How Nick Bare Conquered Hyrox
The world's most prominent Hybrid athlete takes on the Hyrox elite
Nick Bare is the world’s most prominent hybrid fitness athlete. For over a decade, he’s created videos focused on lifting, running, and nutrition, achieving some incredible feats, including a 2:39 marathon and a 700 lb deadlift.
In August, Nick announced that he would be making his Hyrox debut in Dallas, competing against a field that included some of the sport’s most elite athletes.
How would the original hybrid athlete compare to some of the world’s best in the sport?
Well, he ended up doing incredibly well.
Nick finished with a time of 1:05:42, placing 9th out of 207 athletes in the Pro Division. This time ranked him in the top 8% of all time Hyrox Pro times.
Here’s how the race unfolded (Nick is shown in red; the other top 100 racers are in blue):
Nick Bare kept pace with the best in the field for the first 20 minutes — he was in third place coming into the sled pull — but then lost ground in the middle stages (especially during the burpees). He was able to recover on the lunges, but was then a little off the pace on the wall balls.
Here’s how his race compared to Dylan Scott, the eventual race winner. Nick matched Dylan’s running pace for much of the event and posted similar times in the sled push, farmers carry, and lunges. The gaps primarily opened up on the sled pull, burpees, row, and surrounding runs.
Overall, this was an incredibly strong performance. Hyrox demands a combination of strong aerobic capacity and muscular endurance, and the 10+ years Nick has spent developing those qualities really showed.
Here’s how he described his training leading up to the race:
Consistent running and strength training remained a core throughout his preparation, but he also incorporated Hyrox-specific sessions to sharpen his skills for the event.
My sense is that with more specific focus he’ll be able to bring down his burpee, sled pull, row, and wall ball times to a level consistent with the rest of his stations. These are among the most technical Hyrox movements, and it simply takes time to become efficient with these movement patterns.
Here are some excellent Hyrox training resources inspired by Nick’s journey so far:
Dylan Scott (the winner of Hyrox Dallas) has a great Instagram detailing his training. He incorporates a lot of long erg work at varying intensities.
Nick detailed his Hyrox journey in a 16-part series on his YouTube channel.
Nick appeared on the Rox Lyfe podcast, where he discussed the training insights shared above.
Nick also appeared on the RMR Training podcast (co-hosted by the second-place finisher in Dallas), where he delved into his training and mindset.
All of these are great resources for learning more about this emerging sport!
Interesting, thanks