ATHX: The Next Evolution of Hybrid Racing

ATHX: The Next Evolution of Hybrid Racing

Over the last seven weeks, I’ve talked a lot about what hybrid training actually is, how we balance strength and endurance, how we structure training, and ultimately how we improve several physical qualities at the same time without one completely compromising another. So, it makes sense that we eventually talk about ATHX.

I said in the first post of this series that I personally wouldn’t class HYROX as a true hybrid sport. That doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly difficult or that strength training isn’t important for performing well. My argument was simply that once you’re strong enough to perform the stations efficiently, there is relatively little benefit in continuing to maximise your absolute strength. Running performance and muscular endurance are ultimately going to have a much bigger influence on your result. I even said that if you put something like a max-weight sled push or a 1RM Front Squat in the middle of the race, I’d be much more inclined to call it hybrid.

Well, ATHX is pretty close to giving me exactly what I asked for.

What Is ATHX?

ATHX is a fitness competition designed to test strength, endurance and mixed-modal conditioning separately within the same event. Rather than completing one continuous race, the competition is split into a Strength Zone, Endurance Zone and MetCon X, with dedicated recovery periods between them.

I think that distinction is important when we’re talking about hybrid performance because each quality is being tested in its own right. If you’re aerobically fit but not particularly strong, you’re going to give away points in the Strength Zone. If you’re incredibly strong but have a poor aerobic engine, you’ll struggle in the Endurance Zone. If you have both of those qualities but struggle to combine movements efficiently under fatigue, MetCon X will expose that as well.

For me, that makes ATHX a really interesting test of hybrid performance. You need to develop several different physical qualities and be able to express them across the same competition.

What Does ATHX Look Like in 2027?

The 2027 workouts make that pretty clear.

Strength Zone

The individual Strength Zone includes:

• 1RM Shoulder to Overhead
• 2RM Back Squat
• 3RM Deadlift

Absolute strength clearly matters here. There are no fixed loads you simply need to become strong enough to move. You’re being tested on the maximal amount of load you can lift across three movements, so if your Shoulder to Overhead, Back Squat or Deadlift improves, you can directly improve your score.

That changes how I’d approach training because there is a genuine incentive to continue developing strength rather than reaching a minimum standard and moving your attention elsewhere.

Endurance Zone

The Endurance Zone for individual ATHX and Pro athletes in 2027 is a 3km run followed by max distance on the SkiErg within a 24-minute time cap. The interesting part is how you pace the run. A faster 3km gives you more time on the SkiErg, but pushing too hard will obviously reduce the amount of work you can produce afterwards. So the goal is to find the pace that gives you the best overall score across the full 24 minutes.

MetCon X

Then you have MetCon X. For individual athletes, the 2027 workout includes rowing, dumbbell ground-to-overhead, dumbbell bench press, sandbag squats, a sandbag carry, burpees over a bench and another row to finish.

This adds another layer because you’re being asked to repeatedly produce force and move efficiently under fatigue across cyclical work, loaded movements and bodyweight exercises. Muscular endurance, pacing, movement efficiency and transitions are all going to influence performance, and you’re doing this having already completed the Strength and Endurance Zones earlier in the competition.

There are recovery periods between the tests, but your ability to recover and then produce again becomes important as well.

How Is ATHX Different From HYROX?

This is naturally where people are going to make the comparison.

HYROX is predominantly a running-based endurance event with functional fitness stations placed between each 1km run. As I’ve said previously, strength is important, but once you’re sufficiently strong to perform the stations efficiently, there are probably other areas where your training time and recovery resources will give you a greater return.

ATHX presents a slightly different problem because the strength component is independently tested and scored.

Improvements in your Shoulder to Overhead, Back Squat and Deadlift can directly improve your performance, while you still need the aerobic capacity to run 3km quickly, produce a strong SkiErg score and complete a demanding mixed-modal workout.

This is where ATHX fits particularly well with how I’ve described hybrid training throughout this series. We’re genuinely trying to develop physical qualities that don’t always naturally support one another. Getting stronger usually requires heavier lifting and potentially more muscle mass, while improving endurance requires enough running and conditioning volume to create those adaptations. Both create fatigue and require recovery, so the challenge is finding the appropriate dose of each quality and understanding where the emphasis needs to sit at different stages of training.

What Does ATHX Actually Test?

Absolute Strength

Strength is directly tested through the Shoulder to Overhead, Back Squat and Deadlift, and improving those lifts is about more than simply becoming physically stronger. Technical efficiency matters as well, particularly when you have limited attempts to produce your best lift.

I’d want an athlete to spend enough time practising these movement patterns that they’re technically confident under heavier loads, then gradually increase intensity and reduce volume as competition gets closer. With ATHX, continuing to improve absolute strength has a clear benefit because every additional kilo lifted has the potential to improve your score.

Endurance

The Endurance Zone requires the aerobic capacity to run a strong 3km and then continue producing work on the SkiErg. As I’ve covered previously, I’d still want a mixture of easier aerobic work, tempo training and higher-intensity threshold work within the program.

Earlier in a training phase, we can develop the qualities more independently by building running volume and aerobic capacity alongside improving SkiErg efficiency. As competition gets closer, we can combine the two more frequently and start understanding how different 3km pacing strategies affect SkiErg output afterwards.

That allows us to build the physical qualities first and gradually make training more specific to the demands of the test.

Muscular and Strength Endurance

MetCon X places a much bigger emphasis on your ability to repeatedly produce force as fatigue accumulates. Across the rowing, dumbbell work, sandbag movements, carries and burpees, you need to maintain useful output across multiple movements for an extended period.

Absolute strength will contribute to that. If a particular dumbbell or sandbag represents a smaller percentage of your maximal strength, it should be relatively easier to move. You still need the muscular endurance to repeatedly contract and produce force while your cardiovascular system is under significant stress.

That means tolerating local muscular fatigue, maintaining movement quality and continuing to produce useful work as the workout progresses. This is where ATHX starts bringing the different qualities together because you’re being asked to repeatedly use your strength while already under fatigue.

Recovery Between Efforts

Recovery isn’t scored as an individual event, but it is still going to influence your performance across the day. ATHX includes dedicated refuel and recovery periods between tests, so nutrition, hydration, pacing and fatigue management become part of competition strategy.

You need to recover from the Strength Zone before moving into the Endurance Zone, and then recover again before MetCon X. If you mismanage the earlier parts of the competition, you can easily spend the rest of the day trying to recover from them rather than expressing the fitness you’ve actually built.

How Would I Train for ATHX?

I definitely wouldn’t prepare for ATHX by simply repeating the competition workouts every week. We want to identify the individual qualities that determine performance, spend time developing them and then gradually bring them together as competition approaches.

Early in a training phase, I’d focus on building the foundations. For strength, that means enough quality work on the main movement patterns to improve technique, build muscle where required and create the base to eventually lift heavier. Muscle mass still has a role here because having sufficient muscle can support both absolute strength and muscular endurance, although there is obviously a point where adding more body mass can start negatively affecting running performance.

I’d want enough muscle to support the strength demands of the event without adding unnecessary mass or excessive bodybuilding volume that starts compromising endurance training and recovery.

For endurance, we need enough lower-intensity volume to develop the aerobic engine alongside moderate and higher-intensity work to improve the speeds we can sustain. For MetCon X, I’d want athletes technically competent in the movements while gradually building the muscular endurance required to perform them under fatigue.

As we move through the training phase, the emphasis can gradually shift. Strength volume comes down while intensity increases and training becomes more specific to the 1RM, 2RM and 3RM demands. Running moves towards more specific 3km work, and SkiErg efforts can be added immediately afterwards to understand pacing and transitions. MetCon training can also become increasingly specific to the movements, loading and time domains that will appear in competition.

This is essentially the same approach I use across the Hybrid program anyway. We can spend time developing individual qualities early in a training phase and then gradually integrate them as competition gets closer. That gives us a much better opportunity to improve the things that determine performance rather than just repeatedly testing where our performance currently is.

Is ATHX the Next Evolution of Hybrid Racing?

I think ATHX has the potential to be a really interesting direction for hybrid competition, particularly for athletes who genuinely enjoy developing multiple physical qualities.

You need to be strong enough to produce competitive numbers across three lifts, aerobically fit enough to perform across the run and SkiErg, and have the muscular and strength endurance required for MetCon X.

 That creates a really interesting programming problem because improvements in one area can start influencing another if the overall training load isn’t managed properly.

And really, that’s what this entire series has been about. How do we get stronger without unnecessarily compromising our running? How do we improve endurance while maintaining strength and muscle mass? How much training volume do we actually need? How do we manage fatigue? And how do we structure all of that across a training phase so we can express those qualities when it matters?

Those are the problems we’re constantly trying to solve within the MARCHON Hybrid program, and ATHX gives us a competition where developing those qualities together can directly influence performance.

If you want to test how hybrid your training actually is, ATHX might be one of the better places to find out.

See you on the leaderboard,