Station 7 of 8
HYROX Sandbag Lunges
Station 7: 100m of walking lunges with a sandbag on your shoulders, rear knee touching the floor on every rep. It arrives when your legs have already run seven kilometres and pushed two sleds.
The lunges are a discipline test. The load is modest; the standard is not. Every rep is judged, and the station directly precedes wall balls — the worst possible place to arrive with detonated quads.
Official standards by division
| Division | Sandbag |
|---|---|
| Open Men | 20kg |
| Open Women | 10kg |
| Pro Men | 30kg |
| Pro Women | 20kg |
Distance / volume: 100m
Standards from public 2025/26 season rules — verify with the official rulebook.
Coach's cue
Knee kisses the floor, step through, hips tall. Short steady steps.
Go deeper
The hovering knee is the most common no-rep on the course after wall balls — the no-reps & penalties guide covers exactly what judges watch on the lunges, and on every other station.
Common faults — and what they cost
- Knee not touching the floor. the most common no-rep on the course. A hovering knee means repeating the rep — a full lunge done once is always cheaper than a shallow lunge done twice.
- Overstriding. huge lunges feel efficient and destroy your quads within 30m. Short, steady steps keep muscular cost per rep low across the full 100m.
- Collapsing forward. chest dropping over the front knee shifts the load onto the quads and lower back. Hips tall, torso proud — let the legs cycle underneath you.
- Unplanned standing rests. stopping upright mid-lane with a bag on your shoulders is still work — you are paying for the load without covering metres. If you rest, make it brief, planned, and rare.
How it fits the race
Sandbag lunges are station 7 of 8: Farmers Carry → Run 7 → Sandbag Lunges → Run 8 → Wall Balls. Everything you save here — muscularly, not just on the clock — is capacity you will spend on the wall ball target.
Pacing note
The lunges take about 5.5% of a typical finish — around 4:57 at 90:00 pace. Find a step rhythm you could hold for 150m and never break it. Doubles pairs split the 100m freely — but remember whoever finishes the lunges starts wall balls with the heaviest legs.
Racing doubles? The split strategy for every station lives in the HYROX doubles guide, and you can see how this station affects your projected finish with the free calculator.
Train this station with a plan
RoxDuo builds the sandbag lunges into an AI plan periodised to your race date, and tracks your station PB so you can watch it drop. Built by an athlete training for HYROX Rome 2026 on his own app.
Train every station with RoxDuoPrevious station: 6. Farmers Carry · Next station: 8. Wall Balls · All 8 stations
FAQ
How heavy is the sandbag in HYROX lunges?
Open division: 20kg for men, 10kg for women. Pro division: 30kg for men, 20kg for women, carried on the shoulders for 100m of walking lunges. Standards from public 2025/26 season rules — verify with the official rulebook.
What is the lunge standard in HYROX?
The rear knee must touch the ground on every rep, and you step through continuously with the bag across your shoulders. Judges no-rep shallow lunges, so groove the knee-touch in training until it is automatic.
How do you train for HYROX sandbag lunges?
Walking lunges at race load and beyond, done on legs that are already tired — after runs and sled work, not fresh. The race never gives you this station fresh, so training it fresh tells you very little.
Launch access
Start together.
Finish together.
The AI training app for HYROX doubles. Be first when it hits the App Store — 3-day free trial at launch.