72 hours after Hyrox: what to do and what not to

A Hyrox finish is a particular kind of tired. A marathon mostly empties your legs; a Hyrox empties your legs, your back, your grip and your lungs in the same hour, then asks you to carry a bag to the car. What you do in the next three days decides whether you spend the following week bouncing back or dragging yourself around.

The good news: the plan is simple, and most of it is about not doing things.

The first three hours
Do: keep walking for ten minutes after the finish, change out of wet kit, and eat something within the first hour or two: carbohydrate plus 20 to 40 g of protein, a sandwich and a yoghurt is plenty. Drink in small amounts, ideally something with a little salt in it. Then sit down, eat properly and enjoy it.

Do not: collapse onto the floor and stay there for an hour, drive two hours home without stopping to walk, or make the first drink of the celebration an alcoholic one. The body is trying to rehydrate and repair; give it a head start before the party.

Hours 3 to 24
Do: put your legs up for twenty minutes in the afternoon, move each joint gently through its range before bed, and aim for a long night, eight to nine hours if you can. Expect to wake up stiff; that is the normal response to an unusual amount of work, not a sign that something went wrong.

Do not: go out for a "flush-out" run the same evening, stretch aggressively into sore muscles, or sit still for six hours straight. Short walks around the house every hour beat one long rest.

Day two, 24 to 48 hours
This is usually the peak of the soreness. Stairs are a project, sitting down takes planning, and the sled push is a vivid memory in your thighs. All of it is expected, and it gets better from here.

Do: take a 20 to 30 minute walk or an easy spin on a bike, keep protein in every meal, and if you have a foam roller use it lightly on your thighs and calves. A warm shower is fine; a very hot bath is less helpful than people think.

Do not: judge your fitness by how you feel today, test whether your legs still work with a set of wall balls, or sign up for the next event while you are still sore. Decisions made on day two are rarely good ones.

Day three, 48 to 72 hours
Do: if you can walk down stairs normally, go for a 20-minute easy jog or a relaxed swim; if you cannot, repeat day two. Spend ten minutes writing down your splits while they are fresh: which station cost you the most time, where the breathing went, what you would pace differently. That note is worth more than any training session this week.

Do not: do a hard session of any kind, lift anything heavy, or reintroduce the sled. Seventy-two hours is enough for the acute tiredness to pass; it is not enough for the deeper repair.

Signs your body wants more time
Most of what you feel in these three days is ordinary soreness: dull, on both sides, improving each day. Pay more attention when it is not:

• Soreness that is still getting worse on day three rather than better
• Pain that is clearly one-sided, sharp, or located in a joint rather than a muscle
• Swelling that does not go down overnight
• Anything that changes the way you walk
• A resting heart rate that is still well above normal, poor sleep, or no appetite

None of these is a reason to panic, but all of them mean you should keep things easy and wait. If it has not settled within a week, have a qualified person look at it rather than training through it.

After the 72 hours
Week one stays easy: short runs, walks, mobility. In week two, bring strength work back at about 60 percent of your usual load and add one short session of intervals. By week three you can train normally, and by week four you are ready to plan the next block. One Hyrox costs roughly two to three weeks of full training; recovering well is how you make sure it was worth it.