VASA Fitness Brings HYROX Training to 10 Gyms Ahead of Utah and Colorado Debuts

• VASA Fitness is opening HYROX Training Clubs at 10 gyms across Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma and Illinois, giving everyday members the same equipment used to prep for HYROX races.
• VASA staff are training and racing alongside members ahead of HYROX’s first-ever Salt Lake City and Denver events this September, both new stops on the sport’s fall calendar.
• Open houses on October 3 will let members try wall balls, sled pushes and rowing stations without signing up for a race first.

A gym chain bets that its own staff racing will pull members off the sidelines

Chris Griebe did not plan to spend his fall training for a HYROX race. As chief operating officer of VASA Fitness, a 72-location gym chain based in Colorado, his job is usually about real estate leases and member retention numbers, not sled pushes. That changed this month, when VASA announced a new partnership with HYROX and Griebe found himself signed up for the Denver race alongside dozens of his own employees.

“VASA team members are preparing to compete in the Salt Lake City and Denver HYROX races, alongside many of our members,” Griebe said. “HYROX isn’t just something we’re bringing to our clubs, it’s something our people are embracing personally. We’re excited to have a strong VASA presence on race day and to show up together as one community.”

The announcement, made this week, gives VASA members in five states direct access to a sport that has grown from a niche German import into one of the fastest-expanding participation events in the country. HYROX combines eight one-kilometer runs with eight functional stations, including sled pushes, sled pulls, rowing and wall balls, in a format that stays identical whether an athlete races in Denver or Berlin. Nearly two-thirds of participants at major US races are over 30, and the sport’s own data shows the 60-and-older brackets growing faster than any other age group.

Ten gyms, five states, one shared race format

The first HYROX Training Club locations span Colorado Springs, Aurora and Thornton in Colorado, Kaysville, Sandy and Orem in Utah, Chandler in Arizona, Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, and Crystal Lake and Romeoville in Illinois. Each club is adding wall-ball target zones, medicine balls built to competition specifications, push-pull sleds mounted on turf, and battle ropes for grip and conditioning work.

A member never has to register for an actual HYROX race to use any of it. That distinction sits at the center of how VASA is pitching the partnership. “Our mission at HYROX has always been to make functional fitness racing accessible to everyone, and partnering with an industry leader like VASA Fitness allows us to bring that vision to life at scale,” said Douglas Gremmen, HYROX’s chief growth officer. “Whether someone is stepping up to their very first race or simply looking to improve their daily fitness routine, this partnership gives them the tools, space and local support to thrive.”

VASA CEO Michael Osanloo described the move as an extension of the chain’s existing studio classes rather than a break from them. “At VASA, we’re constantly innovating our fitness programs to meet members where they are and give them access to the experiences that excite them most,” Osanloo said. “Our partnership with HYROX is the next step, giving members another powerful way to get stronger and train with purpose.”

Two new host cities raise the practice this fall

The timing is not an accident. HYROX makes its debut in Salt Lake City from September 18 to 20, the first race the sport has ever held in Utah, and Denver joins the fall calendar alongside Tampa and Nashville as new markets for the 2026 North American season. Both cities also happen to be home to several of VASA’s new Training Club locations, which means members who show up to a Tuesday night class in Sandy or Kaysville this month could be standing on the same start line as their coaches within weeks.

That overlap counts for a sport that has spent the past two years wrestling with a simple problem: races sell out fast, but most gyms still do not own the equipment to train for them properly. A sled push looks nothing like a treadmill sprint, and a wall-ball station rewards a very different kind of shoulder endurance than a typical strength class builds. Members who want to try HYROX before committing to an entry fee have often had to seek out a specialty studio or build a makeshift setup at home.

VASA, founded in Orem, Utah in 2014, has built its business on undercutting boutique studio prices while still offering studio-style classes inside its larger clubs. Folding HYROX equipment into that model gives the chain a way to compete with dedicated HYROX training studios without asking members to pay a separate membership.

An open house built for people who have never tried a sled push

VASA and HYROX will host Training Day open houses at all 10 locations on Saturday, October 3, aimed squarely at members and prospective members who have never touched a sled or a rowing erg. The events will walk newcomers through each station, explain how the format scales for different fitness levels, and give people a chance to decide whether they want to chase a race entry at all.

That low-pressure entry point is part of what has pulled a wider range of athletes into HYROX over the past two years. The format does not require Olympic lifting technique or gymnastics skills the way some competitors’ events do. Every station is a movement most gym members already recognize, just organized into a race clock. For a 45-year-old who has never competed in anything and a 22-year-old chasing a Pro qualifying time, the barrier to trying a station for the first time is roughly the same.

VASA says the 10 clubs represent only the first phase. Company leadership has signaled plans to expand HYROX training experiences to additional locations as demand grows, though no timeline or list of future cities has been released yet.

What it signals for the sport’s next stretch of growth

HYROX’s global season is projected to draw between 1.3 and 1.5 million participants this year, and the sport’s own leadership has been open about needing more gyms willing to build out dedicated training space if that growth is going to hold. A chain the size of VASA signing on as an enterprise partner is a different kind of signal than a single boutique studio adding a sled to its floor. It suggests HYROX is betting on mainstream gym chains, not just specialty studios, to carry the sport into cities that have never hosted a race.

For VASA’s members in Kaysville or Crystal Lake, the more immediate story is smaller than any growth projection. It is a coach they already know, showing up to a race they can watch in person, using equipment they can now touch on a Tuesday night.