The harsher HYROX is, the hotter it gets — last week’s World Championship in Stockholm saw a record high number of Chinese participants.

As July arrives, trail-running events will surge again. Entry slots must be fought for and depend on luck — the lottery acceptance rate for a popular race has fallen below 10%.

HYROX and trail running: one is a standardized mixed-fitness test in an indoor venue, the other a comprehensive adventure of physical and mental skills in the mountains. What they share is this: neither is easy nor cheap — some would even call them a bit masochistic.But why are more and more people getting “addicted” to them?

When people think of extreme endurance sports, many react, “that’s for professional athletes.” HYROX and trail running precisely shatter that stereotype.

HYROX’s design is a textbook in accessibility. Its format is extremely simple: 8 km of running, interspersed with eight functional stations — SkiErg, Sled Push, Sled Pull, Burpee Broad Jumps, Rowing Machine, Farmer Carry, Sandbag Lunges, Wall Ball Throws. There are no complex movement combinations and no technical barriers that take years to master. Any healthy person, after a period of preparation, can finish.

More importantly, it has no cut-off time. You can finish in 2 hours or in 3 hours. It offers OPEN and PRO divisions and allows individual, doubles, and four-person relay formats. A newcomer who’s never set foot in a gym only needs basic strength and running training to step onto the start line.

There are even many athletes with physical or cognitive disabilities on the field. They aren’t treated as a “special group” to be coddled, but as equal competitors — pushing sleds, doing burpees, sprinting to the finish just like everyone else.

Trail running likewise ranges from a few-kilometer intro events to 100-mile extreme challenges — everyone can find a distance that suits them. You don’t need to be a professional or possess extraordinary natural gifts; you only need to be willing to take the first step.

Another aspect of low barriers is geographic convenience. HYROX is held in city exhibition centers, reachable by high-speed rail or metro, with no long journeys required. Trail races, though staged in the mountains, have become more densely organized in recent years, allowing many runners to head out for the weekend and be home by Sunday.

The real barrier has never been fitness but the courage to begin. Both sports use clever design to help people cross that psychological threshold. More importantly, while lowering the entry barrier they also provide clear, visible progression paths for intermediate and elite athletes. That makes things very interesting.

In this age of uncertainty — economic shocks, workplace “involution,” information overload — people crave a domain where they can clearly see their own progress and feel fully in control. HYROX and trail running happen to provide that sense of “certainty.”

“Effort brings reward” is their simplest and most irresistible appeal. In HYROX, time is the best metric: at the next race you can clearly see how much faster you are than before. That certainty is a rare comfort in life.

HYROX’s difficulty is far more than “run 8 km + do 8 movements.” The true challenge is continuously making decisions as fatigue accumulates: when to push, when to hold back, how to divide work with a partner.

Trail running offers richer data dimensions: distance, ascent, descent, split times, heart-rate zones… every time you head into the hills your watch leaves a complete trace. You can review, compare, and precisely track your progress. Compared with road running, trail running also requires a more comprehensive set of physical qualities.

What’s more admirable is that both sports allow failure and even encourage getting back up. HYROX has no strict cut-offs: you can pause, slow down, catch your breath before a strength station and continue. In trail running you can drop out, you can “walk” the final climb, you can cross the line in tears.

This “permitted vulnerability” can actually help people regain a sense of control over their lives. Trading physical self-abuse for mental reward — that’s the deeper reason they become addictive.

In an era of material abundance, luxury goods are no longer scarce. What is truly scarce is time and willpower. Completing a HYROX or a 100-km trail race proves both.

Behind a HYROX finish are months of systematic training — at least three to four run-plus-strength sessions per week. The will to confront fatigue and fear alone in the late-night dark. Those things can’t be bought; they must be earned day by day, step by step.

So the photos people share on social media have quietly changed. Where once there were curated lunches, hotel getaways, and new handbags, now there are HYROX results boards, trail race finisher medals, and 5 a.m. starry shots heading into the hills. People are no longer satisfied with “what I have”; they yearn to proclaim “what I did.”

So it's not hard to understand why finishers' certificates are becoming a new badge of identity in this era. HYROX and trail running happen to be the most direct ways to earn that badge.

The paradox of modern life is: the more convenient online connections become, the rarer real, offline human connections are. The bigger the city, the deeper the loneliness. HYROX and trail running are becoming an outlet for this problem.

HYROX is essentially a large-scale sports party. Four-person relay teammates high-five, shout and hug in the exchange zone; pair partners encourage one another at their most exhausted; afterward they grab a drink together, share results, and schedule the next training session.

Trail-running communities form even deeper bonds. Group runs, headlamps lighting the way on 100 km night sections, sharing salt tablets and energy gels at aid stations, waiting at the finish to cheer an unfamiliar runner across the line… these shared hardships create a camaraderie that goes beyond ordinary social ties.

Data show that people today are more willing to pay to “be there, participate, and connect.” What trail running and HYROX offer is precisely that scarce, deeper form of connection. In an era where people readily “unfollow” or “block,” having a group who will suffer with you, cross the line with you, and spend long nights in the mountains alongside you—this trust and sense of belonging cannot be replaced by any number of likes.

Returning to the question at the start: why is it addictive? The boom in HYROX and trail running isn't accidental; it's a comprehensive solution aligned with contemporary needs.

Low barriers to entry let ordinary people stand at the start line and become the athlete in their own story; certainty—clear progress makes “effort pays off” tangible; identity markers—finishing a race more clearly defines who you are; social needs—transform isolated individuals into a shoulder-to-shoulder community, providing belonging through deep connection.

Together these elements form the formula for their “addictiveness.” In an era full of uncertainty, every finish, every PB, is an ordinary person's clearest affirmation to themselves.