Imagine running for one kilometre and doing one functional workout. Sounds doable, right?
Now imagine repeating that eight times over.
One-kilometre runs in between eight functional workouts including skiErgs (which simulate cross-country skiing), sled pushes and sled pulls, weighted burpee broad jumps (where participants lay flat on their stomach before jumping on their way up), rowing, farmers carry (holding a heavy weight in each hand and walking 200 metres), sandbag lunges (doing lunges while carrying a weighted sandbag) and wall balls (throwing a weighted ball up against a wall to hit a target).
Sounds like hell? Well, Hyrox is now one of the world’s fastest-growing indoor fitness competitions in popularity and participation. On Thursday, May 14, 2026, Hyrox came to the nation’s capital for the first time to host a four-day-long event at the Cohere Centre, commonly known as the E.Y. Centre.
“It’s like the Hunger Games,” Kenny Caceros said, explaining that getting Hyrox tickets has now become adjacent to getting high-value concert tickets. “It’s madness,” said the Hyrox athlete and Stittsville gym owner.
“Everybody is on their laptops when it goes on sale,” he said. “If you’re not on your screen (at that time) … you’re not getting a ticket.”
Lo and behold, Hyrox Ottawa tickets sold out in “genuinely” five minutes.
Ottawa has officially caught the Hyrox bug, and the weekend event was certainly proof of that.
But what’s really behind this new fitness craze? Caceros, who has now completed about 10 Hyrox races over the last year-and-a-half, even travelling to the United States for some, breaks it down.
Competition 101: The Chip
Everybody competing in a Hyrox race gets a timing chip. Participants strap the chip around their ankles before starting the race. Caceros said this not only helps to keep track of timing and pace for all the runs and exercises, but it also ranks participants against everybody else in the race.
Caceros’ history in soccer certainly helped him excel in the fitness competition, but what’s really behind the urge to keep raising the bar was something entirely innate to his human nature.
Seeking new challenges.
“I have kids now and I’ve become more of a family man,” he said. “What I have found is that Hyrox is something that brought back that competitiveness, giving me something to work towards … a new challenge.”
The 38-year-old athlete said he completed the Hyrox race back-to-back on Friday and Saturday in Ottawa.
On Friday evening, he did the mixed-doubles category with a gym colleague of his. The pair had done a previous race in Miami just a month ago, completing the race in an hour and 42 seconds.
“(Friday) night we did it in 59 minutes and 30 seconds,” he said.
The pair came in first place in the 40-44 age group category. (Teammates’ ages are averaged to determine what group they will compete in.)
Though, he quipped, that they were beating some of the younger guys in the race. “It’s a healthy competition,” he said.
“(The chip) just adds an element of — for the competitive person — fun.”
Accessibility 101: Movement Patterns
Though Hyrox can seem daunting at first glance, the sport is designed for “ everybody .”
The movement patterns in the eight functional workouts are theoretically doable for most people.
“Anybody can do it, in a sense that anybody can push a sled,” Caceros explained. “At the end of the day, you can pull most people off the street and they can push a sled. Most of them can do walking lunges and most people can use a skier and a rower.”
Caceros said he thinks the accessibility piece is what made Hyrox really explode in terms of popularity.
The challenge is, above all, possible and attainable, but also challenging enough to get people out of their comfort zones to try to do something new.
Hyrox also has an adaptive category, which allows people with a disability to compete in the race.
Those who can’t run the one-kilometre distance are also welcome to walk the distance.
Community 101: The Sport and The DJ
Part of the Hyrox appeal is in the branding. Since its launch in 2017, the brand has done “a great job” at making the race feel like a sport, according to Caceros.
The athlete explained that it almost feels like an adult sport in terms of the healthy competition and having a goal to work towards.”
For Caceros, who owns Strength Collective, a Hyrox-affiliate gym in Stittsville, and has recently opened Hybrid Training Pop-Up, a Hyrox-specific training facility, opening the pop-up has allowed him to connect with others working towards the same goal.
The space is open 24/7 and will be open until October for those looking to train ahead of the Toronto Hyrox race that month.
Most people call Hyrox a “fitness party” because of the DJ who blasts music for thousands in an indoor space.
They’re all working for a common goal despite the competitive element to the sport.
“It was a really cool atmosphere because we had the whole crowd behind us on that and there was a lot of people from the gym with friends and family also there.”
Will Hyrox’s popularity taper off?
Hyrox is relatively new to Canada. The sport only entered the country less than two years ago. There have been two Hyrox events in Toronto and one in Vancouver, with Ottawa, of course, holding its first May 14-17.
But that’s still only four races in Canada so far.
Caceros believes Hyrox is here to stay.
“Maybe we haven’t even hit the peak yet,” he said. “Since it’s the first time coming to Ottawa, I think there are thousands of people who have done it for the first time (at the Ottawa event) and have probably now caught the bug.”
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