Guide
How do you taper in the last two weeks before HYROX?
Taper the last 2 weeks before your HYROX race by lowering your volume and keeping your pace the same. In a meta-analysis of 27 studies, a 2-week taper with 41 to 60% less volume worked best. Benchmrk uses about 65% volume in the first taper week and 40% in race week. The last hard sim falls 10 to 14 days before the race, the last heavy strength session 7 to 10 days before.
In short
- Taper for 2 weeks, with 41 to 60% less volume.
- Keep intensity and the number of sessions as equal as possible.
- Last hard sim 10 to 14 days before the race.
- Last heavy strength 7 to 10 days before the race.
- A taper doesn't make you fitter; it shows what you have already built.
How long does a good taper last?
About 2 weeks. Bosquet and colleagues (2007) analysed 27 studies with competitive athletes. The best effect on performance came from a 2-week taper. A newer meta-analysis in endurance athletes (Wang and colleagues, 2023) found an effect for tapers of up to 21 days.
There is no taper study for HYROX itself yet. The advice here comes from endurance sport, team sport and strength sport. For HYROX, with running and heavy stations, those together are the best there is. A meta-analysis in team sports (Vachon and colleagues, 2021) found more maximal power and a higher VO₂max after a taper. Those are sports that, like HYROX, combine endurance and strength.
What do you change in your training?
Mostly the volume. Intensity and the number of sessions stay as equal as possible.
| Item | What research shows | How Benchmrk does it |
|---|---|---|
| Length of the taper | 2 weeks worked best | 2 weeks |
| Volume | 41 to 60% less worked best | About 65%, then 40% of your volume |
| Intensity | Keep it the same | Short sections at race pace stay in |
| Number of sessions | Keep it the same or at most about 20% fewer | Short easy runs instead of extra rest days |
| Pattern | Gradual reduction works better than in one step | Volume drops further in race week |
Mujika and Padilla (2003) describe a taper as a gradual, non-linear reduction of training load. According to their review, a taper usually yields about 3%, with a range of 0.5 to 6%.
When do you do your last hard sim?
10 to 14 days before the race. That is a Benchmrk rule, not the result of a study. After that last hard sim comes a short, sharp version: about half the volume, at the same race pace. In the taper, that is for example 4 × (500 m + station at 30% of race volume). How a sim grows towards that last dress rehearsal is covered in build a HYROX simulation.
Wang and colleagues found that a taper gives more after a block with extra load. The peak phase with the full dress rehearsal is that block.
When do you stop heavy strength?
7 to 10 days before the race. After that you only do light station technique, nothing to failure. This is also a rule of the app, derived from literature on peaking in strength sport. A review by Travis and colleagues (2020) does note that there is little hard data on exactly how to peak maximal strength. In the last heavy session, the app keeps the same weight, with half the sets.
What does race week look like?
Short, easy and with a few sharp sections. An example of a race week in Benchmrk, for a race on Saturday:
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Sun | Short easy run with 4 × 20 s at race pace |
| Tue | 4 × 400 m, 15 s/km faster than your threshold pace |
| Wed | Light station technique |
| Thu | Rest |
| Fri | 20 min shake-out with 4 × 20 s at race pace, or rest |
| Sat | Race |
The long run, the intervals and the sim become short, easy runs in race week. That way you keep the number of sessions about equal while the volume drops a lot.
What do you eat before and during the race?
Make sure you are well fuelled at the start. HYROX cites an average race time of about 90 minutes; in the study by Brandt and colleagues (2025), the median finish time was 86.5 minutes. According to a review by Burke and colleagues (2011), for intense effort of about an hour even small amounts of carbohydrate help, even just rinsing with a sports drink. For longer effort, 30 to 60 grams per hour is a suitable goal. Always test what you eat on race day in a training session first.
Where does it often go wrong?
You often see three mistakes:
- Too much rest. In the meta-analysis a taper worked best when intensity and the number of sessions stayed the same. So keep short sections at race pace.
- Another hard sim. A full dress rehearsal in the last week doesn't fit a volume that should be 41 to 60% lower.
- Starting too fast. HYROX itself warns that many athletes run their first kilometre too hard. You set your race pace in advance, see run pacing.
How the taper fits in the whole plan is on HYROX training plan. How many weeks you need in total is covered in how many weeks to train for HYROX.
How Benchmrk does it
The taper is in every plan of 8 weeks or longer by default. The app lowers your volume to about 65% and then 40%, plans your last hard sim 10 to 14 days before the race and your last heavy strength 7 to 10 days before. In race week, long sessions become short runs with sections at race pace. On race day you get pacing and nutrition advice.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a taper for HYROX last?
About 2 weeks. That gave the best effect in a meta-analysis of 27 studies. There is no study on tapering for HYROX itself yet.
Should you rest during the taper?
No. You mostly lower the volume and keep the intensity. Short sections at race pace stay in, so you stay sharp.
When do you do your last full sim?
In Benchmrk, 10 to 14 days before the race. After that the sim is shorter, with about half the volume and the same race pace.
Can you still do strength training in race week?
Only light. In Benchmrk the last heavy strength session falls 7 to 10 days before the race; after that only light station technique, nothing to failure.
How much better do you get from a taper?
In a review by Mujika and Padilla it was usually about 3%, with a range of 0.5 to 6%.
Sources
- Bosquet et al. (2007), Effects of tapering on performance – a meta-analysis, Med Sci Sports Exerc (accessed on 22 October 2026)
- Mujika & Padilla (2003), Scientific bases for precompetition tapering strategies, Med Sci Sports Exerc (accessed on 22 October 2026)
- Wang et al. (2023), Effects of tapering on performance in endurance athletes, PLoS One (accessed on 22 October 2026)
- Vachon et al. (2021), Effects of tapering in team sports – meta-analysis, Eur J Sport Sci (accessed on 22 October 2026)
- Travis et al. (2020), Tapering and peaking maximal strength for powerlifting performance, Sports (accessed on 22 October 2026)
- HYROX – Best HYROX Preparation (accessed on 22 October 2026)
- Brandt et al. (2025), Frontiers in Physiology (accessed on 22 October 2026)
- Burke et al. (2011), Carbohydrates for training and competition, J Sports Sci (accessed on 22 October 2026)