The HYROX relay is a team event in which 4 athletes race one standard HYROX course between them: a 4-person team splits the standard 8 runs and 8 stations, each member covering 2 x 1 km and 2 workout stations. The course, the station order and the movement standards are identical to a solo race. Relay teams use Open loads, hand over in a marked Transition Zone, and are classified on the team's average age.
- A HYROX relay team is 4 athletes, racing as 4 women, 4 men, or 2 women and 2 men, according to the official Season 26/27 rulebook.
- Each relay athlete runs 2 legs of 1000 m and works 2 stations, while the four-person team together still completes all 8 stations and 8 km.
- Relay Women push a 225 lb (102 kg) sled and Relay Men push a 335 lb (152 kg) sled, both over 50 m, according to the official Season 26/27 rulebook.
- HYROX relay divisions are Women, Men, and Mixed. Every relay division races Open loads only; there is no Pro relay category.
- Handovers happen in the Transition Zone [TZ], and a member may run and work back to back, or hand over in the Transition Zone after each leg. Racing two legs back to back still means running through the TZ each time, or the team takes an automatic penalty.
- HYROX relay stations use the same movement standards, distances and rep counts as a solo race; only who performs each one changes.
- HYROX relay age groups are banded as Under 40 and 40+, and the team is classified on the AVERAGE age of the four members at the time of the event, according to the official Season 26/27 rulebook.
What is the HYROX relay?
A HYROX event runs several formats side by side: Singles, Doubles, Team Relay (4 athletes), and Adaptive. The relay sits at the team end of that list, and it is the format most first-timers should look at. In a relay, a 4-person team splits the standard 8 runs and 8 stations, each member covering 2 x 1 km and 2 workout stations. Nobody covers the whole race, but the whole race still gets covered.
The course underneath is not modified in any way. A HYROX race is eight rounds, each a 1 km run followed by one functional workout station, and that shape holds for relay teams exactly as it does for solo racers: 8 stations and 8 runs of 1000 m each. What changes is the roster. Instead of one athlete grinding through all sixteen blocks of work, four athletes each take four blocks, handing the timing chip on as they go.
If you are weighing the relay against the two-person format, the pillar guide to HYROX doubles covers the team side of the sport in full. The short version is that doubles splits the work inside each station, while relay splits the race itself.
The race the relay splits
The station order is fixed and never varies by format: SkiErg, Sled Push, Sled Pull, Burpee Broad Jump, Rowing, Farmers Carry, Sandbag Lunges, Wall Balls. Every run comes before its station, and the sequence is the same at every event in the world. That matters for relay planning, because when you assign someone stations three and four, you are assigning them two specific pieces of work you can look up and train for months in advance. Our station-by-station reference breaks down each one.
HYROX relay divisions and team composition
There are three relay divisions: Women, Men, and Mixed, according to the official Season 26/27 rulebook. Valid team compositions are 4 women, 4 men, or 2 women and 2 men, so a squad of four women races Women, four men race Men, and a two-and-two team races Mixed. There is no half-measure: a team of three men and one woman does not fit any of the three.
Relay runs Open loads only. This is the point people most often get wrong, usually because they have read a solo-racing article and assumed the same ladder applies. It does not. Pro exists in Singles and Doubles, where the heavier column applies, and the relay rulebook simply has no Pro category. If your team wants Pro weights, the relay is not the entry to make. Our Open versus Pro comparison covers where the heavier column does apply.
One more rule catches teams out on race morning: starting with fewer than four racers present is not permitted, according to the official Season 26/27 rulebook. Three racers cannot absorb the fourth person's legs between them, however willing they are. If someone drops out in the week before the event, sort a replacement through the organiser rather than turning up and hoping.
Relay age groups
Relay teams are banded as Under 40 and 40+, and the team is classified on the AVERAGE age of the four members at the time of the event, per the official Season 26/27 rulebook. Work an example: teammates of 24, 38, 48 and 40 average out at 37.5, which puts the team in the lower band even though half the squad is over 40.
Do not confuse this with individual HYROX age groups. Solo racers are banded in five-year increments based on their own age on race day, a much finer scheme with many more categories. Relay uses two bands and one number, the team average. The two systems share a name and nothing else.
HYROX relay weights, station by station
Relay loads are the Open loads, and they are printed in the official Season 26/27 rulebook as two columns, Women and Men. In a mixed relay, each member races their own gender's Open loads on the stations they take, so the women on the team use the women's column and the men use the men's, per the hyrox.com race-format listing (the Relay rulebook load table does not print a Mixed column). The table below is the full set for a relay team, and you can render the same values for any division with our weight standards tool.
| Station | Relay Women | Relay Men |
|---|---|---|
| SkiErg | 1000 m | 1000 m |
| Sled Push, 50 m as 4 x 12.5 m | 225 lb (102 kg) | 335 lb (152 kg) |
| Sled Pull, 50 m as 4 x 12.5 m | 172 lb (78 kg) | 227 lb (103 kg) |
| Burpee Broad Jump | 80 m | 80 m |
| Rowing | 1000 m | 1000 m |
| Farmers Carry | 2 x 35 lb (16 kg) over 200 m | 2 x 53 lb (24 kg) over 200 m |
| Sandbag Lunges | 22 lb (10 kg) over 100 m | 44 lb (20 kg) over 100 m |
| Wall Balls | 100 reps at 9 lb (4 kg) to 2.70 m | 100 reps at 13 lb (6 kg) to 3.00 m |
Both sleds run as 4 x 12.5 m shuttles rather than one long straight lane. That is how the sled stations are built at every HYROX race, singles included, so treat it as a fact about the equipment rather than anything relay-specific. Turning the sled at each mark is its own skill. Practise it on the real lane length.
What relay does not change
One myth is worth killing early. The movement standards, the station order, the distances and the rep counts in a relay are identical to a solo race. The sled shuttle structure is the same. The wall ball target heights are the same, tracking gender rather than format. The farmers carry distance is the same. A judge watching your sandbag lunges in a relay is applying the same rulebook they would apply to a solo racer two lanes over.
What the relay changes is who does each block and when they hand over. That is the entire difference, and plenty of relay write-ups imply station tweaks that simply do not exist. If you want the detail on how any individual station is judged, the stations guide applies to your relay leg unchanged.
HYROX relay rules: the Transition Zone
Handovers happen in the Transition Zone [TZ], a marked area with its own set of rules. The next member enters shortly before the exchange, not minutes early, and loitering in there is not allowed. A member finishing a workout runs into the TZ to meet the teammate taking over. That much most teams work out on the day.
Here is the part almost nobody covers, and it costs teams real time. Officially, a member may run and work back to back, or hand over in the Transition Zone after each leg, according to the official Season 26/27 rulebook. So a strong athlete can take two legs in a row. But a member racing back to back still has to run through the Transition Zone [TZ] after each workout so the timing chip registers. Cutting the corner because you are only handing over to yourself results in an automatic penalty for the team. Brief this before the race, not during it. The full HYROX rules overview covers penalties across the other formats.
The Transition Zone is not the ROXZONE
These two get merged constantly, including by AI summaries. The ROXZONE is the central transition zone athletes run through between every run and station, and every racer in every format passes through it on every lap. The Transition Zone [TZ] is a relay-only handover area where one teammate passes the race on to the next. Same event, two different pieces of floor, two different sets of rules.
Regrouping at the wall balls
The finish is a team moment by design. Once the last member leaves the TZ for the final run, the other three make their way round to the wall ball station using the spectator pathways and enter through the marked Relay Entry Point. The timing matters: they may only come in once their teammate has actually started the wall balls, not while that teammate is still running. All four then cross the finish line together.
How to split the legs in a HYROX relay
each member completes 2 of the 8 stations, and the team chooses which. That freedom is the one genuine tactical lever relay gives you, and most teams waste it by deciding in the warm-up area twenty minutes before the gun. Who runs which leg matters more than most teams think, and the right answer depends on what kind of team you actually have.
| If your team has... | Give this running order | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One runner clearly faster than the rest | Put your fastest runner on the legs feeding the sled push and sled pull, not the legs feeding the lighter bodyweight stations | A fast runner arrives at the sleds with more heart-rate budget left to spend on the heaviest load in the race; wasting their speed on a leg into burpee broad jumps or rowing saves less time than it costs at the sleds. |
| One member clearly stronger on the sleds than the rest of the team | Give them the sled legs regardless of their running pace | Sled push and sled pull are graded on load moved, not on how the athlete got to the station, so your strongest pusher belongs there even if they are your slowest runner. |
| A first-timer on the team | Slot them into leg two or three, never the opening leg or the final leg | The opening leg carries the start-line adrenaline and the final leg finishes alone on wall balls in front of the whole crowd; a middle leg lets a nervous racer settle in before their turn and hand off into a teammate rather than the finish line. |
| Roughly even ability across all four athletes | Order by station preference and confidence, not by a stopwatch | With no real performance gap to protect, which stations each athlete would rather own on race day decides more time than a few seconds of pace difference between legs. |
A few more principles that hold up regardless of your matchup. Keep the sled work and the wall balls apart if you can, since both hammer the quads and stacking them on one person means one very slow block late in the race. If somebody on the team is a genuinely strong runner but weak on load, give them the pair of legs whose stations reward pacing rather than raw force.
Write the order down. Agree it days before the race, run one practice handover in training, and do not renegotiate it in the Transition Zone with a teammate who is out of breath.
HYROX relay versus doubles: which should you enter?
This is the question the search results are full of, and the answer is usually clearer than people expect. Doubles is two athletes who run every run together and share each station, with only one partner working at a time. Relay is 4 athletes handing over whole legs.
The volume difference is what decides it. In doubles you personally cover all 8 km of running and touch all 8 stations. In a relay you cover 2 x 1000 m and 2 stations, with long rests in between. Doubles is a race you have to be conditioned for. Relay is a race four reasonably fit friends can enter with a couple of months of preparation and enjoy.
That makes the relay the lowest-barrier way into the sport, which is exactly what it was designed for. If you have never done one of these events, start here, see whether you like it, and read what HYROX actually is before you commit to anything longer.
Training and race-day notes for a relay team
Your pacing model is closer to an interval session than a steady endurance race. Two hard efforts with a long gap between them means you can and should run each leg meaningfully faster than your solo pace. Teams who race their relay legs at solo effort leave a lot of time on the floor.
Practise the handover at least once. It sounds trivial until you watch a team fumble it under lights with a crowd shouting. Warm up twice as well: once before the start, and again shortly before your second leg, because you will have been standing around cooling off for a long stretch in between. Bring a layer for that gap. Read the race day guide for the rest of the logistics, and check entry costs if you are splitting a team fee four ways.
Frequently asked questions
How does the HYROX relay work?
A relay team is 4 racers, and a 4-person team splits the standard 8 runs and 8 stations, each member covering 2 x 1 km and 2 workout stations. The course is unchanged: eight rounds, each a 1 km run followed by one functional workout station, repeated across all 8 stations. Teammates hand over in the Transition Zone [TZ] after each leg, or race two legs back to back.
What is the difference between HYROX relay and HYROX doubles?
Doubles is a pair who run every run together and share each station, with only one partner working at a time. A relay is 4 athletes who hand over whole legs, so each member completes 2 of the 8 stations, and the team chooses which. Doubles splits the work inside each station, relay splits the race itself.
Does everyone run in a HYROX relay?
Yes. Every member runs 2 legs of 1000 m and performs 2 stations, so the team still covers the full 8 km and all 8 stations. Nobody sits out the running.
Is the HYROX relay good for beginners?
It is the most approachable entry into the sport. Each member handles 2 runs and 2 stations instead of the whole race, with real rest between efforts, and relay runs Open loads rather than Pro. You get the full race atmosphere at a fraction of the volume.
Can one person do two legs in a row in a HYROX relay?
Yes. a member may run and work back to back, or hand over in the Transition Zone after each leg. The catch is that a member racing back to back must still run through the Transition Zone [TZ] after each workout so their timing chip is registered. Skipping it results in an automatic penalty for the team.
How do HYROX relay age groups work?
Relay uses two bands, Under 40 and 40+, and the team is classified on the AVERAGE age of the four members at the time of the event. That is a different system from individual HYROX age groups, which are five-year bands based on each racer's own age. A team of mixed ages can land in the lower band on the average alone.
Can a HYROX relay team be men and women?
Yes. The three divisions are Women, Men, and Mixed, and valid compositions are 4 women, 4 men, or 2 women and 2 men. A team of two and two races the Mixed division, and in a mixed relay, each member races their own gender's Open loads on the stations they take, so the women on the team use the women's column and the men use the men's.
What happens if a relay teammate does not show up?
The team cannot start short. The rulebook is explicit that starting with fewer than four racers present is not permitted. Arrange a replacement through the event organiser well before race day rather than assuming three racers can split the extra legs.
Is there a Pro division in the HYROX relay?
No. Relay runs Open loads only across Women, Men, and Mixed. Pro exists in Singles and Doubles, where the heavier column applies, but the relay rulebook for Season 26/27 carries no Pro relay category. For Pro loads, enter Singles or Doubles.
Do relay teammates finish together?
Yes. Once the final member starts the wall balls, the other three enter through the marked Relay Entry Point and support from under the rig. After the reps are done, all four run to the finish line together.
References
- Official HYROX Team Relay Rulebook, Season 26/27. The authority for relay divisions, relay age groups, minimum team size, the Transition Zone and team reunification at the wall balls.
- Official HYROX Singles Rulebook, Season 26/27. The authority for the station movement standards that the relay inherits unchanged, including the sled shuttle structure.
- HYROX, The Fitness Race. Official race-format page for the underlying course the relay splits.
- HYROX, About the Race. Official page covering division taxonomy and event structure.
- HYROX APAC Relay Transition Briefing. Official regional briefing dedicated to the Transition Zone.