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In the scratch-and-claw competition to be “the next Hyrox,” the field’s getting crowded: There’s Deka Fit, an indoor race from the creators of Spartan Race. There’s ATHX, a slightly longer Hyrox put on by Adidas. There’s METRIX, a UK-based Hyrox clone with fewer stations. And now, there’s Xenom, the “decathlon of fitness” that’s in partnership with CrossFit.
Xenom competitions last two days, across which athletes are scored on a standardized 10-pack of CrossFit-inspired disciplines: They ride on fan bikes, do handstand pushups, and clean and snatch barbells. The event’s creators hope to give everyday CrossFit enthusiasts a similar experience to what they’ve seen CF pros enjoy at the CrossFit Games—bright lights, professional photography, and a spotlight moment in a huge arena.
At the first-ever event, held at the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility last month, Brian Kent got that spotlight: The 33-year-old won the 30 to 34 age group in the “RX” category, Xenom’s name for the non-elite, regular-guy group.
“It was probably the coolest competition experience I’ve ever done,” Kent, who lives in the Dallas area, says. “The experience, vibe, setting was awesome…it is a CrossFit Games experience for your more average, good athlete that’s not elite, and not trying to do this for a living.”
Calling himself “average” is a bit of an undersell: In the competition, Kent knocked out 31 barbell cleans in eight minutes, maxed out with an 88-kilogram (194-pound) snatch, and completed 223 burpees in what he considered the toughest of the two days of events.
“It was 12 minutes of bike, ski, burpees, bike, ski burpees,” he says. In the event, competitors had to do 30 lateral burpees over a line, burn 30 calories on a ski erg, and 30 calories on a fan bike. After doing that trio of suffering three times, they could use any remaining time to do as many lateral burpees as possible. Kent had time for 163 of these bonus burpees. “That one was just how hard can you push yourself, and how hard do you want to push?”
The Five-Round, Two-Move Workout that Works Anywhere
Kent trained to do all that pushing while being a regular guy with a regular job: The father of two, a bank examiner, auditing banks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and farther afield. He does most of his training in his garage gym, with WODs and other workouts he gets from CrossFit Mayhem.
But when he’s on the road for work, as he was when he spoke with Men’s Journal, Kent needs his workouts to be fast, efficient, and doable with minimal equipment. His go-to is a five-round cardio-and-strength combo workout, alternating between running and dumbbell thrusters.
“You’re going to hit the whole body, and people really get that feeling that, ‘Oh man, I really, really did something. I got a good workout in today,’” Kent says.
The Workout
To do it, grab a pair of dumbbells and repeat these steps for five total rounds:
- After warming up, run 400 meters (or .25 miles) on the treadmill
- Move on to 15 dumbbell thrusters
How to Do Dumbbell Thrusters
- Curl the dumbbells up onto your shoulders and stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly out.
- Keep your weight in your heels and push your hips back to squat, descending until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor
- Press through your heels back to standing, and press the dumbbells overhead until your elbows are by your ears.
- Bring the dumbbells back to your shoulders and squat again.
To progress this workout, you can always use heavier weights for the thrusters. But if they’re not available, Kent says, time yourself and try to do it faster over time. Increase the speed of your runs, and go through the thrusters faster with fewer breaks (without form breaking down).
