Metcon X closes the competition. A 25-minute time cap, a set sequence, one score: your time.
And in 2027, that sequence has almost nothing to do with last year's. Box jumps, dumbbell lunges and burpee broad jumps are out. In come the dumbbell bench press, sandbag squats and burpees over a soft bench.
If your Metcon preparation dates from 2026, it no longer covers the event.
The sequence
Seven blocks, in this order, without interruption:
- Calorie row
- Dumbbell ground-to-overhead
- Dumbbell bench press
- Sandbag squats
- Sandbag carry
- Burpees over a soft bench
- Back to the rower
Two observations before the numbers.
The rower opens and closes. That isn't a detail: you start with fresh arms and come back to it after giving everything in pressing. The second row block is systematically slower than the first, and the gap between them is an excellent indicator of your pacing.
Four blocks out of seven load the upper body. Ground-to-overhead, bench press, sandbag carry, burpees. That's the common thread of the 2027 event, and what sets it apart from the previous one.
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 ground-to-overhead | 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 |
⚠️ Pro isn't "ATHX but heavier". The ground-to-overhead becomes dual dumbbell: not the same coordination, not the same energy cost, not the same grip. An athlete moving up to Pro without having trained dual dumbbell discovers a movement, not a load.
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
I've watched enough athletes on this sequence to know where the clock gets lost. It isn't where you'd think.
The bench press, straight after the ground-to-overhead
It's the new movement of 2027, and nobody has it in their hybrid preparation.
Thirty ground-to-overhead at 20 kg per arm empties the shoulders and triceps. And the next block asks for exactly the same muscles, for thirty more reps, lying down where you can't cheat with your legs.
Athletes from a CrossFit background handle the ground-to-overhead and discover they have no pressing endurance. Those from the gym have the bench press but not the ability to do it at 90 % of max heart rate.
⇒ That's the block to train first, and it's the cheapest to train: two pressing-volume sessions a week transform this passage.
Squats into carry, same sandbag
Thirty squats with a 50 kg sandbag. Then, with no pause, thirty metres walking with the same sandbag.
The legs come off thirty loaded reps and have to carry immediately. The back is already loaded. The grip starts to go.
That's where times blow up, not on the burpees. And it's the easiest passage to simulate in training: a sandbag and thirty metres is all you need.
How to prepare for it
Three priorities, in order.
One — upper-body pressing endurance. Dumbbell bench press in long sets, ground-to-overhead in volume, and above all the two back to back. If you only do one thing, do this.
Two — the sandbag squat / sandbag carry pairing. Not one or the other: both in sequence, at your category's load. Three sets per session is enough.
Three — the rower at the end of a session. Always. Your second row block is trained by rowing tired, never by rowing fresh.
And the version that really counts
Testing Metcon X fresh is testing it in conditions that will never exist.
On race day you arrive after two hours of effort: a Strength zone that emptied your shoulders, an Endurance that put your arms in the red on the SkiErg, and a 30-minute Recovery that wasn't enough.
Do it at least once in that state. You go in after an Endurance block and thirty minutes of recovery. The time will be slower — sometimes by several minutes — and it's the gap between the two versions that matters, not the time itself.
A gap of more than 20 % between fresh and fatigued signals a work-capacity deficit, not a technical problem.
Measuring the gap, in practice
Assuming you can calculate it.
Two sessions days apart, two times written down somewhere, and you have to find the first to compare it to the second. It's the kind of comparison that gets lost — not through carelessness, but because the two numbers don't live in the same place.
The ATmetrYX app records them in the same format, heart rate included, so they're directly comparable. And its Competition mode runs the six zones in order with their real durations: that's what lets you do a full simulation without watching a clock for 2.5 hours, and arrive at the Metcon in the state you'll be in on race day.
In short
Metcon X 2027 is an upper-body event disguised as a metcon.
Four blocks out of seven load pressing, pulling or grip. The dumbbell bench press is the movement that makes the difference, because nobody has prepared for it. And the squat-to-carry switch is where the clock gets lost.
The good news: the sequence is public and fixed for the whole season. You can repeat it in full as many times as you want.