If you prepared for an ATHX in 2026, forget part of what you know.
The 2027 format doesn't adjust the events: it replaces two out of three. The strict press is gone from Strength. The rower has left Endurance. And Metcon X looks nothing like last year's sequence.
What hasn't moved: the structure. Six zones, 2.5 hours, three scored events, one format fixed for the whole season. That's what makes ATHX preparable — as long as you prepare for the right one.
Here are the three scored zones in detail, with the loads by category.
What actually changed between 2026 and 2027
Three changes, and none of them is cosmetic.
Strength moves to imposed windows. In 2026 you had 20 minutes and managed your three barbells however you liked. In 2027 each lift has its own slot: you can no longer make up for a failed press with the squat's time.
Endurance drops the rower. No more alternating run and row every 750 m. It's now a set run, then max-distance SkiErg on whatever time is left.
Metcon X changes six movements out of seven. Box jumps, dumbbell lunges and burpee broad jumps are out. In come the dumbbell bench press, sandbag squats and burpees over a soft bench.
⇒ An athlete who picks up their 2026 preparation unchanged is preparing for a competition that no longer exists.
How the six zones run
The skeleton doesn't change. Three scored zones, three unscored, in this order:
| zone | duration | scored |
|---|---|---|
| Warm-Up | 30 min | no |
| Strength | 20 min | yes |
| Refuel | 10 min | no |
| Endurance | 24 min | yes |
| Recovery | 30 min | no |
| Metcon X | 25 min | yes |
The ranking adds your placings across the three scored events. You don't win by being excellent at one: you win by having no gap.
The three unscored zones still count. Refuel and Recovery exist so you arrive in shape for the next event, and that's where a lot of athletes lose their Metcon without realising it.
Strength: three windows, three lifts
20 minutes. Three timed tests, in order. Score = the sum of the three loads in kilos.
| slot | lift |
|---|---|
| 0 → 5 min | 1RM Shoulder to Overhead |
| 5 → 10 min | 2RM Back Squat |
| 10 → 15 min | 3RM Deadlift (individual) |
In Pairs, the deadlift window runs to 20 minutes.
Why the windows change everything
Five minutes for a 1RM is short. Very short. You have time for two, maybe three attempts — warm-up included if you didn't do it beforehand.
That moves the difficulty: it's no longer in the load, it's in choosing the load. An athlete who aims too high and misses twice leaves the window with their warm-up bar. One who aims too low banks it and has no way back.
Shoulder to overhead is not a strict press
This is the most underestimated change. The 2026 strict press banned any leg drive. Shoulder to overhead allows it: push press, push jerk, split jerk — anything goes as long as the lockout holds.
⇒ It's no longer a pure test of shoulder strength, it's a test of power and technique. An athlete with a clean split jerk moves 15 to 25 % more than their strict press. One who has never trained it leaves those kilos on the platform.
It's the best return on investment in your whole strength preparation: learning a clean jerk costs a few weeks of technique, not a hypertrophy block.
Endurance: the run first, the ski after
24-minute time cap. A set run, then max-distance SkiErg. Score = the distance covered on the SkiErg.
| category | buy-in run |
|---|---|
| ATHX (individual) | 3 km |
| Pro (individual) | 3 km |
| Lite (Pairs) | 2.4 km |
| ATHX / Pro (Pairs) | 3 km |
As soon as the run is done, you move to the SkiErg and accumulate as much distance as possible before the cap.
The buy-in trap
Read the scoring carefully: the run earns nothing. All it does is spend your time.
That creates the most interesting trade-off in the 2027 format. Run your 3 km in 12 minutes and you have 12 minutes of skiing left — but you arrive with your heart rate already pinned and an output that collapses. Run it in 15 and you only have 9 minutes, but you ski clean.
There is no universal right answer. There is your answer, and you find it by measuring.
Measuring what happens at the transition
The problem is that this profile can't be written down while you're running. Your hands are on the handles, you're in oxygen debt, and the information you want — run time, transition seconds, heart rate the moment you hit the ski — is lost.
That's exactly what the ATmetrYX app on your Garmin watch does. In Training mode you pick the Endurance pillar, mark the switch with one press, and the watch records the whole breakdown: run duration, the exact moment of transition, heart rate throughout. You read your profile afterwards, calmly.
Metcon X: seven blocks, no let-up
25-minute time cap. A set sequence. Score = completion time.
The individual sequence, in order: calorie row, dumbbell ground-to-overhead, dumbbell bench press, sandbag squats, 30 m sandbag carry, burpees over a soft bench, back to the rower.
The loads, individual
ATHX category
| block | men | women |
|---|---|---|
| Calorie row | 45 | 35 |
| 30 dumbbell ground-to-overhead | 20 kg | 12.5 kg |
| 30 dumbbell bench press | 20 kg | 12.5 kg |
| 30 sandbag squats | 50 kg | 30 kg |
| 30 m sandbag carry | 50 kg | 30 kg |
| 30 burpees over bench | — | — |
| Calorie row | 45 | 35 |
Pro category
| block | men | women |
|---|---|---|
| Calorie row | 45 | 35 |
| 30 dual-dumbbell GTOH | 22.5 kg | 15 kg |
| 30 dumbbell bench press | 22.5 kg | 15 kg |
| 30 sandbag squats | 70 kg | 50 kg |
| 30 m sandbag carry | 70 kg | 50 kg |
| 30 burpees over bench | — | — |
| Calorie row | 45 | 35 |
In Pairs, volumes increase (45 reps per block, 60 on the bench press, 60 m carry) and the Lite category exists, with lighter loads.
The two places it breaks
The dumbbell bench press. It's the new movement of 2027, and nobody has it in their hybrid preparation. Thirty reps at 20 kg per arm, straight after thirty ground-to-overhead, destroys the triceps and shoulders. And what comes next asks you to carry a sandbag — with the same arms.
The squats-to-carry switch. Same load, same sandbag, no pause. Your legs come off thirty loaded squats and have to walk 30 metres immediately with the same mass. That's where times blow up, not on the burpees.
The categories
Three levels: Lite, ATHX, Pro. Same format, same running order, same zones — only the loads and volumes change.
⚠️ Two things athletes find out too late:
- Lite doesn't exist on every individual event. On the Endurance and Metcon X, the published individual standards cover ATHX and Pro.
- Pro doesn't only change the loads. The ground-to-overhead becomes dual dumbbell, which is a different movement, not a heavier version.
What it means for your preparation
Three direct consequences if you're preparing for an ATHX 2027.
One. Train shoulder to overhead as a technical movement, not a heavy press. It's the fastest source of kilos in the whole Strength zone.
Two. Measure your run/ski pairing. Not your 3 km, not your ski distance — the pairing. It's the most optimisable event in the format, and almost nobody optimises it.
Three. Put upper-body pressing volume and sandbag work into your Metcon. If your 2026 preparation was built on box jumps and lunges, it no longer covers the event.
And above all: measure the series, not the session
A test tells you where you are today. It doesn't tell you whether you're improving.
Your Strength total gained 10 kg in six weeks: good progress, or a plateau starting? Your ski distance is flat while your 3 km improves: are you compensating, or digging an imbalance?
Those questions only have an answer in the series of sessions. That's what the ATmetrYX cockpit does: every session the watch sends stacks onto the ones before, and what appears is no longer a number but a trajectory — one curve per pillar. The pillar that drags becomes the next block's priority, without you having to guess.
The cockpit installs on your phone like an app. An email, a code, and it's open.
Place your numbers on the ATHX simulator
Enter your loads and the simulator tells you where you sit against your category's threshold. Free, in three languages.
Place my numbers →In short
The ATHX 2027 format keeps its structure and changes its events. Three lifting windows instead of one open block. A run that earns nothing and a SkiErg that earns everything. A Metcon X built on dumbbells and the sandbag.
The advantage hasn't moved: these events are known and fixed for the whole season. You know exactly what's coming, and you can test it block by block.
Might as well use it.
2027 standards published by ATHX Games and relayed by its official equipment partner. Always check your event's standards on athxgames.com before committing to a load.