Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
YOU probably have heard of HYROX but what is it exactly?
Some 79 Brunei fitness athletes flew off to the Thai capital to compete at HYROX Bangkok over the weekend.
In simple terms, the popular event is a fitness race whereby racing meets functional fitness and it is built for all levels.
It follows an identical format regardless of wherever you are in the world.
This means that athletes can compare their times and progress no matter where they compete.
HYROX consists of eight workout stations which are distributed with 1km runs.
Below is basically what the course looks like:
1000m SkiErg – 1km run – 50m sled push – 1km run – 50m sled pull – 1km run – 80m burpee board jumps – 1km run – 1000m rowing – 1km run – 200m farmers carry – 1km run – 100m sandbag lunges – 1km run - 100 x wall balls.
Participants run a total of 8km broken up into 1km blocks with each km followed by a different workout station that has to be completed as fast as possible.
It was designed to test participants' strength, endurance and overall fitness.
To break it down further, HYROX features three main race divisions – Singles, Doubles and Relay – all following the same workout format.
In addition, entries are also separated into their age brackets to ensure that participants are racing against your peers.
The Brunei duo of Fuad Salim and Syazwi Taib contested in the doubles event (30-39 years old) and completed their workout with a time of 1:14:15.
"Prior to HYROX, I only focused on powerbuilding and strength training but when my partner introduced HYROX to me, we managed to add running to our usual fitness routine," said Syazwi in an interview with BruSports News.
"I have noticed massive improvement in terms of our longevity, endurance and feeling lighter.
"InshaAllah we will be continuing this routine for the betterment of our health and future," he added.
Another contestant from Brunei, Giap on up with Syazwan Sazali, in the same event and finished with a time of 1:09:33.
"Looking back, we're proud of what we accomplished. It wasn't easy, but we pushed ourselves and gave it our all,"said On.
"That said, we also recognise there's still a lot of room for growth. Every challenge revealed something we can work on, and that's something we're taking seriously.
"This experience has only fired us up more. We're more motivated than ever to train harder, get stronger, and come back even better for the future HYROX. The journey continues and we're ready for it," continued On, who had competed a few times prior to Thailand.
They also went on to thank Luc Devaux, Pei Xin, and Syaf from Shine X & Cycle for their incredible support and guidance throughout their HYROX journey.
