How CrossFit’s ATHX Partnership Gives Houston Athletes a Race With Workouts Known in Advance

• CrossFit added ATHX Games to its Partner Event Series in September, alongside XENOM.
• ATHX Houston runs October 17 at Reliant Park, with individual entry listed at $149, pairs at $269 and an ATHX Lite division for first-timers.
• Every athlete knows the tests in advance: a three-lift strength test, 22 minutes of running and rowing, and a 25-minute MetCon X with no gymnastics.

A Two-and-a-Half-Hour Test With No Surprises

CrossFit athletes are used to the unknown. The sport’s founding idea holds that the workouts are kept secret until the day they happen. ATHX Games, which CrossFit announced in mid-September as an official partner event series, does the opposite. Every athlete sees the three tests months ahead, practices them, and arrives in Houston on October 17 with a plan.

ATHX now sits alongside XENOM in the CrossFit Partner Event Series. The Games started in the UK in 2023 and expanded across Europe in 2025, when nearly 6,000 athletes took part in six competitions. The 2026 season includes 14 events in Europe and four in the United States. The first US stop was Miami Beach in March, and the Houston event at Reliant Park is the next one on the American calendar.

The day is built as one continuous 2.5-hour block with six zones in a fixed order: a 30-minute warm-up, a 20-minute strength zone, a 10-minute refuel, a 30-minute endurance zone, a 30-minute recovery zone and a 30-minute MetCon X zone. Athletes move through together in their heat, which means a rest window sits between each test. Nobody has to hold something back for a surprise third workout that never comes.

Three Tests, Laid Out for Anyone Who Wants to Train

The 2026 strength test gives athletes six minutes to find a one-rep max strict press, six minutes for a three-rep max back squat and eight minutes for a five-rep max deadlift. The score is the total load lifted across the three lifts. A lifter who has never entered a competition can test all three in a normal gym session before signing up.

The endurance test runs 22 minutes and alternates running and rowing. ATHX division athletes switch after each 750 meters, and Pro athletes switch after each 1,000 meters. The score is total distance covered, so pacing counts as much as fitness. Anyone who has done a rowing interval session followed by a run will recognize the work.

MetCon X is a 25-minute time-capped workout: 45 calories on the SkiErg for men or 30 for women, 30 single-arm alternating dumbbell ground-to-overhead reps, a 30-meter sandbag carry, 30 box jump-overs, 30 meters of dual-dumbbell walking lunges, 30 meters of burpee broad jumps, and a closing SkiErg effort. In the ATHX division the dumbbell is 20 kilograms for men (about 44 pounds) and 12.5 kilograms for women (about 27.5 pounds). The sandbag is 50 kilograms for men (about 110 pounds) and 30 kilograms for women (about 66 pounds), and the box is 24 inches for men and 20 inches for women.

Pro athletes get heavier loads and higher boxes, including a 70-kilogram sandbag for men (about 154 pounds) and a 40-kilogram sandbag for women (about 88 pounds). The programming leaves out the skills that stop many newcomers from entering a CrossFit competition. There are no muscle-ups, handstand walks, double-unders or snatches. ATHX programmed lower-skill movements on purpose, in the interest of safety and accessibility.

Getting to the Start Line in Houston

ATHX Houston takes place on October 17 at Reliant Park, 3 NRG Parkway, in the city’s NRG Park complex. Athletes pick a heat between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Divisions are ATHX, ATHX Pro and ATHX Lite, with individual and pairs formats and male, female and mixed pairings. ATHX Lite is the entry point built for first-time competitors. Individual entry is listed at $149 and pairs entry at $269. The event also takes volunteers and sells spectator tickets.

Getting there is simple for a big-event venue. The METRORail Red Line stops at NRG Park Station, and the complex is reachable by car from I-610 via Kirby Drive or Fannin Street, with surface and structured parking and dedicated rideshare zones. From Hobby Airport the drive is about 20 to 25 minutes, and from Bush Intercontinental it is about 40 to 50.

ATHX publishes a New to ATHX Games page with first-timer tips and training plans, and its movement standards and demo videos are posted for each test. A beginner who wants company can enter the pairs division with a training partner and split the pressure of a first competition.

Preparation can follow the same order as the event. Week by week, a beginner can rehearse the strength zone by finding a press, squat and deadlift max in separate sessions, then add a 22-minute run and row interval day that switches machines every 750 meters. Closing the block with a full MetCon X practice run, at the lighter ATHX loads, shows where pacing falls apart. Every score in ATHX comes from a known standard, so athletes can repeat the same tests every few weeks and watch their own numbers change, which gives a newcomer a clear measure of progress before the gym doors open on race day.

Where ATHX Fits in American Fitness Racing

ATHX markets itself as a bridge between CrossFit and Hyrox. It borrows barbell strength and metcon work from one and running and rowing volume from the other, then adds a fixed schedule. Elite CrossFit Games athletes Emily Rolfe, Sydney Wells and Nick Mathew competed at the Miami Beach event in March, so a first-timer in Houston could share a floor with a Games veteran in a different heat. The season ends with the ATHX Finals in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 27 to 29. The top four finishers per event in each pairs division and in each individual division qualify.

For US gym owners and coaches, the CrossFit partnership gives affiliates a reason to program the three ATHX tests in class. Members can chase a posted standard in October and come back to retest in the spring. For a reader who has watched CrossFit and Hyrox from the sidelines, Houston offers a low-drama way to find out where their fitness sits, on a course they can study for weeks beforehand.