Most Hyrox Athletes Are Skipping the Real Foundation of Performance | The Hyrox Training Pyramid (Dan Plews #28)

**John Paton** (0:00)
Okay, everyone. So today, we're going to talk about the Hyrox Training Pyramid. And this is a framework that Dan has put together to help you structure your thinking about training and developing your capabilities for Hyrox. So at the base of the pyramid, there's frequency and volume of training. At the top of the pyramid is your tapering. And in the middle, there are concepts, there are concepts such as developing your threshold, how you structure your intensity distribution, and how you train for strength endurance. So we're going to be covering each of these concepts on the podcast today. And hopefully by the end of this, you'll have some sense for what it takes to develop as an athlete for the Hyrox event. Okay, let's get into it. Okay, I'm back with Dan Plews. So Dan, you've created this Hyrox training pyramid. Tell us, why did you find it necessary to create this pyramid? What is the Hyrox coaching pyramid?

**Dan Plews** (0:55)
Yeah, I like to call it the Hyrox training hierarchy, really. It's a training hierarchy. And the reason I created this hierarchy, it's mainly because I was thinking a lot, I mean, I was thinking a lot about Hyrox and a lot about Hyrox training. And there's a lack of understanding or there's a lack of guidance with the most important, the most important aspects.
And this, I was, and I thought about this because there's certain things that need to be in place, just like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? And in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, for example, you need, you have shelter and warmth before you have social security, right? And I was thinking, well, that, that is directly applicable also to training. Because what's the point of doing your Hyrox simulations and your taper if you haven't done any training in the first place? And then that kind of got me down this rabbit hole of the certain things that need to be at the base of this pyramid to support the next layer of the pyramid. So there's the certain things that need to be done first as a priority before you even start thinking about the next. And that for coaches and athletes can then form a framework of training philosophy.

**John Paton** (2:06)
Okay. So in some ways, is this the blueprint for how to coach a Hyrox athlete or how to train for Hyrox?

**Dan Plews** (2:14)
Well, I mean, as I say, it's not a, I'm not saying that this is the blueprint that everyone has to follow. But just from my level of understanding and having been involved in a lot of endurance sports and talking with many exercise physiologists, and the idea didn't come from me. It actually came from Stephen Seeler, who originally brought out this idea of the hierarchy of endurance training needs. And back in the day, and it was about 2019, I then translated that into triathlon. And now I've got another step and I've translated the same hierarchy with different aspects and different levels. But actually many of the same principles are there into a Hyrox.
A Hyrox hierarchy. And it allows me as a coach to have a framework in my mind of what, of making the most important thing the most important thing. And always knowing when an athlete comes to me and looking at a program, I can get a very quick idea of what's missing. And if you're putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. And that can happen quite often. You know, if you're doing, if your main aim is to do more and more intensity and you're not doing it on a frequency and volume, you'll never reach where you're going to get to because your base support is never going to be high enough to reach a high peak.

**John Paton** (3:23)
Okay. Okay. Well, let's go through some of the different components of this Hyrox training hierarchy. So there's things such as frequency and volume of training. This is at the base of the pyramid. And then we've got tapering at the top. There are also other components, strength, endurance, Hyrox specific simulations, training intensity distribution. So let's go through each of these and we will include a link to the pyramid in the show notes as well. So if you want to see a visual, you will be able to check that out.
But maybe let's start right at the top. So tapering, Dan, why is tapering important for the Hyrox athlete? How much of an impact does tapering have?

**Dan Plews** (3:53)
Well, should we start at the top or start at the bottom?

**John Paton** (3:56)
Let's start at the top because I imagine some people might have a race coming up very soon and we want to provide insight for that.