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Go beast or go home: Can you handle competitive gymming?
Gymming is no longer about cute mirror selfies. It’s become an extreme sport. Can you survive a marathon of burpees, lunges and sled pulls?
Run for one kilometre. Ski Nordic-style for the next. Then, push a 100kg sled. Run some more. Row. Then, haul 30kg weights from A to B. Run again. Lunge with 10kg. Finally, throw a 5kg ball at a wall (and catch it) 100 times.
No, it’s not a deleted scene from a Dwayne Johnson movie. It’s Hyrox, a fitness competition that’s been storming through gyms. Think of it as the matcha latte of workouts; the Dubai Chocolate of muscle-building. Hyrox (a mash-up of “hybrid” and “rockstar”) seems a little masochistic. But as more and more people train like athletes these days, regular gymming has flexed upwards from Zumba to Pilates to CrossFit. More than 1,000 fans showed up for the Mumbai Hyrox debut in May.
“It’s cool, and kind of a social currency right now,” says Kunal Rajput, founder of Breathe Studio Mumbai. He participated in the May event, and prepared others for it too. “People admire those who do it because it is extremely hard to show up and train for something like this, and that validation feels good.”
Gymming has always been fitness’s middle child — overlooked, underhyped, in the shadow of its flashier siblings. Runners get marathons. Cyclists get cyclothons. Triathletes get, well, triathlons. There are personal bests, medals, and weepy Instagrammable finish lines. Meanwhile, gym bros and girlies flip tyres, and do burpees in a Sisyphean loop. Fitness races are hoping to change that.
Game on
Exercise-based challenges have been around for almost a decade in Europe. But in the last two years, events such as the CrossFit Open, Deadly Dozen, Superhuman Games, Hyrox and Nuclear Fit have become global events. India’s catching up. Last year saw the first season of the Yoddha Race (with events similar to Hyrox). This year, there’s been the Cult Unbound Championship in April, STRYDX at the Ultra Arena Games in February, and another edition of Devils Circuit, a race-meets-obstacle-course format.
It’s a trend that fits perfectly with the internet’s current obsessions: #GirlGains, 75 Hard challenges, and protein powders that taste like dessert. It’s gamified gymming from a routine to a competitive sport.
Shruthi Suresh, 24, a community manager at PedalStart (a platform for startup founders) in Bengaluru tried signing up for The Yoddha Race. “Tickets for the solo category were all sold out,” she says. “But there were still a few spots left for the mixed doubles.” She took a screenshot and sent it to her buddies. “I ended up participating with my friend, Yadhu MP, who was 10 years older.”
Suresh is a dancer and athlete who works out daily. She trained for three weeks but it wasn’t enough. “The wall balls, in which you throw a 4kg ball eight feet in the air, 50 times, killed me,” she says. “But just being there was incredible. Everyone was cheering each other on. No one gave up, even if they were slow. And not a single person stopped mid-way and said, ‘I can’t do this.’ Everyone finished.” And despite the age gap slowing them down slightly, Suresh says that they finished in an impressive one-and-a-half hours.
The events are marketed as being for everyone, or at least anyone over 16 with a fitness background. “The movements are strength-based but not overly technical. There’s no time cap for Hyrox. You could walk the whole 8km if you had to. Just finishing it is a big deal, and that in itself is empowering,” says Rajput. Participants are encouraged to show up with a partner or their “squad.” But even if you come solo, there’s no shortage of people to bond with. Some events also have cash prizes of up to ₹25 lakh.
Better together
Zeba Zaidi launched Devils Circuit, with 15 obstacles that range from tough (climbing a 20 foot-rope, swinging off a steel bar) to relatively less so (runs and jumps). “We structure the course in a way that everybody, irrespective of gender, fitness level or age can have a good time even as they’re falling in water, slipping down a slide, or getting slathered in mud,” she says. While not everyone can complete every challenge, participants end up doing more than they thought they could, and spur each other on.
Young people love it. Most of them are ditching Saturday-night clubbing for Sunday sunrise runs, anyway. They’re into coffee raves and take ice baths. “Even Coachella, where people went to get drunk, had wellness parties this year,” Zaidi says.
So, Zaidi makes sure Devils Circuit ends on a literal high. The final obstacle, Brain Freeze, gets participants to climb 20 feet, then slide into a pit filled with crushed ice. “It wakes you up. After that, you just want to party,” she says. That’s why there’s also a DJ at the finish line.
And, of course, the “look what I overcame” arc looks good on Insta. It’s perfect for Rocky-style training montages, sunrise run photos, ice plunge gifs, slo-mo burpees, medal close-ups — that totally trumps the humble gym mirror selfie.
Riding the wave
Organisers know they’re riding a moment. Competitive fitness fits well with how we view our bodies today. It’s no longer just about looking ripped, says Rajput. “It’s about performance. How fast you can run, how strong you are, how quickly you complete a workout.” These races are hard, but not too hard, and that’s the sweet spot.
Most events now partner with gyms and coaches to prep participants months in advance. At Breathe studio, group training sessions start at ₹800 per session and can go up to ₹1,300. Hyrox sponsor Puma makes nitrogen-infused foam shoes specifically for the competition, light enough to help you run faster, but with enough grip to power through a sled push. Plus, there’s merch such as gym bags, tees, shorts and bandanas, which looks even better on Reels.
From HT Brunch, July 26, 2025
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