Let me be honest with you about something I have never said publicly.
For two years, I watched HYROX from the sidelines. Not because I was not fit enough. Not because I was too busy. But because I scrolled through Instagram, saw those lean, powerful athletes flying through sled pushes and wall balls like it was nothing, and I thought: that is not for me.
I am not that kind of runner. I am not that kind of athlete. I will look ridiculous.
Three years. A mental fitness coach. Scared of an event.
The irony is not lost on me.
And then a client said the exact same thing back to me in a coaching session, word for word, and I realised I had been doing to myself what I spend every working day helping other people undo. I was letting my Assess saboteur run the show. Judging before I even started. Comparing my chapter one to someone else’s chapter twenty.
The Instagram version of HYROX is not the real version. It is the highlight reel of people who have been doing this for years. You are being compared to a finished product before you have even begun.
So last month, I stood at the start line of Virgin Active HYROX Cape Town, mixed doubles, heart hammering, legs feeling weirdly cooperative, and I thought: it took me three years to get here because of a feed full of people who looked nothing like how I felt.
With HYROX Johannesburg returning on 30 to 31 May 2026 at the Johannesburg Expo Centre, I am writing this for every person who has been circling the idea and talking themselves out of it.
This is the article I needed three years ago.
First: What Exactly Is HYROX?
If you have not entered yet, here is everything you need to know.
HYROX is a global fitness race built around a brilliantly simple format. You run 1km, then complete a functional workout station. You repeat that sequence eight times. Total distance: 8km of running plus 8 workout stations. Those stations are:
- SkiErg
- Sled Push
- Sled Pull
- Burpee Broad Jumps
- Rowing
- Farmer’s Carries
- Sandbag Lunges
- Wall Balls
No technical skills required. No open-water swimming. No expensive bike. Every single HYROX event around the world follows the exact same format, which means your time in Johannesburg is comparable to a result in London, New York, or Singapore. That standardisation is part of what makes it addictive.
The race has four categories:
- Singles
- Doubles (you split the work with a partner)
- Relay (four people, each takes two runs and two stations)
- Open and Pro divisions (different weight loads)
The finish rate? HYROX claims over 99% of athletes cross the line. This is not a race designed to break you. It is designed to challenge you.
The Numbers That Tell the Real Story
HYROX did not just grow. It exploded.
600 Athletes competed at the first Hamburg event in 2018
175,000+ Athletes participated globally in the 2023/24 season
750,000+ Athletes participated in 2025 (over 100% growth vs 2024)
31 Countries and 80+ events on the 2025 global calendar
10,000+ Gym affiliations globally, doubling since late 2024
1,000%+ Overall participation growth since inception
350,000+ Spectators expected at events globally in 2025 season
4,300+ Athletes competed at HYROX Johannesburg November 2025
That last number matters. South Africa is not playing catch-up. It is in the conversation.
The Johannesburg race now sits among the largest HYROX events in Africa. And with May 2026 bringing the race back to the Expo Centre at Nasrec, at altitude (Joburg sits at approximately 1,750 metres above sea level, which means the run segments hit harder), the challenge is real and the community is ready.
Over 38% of HYROX competitors globally are women. The sport was built for everybody. Instagram just forgot to show you that part.
The Instagram Trap Is Real and It Has a Name
Here is what the science says.
Research published in peer-reviewed sports psychology journals shows that passively scrolling through social media accounts can significantly increase anxiety and reduce wellbeing through what researchers call upward social comparison: comparing yourself to people who appear superior to you.
In fitness culture, where performance and physical image are constantly on display, this effect is amplified. You are not just comparing your body. You are comparing your readiness, your speed, your legitimacy. Your right to even show up.
Studies confirm that longer time spent on social media positively correlates with increased anxiety, psychological distress, and body image disturbance. And importantly, this is not a willpower problem. It is a brain design problem. The brain’s threat-detection system does not distinguish between a real threat and a perceived one. Seeing someone crush a 1:02 HYROX time when you are worried you might walk the last two runs registers as danger.
The amygdala does not care that you are just scrolling.
And HYROX, as a sport, was quite literally designed to go viral. Its co-founder acknowledged this. Compact indoor venues. DJ sets. Finish line footage built for sharing. Seventy percent of HYROX athletes purchase a photo package after the race. The content machine is intentional. Which means the comparison loop is intentional too, even if nobody meant it to be harmful.
The pro athletes you see are training eight to twelve sessions per week with structured periodisation. They have been doing this for years. Their HYROX is not your HYROX, and that is not a deficit. That is just a different chapter.
What I Told My Client (And Told Myself)
Her name is not important. What matters is that she sat across from me in a coaching session, arms crossed, and said: I really want to do HYROX but when I see what those women look like and how fast they go, I just feel like I would be out of my depth.
She had been saying this for six months.
And I realised I had been saying the same thing to myself for three years.
Here is the coaching reframe I gave her, which I have since applied to myself:
The Instagram version of HYROX is a curated dataset. It is the top five percent of performances from people who have been doing this for years, filtered through good lighting, a flattering angle, and a decent editing app. You are using their peak to measure your starting point.
That is not a fair comparison. It is a neuroscience error.
The Positive Intelligence (PQ) framework identifies this as Saboteur behaviour: specifically the Judge and the Hyper-Rational and Restless saboteurs working together to generate a threat response before you have even laced your shoes. Your brain is treating the start line as a danger zone instead of an opportunity zone.
The reframe? This is not a race against those people. This is a race against the version of you who almost did not sign up.
Your body performs what your nervous system permits. And right now, a scroll session is permission-revoking your potential.
5 Mental Fitness Tools That Got Me to the Start Line
These are not motivational slogans. These are neuroscience-backed tools I used in training and on race day in Cape Town. If you are heading to Johannesburg in May, these are your non-negotiables.
1. Name the Saboteur. Starve It.
Before I could manage my HYROX anxiety, I had to identify which saboteur was running the story. Mine was a combination of the Judge (not good enough) and the Hyper-Achiever (I’ll only enter when I know I can do it well). Together they built a very convincing case for never starting.
The PQ technique: when the negative self-talk fires, physically move. Tap your fingers together rapidly for ten seconds. This is not a distraction trick. It is a neurological interrupt that shifts your brain from the prefrontal cortex threat network to sensory processing. You are retraining the circuit.
2. Break the Race into Micro-Goals
The worst thing you can do before HYROX is visualise the whole thing at once. Eight runs. Eight stations. Almost two hours of output. Your brain does not process that as manageable. It processes it as threat.
What works: only focus on what is directly in front of you. The next run. The next station. The next rep. Not the one after that.
This is how your prefrontal cortex handles uncertainty: in manageable, bounded chunks. Give it something it can compute.
3. Rehearse the Dip
Somewhere in that race, probably around the sled pull or the sandbag lunges, your brain will say: this is too hard. I want to stop.
Elite athletes do not avoid this moment. They script it in advance.
Before Cape Town, I mentally rehearsed exactly what I would say to myself at that point. Not a cliche, something specific: You have swum to Robben Island in eleven degree water. You have crossed the Himalayas on a tandem bike. A sandbag is not going to win this.
Anticipating discomfort removes its power. Your nervous system stops treating it as a surprise threat.
4. Regulate the Nervous System Before You Elevate It
Race morning, your cortisol is going to spike whether you want it to or not. That is biology. The question is whether you add to it or work with it.
Protocol: In the ten minutes before your wave, use a breath ratio of four seconds in and six seconds out. Repeat at least five times. A longer exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which counteracts the cortisol spike and reduces perceived threat. You are not calming down. You are optimising.
Calm is not weakness. It is control.
5. Control Your Inputs in the Final Week
In the seven days before race day, be intentional about what you let into your nervous system.
Reduce scroll time on fitness accounts. Prioritise sleep. Eat real food. Reduce unnecessary stressors. Keep your training moderate and your confidence deposits high.
The brain you race with is the one you built all week. Do not let your feed dismantle it the night before.
What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Two Years Ago
I finished Cape Town. Mixed doubles. Not fast. Not pretty. Completely real.
Nobody at that start line looked like the Instagram feed. There were all body types, all ages, all levels of visible terror. The oldest HYROX finisher on record is 74 years old. Over 38% of competitors globally are women. The Open division is called Open for a reason.
What HYROX actually is, the real version, is a community of people who decided that the discomfort of doing it was less painful than the regret of not trying. The vibe is loud, sweaty, and genuinely supportive. People cheer for strangers. Training partners wait at the finish line. Nobody cares about your time but you.
The athlete you saw on Instagram? They were you once. They just did not let the algorithm talk them out of it.
Two years I waited. Thirty seconds at the start line and I knew I had already won. I showed up. That was the whole game.
HYROX Johannesburg is coming. The Expo Centre at Nasrec. 30 to 31 May 2026. Altitude, atmosphere, and a finish line with your name on it.
If you have been circling the idea, this is your sign. Not from Instagram. From a mental fitness coach who spent three years scrolling instead of racing, and finally got out of her own way.
Train your mind like your most valuable asset. Because it is.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liezel van der Westhuizen, known as The Giraffe, is a Mental Fitness Coach, Neuroscience Coach, Burnout Prevention Specialist, and Certified Hypnotherapist. She works with corporate leaders, high-performance sales teams, and executives globally using the Positive Intelligence (PQ) framework and applied neuroscience. She is a broadcaster on KFM 94.5, Cape Talk, and Talk Radio 702, a keynote speaker, and an endurance athlete who has completed multiple Ironman triathlons, the Dusi Canoe Marathon, a Robben Island open-water swim, and the first South African all-female blind and sighted tandem bicycle crossing of the Himalayas.
Credentials: MSc Business Communication (UP) | BCom Human Resources and Industrial Psychology | Certified Neuroscience Coach | Certified Hypnotherapist | PQ Coach | Mindvalley Business Coach | Sound Bowl Practitioner (Level 1 and 2) | Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher
