Hidde Weersma: New Stimuli, New Progress

In the Station 9 podcast of August 31, Hidde Weersma explains how he has deliberately stepped out of his comfort zone ahead of the new Hyrox season. After years of largely following his own training approach, he is now working with a coach. That brings not only a fresh perspective, but also sessions he probably would never have scheduled on his own.

Away from race pace

Many Hyrox athletes train close to competition pace. That makes sense, as the sport consists of a fixed combination of running and stations. Weersma did the same for years. His reasoning was straightforward: with limited training time, you want to train as specifically as possible.

Yet his coach saw room for a different approach. Instead of constantly working around the target race pace, the emphasis shifted to extremely intense blocks on individual stations. Not as a simulation of a Hyrox race, but as a way to push physical limits further.

The idea behind it is that you can improve your race pace not only by doing more specific training, but also by increasing your maximum capacity. Raise the ceiling, and the pace below it automatically becomes easier to sustain.

Four minutes at full throttle

One of the sessions Weersma describes in the podcast immediately stands out. It consisted of six four-minute blocks at maximum intensity, alternated with six minutes of rest.

During those four minutes, there was no attempt to replicate a race situation. The goal was simply to work as hard as possible while maintaining technique and a consistent pace.

Weersma completed two blocks on the SkiErg, among other things, followed by work on the sled push, burpee broad jumps and the rower. The rest periods were notably long, but that is precisely what allowed the intensity to remain extremely high.

"I was literally lying on the floor here," he says in the podcast. This type of training produced a level of stress he rarely encountered in his regular Hyrox work.

Hyrox is maturing

The approach illustrates how quickly the sport is evolving. While many recreational athletes still think mainly in terms of complete race simulations, elite competitors are increasingly drawing on training principles that have been applied in running and cycling for years.

VO2max training, periodisation and targeted high-intensity blocks are finding their way into Hyrox more and more prominently. That also means successful training does not always have to resemble the race itself.

The sessions that look least like a race can sometimes produce the greatest gains.

Not for everyone

That does not mean every Hyrox athlete should start doing six four-minute all-out efforts tomorrow. Weersma stresses that these sessions are part of a broader build-up and are carried out with a clear purpose within his programme.

For recreational athletes, a good balance between technique, endurance and recovery remains at least as important. But the message is clear: those who keep doing what they have always done will eventually hit a ceiling.