Energy Gels for Hyrox: Do You Actually Need Them?
Walk through the start pen at any Hyrox and you'll see gels tucked into waistbands and taped to SkiErg handles. Borrowed straight from marathon running. The question nobody stops to ask: does a 60 to 90 minute race actually need mid-race fuel?
For most people, the answer is no. For some, a small amount helps. The honest version depends on one number: how long you're out there.
Why race duration is the whole answer
Your muscles store carbohydrate as glycogen. For efforts up to about 60 to 75 minutes, you have enough glycogen on board to finish without topping up, assuming you ate properly in the days before. Carbohydrate taken during exercise mostly starts to matter once you cross 90 minutes, when those stores run low and blood sugar can dip (Jeukendrup, PubMed).
Now map that onto Hyrox finishing times. Elite men finish near 55 minutes. A strong age-grouper lands around 75 to 85 minutes. A first-timer might be out there 90 minutes or more.
If you're finishing under about 75 minutes, the case for gels is weak. Your glycogen covers it. If you're past 90 minutes, there's a real argument for a small amount of carbohydrate to hold your output and your focus through the back half.
What to take, and when
If you're in the longer bracket, you don't need a marathon fueling plan. You need a little, taken early enough to be useful.
A single gel is typically 20 to 30g of carbohydrate. Taken around the 40 to 50 minute mark, before you're deep in the pain cave, it gives your system time to absorb and use it. Waiting until you're already empty at the wall balls is too late.
There's a limit on how fast you can absorb carbohydrate. A single sugar source like glucose tops out around 60g per hour because it relies on one transporter that saturates (Jeukendrup, PubMed). For a race this short, that ceiling barely matters, which is another reason you don't need to stack gels. One is plenty.
For events that genuinely run long, athletes use products combining glucose and fructose to push absorption higher, since the two sugars use separate transport pathways. That's a marathon and ultra concern. In a Hyrox, it's overkill.
The thing most people skip: pre-race fuel
Here's where the real performance lever sits, and it's not a gel.
What you eat in the 1 to 3 hours before the gun does more for a sub-90-minute race than anything you swallow mid-race. Top up your glycogen with a familiar carbohydrate meal, keep it light enough to sit comfortably, and you walk to the start line already fueled.
This is also where Pre-Shot earns its spot. It's a ready-to-drink pre-workout built for clean energy and focus with no crash and no itching, taken around 20 to 30 minutes before you start. It gets you to the line switched on, which matters more in a punchy race than sipping sugar between stations.
Don't forget the other half of fueling
Carbohydrate gets the attention. For a sweaty 60 to 90 minute effort, sodium and fluid often matter more.
You lose a lot through sweat across eight runs and eight stations, especially in a warm venue. Cramp and a flat, heavy feeling late in a race are frequently a hydration and electrolyte problem, not a carbohydrate one.
Electrolyte+ covers that side: sodium and minerals to replace what you sweat out, plus a calcium-heavy formula that helps buffer lactic acid during sustained work. For a lot of athletes, sorting hydration delivers a bigger return than any gel.
Test it before you trust it
One rule that overrides everything above: never try a new fuel on race day.
The gut can be trained to handle carbohydrate during exercise, and tolerance improves with practice (Jeukendrup, PubMed). The flip side is that an untested gel during a max effort is a genuine risk of cramps or worse. If you plan to use one, rehearse it in training at race intensity, more than once, until you know your stomach is fine with it.
The verdict
For a sub-75-minute Hyrox, skip the gel. Your glycogen has it covered, and you'll gain more from a solid pre-race meal and your hydration plan.
If you're racing 90 minutes or longer, one gel around the halfway mark is reasonable, taken before you're empty and tested in training first.
Either way, the fuel that decides your race happens before the gun, not between the stations. Sort that, sort your hydration, and the gel becomes what it should be: optional.
This article is educational and not medical advice. Carbohydrate guidance is drawn from peer-reviewed sports nutrition research. Individual needs vary, so test any fueling strategy in training before a race.