Jul 1, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 12 segments
What does it really take to coach some of the world's fastest HYROX athletes? This week on Hybrid Sport Media, we sit down with endurance and hybrid performance coach Ryan Geiger, who coaches HYROX…
Ryan GeigerGuest
Bernice KellyHostJames KellyHost
yeah and as you pointed out before it can be a really difficult sport to know the right balance in terms of training it's not linear like you say um a triathlete might be i mean talk to me a little bit about those baseline tests i don't want to give out all your secrets obviously um you know i'll be telling people to just go and check out your programming and have a chat to to ryan to find out more but what's some of the baseline tests that you would suggest athletes do if they want to see where they are and then see how they can improve within their high rocks or another kind of hybrid fitness race?
And so, you know, we have essentially like three different running baseline tests.
And so, you know, kind of our two main assessments that we do are one is a very dynamic test.
This is essentially a descending ladder of essentially near maximal effort with limited rest periods in between.
and essentially what this allows us to do is understand how an athlete balances cumulative fatigue right you know when we're looking at a high rocks obviously that is the name of the game is cumulative fatigue and how somebody can repeat after prior stress and so this baseline essentially gives us perspective of that repeatability how somebody can balance the management of fatigue in regards to putting them in a position where we know there's going to be energy byproduct accumulation lactate hydrogen ions co2 is going to be accumulating And we want to know how that's going to pan out because that greatly influences how we're going to structure training moving forward.
And the other side of that, we do a baseline test that is really based around measuring cardiac drift.
You know, essentially the relationship of cardiac output between your stroke volume of your heart and the stroke rate of your heart.
This is something as you fatigue over time, the heart is a muscle and so it becomes less efficient as you stress it.
Meaning that somebody that doesn't necessarily have a more, you know, very resilient heart or, you know, what people will call like a base or a foundation, you know, will see a lot of drift in their heart rate even at submaximal efforts over longer periods of time.
And what happens to that is obviously your heart can compensate by increasing heart rate, but only to a certain extent, right? And so if somebody is in a position where we see this with a ton of like beginner high rocks athletes, right, even running eight or 10 kilometers, you you know, at like consistently at a pace that might even not be their actual like target race pace, you know, they're drifting 5, 10, 15% across that time domain, showing that by the time they get to the end of the race, their body is not going to be managing the stress very well at all.
And they're really going to have nowhere to go other than lowering their output to compensate for the direct.
And so, you know, those two main baselines, and I know I didn't give a ton of details on them, but like essentially you need to have a baseline that really measures repeatability at high intensities because that's the name of the game of high rocks.
And you need to back that up by understanding if an athlete actually has a strong aerobic foundation so that, you know, you can actually build intensity on top of it.
Because if you're drifting at submaximal efforts, there's no way to build intensity on top of that because then drift is going to be exacerbated even further.
And is that something then that you're then retesting in say, you know, 8, 12, 16 weeks time?
And so this is because obviously we want to be able to track, you know, progress and make sure that we are essentially executing to the standards.
But this also makes sure that we can reassess training zones, right? You know, essentially these baselines beyond giving us perspective on how to coach an athlete also help us establish, you are very essential for our training because, you know, essentially when we build an athlete like a running workout, right, it's not our PE, it's not like percentage of this, percentage of that, you know, we're giving them definitive numbers, you know, that they need to execute for certain, you know, distances or time domains, right? And so making sure that we establish those values and that we keep them up to date and current, somebody who's not doing training off of, you know, zones that were established four months ago is really important for us to, you know, do as coaches.
And then of course we, you know, love showing off to our athletes, like how much progress they're making, you know, because that's something, you know, from their, their perspective, that can be very important in regards to building momentum and really keeping that excitement within the training as well.
So obviously those baseline tests then kind of dictate how your athlete's program will then be designed over the next few months.
Is it something, I mean, how do you manage coaching your athletes, Ryan, in terms of are you checking in with them every week? Are you kind of updating their program as they're progressing? How do you kind of approach someone, particularly at that elite level, you know, of like, say, you know, where Calypso is at the moment?
And so through those baseline tests, as well as just kind of like, you know, results at certain events and such is we will establish like long term goals kind of in that like three to six month period.
yeah and as you pointed out before it can be a really difficult sport to know the right balance in terms of training it's not linear like you say um a triathlete might be i mean talk to me a little bit about those baseline tests i don't want to give out all your secrets obviously um you know i'll be telling people to just go and check out your programming and have a chat to to ryan to find out more but what's some of the baseline tests that you would suggest athletes do if they want to see where they are and then see how they can improve within their high rocks or another kind of hybrid fitness race?
And so, you know, we have essentially like three different running baseline tests.
And so, you know, kind of our two main assessments that we do are one is a very dynamic test.
This is essentially a descending ladder of essentially near maximal effort with limited rest periods in between.
and essentially what this allows us to do is understand how an athlete balances cumulative fatigue right you know when we're looking at a high rocks obviously that is the name of the game is cumulative fatigue and how somebody can repeat after prior stress and so this baseline essentially gives us perspective of that repeatability how somebody can balance the management of fatigue in regards to putting them in a position where we know there's going to be energy byproduct accumulation lactate hydrogen ions co2 is going to be accumulating And we want to know how that's going to pan out because that greatly influences how we're going to structure training moving forward.
And the other side of that, we do a baseline test that is really based around measuring cardiac drift.
You know, essentially the relationship of cardiac output between your stroke volume of your heart and the stroke rate of your heart.
This is something as you fatigue over time, the heart is a muscle and so it becomes less efficient as you stress it.
Meaning that somebody that doesn't necessarily have a more, you know, very resilient heart or, you know, what people will call like a base or a foundation, you know, will see a lot of drift in their heart rate even at submaximal efforts over longer periods of time.
And what happens to that is obviously your heart can compensate by increasing heart rate, but only to a certain extent, right? And so if somebody is in a position where we see this with a ton of like beginner high rocks athletes, right, even running eight or 10 kilometers, you you know, at like consistently at a pace that might even not be their actual like target race pace, you know, they're drifting 5, 10, 15% across that time domain, showing that by the time they get to the end of the race, their body is not going to be managing the stress very well at all.
And they're really going to have nowhere to go other than lowering their output to compensate for the direct.
And so, you know, those two main baselines, and I know I didn't give a ton of details on them, but like essentially you need to have a baseline that really measures repeatability at high intensities because that's the name of the game of high rocks.
And you need to back that up by understanding if an athlete actually has a strong aerobic foundation so that, you know, you can actually build intensity on top of it.
Because if you're drifting at submaximal efforts, there's no way to build intensity on top of that because then drift is going to be exacerbated even further.
And is that something then that you're then retesting in say, you know, 8, 12, 16 weeks time?
And so this is because obviously we want to be able to track, you know, progress and make sure that we are essentially executing to the standards.
But this also makes sure that we can reassess training zones, right? You know, essentially these baselines beyond giving us perspective on how to coach an athlete also help us establish, you are very essential for our training because, you know, essentially when we build an athlete like a running workout, right, it's not our PE, it's not like percentage of this, percentage of that, you know, we're giving them definitive numbers, you know, that they need to execute for certain, you know, distances or time domains, right? And so making sure that we establish those values and that we keep them up to date and current, somebody who's not doing training off of, you know, zones that were established four months ago is really important for us to, you know, do as coaches.
And then of course we, you know, love showing off to our athletes, like how much progress they're making, you know, because that's something, you know, from their, their perspective, that can be very important in regards to building momentum and really keeping that excitement within the training as well.
So obviously those baseline tests then kind of dictate how your athlete's program will then be designed over the next few months.
Is it something, I mean, how do you manage coaching your athletes, Ryan, in terms of are you checking in with them every week? Are you kind of updating their program as they're progressing? How do you kind of approach someone, particularly at that elite level, you know, of like, say, you know, where Calypso is at the moment?
And so through those baseline tests, as well as just kind of like, you know, results at certain events and such is we will establish like long term goals kind of in that like three to six month period.
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