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‘I Took Up Hyrox Training at 61. Now I’m Stronger Than Ever’

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‘I Took Up Hyrox Training at 61. Now I’m Stronger Than Ever’

Now age 64, Peter Kelly took up training for global fitness race event Hyrox in 2021. Though he ran fairly regularly, he had never trained for strength before. He shares his story with Men’s Health.

I remember coming across a YouTube video of Hyrox and thinking, ‘This looks amazing.’ I googled it and saw there was going to be an event at the NEC in Birmingham in four weeks, so that’s the first one I competed in. It was just after Covid, so I did it on the back of running three times a week. I’d never done any strength training in my life before.

Ahead of that first event, I went over to CrossFit Solihull, where they let me have a go at some of the key Hyrox exercises: wall balls, sled pushes and pulls, the SkiErg. I must only have thrown about 20 balls before my first event. That was a mistake – and goodness did it hurt. I remember I was doing lunges with a 20kg sack, and I’m sure I had tears rolling down my cheeks; I was in so much pain. Then you come to the wall balls and you’ve got to get your backside lower than parallel, come up and throw the ball on to the 10ft target. That’s just one rep, and you’ve got to do 100 of these things. By the end, I was so beaten up they gave me a box to sit on to make sure my bottom was going low enough.

‘You forget about the pain and bask in the glory. You’re so proud of yourself’

But once you’ve done one race, you have to do another – and another and another. It’s addictive. When you’re doing it, you say to yourself, ‘I’m never doing one of these ever again.’ Then, 10 minutes later, you’re like, ‘How do I sign up for another?’ You forget about the pain and bask in the glory. And you’re so proud of yourself for what you’ve done.

I took early retirement in 2018, so it’s been six years now. For me, that means I can focus more on training and being competitive. I do nine training sessions a week: three strength training, four run sessions and two classes at Forders Gym in Birmingham. For the first time in my life, I have a running coach, too.

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At Forders, we have a Hyrox class on a Monday night. There are about 40 of us, and you’ve got everyone from elite athletes to guys like me. I’m the oldest in the class, but age means nothing. It’s all about having the same mindset and being there to work your socks off. Everyone’s very competitive with each other. I always think I can beat all the fast boys and even if I can’t, I still think I can. In competitions, I compete with the 60- to 64-year-old boys from around the world, and we’re just as competitive with each other as the 30- to 35-year-olds. In fact, I still feel 35 to be honest.

I only got myself on Instagram about 18 months ago, but it’s revolutionised the way I contact people. I’m speaking to guys in America (Texas, Florida and California), Germany and all the guys I’m competing against at these events. We message each other and ask how training is going. There’s real camaraderie. But when you’re on that start line for the race, you absolutely want to beat these guys. It’s friendly, but it’s fierce.

I just feel so lucky and blessed that I’m able to do this at my age. Even though I’m 64 now, I know I’m going to get stronger, and that’s the exciting thing for me.

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