If you’ve ever tried to get straight back into your running stride after a high-rep set of squats, sled pushes or lunges, you’ll know that having a respectable 5k time doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. Suddenly, a pace you’d normally consider comfortable feels overly ambitious, your quads are screaming and the next distance marker looks heartbreakingly far away.

Welcome to compromised running.

One of the hallmarks of Hyrox and other fitness races, it’s the art of keeping your running ticking over while your legs are still feeling the effects of the previous station. And while getting stronger and improving your running separately are both worthwhile pursuits, there’s plenty to be said for practising putting the two together.

This hybrid leg-day workout does exactly that, combining a descending ladder of running and walking lunges to build lower-body strength endurance, challenge your aerobic engine and give you plenty of opportunities to find your stride under fatigue. Better still, it requires nothing more than your bodyweight and a stretch of ground. No sled, sandbag or specialist gym membership required.

The longer runs give you time to settle into a hard but sustainable, threshold-style effort, while the lunges put your quads and glutes to work between bouts. As the distances shorten, you’ll aim to increase the pace, finishing with a short, sharp sprint.

A bigger engine and stronger wheels, all in one session.

The Protocol

Head to a track, football pitch or open field and mark out your running distances (or set yourself up on a treadmill with enough space nearby for walking lunges).

After a thorough warm-up, including easy running, a few controlled lunges and some progressively faster strides, work your way through the following ladder. Complete each run and the prescribed lunges before moving on, resting only as needed to keep your form sharp and your efforts consistent.

Keep the opening 1,200m controlled. You’re aiming for the sort of effort where you could get a few words out, but wouldn’t fancy holding a conversation. This is where the threshold element comes in: finding a hard pace you can sustain, rather than going out so aggressively that the rest of the workout becomes damage limitation.

Once the lunges start accumulating, judge your running by effort rather than stubbornly chasing your fresh-leg pace. Aim to get moving promptly after each set, find your rhythm and then build into the run. The distances get shorter, but your legs won’t be getting any fresher.

Count each lunge as one rep, alternating legs throughout. That opening set of 100 means 50 reps per side. Plenty.

The Workout

• 1,200m run
• 100 walking lunges
• 800m run
• 80 walking lunges
• 400m run
• 60 walking lunges
• 200m run
• 40 walking lunges
• 100m max-effort sprint
• 20 walking lunges

Total: 2.7km of running and 300 walking lunges.

Find more workouts like this on our HYROX training hub

With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.    

As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.   

Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.   

 You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.