Beau Wills has become one of HYROX’s most consistent and respected elite competitors. Across five seasons, Beau has competed in 37 HYROX events spanning eight divisions, establishing himself as a force both individually and in doubles competition. Whether racing solo in the Elite Men division or alongside some of the sport’s top athletes, his performances have repeatedly placed him among the world’s best.
He has won Pro Men titles across Europe, stood on podiums at major international events, and developed a reputation as one of HYROX’s premier doubles racers. Partnerships with athletes such as Eugenio Bianchi, Jon Wynn, and Gil Nicola have produced some of the fastest doubles times in the sport, including a remarkable 50:29 finish in Paris and a 51:02 performance at the 2025 HYROX World Championships.
At the same time, Beau has consistently delivered elite solo performances, highlighted by victories in Frankfurt and St. Gallen and multiple top-10 finishes against the deepest fields in HYROX racing.
From early podium finishes in 2022 to breaking into the global elite by 2025 and 2026. Calm under pressure and relentlessly competitive, Wills has become a standout HYROX athlete on the world stage.
His CrossFit Background
Before he moved into HYROX, Beau was heavily involved in CrossFit.
Born in New Zealand, he studied in the USA, then started training CrossFit right out of college. He coached CrossFit full-time and trained at the same volume as the top CrossFit athletes of the time. All in all, he completed around seven or eight years of full-time CrossFit coaching and CrossFit training before moving into HYROX.
I spoke will him recently to discover how he turns this cumulative athletic experience and knowledge into an advantage for HYROX. These tips will help you do the same.
What Did Beau Wills Learn from CrossFit?
CrossFit develops the ability to perform different movements at high intensity, under extremely fatigued conditions. This is essential for HYROX as well, as you must constantly switch between running and workout stations whilst minimizing fatigue levels.
“First of all for me, coming from many years of CrossFit training, I recognized my strengths for HYROX were the ability to suffer and tolerate high levels of lactate. In CrossFit we constantly switch movement patterns and modalities within a workout which trains your ability to pump blood to a certain muscle group, then quickly change to another, all whilst maintaining a high power output. My efficiency through functional movements was already at a really high level and my strength endurance through many different movement patterns was really well trained.”
Beau also understood that his CrossFit background had given him an excellent base of functional strength.
“My top end strength and power was already close to my potential so I only have to focus on maintenance in that area which requires a lot less focus and volume which saves a lot more time and energy to push up my aerobic system.”
6 Tips from Beau for CrossFit Athletes Participating in HYROX
Beau recommended that athletes with a CrossFit background pay particular attention to the following points.
- Structure your training on energy systems and total volume when putting together your program.
- Slowly and carefully build your running up, running has a high injury risk and this will be your biggest enemy
- Use a variety of cardio machines to supplement your conditioning training to help safely build volume.
- Don’t neglect your strength and CrossFit abilities, keep some of these methods of training in your schedule to maintain these skills and balanced fitness.
- EAT!
- Use data to help track progress, what works for you, be adaptable.
Beau advises to carefully build up the running volume for athletes with a CrossFit background. As he mentions, this is an aspect of fitness that can easily result in injury. He stresses the advantages of building conditioning using cardio machines to supplement conditioning volume, and to eat accordingly to maximize performance across all training and competitive events.
He also focuses on maintaining movement patterns and more CrossFit specific skills, within a balanced sense of general functional fitness.
Try His Erg Test “DRIATHLON”
Give this a go.
“Usually I use HYROX races as my ‘fitness test’ every few months but due to getting a knee surgery next week I wanted to pick a few workouts to attack as pre surgery benchmarks. For test number 1 I’ve chosen an erg conditioning test called DRIATHLON”
For max calories:
20 minute ski erg
2 minute rest
20 minute bike erg
2 minute rest
20 minute row erg
My score: 1342 calories
Ski pace: 1:46.5
Bike pace: 1:42.9
Row pace: 1:44.7
I wanted to see if I could hold my typical threshold interval paces across all the machines, although I never do threshold workouts on the bike so I had to guess a bit there. For the ski and row I was able to hold it…No matter your situation there’s always something you can focus on and get better at. Next week will look very different for me but I’ll find something.”
Learn More from Beau
Follow him on insta, check out Tahi CrossFit, and sign up to his training program, Tahi Hybrid Training, if you are serious about levelling up your performance and want to learn from one of the best in the world.
