Easy Benchmark Cardio Workout

Establishing Your Hyrox Fitness Benchmark: A Simple Routine for Beginners

Are you new to Hyrox or just starting your fitness journey? Here’s a straightforward routine to help you establish a benchmark for your cardio movements, measure your results, and track your improvement. The best part is its flexibility. If you lack certain equipment, you can easily substitute movements. For instance, you can replace a one-minute calorie row with max burpees in one minute. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Establish Your Benchmark Across Multiple Exercises

To gauge your current cardio level, test yourself in various movements for one minute each. For this example, we’ll focus on the Assault Bike, Row Machine (calories), and Ski Erg (calories). Here’s how to find your maximum effort:

1. Select Your Movements: Choose the exercises you want to test. We’ll use the Assault Bike, Row Machine, and Ski Erg.

2. Max Effort Testing: Perform each exercise for one minute at maximum effort. Since these machines are very taxing, take long breaks between tests. You can even complete these on different days to ensure optimal results. The goal is to be as fresh as possible for each test. Take ample breaks, even 10+ hours if necessary.

3. Record Your Results: After testing each movement, record your max effort for calories in one minute.

Here are some example results:

• Test 1: Row - 16 calories in one minute

• Test 2: Bike - 20 calories in one minute

• Test 3: Ski - 20 calories in one minute

Now, test all three movements in a sequence of your choice. Stick to this order for consistency when you test again. For example:

• 60s Row, 60s Bike, 60s Ski: Total - 50 calories in three minutes

Step 2: Turn Your Benchmark into Measurable Workouts

With your benchmark established, it’s time to create a workout that you can repeat weekly to measure and track your progress. We’ll use a 20-minute EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute) workout with these movements. This workout will help you gauge your ability to complete it and the difficulty level over time.

1. Calculate Your Targets: Take 75% of your max numbers (round down) to set your targets for each minute. The goal is to have 10-15 seconds of rest before moving on to the next movement.

Example targets:

• Row: 16 calories -> 12 calories

• Bike: 20 calories -> 15 calories

• Ski: 20 calories -> 15 calories

2. Structure Your Workout:

• Minute 1: 12-calorie Row

• Minute 2: 15-calorie Bike

• Minute 3: 15-calorie Ski

• Minute 4: Rest

• Repeat for 5 sets

Step 3: Measure and Track Your Progress

As you complete this workout, measure your results:

• Did you miss any rounds? Which ones were the easiest or hardest?

• Track your feelings and exertion levels each week.

You’ll notice the workout becoming easier over time. Aim to complete this workout twice a week and retest your overall benchmark every other week.

Pro Tips for Long-Term Success

• Stay Consistent: Developing cardio is a long-term commitment. Consistency is key to seeing positive results.

• Don’t Get Discouraged: It’s normal for your numbers to fluctuate. Focus on the overall trend of improvement rather than short-term results.

• Monitor Your Progress: Regularly assess your progress and adjust your workout as needed.

By sticking to this routine, you’ll see improvements in your cardio fitness and overall Hyrox performance. Happy training!

Also be creative with this! You can enhance this workout & make it more difficult by either increasing calories, or adding more rounds. Also, this template can be applied to whatever you choose. Maybe you do a meter run, burpees & air squats. Maybe you add extra exercises. You can even change the initial benchmark----- for example, a 2, 3, 4..... minute sprint instead of 1 minute. As long as you can track & measure, the possibilities are endless. For a hyrox event that is a longer form of conditioning, increasing the minutes on your benchmark can make sense. For example, instead of 1 minute, it is 5 minutes each. Implementing both short & long cardio will only be beneficial for your hyrox training!