Gym-goer Sarah O’Byrne started running two months ago only because a fellow member talked her into entering a hybrid fitness event in Dublin this summer.

“I signed up without looking at what was involved,” she says of Tryka, a relatively new, “made in Ireland” alternative to the phenomenally successful Hyrox international fitness race series. On closer inspection, she thought “there’s a lot of running” for somebody who hadn’t run before.

Yet, part of Tryka’s appeal to recreational fitness enthusiasts is that the 500m runs for most categories are only half the distance of those often in Hyrox. The overall format is similar, a run alternating with a functional workout – eg rower, bike, sled push and pull, and eight in total.

There is nothing new about hybrid training, which combines strength and cardio exercises, but packaging routines into competitive events has greatly broadened its appeal over the past 25 years. CrossFit, which was founded in 2000, could be considered the pioneer in popular tests of endurance and strength.

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Having signed up two months ago for Tryka’s July event, O’Byrne (44) says it “definitely pushed me to the next level of training harder, and I started running for the first time”, adding: “I would never have done that without an event to do.” But she found running easier than she expected and the week we talk is planning her debut at a 5k parkrun.

O’Byrne works out at DBK Fitness in Glasthule, Co Dublin, a small group personal training gym. The first time she walked in the door nearly four years ago, she started with individual coaching because she was too nervous to join a group.

“I was very unfit. I just thought, I’m going to be bigger than everyone else.”

About four months later she braved her first class and found it was not “competitive and posey”, as she had feared. Since then, gym classes have become “a massive part of my routine”, she says. So much so that after she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in January 2024, among her first thoughts was dismay that treatment would interrupt her gym-going. After two surgeries and radiotherapy she resumed training in September of that year.

The name Tryka 'comes from building the concept around the trier, not the winner'. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

“I felt like I was starting again but it’s been really great. I am definitely fitter than I was,” says O’Byrne, who has lost 25.4kg (4st) in the past year. A clinical psychologist and mother of two, she does gym sessions five times a week before going to work at the nearby Treehouse Practice, and also two weekly runs, in preparation for the women’s doubles in Tryka’s 500 division at the RDS on July 3rd-5th.

This is the most popular category, says Trkya founder Brian Lee, a Dubliner who co-founded the healthy food and salad chain Chopped in 2012, which was bought by a private-equity firm in 2024. He competed at pro level in Hyrox for a number of years and saw a gap in the market for community events that he says would have less of a “men’s tops off” vibe and be less intimidating to more casual fitness participants.

Tryka: Participants at an event at The Stables Fitness and Wellbeing. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Tryka: Participants at an event at The Stables Fitness and Wellbeing. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Brian Lee is Tryka's founder

The name comes from building the concept around “the trier, not the winner”. The winning, as far as he is concerned, is in the showing up to give it a go. The “ka” was tacked on for a spiritual dimension – “peace and harmony”.

Lee’s wife Sinead works with him in the business as director of sports performance. They want to cater for all types of people with an interest in fitness, from “someone who’s just getting off the couch” to “seasoned veterans”. A father of two children aged six and nine, he has the 5k and mini-marathon constituency in his sights. Women currently make up 65-70 per cent of Tryka entrants.

The Lees are expecting 20,000 people through the doors next month for their fourth event, between spectators and 9,500 participants, which is more than double the entry number for the opening event last October.

“I think most people can give Tryka a go,” says Kieran Butler, a coach at DBK Fitness, who says he feels Hyrox is more “niche”. But he believes there is space for both, particularly considering how difficult it can be to secure tickets for the latter’s events and the travel involved for most of them.

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“When you set a goal like completing a fitness event, it does add that bit more accountability for each person,” says Butler, who will participate in Tryka next month for the first time, along with 20 of the gym’s members, all making their debut too. As children, we push ourselves into sport, in competitive environments such as school, but tend to shy away from that as we get older, he suggests.

“I think it’s incredibly rewarding when you delve back into that competitive environment. You set yourself the challenge of competing a fitness event and the feeling that comes with accomplishing that is really why these events are so successful.”

Anna and Patrick Syme of The Stables Fitness and Wellbeing in Gorey. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Tryka operates a league for both gyms and workplaces, with everybody racking up points by participating, but the better the performance, the more points gained. Top of the league after three events is The Stables Fitness and Wellbeing in Gorey, Co Wexford. Having been “Hyroxing like mad for the last few years, we were very familiar with the hybrid fitness training regime”, says Patrick Syme, who runs the fitness centre based on a family farm with his wife Anna. This latest gamification version appeals to a lot of their clients because of its entry-level nature and easy access to events in Dublin, rather than mostly having to travel overseas.

“One of the things that we’ve definitely noticed about hybrid fitness games, fitness events, over the years is the community that it builds,” says Syme, who likes how every member can contribute to Tryka’s point system. While they do not have as big a membership as some of the gyms in Dublin, “a lot of our members have done really very well in it”.

With around 80-100 from The Stables competing in each event, some are even volunteering to compete in two or three different categories, to maximise points. A number have already booked for the first grand final, which is a flight away – in Lisbon, on October 10th – before series two starts in Dublin at the end of that month. Meanwhile, Tryka has its first London event in September, with Birmingham lined up for next year.

Patrick and Anna Syme, who will be competing in the Hyrox world championships in Stockholm, June 18th-21st, welcome Tryka’s addition of a family category. They were able to participate with their sons Olly (14) and Harry (12) at the February event. “It’s great craic and a lovely angle.”

Tryka at The Stables Fitness and Wellbeing. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Tryka at The Stables Fitness and Wellbeing. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Making them sound like real contenders for “Ireland’s fittest family”, their daughter Isabele (10) competed in the first Hyrox Youngsters (eight-15 years) event in Amsterdam in January.

Hyrox didn’t do anything new in using skiers, rowers and sleds, says Syme, but it created an event and a race for gym-goers to train towards. Whether they opt for Hyrox or Trkya, or both, “it gives them an incentive”. The Stables has run three “simulated” Tryka events; 170 people entered the latest one earlier this month.

Everything in these events is “doable”, Syme says. “The crux of it comes down to how quick you do it.” Whether members are looking to do Hyrox or Tryka, training classes are much the same and many of their clients say they have never been so fit in their life.

If you’re training for a marathon, “you’re just a runner, you’re not necessarily strong”, he adds. The Stables runs its own hybrid fitness event once a year, the Epic Games, and will have 84 teams of four competing in it on August 29th.

Josh Percival, co-founder with rugby international Andrew Porter of the Three State personal training gym in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, sees different hybrid fitness brands giving a “huge culture push” to a way of training that has been around for years.

“We know that strength training is super important for our long-term health; we also know that cardiovascular exercise is very important for our long-term health. And it does combine the two together.”

Meanwhile people are changing how they spend their leisure time – less in the pub, more in active groups and saunas, he suggests. “There’s way more run clubs; even this morning, we had 30 or 40 people in ours.”

Percival has not tried Tryka but has been considering encouraging members to give it a go. He likes the inclusive approach, which is in keeping with Three State’s ethos, and believes the demand for such events is just going to grow and grow.

In a world that’s “getting more and more techie”, he adds, people increasingly want to do exercise “and in a group environment, because you get to actually meet people”.

A Hyrox competition in Cologne, Germany, in April. Photograph: Ying Tang/NurPhoto/Getty

Hybrid fitness: what is it?

“Hybrid” fitness is a trendy name for combining strength and cardio exercises. It has surged in popularity, with the evolution of mass-participation races and events being both a cause and effect. Here’s a snapshot of some options:

• CrossFit – Former gymnast US Greg Glassman devised this training system of high-intensity interval training that includes weightlifting and gymnastic exercises. CrossFit Inc was founded in 2000 and, from one gym in California, became a global franchise involving 12,000 fitness centres in 140 countries. But it is for hard-core fitness fans, with elements beyond the abilities of more casual gym-goers. A controversial figure, Glassman sold the company in 2020, after a tweet relating to George Floyd.
• Hyrox – Launched in Germany in 2017, this combination of a 1km run alternating with a functional workout station, repeated eight times, brought mass fitness racing to a new level. With no finishing time restrictions or entry qualifications, the emphasis is on participation. Its next Dublin event is in the RDS on November 11th-15th.
• Tryka – Shorter runs, alternating with eight functional exercises, is the format that Irish entrepreneur Brian Lee devised with community rather than competition to the fore.
• Athx – A two-and-a-half-hour continuous fitness competition in six segments encompassing tests of strength, endurance and functional fitness exercises, along with inbuilt rest and recovery periods. Founded in the UK in 2023, Athx ran an event in Dublin in May.
• UBX – A mix of boxing and strength training across a 12-round circuit in under 45 minutes. Cofounded in Australia in 2016 by former world champion boxer Danny Green and Tim West, a fitness and tech entrepreneur, it aims to “give everyone the opportunity to train like a boxer”. There is at least one registered gym in Ireland, in Stepaside, Co Dublin.
• Battle Cancer – An international hybrid exercise event series designed to help people raise money for registered charities, although entrants do not have to fundraise. Different categories aim to accommodate participants of all abilities, whether they are new to fitness, a cancer survivor or experienced athlete. Nine movements from a list of a possible 12 are selected for each event. It will be back in Dublin at the RDS on March 20th, 2027, but before that will run in Northern Ireland, at the Eikon Exhibition Centre near Lisburn, on August 16th
• Turf Games – A team challenge series that started in London in 2018 and has since spread internationally, with events in Australia, Dubai, Singapore and Ireland. They hosted Dublin Fittest in the City in July last year.
• Styrekx – A hybrid fitness race that debuted in Amsterdam last November, it combines 10 exercise stations with 800m or 400m runs. There are events in Belgium and the Netherlands this autumn.