HYROX Sandbag Lunges Pacing Guide

The pacing table below divides the 100m distance into four 25m segments, which lines up with a natural rhythm of resetting your sandbag position or breathing every quarter of the distance if needed. A per-25m target is more actionable mid-station than a single 100m time, since it lets you notice pacing drift after just 25m rather than discovering it only at the finish.

Holding the sandbag at the upper chest rather than letting it slide down toward the waist keeps your torso upright and reduces the forward lean that causes most technical faults on this station, including knees passing the toes and shortened range of motion. An upright torso also keeps your breathing more open, which matters given how late in the race this station sits.

Step length is a direct trade-off against control on this station. Short stepping to rush the distance often looks faster but produces shallow lunges that risk a no-rep if a judge is present, or simply wastes the training stimulus if you are practicing alone. The pacing table assumes full-depth reps, back knee touching the ground, so use it as a target for quality reps, not just distance covered.

Because sandbag lunges follow burpee broad jumps in the standard HYROX order, quad and glute fatigue is often significant by this point, which is exactly why the table gives you a slower per-segment target than earlier bodyweight-loaded stations like burpee broad jumps. Trying to match your fresh-legs training pace here usually backfires and forces an early stop to recover.

Training this station with a genuinely fatigued lower body, for example immediately after a sled and burpee broad jump combination, gives a far more realistic read on your achievable pace than training it fresh. If your fatigued-state splits are close to the table, your race-day pacing plan is realistic; if they are far off, that is useful information before race day rather than during it.