HMS Heron gymnasium hosts mini hyrox competition

HMS Heron gymnasium organised a ‘Mini’ HYROX competition for military personnel on Wed 14 Feb.

In total 30 personal took part in the competition which was open to all military personal both Royal Navy and Army of all fitness abilities.  The competition was held three times throughout the day as single males, paired males and paired females.   

The HYROX is a global fitness race for everybody.  It launched in 2017 in Germany and quickly established itself as the fastest growing fitness sport in the world. 

Winner of the men’s singles race Air Engineering Officer Lieutenant Commander Chris Weedon (39) said ‘You can affiliate the HYROX race with the military. They have taken our circuit training and turned it into a professional race.  I am glad the gym hosted this, and I think more bases should. We, as in the military, are built for this.’   

This mini version of the HYROX race consisted of 12 gruelling parts. An 800m run, 1km ski, 800 run, 80m burpee broad jump, 800m run, 1km row, 800m run, 200m Farmers carry (32kg Male / 24kg Female), 800m run, 100m Sandbag lunge (20kg Male / 10kg Female), 800m run before a final 100m wall balls (9kg Male/6kg female).

Despite it being a shortened version, the race still certainly pushed personnel to their limits. Able Rating Alex Todd (23) an aircraft engineer from 846 Naval Air Squadron, who previously struggled to pass his fitness test, said, ‘I had been keeping up with the lunchtime circuits and I really wanted to challenge myself, just to see if I could do it.’ 

Alex added, ‘I don’t really know how I did it. It was very hard, incredibly tiring.  But I feel satisfied now I have finished it. I just kept telling myself ‘Just get it done’.’ 

The fastest singles time was achieved by Lt Cdr Weedon at 45:33, the fastest male pairs time was achieved by Chief Petty Officer Keer and Petty Officer Foxhall at 38:55 and the fastest female pair time was 1 Army Air Corps Captain Hannah and Lance Corporal Platts at 46:22. 

The event focuses on physical fitness, but the lasting mental and wellbeing effect it has on personnel is huge. Lt Cdr Weedon said, ‘I’ve not met these guys before, so to quickly form that friendship group away from the stresses of day-to-day work is always welcomed.’ 

With physical fitness and mental wellbeing being an essential element of Royal Naval life, HMS Heron’s Gymnasium held a successful if ‘not so’ mini HYROX event which will hopefully inspire other military establishments to follow.