Optimal Body Weight, Sled Technique & Chasing a Sub-50 HYROX with Dexter Buchanan | ENDUROX Podcast Ep. 5
THE ENDUROX PODCASTShow Notes
Dan Plews and Adam Storey sit down with Dexter "Big Dex" Buchanan, the top HYROX athlete in New Zealand and one of the best in Australasia. Fresh off a 10th-place finish at the World Championships in Stockholm, Dex breaks down how a rugby league background shaped him into a station specialist, and what it will take to reach the very top of the sport.
The conversation digs into one of the biggest questions in HYROX right now: how much does body weight matter? Dex sits around 90kg while the top runners hover in the low 80s. The guys unpack why chasing a number on the scale is the wrong approach, and why letting training volume drive body composition tends to take care of itself.
From there it gets practical. Dex shares his exact cues for the sled push and sled pull, why he switched to holding the rope instead of the drop method, how he built his wall balls to unbroken, and where strength training fits when running is the priority. Dan and Adam also get into the science: anaerobic reconstitution during the runs, lactate profiling, LT1 versus LT2, and why a flat lactate curve might matter more than a high threshold for HYROX.
Whether you are new to hybrid racing or chasing the Elite 15, this one is packed with takeaways you can use.
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ENDUROX Podcast Ep. 8: Show Notes & Chapters
Dan Plews and Adam Storey sit down with Elite 15 athlete Pelayo Menéndez, one of the most consistent racers in HYROX with 23 podiums from 28 races, a 55:12 singles PB, and a former doubles world record (48:31, set in Miami 2025) alongside Rich Ryan. Pelayo talks through his comeback from a serious Achilles injury, his current 22 to 25 hour training weeks, and the three things he is prioritising right now: running economy, max strength and aerobic volume on the bike.
Want to know what actually drives your HYROX time?
Dan and Adam reconnect after Adam's trip to the HYROX World Championships in Stockholm, where he was over with the HYROX Sports Science Advisory Council. They get into the NZ Muscle scandal and what it says about trusting your sports nutrition, the growing peptide and TRT conversation in the sport, and why HYROX is almost built for heat exhaustion. From there it turns into a full World Champs debrief: the men's race and the sled push that cooked Hunter, the lane-choice chaos, Alyssa's standout women's win, and Pelayo's comeback to the podium after an Achilles that was hanging on by a thread. They finish on where the sport is heading, why volume wins, HYROX Young Stars for kids, and the new Endurox Intelligence System.
Join Dr. Dan Plews, Dr. Adam Storey, and guest Sam Purchase in Episode 3 of The ENDUROX Podcast. In this episode, they break down force-velocity profiling — what it is, how to measure it without a lab, and how to use it to identify and fix the exact qualities holding back your HYROX performance. They also recap the Enhanced Games and why the whole thing was a bit of a flop.