Spend any time in a box or around functional fitness and ATHX keeps cropping up. It's the hybrid fitness event that set out to take on HYROX — with adidas behind it and, since 2026, standing as an official CrossFit partner event. There's a neat detail for British readers, too: this one started on home turf, in the UK, in 2023. Beyond the buzz, though, the questions are the same everywhere: what is ATHX, what does a day of it actually involve, and how is it different from what we already have?
If you still want the wider map of competitive fitness, keep what HYROX is to hand — it's the yardstick everyone uses. From here we'll pull ATHX apart bit by bit. And because every bit of it is trained and contested on a box floor, we'll come to what that floor has to put up with: our artificial turf for the box.
01What ATHX is
ATHX — ATHX Games in full — is a hybrid fitness event: a single day that tests your strength, your endurance and your capacity to keep going once you're tired. It's not an obstacle race and it's not a conventional CrossFit comp; it's a format of its own, made for the all-round athlete who lifts, runs and digs in, without needing to top any one discipline.
Where it came from: a British merger
ATHX was born in the UK in 2023, when two functional-fitness organisers — Strength in Depth and National Fitness Games — brought their events together under one banner. Growth has been quick since: over 25 competitions spread across Europe and the United States, and a community that keeps on swelling.
Why it's everywhere now
Two things pushed it into view. First, adidas on board, lending brand weight and production. Second, and more recent still: ATHX becoming an official CrossFit partner event — a move that draws thousands of box athletes towards a format that previously sat awkwardly between their sport and HYROX.
02How the day is built
This is the heart of what makes ATHX different: it isn't one unbroken test but a two-and-a-half-hour day broken into zones. You compete in blocks, with scheduled rest in between, and that reshapes how you pace entirely. It's not about holding one effort from the off — it's about turning up fresh to each zone that counts.
The six zones, taken in turn
An ATHX day moves through six zones, in this order:
- Warm-Up, ~30 min. A guided build-up. Doesn't count.
- Strength, ~20 min. First scoring zone.
- Refuel, ~10 min. Rest and top up between blocks. Doesn't count.
- Endurance, ~30 min. Second scoring zone.
- Recovery, ~30 min. The second scheduled rest. Doesn't count.
- Metcon X. Third and last scoring zone.
Here's the bit few people clock until they've done one: of the six, only three count — Strength, Endurance and Metcon X. The rest are warm-up, refuel and recovery. That very structure, with rest baked in, is what lets you go after a true max in one zone and then empty yourself in a metcon not long after.
What happens in each scoring zone
- Strength. The real differentiator. For the 2026 season you link three lifts to a max: a strict press at 1RM, a back squat at 3RM and a deadlift at 5RM. Your score is the total weight shifted. Genuine maximal strength — not light, high-rep "strength endurance".
- Endurance. Roughly 22 minutes to cover as much distance as you can, alternating running and rowing, swapping every 750 metres (1,000 in the Pro division). Pure aerobic engine: no clever technique bails you out, you simply need a base.
- Metcon X. The familiar "chipper": a list of functional movements worked straight through, as quickly as possible, under a 25-minute cap. The work under fatigue — the measure of whether you've anything left by the close of play.
How it's scored: adding up your placings
This is the part that throws people first, and it's the key to the tactics. ATHX doesn't tot up kilos with metres and reps — different units. Instead you're placed within each scoring zone, and your placings are then added together. Lowest total takes it.
Say you come 4th in Strength, 9th in Endurance and 2nd in Metcon X; your result is 4 + 9 + 2 = 15. A rival who wins Strength outright but finishes 18th in Endurance and 11th in Metcon totals 30 — behind you, despite the zone win. That's the all-rounder's lesson in miniature: steady across all three beats brilliant in one and buried in another.
03How it differs from HYROX
The question on everyone's lips, and the answer is tidier than expected. HYROX is a continuous, standardised race: eight kilometres split into eight 1,000-metre runs, each followed by a functional station, with no real let-up from start to finish. It lasts 60 to 90 minutes and, being the same the world over, lets you compare times to the second.
ATHX is a different proposition. It's longer — around two and a half hours — it's arranged in zones with rest, and crucially it brings maximal strength into play: in HYROX you never go for a 1RM; in ATHX it's a third of the score. In short, HYROX rewards the athlete who runs strongly and holds a measurable pace, while ATHX rewards the most complete athlete, the one who lifts as well. Neither is "better" — they measure different things. (The full, station-by-station comparison deserves its own piece; here we're keeping to the overview.)
04Who ATHX suits (and who it doesn't)
As with any format, ATHX is a glove fit for some and a mismatch for others. Best to know before you enter.
It'll suit you if:
- You've come from CrossFit or a strength gym and won't give up lifting heavy just to compete.
- A long, all-round challenge appeals more than an hour-long sprint — you enjoy managing a multi-hour day.
- You want an event that measures your top-end strength alongside your engine, not only the latter.
HYROX (or something else) may suit you better if:
- Running is your strength and you want a short, sharp race you can time to the second.
- Maximal strength work leaves you cold and you'd rather not go near a 1RM.
- You'd prefer a format that's identical worldwide, so your time stacks up against anyone's.
And if you're new to all this, don't rule yourself out: that's precisely what the Lite division is for, with loads and standards scaled down. ATHX isn't the preserve of veterans — it's for anyone wanting to test all three strands of fitness at their own level.
05The divisions: Lite, Pro and Pairs
The event is split into several divisions so nearly anyone can take part:
- Lite: the scaled version, loads and standards eased for first-timers.
- ATHX: the standard individual division, the "reference" format.
- Pro: for high-level athletes, the heaviest loads and longest distances (this is the one running 1,000 metres per leg in Endurance).
- Pairs / Teams: the work is shared between two, one running while the other rows, say.
That ladder is a good part of the draw: start in Lite and there are years of progress ahead of you without ever switching event.
06How to train for ATHX
Because three very different capacities score, preparing for ATHX isn't a matter of flogging one. The knack is to train all three without letting one rob the others:
- Maximal strength. Work the press, squat and deadlift in low rep ranges (sets of one to five), because the Strength zone is won in kilos, not in staying power. It's also what those from a cardio background take longest to build.
- Aerobic engine. Put in rowing and running intervals, and rehearse the swaps between them: changing movement every few hundred metres costs more than it looks. The rower earns its keep here.
- Metcon under fatigue. Run functional circuits when you're already tired, so you learn to hold your technique with the heart rate up. That's what settles the final block.
The common trap is pouring your hours into what you're already good at. The strength athlete who won't row and the runner who won't lift both turn up short across half the zones. ATHX rewards balance, and the training has to show it.
07What a box needs to train for ATHX
This is where ATHX turns into a question of kit and floor, not just the athlete. A box out to ready its members for ATHX has to cover the three scoring zones, and that calls for a floor that handles very different loads at once: deadlifts and squats at the limit (loaded bars coming down), running and rowing intervals, and a Metcon X full of movement and floor work.
That's just where many floors give way. Rubber scuffs and smells under dragging; a timber floor won't forgive a deadlift bar at 5RM. Which is why technical turf has become the standard for these zones: our artificial turf for the box soaks up the impact of a dropped bar, takes the dragging without flattening, gives steady grip for sprints and — the pile having no direction — wears evenly even when everyone works the same lane. A floor set up so the three zones of ATHX can share one room without wrecking it.
08In short
ATHX is the hybrid fitness event that has arrived as the serious alternative to HYROX: a day of around two and a half hours, run in zones, where only Strength, Endurance and Metcon X score and your placing comes from the sum of your rankings across the three. Its hallmark is putting maximal strength where HYROX puts only running and stations, which makes it the test of the most complete athlete. With divisions from Lite to Pro, adidas and CrossFit behind it, and training that forces you to mind all three strands at once, it looks very much here to stay.
If you run a box and want the room ready for your members to train the three zones without ruining the floor, tell us about it and we'll go through it with your measurements.
