WHILE EVERYONE IN CROSSFIT AND HYROX MEASURE THEIR D*#KS, OCR JUST WATCHES AND WAITS

Apparently HYROX isn’t real fitness.

I know this because a few CrossFit people have informed me personally and social media is rampant with CrossFit athletes making fun of HYROX. 

And if there is one thing I’ve learned during my 20 plus years in the fitness industry, it’s that nobody is more qualified to determine whether your chosen method of exercise counts as fitness than someone who has made their chosen method of exercise their entire personality.

The argument seems to be that HYROX is basically CrossFit for people who can’t CrossFit.

Where are the muscle-ups?

Where are the handstand walks?

Where are the snatches?

Where are the cleans, jerks, butterflies, kipping, double-unders and seventeen other movements with names that make it sound like somebody is either exercising or ordering drinks at a bar?

I even heard somebody mention Ollies once.

I’m pretty sure that’s skateboarding, but at this point I’m afraid to ask.

Kidding. 

The basic argument is that HYROX took all the scary stuff out of CrossFit, added a bunch of running and created a fitness competition for people who would rather push a sled than learn how to launch themselves over a pull-up bar like a salmon swimming upstream.

Therefore, CrossFit athlete = real athlete.

HYROX athlete = runner who occasionally touches weights.

Got it.

Many bodybuilders have their own version of this argument, of course.

Because if your shoulders don’t require a separate airline seat, apparently you haven’t been training hard enough.

They look at endurance athletes like we’re victims of some terrible wasting disease.

“Bro, you’re gonna lose all your muscle.”

Maybe.

But I can also walk up a flight of stairs without needing oxygen and a spotter.

So I guess we both made choices.

The funny thing is I’ve had members both of these groups wander into obstacle course racing over the years.

And I have learned some things.

Bodybuilders usually look fucking fantastic doing it.

For approximately eleven minutes.

Then the running starts adding up, the terrain stops cooperating, the carries start stretching out, the heart rate goes somewhere it has apparently never been invited before and suddenly that 500-pound deadlift isn’t providing nearly as much emotional support as expected.

But they still look great.

Just while failing obstacles and having their heart explode.

CrossFitters are different.

Usually they have plenty of strength.

Plenty of grip.

Plenty of conditioning.

On paper, they should absolutely destroy most obstacles.

Then they grab one.

And sometimes you can almost see the computer in their head searching for the movement standard.

“Where do my feet go?”

Wherever the fuck you need them to.

“But what is the prescribed movement?”

There isn’t one.

“Do I lock out?”

I don’t know, Chad. The bell is thirty feet over there. Figure it out.

That’s where OCR gets interesting.

Obstacles don’t give a shit about your movement standards.

There is no judge standing underneath the rig telling you that your rep counted.

There isn’t necessarily one correct technique.

You have to understand how your body moves through space.

Momentum.

Timing.

Hips.

Grip.

Swing.

Rotation.

Efficiency.

Sometimes brute strength.

Sometimes absolutely anything except brute strength.

I’ve watched incredibly strong athletes attack obstacles like they’re trying to tighten a bolt with their entire body.

Everything is rigid.

Everything is mechanical.

Every muscle is working.

And somehow they’re barely moving.

Meanwhile some 145-pound OCR athlete swings through the same obstacle looking like a drunk chimpanzee and rings the bell ten seconds later.

That’s a skill.

And this is where the whole fitness argument starts becoming ridiculous to me.

Because I actually respect CrossFit.

I respect HYROX.

I respect bodybuilding.

I respect powerlifting.

I respect running.

I respect Ninja.

I respect people training for a 5K and people training to pick up something that weighs three times what they do.

They’re different disciplines requiring different adaptations.

Which should be obvious.

Yet fitness has somehow become one gigantic pissing match where everybody needs their thing to prove that everybody else’s thing isn’t real fitness.

CrossFit people shit on HYROX because the movements aren’t technical enough.

Bodybuilders shit on endurance athletes because they’re too small.

Runners think lifters can’t run.

Lifters think runners are allergic to muscle.

HYROX athletes are probably too busy posting pictures next to the wall with their finishing time to notice any of this.

And OCR?

Most everyone thinks OCR is basically a bachelor/ bachelorette party “mud run” or something so insignificant, even those who used to be highly involved in it hide their previous OCR dedication from everyone the same way you’d hope your wife, husband or boss never sees those photos of that stripper on a pole and your missing pants. 

Many of them having to leave the sport due to injury they’ll blame on OCR, but honestly had more to do with going full steam into a variety of fitness trends and programs all at once, with OCR getting the blame because it’s the style of fitness that exposed the foundation that was overworked and crumbling. 

OCR is sitting over in the corner like the kid nobody invited to the argument.

Which I find fascinating.

Because if we’re actually discussing building a broad fitness repertoire, obstacle course racing should probably enter the conversation occasionally.

The whole idea of “HYBRID” is supposed to be a mixed bag of many disciplines, yet somehow it becomes extremely ridged when mixing in hitting some bells that aren’t just a novelty item at the end of a DEKA. 

Which apparently wasn’t even necessary to hit. 

In OCR you have to run.

Sometimes uphill.

Sometimes downhill.

Sometimes on trails that look like God spilled a box of rocks down the side of a mountain.

You have to carry things.

Climb things.

Pull things.

Hang from things.

Jump over things.

Crawl under things.

Move your body through things.

Control your heart rate enough to transition from running into a technical obstacle and then immediately start running again.

And you don’t get to choose when your favorite type of fitness shows up.

That’s the part I love.

OCR doesn’t really care what you’re good at.

It eventually finds what you’re bad at.

The runner discovers the bucket carry.

The lifter discovers mile seven.

The bodybuilder discovers that lats the size of garage doors don’t automatically create obstacle technique.

The CrossFitter discovers there isn’t always a movement standard.

And the OCR athlete discovers that being mediocre at twelve different things is occasionally a pretty useful superpower.

That’s why I’ve never understood why OCR isn’t brought into these conversations more often.

Not because I think OCR is the superior form of fitness.

That’s literally the mentality I’m making fun of.

I just think there’s tremendous value in occasionally leaving the environment where you’re the expert and walking into one where your strengths don’t guarantee success.

Go do CrossFit.

Go race HYROX.

Go train with a bodybuilder.

Go run a half marathon.

Go try Ninja.

And yes, come run an obstacle course.

You might discover something missing from your fitness that your preferred discipline never asked you to develop.

Or we can continue doing what the fitness industry does best.

Stand around arguing about whose workouts are harder, whose athletes are more legitimate and whose dick is bigger.

Personally, I’d rather see who can get over themselves faster than they can get over a wall.