Whether you are optimising your performance or wanting your event to feel easier there are some nutritional changes which can make a BIG difference!
If you want an easy life I have a meal plan with this advice built in.
Hyrox requires aerobic fitness and strength. This means endurance and strength training at the same time. Endurance training and muscle growth and development tend not to occur together. Look at the best marathon runners. They have minimal muscle. This is the physique endurance training tends to produce, unless nutrition is optimised to undo hormonal changes and cause muscle growth.
Primarily this means eating enough calories in the form of carbohydrates and then eating enough protein. Ignore anyone telling you to 'go keto' when you are doing intense exercise. Read my blog on high fat diets. If you eat protein without enough energy your body will use it as fuel rather than building muscle. Therefore eating enough calories as carbs and then eating protein will enable you to build strength and endurance simultaneuosly.
I experienced the same challenges when training as an elite rower where strength and endurance fitness are required. The volumes of food you have to eat are vast. If you are struggling to meet energy demands with just carbs and protein include more fat in your diet. Fat is the most energy dense molecule containing over double the energy in carbs or protein.
Atwater factors table from: Grande, F. (2020). Pacific Nutrient Database User Guide. Pacific Nutrient Database User Guide, November. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb0267en
Hyrox is high intensity. High intensity workouts need sugar as fuel. Your body has 2 main fuel sources: fat and carbs. They are used in ballance. At low intensity when energy is needed slowly and there is abundant oxygen fats are used. At high intensity carbs are used. Sugars are the preferred carb as they are quick to use. When eating sugar during exercise use the fast release sugars to avoid gut problems or lack of energy.
Due to the intensity Hyrox produces latic acid. As Lactic acid accumulates it causes pain, which may stop you from pushing harder, but the acid also prevents your muscles from contracting as forcefully. There are nutritional changes which can limit the lactic acid production and accumulation. I discuss these in my book.
High intensity exercise produces a lot of body heat. Your body is only 25% effecient in converting energy into moving itself. The rest of the energy is heat. If your body gets to hot it can no longer perform. Your brain starts telling your body to stop doing exercise as the heat could begin to damage it. To cool your body down your blood flows to your skin to be cooled by the air and release water as sweat. Blood going to your skin means there is less blood in your muscles and impedes performance. Water lost as sweat dehydrates you and decreases performance. Therefore adequate cooling techniques can improve your Hyrox performance.
Hyrox performance is dependent on the training you have completed. Nutrition can prevent illness and injury and promote recovery. See my other posts on Tendons, Sleep and Illness below.
If you want more detail on these nutrition strategies see my meal plan for fitness racing training.
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