HYROX ski erg and row: how to pace both 1000m stations

The HYROX ski erg is the first station, the row is the fifth, and both are 1000m. Set the SkiErg damper around 5–7 and the rower around 4–6. Hold a split roughly 10–15 seconds per 500m slower than your fresh 1000m pace.

Two identical machines, two different jobs

Mechanically they're twins: a Concept2 flywheel, a damper lever, and a monitor counting down from 1000m in splits per 500m. Where they sit in the race is what separates them.

The SkiErg comes off the opening kilometer, so you arrive fresh with a heart rate that hasn't been anywhere yet. The row comes after the sled push, the sled pull, and 80m of burpee broad jumps — you get there with a shredded grip and legs that already know what's coming. Same distance, very different cost. Both the HYROX ski erg distance and the HYROX row distance stay at 1000m for every division and every age group; only the loads on the sled, sandbag, and wall ball change, and those change by gender and by Open versus Pro — not by age. Before you set any pacing plan, it helps to know the running order of the eight stations cold.

Damper settings for the HYROX ski erg and rower

On the SkiErg, 5–7 suits most athletes. Heavier, upper-body-strong athletes often prefer 6–8 and pull with more force at a lower rate; lighter athletes usually do better at 4–6 with faster, cheaper strokes. A higher damper moves more air per stroke, which rewards strength but taxes the lats and shoulders and drives heart rate up fast — a bad trade with 7km of running still in front of you.

On the HYROX rower, 4–6 is the usual range. The damper number isn't the resistance, though. It sets how much air reaches the flywheel, and the monitor's drag factor is the actual load. Plenty of athletes aim for a drag factor somewhere around 110–130 for HYROX rowing, but race-day machines have had hundreds of people on them, and a dusty flywheel reads higher at the same lever position. In practice you set the lever, take two strokes, and go.

Stroke rate and technique on the HYROX SkiErg

Most athletes race the 1000m somewhere between 50 and 60 strokes per minute. Start with the hands high, hinge at the hips, drive down through the lats and triceps with a small knee bend, and finish as the hands pass the hips. Then stand back up quickly — rate lives in the recovery, not in a longer pull.

The common technical leak is grinding out the last few inches. Past your hips the flywheel gains almost nothing and your triceps pay full price. Keep the stroke short and repeatable, and ignore the split for the first five or six strokes — the number means nothing until the flywheel settles.

Stroke rate and technique on the HYROX rower

Sit at 26–30 strokes per minute. The real adjustment is that HYROX rowing isn't a 1000m erg test — you deliberately take leg drive out of it. Sit taller, shorten the layback, and let the back and arms carry a bigger share. A split two or three seconds slower per 500m in exchange for fresher quads is the right trade every time.

Grip matters more here than people expect. The rower follows the sled pull and the burpees, and the farmers carry is next, so keep loose fingers and stop strangling the handle. Cinch the foot straps enough to be safe and no more; a lot of athletes leave them deliberately loose to save transition seconds.

Target splits by finish-time goal

These are pacing targets, not measured averages. Bodyweight and sex move them — a 60kg athlete and a 90kg athlete finishing in the same time will not hold the same erg split.

Finish-time goal	HYROX ski erg 1000m	HYROX row 1000m
Sub-1:15	3:45–4:00 (1:52–2:00 /500m)	3:35–3:50 (1:47–1:55 /500m)
Around 1:30	4:10–4:30 (2:05–2:15 /500m)	4:00–4:20 (2:00–2:10 /500m)
Around 1:50	4:45–5:10 (2:22–2:35 /500m)	4:30–5:00 (2:15–2:30 /500m)
2:00 and over	5:10–5:40 (2:35–2:50 /500m)	5:00–5:30 (2:30–2:45 /500m)

The cleaner personal check is to take your fresh, rested 1000m pace on each machine and add 10–15 seconds per 500m. If that doesn't line up with the bands above, trust your own numbers and sanity-check the goal against typical HYROX finish times.

Row targets sit slightly faster than ski targets for most people, because rowing recruits a bigger chain. During the race you hand some of that advantage back on purpose.

The station-one mistake

The SkiErg feels great. You're one kilometer in, the legs are untouched, and the machine rewards aggression, so athletes routinely come off station one 20 seconds ahead of plan. That deposit gets withdrawn twice: first on the second run, then on the sled push, which punishes an elevated heart rate harder than anything else on the floor.

Fifteen seconds slow on the SkiErg is invisible in your finish time. Thirty seconds hot can cost you two minutes across the run and sled that follow. Decide the split before the race and refuse to beat it. Hyrox Workout is a HYROX workout timer app for iPhone and Apple Watch that keeps a target split on screen while you're on the machine, so you're pacing to your finish-time goal instead of to how good you feel at station one.

Getting off the row with three runs left

After the row you still have 3km of running and three stations. Standing up after four minutes seated is disorienting, and the first 200m of that run always feels worse than it is, which is why people panic and drop to a walk. Rehearse row-to-run transitions in training so the sensation is familiar instead of alarming.

Ease off over the last 100m rather than sprinting the finish. You give up two or three seconds on the monitor and get them back inside the first 400m of the run.

FAQ

How long is the ski erg in HYROX?

1000m, and it's the same in every division and age group. Open and Pro differ on sled, sandbag, farmers carry, and wall ball loading — age-group results are scored on the same weights as the Open division for that gender, not a separate loading tier.

What damper setting should I use for the HYROX row?

Start at 4–6 and check the drag factor if the monitor gives you time. Race machines run dustier than gym machines, so the same lever position often feels heavier than it does at home. Erring low is safer than erring high.

Should I row faster or slower than my 1000m PR pace?

Slower, and meaningfully so. Most athletes add 10–15 seconds per 500m to a rested pace and take that specifically out of the leg drive. The HYROX rowing distance is 1000m, but it sits five stations into an eight-station race rather than at the end of one.

Is the ski erg harder than the row in HYROX?

The row is usually faster on the monitor because it uses more muscle. The ski erg is harder to pace, though, because it arrives when you feel your best. Most people lose more time to a badly paced ski erg than to a conservative row.

Can partners split the ergs in HYROX Doubles?

Yes. In Doubles the 1000m is a team total and partners can swap as often as they like, with one person working at a time. Division rules do change between seasons, so confirm the current rulebook before race day.