HYROX: Interview with George Edwards

11th July

We’re only halfway through 2021 and have already had our fair share of events since January – but some events top others, especially when they don’t involve talk of covid, vaccines, politicians…And who better to give us some goss on our next upcoming event, than our very own Instructor, Personal Trainer, and all round fitness guru George Edwards? With a new class on the timetable and a competition set to go ahead in September, George gives our blogger Kat the lowdown on everything HYROX…

So George, how long have you been a VPT at Gymbox?

I've been at Gymbox since 2013 so I've seen a lot of trends come and go in the industry. London is a great city to work in and Farringdon has been my gym since the start.

Can you tell me more about HYROX and your involvement with them?

Hyrox is an event competition that happens in stadiums around the world. My friends and I discovered HYROX in 2019 and flew out to Hanover in Germany for an event. We all did pretty well! We discovered the company was coming to the UK later in the year but then the pandemic hit.

They offered the four of us ambassador contracts as we knew the methodology of training required to do well in a HYROX event.

We recently hosted a HYROX event at our Victoria club. Can you tell me more about what happened on the day?

The event on the 26th June was basically a mini version of the HYROX event that will be happening on September 25th. There was 1km running and lots of wall balls!

Most gym folk are used to working out for 20 min WODs, but HYROX events need a whole new level of fitness and strength. The world record for the event is 57.34 minutes and the average completion time is 1.32 hr.

People were able to split the functional workouts with a partner and run together if they didn't want to run solo.

The kicked off Gymbox’ new series of Hyrox classes running through July and August. What can club-goers expect from these classes?

This series of classes will be using the same methodology as HYROX events so anyone who attends can train for the event in September. They can expect more alactic training systems where you go between aerobic and anaerobic training

After 40 seconds of fairly intense exercises the body can produce serious amounts of hydrogen ions and lactic acid build up. It's best at this stage in the class to strategize your rest period and go again.

These classes are all leading up to the main event happening in September, HYROX’s first ever UK competition. What can people expect?

Expect huge vibes of 2000 plus people at the London Excel arena. It will feel almost festival-like as runners are on the outside doing the 1km intervals and the eight functional events in the centre.

How can Gymbox goers take part and who would you recommend it for?

I'd recommend it to everyone and anyone. It's a much better way to stay in shape long term. It's goal focused so you can see yourself improving with your time and each event has a split breakdown that you can compare to anyone worldwide, say in Miami, Chicago, Berlin or Amsterdam.

What can people expect to gain out of taking part in an event like this?

Community, energy and pain! Look, anything worth doing is hard craft. This isn't a couch to 5k!

If you're a Gymbox member then it's for you. You should be able to complete it in some form or another and how fast you go determines how good you are. Globally, there are some phenomenal athletes that maybe didn't make the Olympics or CrossFit games but they will excel at HYROX. It's simple, hard grunt work that is measurable.

Find HYROX classes:

Ealing - Saturdays @08:15

Farringdon - Thursdays @12:00, Fridays @12:00

Victoria - Mondays @12:00, Tuesdays @19.30, Thursdays @07:15

Stratford - Saturdays @13:30

Give George a follow @ge_training and find our blogger Kat's insta here.