Maybe you’re away for a week and there’s no gym anywhere near the hotel. Maybe your usual box is a forty minute drive and you can only realistically get there once a week. Or maybe you’re just at home on a Sunday, can’t leave the house for some reason, but don’t want to lose a day of training either.
I’ve written before about training for HYROX without the official equipment, swapping the sled, the wall ball and the rest of it for whatever kit you’ve actually got in your gym. That post assumes you’ve still got equipment, just not the exact race equipment. This blog is different though. This is for when you’ve got nothing at all, not even a dumbbell.
The good news is you can still get a genuinely useful HYROX-style session done with nothing but your bodyweight and whatever’s lying around wherever you are. It won’t replicate loading a sled with 150kg, nothing bodyweight will, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But for a lot of people it’s a harder session than they expect!
Here’s how I’d break each station down.
Sled Push and Pull With No Equipment
This is the one station you genuinely can’t recreate. There’s no bodyweight movement that mimics driving against 150kg of resistance, and I’m not going to insult you by pretending a lunge does the same job. What you can do is train the same muscles and the same output, just through a different mechanism.
Sled push substitute: low sprint drives. Get into a low, driving position like you’re pushing something heavy, and sprint 10-15 metres from that position, staying low for the first few steps before you open up. Do this on grass or a track if you can, it’s kinder on your joints and harder to cheat.
Sled pull substitute: bear crawls, forwards and backwards, for distance rather than time. 15-20 metres each way. Keep your hips low and your core braced, it’ll hit your shoulders and grip far more than you expect.
Both of these are short, sharp and genuinely brutal without any load at all. If you’ve got a hill nearby, sprint drives up it are about as close as bodyweight training gets to sled work.
Wall Balls Without a Ball
The wall ball is a squat paired with an overhead press, so the bodyweight version needs to load both halves of that separately rather than trying to fake the throw with a jump and a wave of the arms, which trains nothing.
Substitute: bodyweight squats and press-ups, done as two separate blocks rather than combined into one rep. Squats first, AMRAP style for 45-60 seconds, then press-ups separately, max reps in that set. Rest, repeat. Keeping them apart rather than chaining a squat straight into a press-up also stops this station drifting too close to the movement pattern of a burpee broad jump later in the session.
Farmers Carry With Household Items
You need something heavy with an even weight in each hand, which rules out a suitcase, you’d end up carrying it awkwardly in one hand or dragging it by the wheels, neither of which resembles the actual movement.
Two full water bottles, or two hotel room bins filled with water, one in each hand, does the job properly and is available in any hotel room without unpacking a thing. At home, two shopping bags or two bags loaded with books or tins works just as well.
Walk for 40-50 metres, turn, walk back. Grip will go before your legs do, that’s normal, it’s the same on the real station.
I appreciate this could be awkward, and walking outside a hotel with their bins may get an odd look from reception, but my point is that you can get creative!
Walking or Reverse Lunges Instead of Sandbag Lunges
Without the load, this becomes about time under tension and control rather than raw strength, so slow the movement right down.
Walking lunges if you’ve got the space to travel forward, reverse lunges if you’re stuck in a hotel room with nowhere to go. Either way, take three full seconds to lower into each one and pause briefly at the bottom before driving up. Doing them slowly like this for 40-50 metres, or on the spot if you’re using reverse lunges, will find muscles a normal-paced lunge won’t touch.
Running Still Counts
Easy to overlook because it needs literally nothing, but running is still your best substitute for the cardio demand HYROX asks of you, and it deserves a place in a genuinely no-kit session. Outside if you’ve got anywhere to go, or on-the-spot jogging and high knees if you’re confined to a room.
The One Station You Don’t Need to Adapt: Burpee Broad Jumps
Good news, this one’s already bodyweight. Burpee into a broad jump, repeat. No substitute needed, no compromise, just do it exactly as you would in the race. If anything, this is the station where a no-kit session and a full-kit session look identical.
A Full No-Equipment HYROX Bodyweight Training Session
Here’s how I’d actually put all of that together into one session, whether you’re in a hotel room, a garden, or a random patch of grass on holiday.
Warm-up (5-8 minutes) Easy jog or on-the-spot jogging, arm circles, walking lunges, a few bodyweight squats to get everything moving before you load anything up.
The session: 3-4 rounds of the following, resting 60-90 seconds between each exercise if needed and 2-3 minutes rest between full rounds:
A Full No-Equipment HYROX Session You Can Actually Follow
Here’s how I’d actually put all of that together into one session, whether you’re in a hotel room, a garden, or a random patch of grass on holiday. If you’re short on space, most of this still works, several blocks below have an on-the-spot version noted, so don’t let a small room put you off.
Warm-up (5-8 minutes). Easy jog or on-the-spot jogging, arm circles, walking lunges, a few bodyweight squats to get everything moving before you load anything up.
The session: 3-4 rounds of the following, resting 60-90 seconds between blocks and 2-3 minutes between full rounds.
- Low sprint drives – 15m out, walk back. Get low like you’re about to push something heavy, drive hard off the floor for the first few steps, then open up into a normal sprint. Walk back to recover, that’s your rest built in. No space? Fast feet on the spot instead, quick, choppy steps with an aggressive arm drive for 15-20 seconds flat out, short and explosive rather than paced, that’s the bit that actually mimics the sled.
- Bear crawl – 15m forward, 15m back. Hands and feet on the floor, knees hovering just off the ground, crawl forward keeping your hips low and your core tight, then crawl the same distance back. No space? Hold a bear crawl position and do 20-30 seconds of shoulder taps instead, same core and shoulder demand without needing to travel.
- Bodyweight squats – 45-60 seconds, as many reps as you can (AMRAP). Standard bodyweight squat, full depth, controlled tempo. Keep going for the full 45-60 seconds and count how many you get, that’s your number to beat next session.
- Press-ups – 15-20 reps, or as many as you can manage if that’s out of reach. Full range, chest close to the floor, no half reps. Drop to your knees for the last few if your form’s breaking down rather than stopping dead.
- Farmers carry (water bottles, bins, or bags) – 40m. One weight in each hand, even load on both sides, walk 40 metres, turn, walk back. Stand tall, don’t let your shoulders round forward as your grip starts to go. No space? Hold the same weights and march on the spot, driving your knees up, for 40-50 seconds instead of walking. Got nothing to hold at all? Skip this one rather than forcing it empty-handed, it’s not worth faking.
- Walking lunges – 40m, or 20 reverse lunges (10 each leg) if you’ve got no space to travel. Walking lunges if you’ve got room to move forward, reverse lunges on the spot if you’re boxed into a hotel room. Either way, take it slow, three seconds down, brief pause at the bottom before driving up.
- Burpee broad jumps – 15 reps. Drop to the floor, chest to the ground, press back up, then jump forward as far as you can. Reset and repeat, this is the one station you’re doing exactly as written, no modification. No space to jump forward? Do the burpee as normal but replace the broad jump with a vertical jump on the spot, same explosive demand without needing ground to cover.
- Run outside, or on-the-spot jogging/high knees if room-bound – 2-3 minutes. Steady effort outside if you’ve got space to move, or drive your knees up hard on the spot if you’re stuck indoors, either way this is your engine work for the round.
That’s eight blocks, and by round two or three you’ll understand why I said this is harder than people expect. Scale the rounds down to two if you’re new to this kind of training, and build up from there.
Cool down A few minutes of easy walking and some stretching for your hips and shoulders, both of which take the brunt of this session.
I Can Help You…
I’m Simon, an official HYROX Performance Coach offering both online and in-person HYROX coaching from my studio in Farnborough. I work with everyone from first-timers who just don’t want to let themselves down on race day through to athletes chasing Worlds qualification, with fully personalised training plans, nutrition and pacing support either way.
If that sounds useful, you can book a free consultation call to chat through your goals.
