiliate gyms, and DEKA says every affiliate event is a World Championship qualifier (DEKA MILE). So your first DEKA can be at a gym down the road.

Two details make DEKA friendlier than it looks: you're allowed to walk the runs, and teams of two or four divide all the work, running included (DEKA FIT). In a pair, only one of you works at a time. DEKA Ignite stretches that to four-person teams with doubled reps and distances, a 90-minute limit, and the whole team running the first and last laps together (DEKA Ignite). There's even a Ruck heat, raced with a weighted pack.

Who it suits: first-time racers (MILE), people who want HYROX's structure with a shorter run (FIT), and anyone who can't or won't run (STRONG). The row and SkiErg are half HYROX's length (500m against 1,000m) and there are ten zones to get in and out of, so DEKA rewards quick transitions as much as raw engine.

ATHX: strength gets its own score

ATHX is a 2.5-hour competition rather than a race. You move through six zones: a warm-up zone for mobility, three scored workouts, and two recovery zones between them. The 2027 workouts, published for next season, look like this (ATHX 2027 workouts):

• Strength: 20 minutes of heavy lifting. A 1RM shoulder to overhead, a 2RM back squat and a 3RM deadlift, scored as the sum of the three.
• Endurance: a set-distance run (3km in the ATHX and PRO categories, 2.4km in LITE), then as far as you can go on the SkiErg inside a 24-minute cap. Your score is the ski distance.
• MetCon X: a station circuit for time with a 25-minute cap. In 2027 that's a calorie row, dumbbell ground to overhead, dumbbell bench press, sandbag squats, a sandbag carry, burpees over a soft bench, then the rower again.

There are three levels on the same format. LITE has lighter weights and simpler versions of some moves, and is pairs only. ATHX and PRO step up the weights and the movement standards, and you can enter either solo or as a pair (two men, two women or mixed).

Who it suits: anyone whose squat is better than their 10k. Strength is a whole scored workout here, not a station you grind through between runs, and the running is a few kilometres inside one workout rather than the backbone of the day.

Turf Games: a team festival, plus a race called ENGINE

Turf Games is built around teams. Its festivals are the main event: teams take on several separate workouts across a full day in Everyday, Intermediate or Elite divisions, with each workout graded for the level. Most festivals use mixed teams of six (three men, three women), including the February 2027 Winter Festival at London Olympia (Winter Festival key information). Some events add teams of four: Manchester in October 2026 had male and female fours alongside mixed sixes (Turf Games Manchester 2026).

Scoring is by rank. At Manchester 2026, winning a workout earned 1 point, finishing 20th earned 20, and the lowest total won (Manchester athlete handbook). The Winter Festival's workouts go live up to three weeks before the event, so you enter without knowing the exact movements.

Think CrossFit-style team competition without the high-skill gymnastics: Turf's division guidance rules out muscle-ups, handstand push-ups and handstand walks in every division (division guidance).

The most HYROX-style part of Turf Games is ENGINE: an endurance race built around cardio machines (ski, bike, row and air bike), broken up by 400 to 500m runs, for individuals, pairs or teams of three (ENGINE Singapore). Turf expects the February 2027 London ENGINE to take 45 to 65 minutes depending on your fitness (London ENGINE).

Who it suits: gym crews who want a day out together. If your favourite session of the week is a team WOD, a Turf Games festival will feel like home.

Deadly Dozen: twelve rounds on a running track

Deadly Dozen takes the format outdoors onto an athletics track. You run 400m (a Journey), cross into the infield for an exercise (a Labour), and repeat twelve times. The Labours run in a fixed order, from a kettlebell farmers carry to a dumbbell devil press, and use only kettlebells, dumbbells, weight plates and bodyweight. In total: 4.8km of running, 900m of carries, lunges, burpee broad jumps and crawls, and 320 reps.

Solo racers have no time limit. Pairs run every Journey together and split each Labour however they like. Relay teams of four take turns, one Journey and one Labour at a time, so everyone does three of each. Athletes wear a chip on the ankle, and waves set off every four to six minutes.

The penalties are refreshingly blunt. Do the Labours in the wrong order, leave one incomplete, or get scaled by a judge, and you take 5 minutes. Miss a Labour completely and it's a DNF. If 4.8km sounds a lot, Deadly Sprint, an indoor track race, halves the runs (12 × 200m) and the reps but keeps the weights, and Deadly Strong drops the running entirely (Deadly Dozen race formats).

Who it suits: anyone who'd rather race in the fresh air, and anyone training in a basic gym. There's no sled or SkiErg involved: kettlebells, dumbbells and a weight plate cover the whole kit list.

MacTuffX: pick your distance, up to HYROX's 8km

MacTuffX is also raced on outdoor athletics tracks. You alternate track legs with ten Xercises on the infield, X1 to X10 in order, then finish with a 150m dash. Pick X and the running legs are 400m laps, 4km in all once you add the dash. Pick 2X and the legs double to 800m, 8km in all, which is exactly HYROX's running volume. The Xercises and reps are identical in both.

The ten Xercises are an alternating snatch, walking lunge, devil press, bear crawl, overhead carry, kettlebell deadlift, burpee broad jump, slamball ground to overhead, Zercher carry and slamball sit-up. Doubles partners stay together on the track and the infield and split each Xercise. Relay teams have five athletes, each running two legs and doing two Xercises.

In 2026 everyone races in one Open division (male, female or mixed), with no age-group, elite or pro split, and the fastest time wins. LITE, ticked at booking, gives you lighter weights on the same course and leaderboard, with nothing marked against your result.

Who it suits: HYROX athletes who want 8km of racing outdoors (2X), and beginners who want a shorter first race with a lighter option (X with LITE).

Battle Cancer: where fundraising is part of the score

Battle Cancer is a fundraising event, not a charity: you enter, then raise money for a cancer charity of your choice. What sets it apart from every other race here is that the money counts: every pound, dollar or euro raised adds one point to your leaderboard score (how Battle Cancer fundraising works).

The Battle Cancer Challenge is 90 minutes for a team of four (male, female or mixed). You rotate through nine stations in three zones: Endurance (bike erg, row erg and ski erg), Burn (box jump overs, hand-release push-ups and sit-ups) and Power (sandbag squats, dumbbell devil's press and deadlifts). Each station is 5 minutes of max work, AMRAP-style, then 4 minutes of rest (stations and standards). In the Challenge division two athletes work while two rest, and movements can be modified. Compete brings heavier weights, stricter standards and some stations with all four working at once. Teams score themselves, with floor crew overseeing.

Hybrid 3|20 is the format for individuals and pairs: nine stations of 3 minutes' max reps with 2 minutes of transition, then a 20-minute max-distance run. Your score is reps plus run metres plus fundraising points (Hybrid 3|20).

Who it suits: teams who want their training to raise money, and anyone who wants a hard 90 minutes with no running at all.

Doubles and teams: who does the running?

This is the detail most comparisons skip, and it matters if you and your training buddy run at different speeds.

• HYROX Doubles: you run every 1km together, and running ahead costs a 1-minute penalty.
• Deadly Dozen pairs: you both run every 400m Journey, together.
• MacTuffX doubles: you stay together on the track and on the infield.
• ATHX pairs: in the 2027 Endurance workout you both run the full set distance, starting together, and whoever finishes first gets onto the SkiErg.
• DEKA teams: the work is divided, running included, and only one of you works at a time.

In the first three, the pair runs at the slower runner's pace for every metre. DEKA is the clear exception: a stronger runner can take more of the running. Relays share the load by design. HYROX uses four racers (two runs and two stations each), Deadly Dozen uses four (three Journeys and three Labours each) and MacTuffX uses five (two legs and two Xercises each). Racing HYROX with a friend? Read our guide to choosing a HYROX doubles partner before you both buy tickets.

How much running each race involves

If running is the deciding factor, here is the ladder:

• None: DEKA STRONG, Deadly Strong, the Battle Cancer Challenge
• One mile: DEKA MILE
• 2.4km: Deadly Sprint, or the set run in ATHX LITE
• 3km: the set run in ATHX and PRO (2027 Endurance workout)
• 4km: MacTuffX X
• 4.8km: Deadly Dozen
• 5km: DEKA FIT
• 8km: HYROX and MacTuffX 2X
• 25km: DEKA ULTRA

Turf Games ENGINE (400 to 500m intervals) and Battle Cancer's Hybrid 3|20 (a 20-minute run to finish) depend on the event and on your pace, so they don't sit neatly on the ladder.

What happens if you can't do a movement?

For a first race this matters as much as the running distance, and each race handles it differently:

• HYROX: you pick your load up front (Open or Pro). Missed standards cost time penalties, and if you can't finish a station you won't get a result, though you can carry on racing (HYROX Single Rulebook).
• DEKA: modify the movement and you still finish with a medal. Your time just stays off the global leaderboard (DEKA FIT).
• Deadly Dozen: ask the judge to scale a Labour and it costs you 5 minutes.
• MacTuffX: book LITE for lighter weights at no cost to your result. If a marshal records a Try on the day (finished, but not to standard), you still get a medal but rank below every clean finisher.
• ATHX: LITE has lighter weights and simpler versions of some moves, but it's pairs only.
• Turf Games: the Everyday division keeps loads lighter and leaves out high-skill movements.
• Battle Cancer: the Challenge division lets teams modify movements. Compete doesn't.

For a nervous first race, MacTuffX LITE and a modified DEKA finish are the most forgiving routes to a medal.

Which race like HYROX should you do?

Our picks, by what you're after:

• Your first fitness race: DEKA MILE at a local affiliate gym, where you can walk the runs. Deadly Sprint, with half-length runs and half the reps, is another gentle start.
• You can't or won't run: DEKA STRONG on your own, or the Battle Cancer Challenge with three friends.
• You lift heavy: ATHX.
• A day out with your gym: a Turf Games festival.
• You want to race outdoors: Deadly Dozen or MacTuffX, and MacTuffX 2X if you want HYROX's 8km.
• You and your partner run at different speeds: a DEKA team.
• You want your race to raise money: Battle Cancer.
• You want the benchmark: HYROX. The same format everywhere means your time travels.

Once you've picked a format, our race finder lists upcoming races from all of these organisers near you, soonest first.

Training for a race like HYROX

The engine and strength endurance that get you round a HYROX race carry over to every race here. What changes is the mix: more transitions in DEKA, genuine barbell strength in ATHX, several efforts in one day at Turf Games, repeated 5-minute efforts at Battle Cancer, and 8km of running on tired legs in HYROX and MacTuffX 2X. So train for the race you've entered, not for "fitness racing" in general.

If you'd rather have the programming done for you, RYVOLVE is a hybrid training app with periodised plans across strength, running and conditioning, and HYROX work built in. A coach or personal trainer who knows your format works too. If you're training for HYROX itself, our HYROX training plan breaks down the build, strength training for runners covers the lifting side if you're coming from running, and here's what to bring to HYROX on race day.

Landed here looking for HYROX exercise alternatives because your gym has no sled? That's a training question rather than a race one, so start with the training plan.

Frequently asked questions

What is the closest race to HYROX?

DEKA FIT is the closest relative indoors: run, station, repeat, on a standard course with a global leaderboard, but with ten stations and 5km of running. If you want the same running volume, MacTuffX 2X matches HYROX's 8km on an outdoor track.

Which HYROX alternative is best for beginners?

DEKA MILE: one mile of running at an affiliate gym, you can walk the runs, and you can modify movements and still finish. Outdoors, MacTuffX X with LITE weights is the gentlest start.

Is there a race like HYROX with no running?

Yes. DEKA STRONG is the ten DEKA stations back to back with no running. The Battle Cancer Challenge is 90 minutes of station work for teams of four, and Deadly Dozen's Strong format runs all twelve Labours without the runs.

Can you train for HYROX and DEKA at the same time?

Yes. Both are running plus functional stations, and they share the rower, SkiErg, sled and a loaded carry. Build your training around the race that comes first. HYROX needs more running volume; DEKA has more, shorter stations and more transitions.

Is Turf Games like CrossFit?

It's closer to CrossFit than any other race here, because it's a team competition across several workouts, barbells included. But there are no muscle-ups, handstand push-ups or handstand walks in any division, so you don't need high-skill gymnastics to compete.

Can I do these races without a partner?

Mostly. HYROX, DEKA, Deadly Dozen and MacTuffX all have solo races, and ATHX takes solo entries at its ATHX and PRO levels. Turf Games festivals and the Battle Cancer Challenge are team only, but Turf's ENGINE takes individuals and Battle Cancer's Hybrid 3|20 is built for individuals and pairs.

How do I find a race like HYROX near me?

Use our race finder. It lists upcoming HYROX, DEKA, ATHX, Deadly Dozen, MacTuffX, Battle Cancer and Turf Games events near you, soonest first.