Hyrox Sandbag Lunges

Sandbag lunges are Station 7 — the penultimate workout before wall balls and the finish line. You place a sandbag on your shoulders (20 kg for Open Men, 10 kg for Open Women) and lunge 100 metres. Every single step is a full lunge: back knee touching or nearly touching the ground, then standing tall before the next step. This station is quad-dominant and absolutely relentless. By this point in the race, your legs have run 7 km, pushed a sled, and carried kettlebells. The sandbag lunges are not about weight — 20 kg is not heavy in a gym. They are about performing a high-volume single-leg movement on legs that are already deeply fatigued. Pacing and technique consistency are your best weapons here.

Technique Breakdown

Efficient technique on the sandbag lunges is the difference between a fast station time and a painful one. These are the key steps to get right — especially under race fatigue.

1. Position the sandbag correctly. Rest the sandbag across your upper traps and the back of your shoulders, not on your neck. Grip the sides or front of the bag to stabilise it. The bag should feel like a back squat barbell position — a wide base of support across your upper back. If it is sitting on your neck, it compresses your cervical spine and makes every lunge harder.
2. Step with purpose, not distance. Take moderate-length strides — enough to get your back knee close to the ground without overextending your front leg. An over-long lunge puts your front knee past your toes and loads your patellar tendon instead of your glute and quad. Each step should feel like a controlled descent and a powerful stand-up.
3. Drive up through your front heel. As you stand out of each lunge, push through the heel of your front foot. This activates your glute and hamstring on the way up, sharing the load with your quad. If you push through your toes, your quad does all the work and fatigues faster.
4. Keep your torso upright. The sandbag wants to pull you forward, especially as you fatigue. Fight it. Keep your chest up, your eyes forward, and your core braced. A forward lean shifts the load onto your lower back and reduces the power you can generate from your legs on each step.

Pacing Strategy

Pacing on the sandbag lunges is not about going slow — it is about going sustainable. Here is how to approach it.

• Count your lunges. Most athletes need 65–85 lunges to cover 100 m, depending on stride length. Knowing your rep count gives you a mental progress bar.
• Break the 100 m into four 25 m blocks. After each block, do a mental check: breathing? Posture? Tempo? Then commit to the next block.
• Aim for a total time of 3:00–5:00 for competitive Open athletes. If you are over 6:00, your single-leg strength and endurance are the limiters — add Bulgarian split squats and walking lunges to your training.
• Do not speed up in the final 25 m. The temptation is to rush the finish, but sloppy lunges at the end are the most common place for form breakdown and potential injury. Maintain your cadence all the way through.

Common Mistakes

These are the errors we see most often at Hyrox events. Avoid them and you are already ahead of half the field.

• Letting the sandbag slide down your back. When fatigued, your shoulders round and the bag creeps toward your lower back. This shifts your centre of gravity and makes every lunge significantly harder. Actively push up on the bag every 10–15 lunges to reset its position.
• Taking short, choppy steps to "get it over with." Short lunges mean more total reps, which means more total quad load. Moderate, consistent strides are more efficient.
• Twisting at the torso. Each lunge is a straight-ahead movement. Twisting wastes energy and can strain your lower back, especially with a load on your shoulders. Keep your hips and shoulders square to the direction of travel.
• Skipping the full range of motion. In Hyrox, your back knee should get close to the ground on each lunge. Judges may not count short reps. Even if judging is lenient, full-range lunges are more efficient per metre covered than half-reps with extra steps.

Training Drills

You do not need specialist equipment to train for the sandbag lunges. These drills work in any commercial gym and directly transfer to race-day performance.

1. Walking lunges with a sandbag or barbell: 4 x 50 m at race weight with 2-minute rest. This is the single most specific training drill for this station. Count your reps per set and track consistency.
2. Bulgarian split squats: 3 x 12 per leg with dumbbells or a barbell. Builds the single-leg strength that prevents form breakdown after 50 lunges.
3. Lunge EMOM: Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes, perform 10 alternating lunges with a sandbag. Builds the work capacity to sustain a consistent cadence under fatigue.
4. Wall sit finisher: After your lunge training, hold a wall sit for 60–90 seconds. This conditions your quads for the sustained isometric demand of 100 m of lunging.

Weights by Division

The sandbag lunges weight varies by division. Here are the official specs for every Hyrox category.