Not In My Box | The Fitness and Coaching Podcast · Caffeine and Kilos | Fitness and Coaching Culture w/ Danny Lehr

CrossFit vs HYROX: Rivalry or Opportunity?

November 11, 2025·53 min·3 clips

CrossFit is not “anything that makes you sweaty or miserable,” and the panel tests that idea with yes-or-no examples.

1. Not In My Box | The Fitness and Coaching Podcast centers this episode on whether CrossFit should treat Hyrox as a rival or an opportunity. 2. Danny Lear moderates with Wes Kitts, Kenny Santucci, Alan Kunica, and Wes Pyatt, each bringing Olympic weightlifting, CrossFit, gym ownership, and Hyrox experience to the comparison. 3. The episode asks whether Hyrox is repeating the same growth path CrossFit once followed with USA Weightlifting. 4. Danny Lear opens with a game of “yes or no” examples, including 21-15-9 thrusters and pull-ups, a 100-meter sprint, a marathon, grocery bags, and too much coffee on a Sunday morning. 5. The panel agrees that CrossFit depends on context, especially when Wes Pyatt says a workout can be CrossFit only if it sits inside CrossFit programming at an affiliate. 6. Danny Lear then links the current Hyrox debate to the earlier backlash CrossFit received from USA Weightlifting. 7. Wes Kitts says he found weightlifting in a CrossFit gym and remembers CrossFit as more weightlifting-friendly than it feels now. 8. Kitts says CrossFit benefited weightlifting in a big way and thinks Hyrox could do something similar if the two sides collaborate. 9. He also says he wants a Hyrox class in his gym because it can make people better at the thing they already like. 10. Kenny Santucci calls Hyrox a more user-friendly and “dummy down version of CrossFit,” while saying it helps more people start exercising. 11. Santucci compares Hyrox to Spartan, Tough Mudder, and other obstacle-course races that he sees as part of the same cycle. 12. Alan Kunica says his CrossFit The Den in Medford, Oregon, uses both formats side by side and gets boutique-gym members walking in for Hyrox. 13. Kunica says CrossFitters sometimes peek at Hyrox classes and decide to try them on days when they do not want overhead lifting. 14. Wes Pyatt says the fixed Hyrox format gives people a benchmark to revisit, similar to his gym’s annual Unity Games with the same three events every year. 15. Kenny Santucci says Hyrox’s top field is often made up of runners and college-level runners who already have strong cardiovascular engines. 16. Santucci also says Hyrox does a better job than many CrossFit events at distributing race photos so athletes share them and bring in friends. 17. The discussion stays conversational and opinion-driven, with each host answering quick prompts before expanding into longer gym and programming examples. 18. The tone is competitive but practical, and the panel keeps returning to community, programming, and athlete pipeline rather than ideology. 19. People who run a CrossFit gym or race Hyrox will get the most from this. 20. People wanting pure programming detail without gym politics may skip it.

As heard by us

A direct, practical look at where CrossFit ends and HYROX begins.

It frames the CrossFit vs HYROX debate as a practical sorting problem rather than a slogan fight. From thrusters and pull-ups to sprints, a marathon, and class structure, it keeps returning to a plain question: how a gym can make room for competitive members without shutting out…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the real comparison between High Rocks and CrossFit, straight from people in the gym.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Not In My Box | The Fitness and Coaching Podcast