Baking queen Pooja Dhingra gets into the battleground of sweat and pain, thanks to Hyrox
“Being always in the overweight category and then having an ‘athlete’ tag meant a lot to me,” says pastry chef Pooja Dhingra
The air inside the indoor arena is thick with sweat and adrenaline. Sneakers slam against the floor in rhythmic bursts as hundreds of bodies surge forward for the first kilometre run, the gateway to a gruelling sequence of eight runs and eight workouts. Thirty-nine-year-old pastry chef Pooja Dhingra, who has spent years behind an oven, never imagined she’d be among them, juggling towards the finish line. “Being always in the overweight category and then having an ‘athlete’ tag meant a lot to me.” For someone who had lived with self-doubt around fitness, Hyrox felt both intimidating and irresistible. Now, swept up by the roar of the crowd and the shared determination of strangers, she finds herself chasing more than a finish line — a new identity.
Hyrox is a global indoor fitness race that blends running with functional workouts in a simple but punishing formula: a 1 km run followed by one workout, repeated eight times. Born in Europe, it has spread to cities worldwide, all following the exact same format so a participant in Mumbai runs the same race as one in Berlin or New York. Marketed as the “race for everybody,” it’s built for both professional athletes and everyday fitness enthusiasts looking for a challenge. Its virality lies in its design — photogenic, shareable, and instantly recognisable. When the format arrived in India, Mumbai’s restless fitness community embraced it as both a test of endurance and a badge of belonging.
Pooja Dhingra; (right) Kunal Rajput
Mumbai has long been a city of endurance from its dawn marathons to boutique gyms in Bandra and a thriving Instagram fitness culture. Hyrox fits into this landscape, offering something that feels both aspirational and accessible. For Dhingra, the decision to sign up for Hyrox was sparked not by ambition, but by a friend’s casual suggestion at the gym. She hesitated at first, unsure if she had the stamina to finish. But with coach Rajput’s guidance, she undertook a three-month training regimen — five days a week of gym workouts, evening runs, yoga, and stretches. “Our lives and personalities became about Hyrox for a time,” she recalls. “I trained for three months specifically for the race.” What began as self-doubt transformed into exhilaration when she crossed the finish line. The sense of community, training side by side with others chasing the same goal, left her hooked, and she is planning to travel to future races.
As both coach and participant, Kunal Rajput straddles both worlds. A strength-training enthusiast, he had to embrace running to prepare for Hyrox. “It’s a social currency; a wave everyone wants to surf. People want to be seen as fit, doing something challenging, and Hyrox gives them that talking power; it is still pretty difficult and challenging,” he says.
The format’s flexibility is part of its appeal, as it has no time limits, multiple categories, and the option to race solo, in doubles, or as a relay team. What he notices most in others is the lack of structure where people underestimate the endurance required, mismanage pacing, or neglect nutrition. Still, he sees Hyrox’s accessibility as its strength.
Beyond finish times or medals, for many, Hyrox offers a chance to rewrite personal narratives. For Dhingra, it was identity-shifting. “I never thought I was an athlete,” she says, but the race reshaped how she saw herself. This is what gives Hyrox its cult-like energy worldwide. It’s not simply a race but a lifestyle statement; a way to push boundaries, and to post about it afterwards.
As the final metres blur under pounding sneakers, the finish line becomes a proof of resilience. Dhingra remarks, “Watching so many people participate with near-common goals is both inspiring and wonderful.” She had only one goal as she participated in Hyrox: “To finish it. And that I did.”
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