At the launch of adidas’ new Adizero Dropset Elite at adidas HQ in Nuremberg, Hyrox world champion Tim Wenisch shared with MH his insights on training, fuelling, and the biggest mistakes athletes make when trying to level up their performance.
From overtraining to misunderstood nutrition trends, here’s the reigning champs’ advice for nailing your next race.
Men’s Health: What are the biggest mistakes you see people make when moving from amateur Hyrox enthusiast to pro?
Tim Wenisch: They do too much. Normally the average athlete is doing three workouts per week. Then they see social media and other athletes and suddenly they’re going crazy with seven workouts per week – it’s way too much. You can’t increase 100% of your weekly volume in one or two weeks. Your body needs to adapt. So be more patient. That’s pretty important.
MH: How important is kit, and what sort of difference in time could small upgrades make?
Wenisch: You need the perfect setup to get the most out of it. Training, sleep and recovery are always the most important things, but the shoes and electrolytes also matter. I would say you can increase between one and five percent of your performance with [better] shoes.
MH: How do you fuel for race day?
Wenisch: If I’m racing in the evening I just have a normal breakfast. For lunch I have pasta. Then later I have a gel and two or three pieces of white bread with a lot of honey. I have another gel about 20 minutes before the start, and another during the race. Less protein, less fat – but lots of carbs.
MH: Most elite races are in the evening – do you prefer that schedule?
Wenisch: I like it because it’s a more relaxed start to the day and you’re not stressed about timing. You can just sleep as long as you want, wake up and start race day. The only problem is you can’t sleep after an evening race because of all the adrenaline!
MH: What does a typical race day look like for you?
Wenisch: After breakfast I go for a short shakeout run – around 5k with some hard strides at the end. Then I have lunch. After lunch we normally have briefings and media things. Then I take a nap, maybe 30 minutes to one hour. After that I have my honey pieces, a double espresso, and then we go to the warm-up.
MH: Do you train in the same footwear that you compete in?
Wenisch: Yeah, that’s super important. You need to feel comfortable and confident in the shoe. You need to train with them so you feel comfortable in the stations and also on the runs.
MH: What’s the most underrated training or nutritional change for Hyrox performance?
Wenisch: The most underrated thing in training is recovery, because lots of athletes recover too little. Another thing is doing the really hard stuff. A lot of athletes train almost always around an RPE 7 out of 10. But it’s super important to sometimes get out of that comfort zone and go to the personal limit to create a new stimulus.
Nutrition-wise, I would say people just don’t drink enough. Water, hydration and electrolytes are important. People are always searching for small details but forget the bigger picture. So recovery, drinking enough water and eating enough carbs. Carbs are really important for hybrid athletes. A lot of people think they need a lot of protein, but at the end carbs create power, not protein.
MH: What about the most overrated training or nutritional trends?
Wenisch: The most overrated training is zone 2. A lot of people are doing that like crazy. You don’t need to sit three hours on a bike or two hours on a bike to prep for Hyrox.
MH: How do you ensure you’re hitting those higher intensities in your training?
Wenisch: When I want to reach that high intensity, I use my chest strap and monitor my heart rate. Sometimes when I do a simulation workout, I try to reach almost my maximum heart rate. Once I reach it, I try to hold it as long as possible so I know how that feels in a race.
In a race I don’t see my heart rate – I just go by feeling. So I want to know how long I can hold it. If I can hold that heart rate in a race, no one can catch me.
MH: If you could make any changes to Hyrox, what would they be?
Wenisch: I would put the wall balls first – it would be much easier for me.I would love to end the race with a run to make it more exciting. Because after wall balls everyone goes straight into the finish line. It would give a nice spice if we had to run something like 500 metres at the end, so you have the chance to catch other athletes.
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With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
Luke Chamberlain is the ecommerce editor for Men’s Health UK where he compiles expert-led buying guides and in-depth product reviews across gym wear, fitness tech, supplements, and grooming. Responsible for testing everything from the latest gym headphones to the best manscaping tools, Luke also enlists the help of leading health and wellness experts to help readers make informed choices when shopping online – whether it’s to debunk the latest viral hair growth trend or to get the lowdown on a new type of recovery tech. He also covers major sales events for Men’s Health, such as Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day, scouting and verifying hundreds of discounts in order to recommend only the most genuine deals on offer. A magazine journalism graduate from the University of Sheffield in 2018, Luke has also worked as assistant editor for Outdoor Swimmer magazine and as an ecommerce writer for The Recommended. When he’s not testing the latest health and fitness products, he’s busy plotting routes for his next trail run or gravel ride out of London. Follow Luke on Instagram at @lukeochamb
