January 31, 2026 • 11 mins
The BYD Auckland Hyrox competition has kicked off for another year.
The race combines eight 1km bouts of running and eight workout stations, with more Kiwis getting into the race,
Hyrox ambassador Abbas Nazari joined Piney to explain further.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
E twenty six. This rapidly growing global indoor fitness competition
founded in twenty seventeen. It combines eight kilometers of running
with eight workout stations. Participants run one kilometer followed by
one workout station, repeating that eight times. Participation has nearly
doubled since at debut in New Zealand last year, rising
(00:33):
from six thousand to nearly eleven thousand athletes this time around.
The event's been taking place these last four days at
the Auckland show Grounds. A bus Nazzari is a body
fit training jim owner in Wellington and High Rocks ambassador,
also a coach, best selling author and public speaker. He's
competed in a number of High Rocks Pro events and
(00:55):
he joins US now us. Thanks for joining us, mat,
I want to get a run down of the format
in a moment. But why has this sport grown in
popularity so quickly?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
After in Fine? Thanks so much for having mate. Look,
I'm here on day four of High Rocks Auckland and
I can kind of see two main reasons why it's
grown so much one, there's a real nice sensor community
here at the events. You know, if it's your first one,
you would just grab your gym mates and be like,
hey mate, we're going to do this as a doubles
or we're going to do this as a relay. And secondly,
(01:26):
it's super accessible. I think in this day and age especially,
people are super mindful of their health and wellness, and
you know, they want to train for a goal. They
might have a running goal or a strength training goal
in the sport itself. Even though on paper it sounds
like a lot, it's actually very very accessible.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So the attraction I guess from a from a wider
point of view is that any age, any fitness level
can take part. It is the accessibility across a wide
spectrum of people that would be an attraction for a
lot of people.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, one percent, that's the key thing. Other fitness events,
you know, might do two people just because maybe there's
a high barrier entry, maybe there's a higher skill level
required and whatnot. Whereas high rocks. If you look around
the arena right now, you'll see bodies of all shapes
and sizes and ages, and there's something for everyone. Like
for example, you know I compete in the solo pro division,
(02:21):
which means I'm doing the whole thing by myself with
heavier weights. But if it's someone's first time, they might
enter in the doubles open where they're basically harving to
work with a teammate and they're using lighter open weights.
And you also could do it as a relay as well.
You can do it mixed doubles, you can do the
same sex doubles whatever, So there is really something for everybody.
(02:43):
And then you can also compare yourself if you are
competitive against other people in your age bracket. So I'm
only competing against other thirty to thirty five year old
males and so on and so forth, right, So it's
really kind of, you know, really opened up for everybody.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Absolutely love that man. So there are eight workout stations,
eight standardized workout STAFA. So you run a k, then
you do one of these workout stations. So what are they?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah? Correct, So you start off, do your first one
k and then you come into a thousand meters on
the ski erg. Now there's a machine in most gyms,
all right, if you're familiar with it, you know it is.
If you're not, maybe head down to your local BFT
and you'll figure out. Then you do another one k
run straight into a sled push. All right, so again
the weights are different depending on which category you're in.
(03:31):
Then in a sled pool, again different weights. If you need,
you do the Burfie broad jumps, and then a thousand
meters on the rower. You do a farmer's carry, so
two kettlebells in your hand. The weights are different for everybody.
You do some sand bag lunges, so a ten, twenty
or thirty kilo sandbag over the shoulder, and then everyone
(03:51):
finishes with one hundred reps of the wall balls, which
is personally my favorite station.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I could say, without fear of contradiction, that the Burpies
would be the least popular of the eight. Perhaps that.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You and me are on the same page made The
Burpies are definitely not my favorite over so I struggle
on now one. But and it's right at the halfway point.
So that's how I kind of treat myself. I said,
get over the Burpies. That's the halfway mark, and then
the the other four stations after that, I'm happy.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
With love it. Do you find that people get into it?
And then they really get into it. You know, they think, hey,
this is first of all, it's making me feel good.
I feel good, it's good for my well being. But
they want to beat their time, they want to beat
others in their age group. They want to make it
a bit competitive.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I think it just from I
guess a consumer perspective. It's so measurable. It's like running
a marathon or a half marathon. You're like, my half
marathon time is this, and you want to train and
do better next time, and you want to bring that
time down and get faster and so on. It's exactly
the same with high rocks. You come in, you do
your first one, and you say, oh, you know, I've
(04:57):
got seventy minutes in my first open race. The next
time you do it, I'm going to train to try
and grab sixty five minutes or whatever your target might be.
The sport and the weights and that never change. It's
the same structure every time, so you know exactly what
you're getting yourself into. So it's just about getting better,
more efficient that you're running, getting better technique, and so
(05:19):
on and so forth. So I would say out of
many sports, this one has to have probably one of
the highest I guess retention rates. You know, people who
do one, they immediately sign up for the next one
and the next one. And I think that's why, like
you mentioned before, you know, going from six thousand to
eleven thousand in the space of a year here in Auckland.
You know, it's saying something.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Absolutely it is. So when you're in the competitive side
of it, a bus, do you are the others in
your division competing at the same time or do you
So it's like a race, you can see if you're
behind a rehead or are you just going out there
setting a time?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, for sure. So at the competitive end, basically you
might let's say this weekend in Auckland, we might have
had I don't know, one hundred and fifty men compete
in the solo pro division and they might have been
released out in waves or heats or forty at a
time ten minutes apart. So everyone's got their own timing
(06:16):
chip and basically you know you're competing for time. But
once you've crossed the finish line, you wait until everyone's
done and then you can kind of see how everybody did.
And the data is super accessible. You can see immediately
online which stations you did well, what your average run was,
which stations maybe you got pipped on, and so on
so forth, And that's something as a data geek myself,
(06:39):
that's something I love because after a race I can
do a little bit of a post mortem analysis and
be like, Okay, I lost time here, I made up here,
this is where someone else overtook me, and so on,
and you then it then informs your training for the
next block to be like, well, if I'm losing time
on the rowwork, then maybe I need to work on that.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
You know, how different are you are your eight separate
one kilometer runs? Do you find you go quicker at
the start, quicker at the e does vary?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That's a really good question, man, And I think I
do a lot of high rocks coaching at my BFT
gyms in Wellington and one of the golden rules that
we always give out to our members is start conservative.
Start more conservative than you think you need because if
you go out hot and you sprint out and finish
that first run, you're going to pay the price for
(07:29):
it later. So we always coach our members to just
be a bit conservative and as people fade away, you
actually become stronger and stronger, and you end up overtaking
all of those people that might have looked like they
were winning in the first ten minutes of the race.
Now they've started to fade away. So at the competitive
end at the pro division, these people, obviously, you know
(07:50):
that come from endurance backgrounds. A lot of triathletes, a
lot of runers, a lot of marathons have come and
they know how to pace themselves. And I'd say a
really competitive pro level solo racer know exactly what paces
they need to hit and most importantly, how to continue
holding that pace even though their legs might be feel
(08:10):
like jelly after pushing us at two hundred kilo sled.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, indeed, how big is the sport globally and
how quickly is it growing? Is is it similar to
what we're seeing here in New Zealand?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Oh one hundred percent. I've been in the sport for
this is my third season now, I've been to two
World champs and I'm going to the third one in
Sweden next year, and every time I go it just
gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And the numbers I've
seen is that since twenty seventeen till now. I think
they've said they've had just over a million races in
that time globally, and that's taken them, you know, eight
(08:44):
nine years to get there, and they're looking to double
that just in the next year to two million, which
is insane, right, competitions just there's more and more race cities,
host cities globally. You know, it might have been who
knows ten or twelve in the first year to pretty
much won every weekend now globally around the world. So
(09:05):
now you're starting to see these things called high Rocks holidays.
And I'm a big victim of this where you know,
on my honeymoon, for example, last year, we went to Japan.
I could you know. I went to Japan for my
honeymoon last year and then I told my wife, I said, baby,
if we book our flights via Hong Kong, I could
do High Rocks Hong Kong and then we can fly
back to New Zealand. So they are. It's it's truly global,
(09:28):
and I don't see it stopping anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
You're so romantic, mate, You're so romantic. I know a couple.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Couple of the high Rocks together stay together.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
For I have that mate, I'm sure that's true. Even
just listening to you, you know, I know our listeners
will be inspired if they want to find out more.
Is the easiest way to get into this, just find
a body fit training gym in the area.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Personally, I think people are seeing it on their social
media and they think, oh, I can go do that.
But my number one tip is go to your local gym,
go to your local BFT and who are all you
know high Rocks affiliated and coaching staff are all coached
and world versed in high rocks, and really learn the
practical techniques of how to run a high rock. It's
(10:14):
not just about running, it's about knowing the rules, applying
the movement standards, and also how to pace yourself and
how to win every station and so on. So definitely,
And look, I don't know when the next New Zealand races,
but I'm I'm hoping I can see you lining up
in their start tunnel. Fine here, what about that?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, I don't know, bus. I mean, I'm in Wellington,
which I know you've got You've got gyms and Wellington,
haven't you. So maybe we should get together initially for
a conversation and see where it takes us.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
What do you think I'd love that, mate, I'd love that. Yeah.
So look, i'd say for listeners listening today or like
what is this, they'll probably go on Google that we're
go on Instagram and have a look. Please don't be
intimidated by when they see these. And you know, there's
a little running joke that it's you know, there's no
tops available here because all the guys take their tops off.
(10:59):
Don't be put off by that. It's actually really really accessible.
So yeah, I'll say head down to your local gym,
star training and I'm really looking forward to you know,
like I've got my next race lined up in Brisbane
in April, and it just keeps me and my members
really motivated to try and get better and better every time.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It's all man a bus. I've love chatting to you mate,
hope to meet you one day soon. Thanks for taking
the time for a chat this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Thanks many, Jason really appreciate it, mate, but all the best.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Mate, Bye bye a bas Nazzari their high Rocks ambassador
want a man I feel inspired just listening to them.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to news Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
E twenty six. This rapidly growing global indoor fitness competition
founded in twenty seventeen. It combines eight kilometers of running
with eight workout stations. Participants run one kilometer followed by
one workout station, repeating that eight times. Participation has nearly
doubled since at debut in New Zealand last year, rising
(00:33):
from six thousand to nearly eleven thousand athletes this time around.
The event's been taking place these last four days at
the Auckland show Grounds. A bus Nazzari is a body
fit training jim owner in Wellington and High Rocks ambassador,
also a coach, best selling author and public speaker. He's
competed in a number of High Rocks Pro events and
(00:55):
he joins US now us. Thanks for joining us, mat,
I want to get a run down of the format
in a moment. But why has this sport grown in
popularity so quickly?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
After in Fine? Thanks so much for having mate. Look,
I'm here on day four of High Rocks Auckland and
I can kind of see two main reasons why it's
grown so much one, there's a real nice sensor community
here at the events. You know, if it's your first one,
you would just grab your gym mates and be like,
hey mate, we're going to do this as a doubles
or we're going to do this as a relay. And secondly,
(01:26):
it's super accessible. I think in this day and age especially,
people are super mindful of their health and wellness, and
you know, they want to train for a goal. They
might have a running goal or a strength training goal
in the sport itself. Even though on paper it sounds
like a lot, it's actually very very accessible.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So the attraction I guess from a from a wider
point of view is that any age, any fitness level
can take part. It is the accessibility across a wide
spectrum of people that would be an attraction for a
lot of people.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, one percent, that's the key thing. Other fitness events,
you know, might do two people just because maybe there's
a high barrier entry, maybe there's a higher skill level
required and whatnot. Whereas high rocks. If you look around
the arena right now, you'll see bodies of all shapes
and sizes and ages, and there's something for everyone. Like
for example, you know I compete in the solo pro division,
(02:21):
which means I'm doing the whole thing by myself with
heavier weights. But if it's someone's first time, they might
enter in the doubles open where they're basically harving to
work with a teammate and they're using lighter open weights.
And you also could do it as a relay as well.
You can do it mixed doubles, you can do the
same sex doubles whatever, So there is really something for everybody.
(02:43):
And then you can also compare yourself if you are
competitive against other people in your age bracket. So I'm
only competing against other thirty to thirty five year old
males and so on and so forth, right, So it's
really kind of, you know, really opened up for everybody.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Absolutely love that man. So there are eight workout stations,
eight standardized workout STAFA. So you run a k, then
you do one of these workout stations. So what are they?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah? Correct, So you start off, do your first one
k and then you come into a thousand meters on
the ski erg. Now there's a machine in most gyms,
all right, if you're familiar with it, you know it is.
If you're not, maybe head down to your local BFT
and you'll figure out. Then you do another one k
run straight into a sled push. All right, so again
the weights are different depending on which category you're in.
(03:31):
Then in a sled pool, again different weights. If you need,
you do the Burfie broad jumps, and then a thousand
meters on the rower. You do a farmer's carry, so
two kettlebells in your hand. The weights are different for everybody.
You do some sand bag lunges, so a ten, twenty
or thirty kilo sandbag over the shoulder, and then everyone
(03:51):
finishes with one hundred reps of the wall balls, which
is personally my favorite station.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I could say, without fear of contradiction, that the Burpies
would be the least popular of the eight. Perhaps that.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You and me are on the same page made The
Burpies are definitely not my favorite over so I struggle
on now one. But and it's right at the halfway point.
So that's how I kind of treat myself. I said,
get over the Burpies. That's the halfway mark, and then
the the other four stations after that, I'm happy.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
With love it. Do you find that people get into it?
And then they really get into it. You know, they think, hey,
this is first of all, it's making me feel good.
I feel good, it's good for my well being. But
they want to beat their time, they want to beat
others in their age group. They want to make it
a bit competitive.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I think it just from I
guess a consumer perspective. It's so measurable. It's like running
a marathon or a half marathon. You're like, my half
marathon time is this, and you want to train and
do better next time, and you want to bring that
time down and get faster and so on. It's exactly
the same with high rocks. You come in, you do
your first one, and you say, oh, you know, I've
(04:57):
got seventy minutes in my first open race. The next
time you do it, I'm going to train to try
and grab sixty five minutes or whatever your target might be.
The sport and the weights and that never change. It's
the same structure every time, so you know exactly what
you're getting yourself into. So it's just about getting better,
more efficient that you're running, getting better technique, and so
(05:19):
on and so forth. So I would say out of
many sports, this one has to have probably one of
the highest I guess retention rates. You know, people who
do one, they immediately sign up for the next one
and the next one. And I think that's why, like
you mentioned before, you know, going from six thousand to
eleven thousand in the space of a year here in Auckland.
You know, it's saying something.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Absolutely it is. So when you're in the competitive side
of it, a bus, do you are the others in
your division competing at the same time or do you
So it's like a race, you can see if you're
behind a rehead or are you just going out there
setting a time?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, for sure. So at the competitive end, basically you
might let's say this weekend in Auckland, we might have
had I don't know, one hundred and fifty men compete
in the solo pro division and they might have been
released out in waves or heats or forty at a
time ten minutes apart. So everyone's got their own timing
(06:16):
chip and basically you know you're competing for time. But
once you've crossed the finish line, you wait until everyone's
done and then you can kind of see how everybody did.
And the data is super accessible. You can see immediately
online which stations you did well, what your average run was,
which stations maybe you got pipped on, and so on
so forth, And that's something as a data geek myself,
(06:39):
that's something I love because after a race I can
do a little bit of a post mortem analysis and
be like, Okay, I lost time here, I made up here,
this is where someone else overtook me, and so on,
and you then it then informs your training for the
next block to be like, well, if I'm losing time
on the rowwork, then maybe I need to work on that.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
You know, how different are you are your eight separate
one kilometer runs? Do you find you go quicker at
the start, quicker at the e does vary?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
That's a really good question, man, And I think I
do a lot of high rocks coaching at my BFT
gyms in Wellington and one of the golden rules that
we always give out to our members is start conservative.
Start more conservative than you think you need because if
you go out hot and you sprint out and finish
that first run, you're going to pay the price for
(07:29):
it later. So we always coach our members to just
be a bit conservative and as people fade away, you
actually become stronger and stronger, and you end up overtaking
all of those people that might have looked like they
were winning in the first ten minutes of the race.
Now they've started to fade away. So at the competitive
end at the pro division, these people, obviously, you know
(07:50):
that come from endurance backgrounds. A lot of triathletes, a
lot of runers, a lot of marathons have come and
they know how to pace themselves. And I'd say a
really competitive pro level solo racer know exactly what paces
they need to hit and most importantly, how to continue
holding that pace even though their legs might be feel
(08:10):
like jelly after pushing us at two hundred kilo sled.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, indeed, how big is the sport globally and
how quickly is it growing? Is is it similar to
what we're seeing here in New Zealand?
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Oh one hundred percent. I've been in the sport for
this is my third season now, I've been to two
World champs and I'm going to the third one in
Sweden next year, and every time I go it just
gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And the numbers I've
seen is that since twenty seventeen till now. I think
they've said they've had just over a million races in
that time globally, and that's taken them, you know, eight
(08:44):
nine years to get there, and they're looking to double
that just in the next year to two million, which
is insane, right, competitions just there's more and more race cities,
host cities globally. You know, it might have been who
knows ten or twelve in the first year to pretty
much won every weekend now globally around the world. So
(09:05):
now you're starting to see these things called high Rocks holidays.
And I'm a big victim of this where you know,
on my honeymoon, for example, last year, we went to Japan.
I could you know. I went to Japan for my
honeymoon last year and then I told my wife, I said, baby,
if we book our flights via Hong Kong, I could
do High Rocks Hong Kong and then we can fly
back to New Zealand. So they are. It's it's truly global,
(09:28):
and I don't see it stopping anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
You're so romantic, mate, You're so romantic. I know a couple.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Couple of the high Rocks together stay together.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
For I have that mate, I'm sure that's true. Even
just listening to you, you know, I know our listeners
will be inspired if they want to find out more.
Is the easiest way to get into this, just find
a body fit training gym in the area.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Personally, I think people are seeing it on their social
media and they think, oh, I can go do that.
But my number one tip is go to your local gym,
go to your local BFT and who are all you
know high Rocks affiliated and coaching staff are all coached
and world versed in high rocks, and really learn the
practical techniques of how to run a high rock. It's
(10:14):
not just about running, it's about knowing the rules, applying
the movement standards, and also how to pace yourself and
how to win every station and so on. So definitely,
And look, I don't know when the next New Zealand races,
but I'm I'm hoping I can see you lining up
in their start tunnel. Fine here, what about that?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, I don't know, bus. I mean, I'm in Wellington,
which I know you've got You've got gyms and Wellington,
haven't you. So maybe we should get together initially for
a conversation and see where it takes us.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
What do you think I'd love that, mate, I'd love that. Yeah.
So look, i'd say for listeners listening today or like
what is this, they'll probably go on Google that we're
go on Instagram and have a look. Please don't be
intimidated by when they see these. And you know, there's
a little running joke that it's you know, there's no
tops available here because all the guys take their tops off.
(10:59):
Don't be put off by that. It's actually really really accessible.
So yeah, I'll say head down to your local gym,
star training and I'm really looking forward to you know,
like I've got my next race lined up in Brisbane
in April, and it just keeps me and my members
really motivated to try and get better and better every time.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
It's all man a bus. I've love chatting to you mate,
hope to meet you one day soon. Thanks for taking
the time for a chat this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Thanks many, Jason really appreciate it, mate, but all the best.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Mate, Bye bye a bas Nazzari their high Rocks ambassador
want a man I feel inspired just listening to them.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to news Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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