HYROX Sandbag Lunges: Weights, Technique, and Strategy (Station 7)
HYROX Stations · Station 7 of 8
The sandbag lunges ask more of your legs than any other station. Not because the bag is heavy, but because of where it sits in the race. Seven kilometres run. Six stations done. Two sleds already in your quads. Now put a shifting load across your shoulders and lunge 100 metres, touching your back knee to the floor on every single rep.
Most athletes are told to pace this station and save their legs for the final run. The race data says otherwise, and I will show you why. This is also the station where a small tactical choice about your stride can protect your wall balls.
100 m for every division, usually 4 lengths of 25 m. Roughly 50 to 80 lunges depending on your stride. The bag must stay fully supported on your shoulders throughout.
- The station, weights, and rules
- Penalties, and the rule that changed
- Loading the bag, and why the race bag feels different
- Technique: the stacked position
- Step-through or swoop-through
- Why you should attack, not pace
- The hidden problem: your grip
- How to train it in an Indian gym
- The top mistakes
- Frequently asked questions
- About the coach
The Station, Weights, and Rules
Station 7 is 100 m of walking lunges with a sandbag across your shoulders, completed after your seventh 1 km run. The distance is typically covered as four lengths of 25 m. Everyone lunges 100 m. Only the weight changes by division.
| Division | Sandbag |
|---|---|
| Women Open | 10 kg |
| Men Open | 20 kg |
| Women Pro | 20 kg |
| Men Pro | 30 kg |
| Women Doubles | 10 kg |
| Men Doubles | 20 kg |
| Mixed Doubles | 20 kg |
- Pick the bag up unassisted from the marked area, and choose the correct weight for your division. If you complete all or part of the station with the incorrect weight, you must repeat the entire station using the correct weight. Failure to do so results in disqualification.
- The bag stays across both shoulders for the entire station, including the turns. Not on one side.
- Both feet behind the line before your first lunge.
- The trailing knee must clearly touch the ground on every rep. Hovering does not count.
- Alternate legs every rep. You may choose which leg starts.
- Full extension of hips and knees when you stand up.
- No steps or shuffles between reps. You may pause with both feet together, or lunge continuously. Both are legal.
- Return the bag to the correct marked area. Only then is the station complete.
The station is 100 m. Many venues use four 25 m lengths, but follow the marked lanes and the event instructions on race day. Weights and standards can change by season. Confirm the current numbers on the official HYROX rulebook before race week.
Penalties, and the Rules That Changed
Judging on this station has tightened as the sport has grown, and the penalty system has changed. Many older guides still describe distance penalties. For the sleds, the burpee broad jumps, and the sandbag lunges, HYROX has moved towards a warning followed by time penalties of 15 seconds per infringement.
The sandbag itself has its own rules. It must stay fully supported by the working athlete and must not be placed on the ground, on your feet, on the barricades, or on any other surface to remove the load. Each infringement results in a 15-second penalty. Removing the sandbag from your shoulders also results in a 15-second penalty, with no warning first.
- No forward passes. The sandbag must not be passed forward during a transition. Sideways or backward passes are allowed.
- The resting partner walks behind the working partner, and must not obstruct other racers.
Loading the Bag, and Why the Race Bag Feels Different
You must lift the bag onto your shoulders yourself. Most athletes use a clean and jerk, a power snatch, or a swing with rotation. Choose the one that suits your strength and mobility, and practise it. Fumbling the lift while your heart rate is at 180 is a poor way to start the station.
Here is something that catches Indian athletes out. A HYROX sandbag is long and rectangular, not the cylindrical tube most gyms own. It is dynamically weighted, so the sand shifts with every step and demands a fresh micro-adjustment from your core and shoulders. It sits across the upper back and traps, pinned there by squeezing it down, not gripped in your hands.
If you train with a barbell, a cylindrical bag, or a dumbbell held at your chest, you are training a different exercise. The shifting load on your shoulders is the entire challenge, and it is exactly the part you cannot fake on race day. If you can get access to a proper sandbag, even once or twice, do it.
Technique: The Stacked Position
The single most important idea is stacking. When your back knee touches the ground, you should be able to draw a straight line from that knee, through your hips and core, up to the sandbag on your shoulders. Everything sits over everything else.
- Bag placement. Across the upper back and rear delts, not on your neck. Pull the elbows down and in to pin it.
- Torso upright. A very slight lean is fine for momentum, but folding forward is the most common breakdown. Once you tilt, the bag slides forward, your lower back takes the load, and every step gets harder.
- Ribs down, core braced. Think of zipping up your midsection. If you feel yourself folding, it is usually a loss of core engagement rather than weak legs.
- Knee contact. Tap deliberately but lightly. A brief touch, not a rest. You do not need to slam it.
- Drive through the front heel to stand, and extend the hips and knees together. Straightening the knee before the hip overloads your quads for no reason.
- Chest up, eyes forward. Drive your sternum towards the ceiling as you rise.
Step-Through or Swoop-Through
Two legal ways to link your reps, and the choice matters more than most athletes realise.
Step-through means bringing both feet together after each lunge, pausing briefly, then stepping into the next. It is slightly slower, but it lets you regulate your breathing and reset your balance. For a first HYROX, this is almost always the right choice.
Swoop-through means the rear leg swings straight into the next forward step without a pause. It is faster, but it demands more balance and coordination at exactly the moment when both are failing. Graduate to this once your technique and fitness allow.
Why You Should Attack, Not Pace
The conventional advice is to go steady here and protect your legs for the last kilometre. It sounds sensible and it is largely wrong.
Analysis of HYROX race data shows the correlation between sandbag lunge speed and performance on the eighth run is essentially zero, for both men and women. Athletes who move through the lunges quickly do not run any slower afterwards than athletes who crawl through them. Going conservative is estimated to cost 30 to 90 seconds with no compensating benefit at all.
So the strategy is clear. Move through the 100 m with purpose. Keep your rep quality high, protect your quads with heel-driven mechanics, and do not dawdle. Break the distance into the four lengths and take a planned pause at a turn if you need one, rather than stopping randomly because it hurts. Know from training how many metres you can hold unbroken. Most age-group athletes complete the 100 m with one or two stops.
The Hidden Problem: Your Grip
This surprises almost everyone. Five of the first six stations put sustained tension through your forearms and hands. The sled pull, the rowing, and the farmers carry in particular. By the time you reach the lunges, your grip is already deep in the red.
Even though the bag rests on your shoulders, you are still holding it there to keep it balanced. Athletes regularly report their forearms screaming twenty five metres in, on a station they assumed was purely about legs. This is the cost of the grip budget you have been spending all race. Pin the bag with your elbows down and in, using structure rather than a death grip, and keep your grip work in training year round.
How to Train It in an Indian Gym
Lunges are mostly a muscular endurance problem rather than a pure strength one. You need to repeat quality reps for a long time without your legs shutting down. Build the volume gradually, since lunges create heavy eccentric loading and will make you very sore if you rush.
- Train the exact distance. 100 m at your division weight, as 4 sets of 25 m. If you can only do 50 m unbroken today, that is your honest baseline. Log it and build.
- Compromised lunges. 400 m run, then 20 m of loaded lunges, then 400 m run. Repeat. This is the session that matters most.
- After a station. Lunge straight after a hard row or a carry, so your legs and grip are pre-fatigued exactly as they will be.
- EMOM lunges to build control under progressive fatigue.
- Unilateral strength. Bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges, step-ups. Squats and deadlifts alone will not prepare you, since they are bilateral.
- Isometrics. Wall sits and loaded holds in the bottom lunge position. Underrated and knee-friendly.
Add mobility work for the hips and ankles. The rules demand your back knee reaches the floor, and limited range is a direct route to a penalty. Two or three varied lunge sessions a week is a sensible ceiling for most people.
The Top Mistakes
Folding forward at the waist, which slides the bag and loads the lower back. Letting the back knee hover instead of touching, especially once tired. Extending the knee before the hip, which needlessly hammers the quads. Training with a barbell or a cylindrical bag rather than a real HYROX sandbag. Only training bilateral lifts like squats and never single-leg work. Skipping hip and ankle mobility, then failing to reach the floor. Pacing conservatively in the belief it protects your final run, when the data shows it does not. And forgetting that your grip arrives at this station already exhausted.
Frequently Asked Questions
How heavy is the HYROX sandbag?
Women Open lunge with 10 kg, Men Open and Women Pro with 20 kg, and Men Pro with 30 kg. The distance is 100 m for every division. Confirm the current weights on the official rulebook before your race.
Does your knee have to touch the ground in HYROX sandbag lunges?
Yes. The trailing knee must clearly touch the ground on every repetition. Hovering does not count and the rep can be judged invalid. It is the most common fault on this station, especially as fatigue shortens your range without you noticing.
What happens if you drop the sandbag?
Placing the sandbag on the ground, your feet, the barricades, or any other surface to remove the load results in a 15-second penalty per infringement. Removing the sandbag from your shoulders also results in a 15-second penalty, with no warning first. The bag must stay fully supported by the working athlete throughout the station.
Can you pass the sandbag to your partner in Doubles?
Yes, but not forward. Sideways or backward passes are allowed during a transition. Forward passes are not. The resting partner must walk behind the working partner and must not obstruct other racers.
What happens if I use the wrong sandbag weight?
If you complete all or part of the station with the incorrect weight, you must repeat the entire station using the correct weight. Failure to do so results in disqualification. Check your division's weight before you lift the bag.
Should I pace the sandbag lunges to save my legs?
No. Race data shows almost no relationship between lunge speed and how well you run afterwards. Pacing conservatively is estimated to cost 30 to 90 seconds with no benefit. Move with purpose while keeping your rep quality high.
How many lunges is 100 m in HYROX?
Typically 50 to 80 individual lunges, depending on your step length. Find your own number in training so the station holds no surprises.
Can I stop between lunges?
You may pause with both feet together after each lunge, or lunge continuously. Both are legal. What you cannot do is take steps or shuffles between reps.
How do I train sandbag lunges without a HYROX sandbag?
Use a weighted backpack or a heavy bag across your shoulders as the closest substitute, and build single-leg strength with Bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges, and step-ups. Understand that a real HYROX bag is long, rectangular, and shifts as you move, so try to train with one at least once before race day.
About the Coach
Niraj Kumar Borah
Founder and head coach of Fitness Bootcamp, a premium residential health transformation program based in Rishikesh. Since 2020 he has guided more than 4,600 guests through structured, fully supported transformations.
He is a HYROX Academy Level 1 certified coach, a Precision Nutrition and Bioforce Conditioning coach, and a VDOT certified running coach. He races HYROX himself. At HYROX Bengaluru 2026 he placed 25th in the 35 to 39 age group, finishing the Doubles in 1:24:59, so the coaching here comes from racing the stations, not just reading about them.
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Message the team on WhatsAppThis is general training guidance for healthy adults, not medical advice. Loaded lunges place real load on the knees and lower back. If you have a health condition or an injury, speak with your doctor before starting a new training plan.
