Kettlebell weight for HYROX: the official numbers, and what to buy to train them

The official weights

In pounds, those are roughly 35 lb, 53 lb and 70 lb per hand. One further rule from the same rulebook is worth knowing because it costs people time rather than weight: if you fail to return your kettlebells to the correct area, or leave them lying rather than upright, a 30-second penalty applies - and using the wrong weight for any part of the station means repeating the whole station, with disqualification if you do not.

There is no scaled option inside a division. The only decision you make about kettlebell weight at a HYROX race is which division you enter, so the training question is not "what weight should I use" but "how do I get to 200 metres with that weight".

Why the carry is harder than the number suggests

Two 24 kg bells is 48 kg total, which most men can pick up without ceremony on a fresh day. The farmers carry is the seventh of eight stations, after a sled push, a sled pull, burpee broad jumps and a 1,000 m row, with a kilometre of running between every one of them. Your forearms have already done the sled pull and the rowing. That is the actual difficulty: a moderate load held by a compromised grip while your heart rate is at threshold.

Which means the useful training target is not a heavier bell. It is time under load with a tired grip, and the ability to run - not walk - with the bells for sections of the 200 m. The people who do this station well are not the strongest; they are the ones whose hands do not open.

How to train a 200 m carry at home

Start at race weight for distance you can complete. If 2 x 24 kg gets you 40 metres before the bells slip, that is your starting block - not a reason to drop to 20 kg. Six sets of 40 m with ninety seconds rest, twice a week, and add 10 m a week. Getting to 200 m unbroken takes most people six to ten weeks from a 40 m start.

Train it tired on one of those days. Row 500 m, then carry. That is a far better simulation of the race than a fresh carry, and it is where you discover that your grip, not your legs, is the problem.

Add direct grip work. Dead hangs from a pull-up bar for time, two or three sets to near-failure, twice a week. This is the single highest-return addition for the carry and it needs no extra equipment if you already own a bar.

Do not chase a heavier carry. There is no prize for carrying 2 x 32 kg if you are racing the 24 kg division. Spend the extra sessions on distance and on a tired grip instead.

If you have a short space - a garage or a driveway rather than 50 m of clear run - carry in shuttles of 15 to 20 m with turns. Turns are harder than straight carries, which makes a short space a feature rather than a limitation. The garage gym essentials page covers the rest of a setup that can support this kind of training.

What to buy, honestly

You need a pair. This is the part that catches people out: a farmers carry with one bell is a suitcase carry, which is a useful exercise and not this station. So the real cost of training the carry is two bells at your division weight.

For the Women's division, that is two 16 kg bells, and 16 kg is the single most commonly stocked kettlebell weight there is - it is cheap and easy to buy twice. For Men at 24 kg, a pair is a meaningful purchase but still less than a barbell. For Men Pro at 32 kg, a matched pair of 70 lb bells is a serious buy, and the honest advice is to train at 24 kg for distance and 32 kg for short heavy holds rather than buying two 32s on day one.

An adjustable competition bell changes the arithmetic in one specific case: if you want to hit 16, 24 and 32 kg exactly from one object, and you are willing to train single-arm suitcase carries and swap the setting rather than carry two bells. It is the cheapest route to the exact weights and the wrong route if the carry itself is the thing you need to practise. Our adjustable kettlebell roundup ranks those, and best kettlebell sets covers buying several fixed bells at once.

The other HYROX stations a kettlebell helps with

Nothing else in a HYROX race uses a kettlebell, but a kettlebell trains three of the stations well. The sled push and sled pull are hip extension against resistance, which is what a heavy swing is - and if you have somewhere to use one, a sled is the direct answer. The sandbag lunges want front-loaded lunges, which a single bell in the goblet position replicates closely, and a training sandbag replicates exactly. The wall balls want a front squat and a throw, which a goblet squat partly covers.

If you are building a home setup specifically for this, the ranked priority is: somewhere to run, two bells at your division weight, a pull-up bar for grip, then a sandbag. The conditioning workouts page shows how to put those into a week.