To get better at Hyrox® wall balls you need three things: a throw that comes from your legs rather than your shoulders, a set-and-rest plan you decide before you pick up the ball, and training that puts the reps on tired legs, because that is how you will meet them on race day.

Wall balls are station eight, the last thing you do, after eight 1 km runs and seven other stations: 100 reps for every division ¹. In a small simulation study, wall balls produced the highest heart rate, blood lactate and perceived exertion of any station ². In other words, the hardest station arrives when you are at your most cooked. That is also why it is where minutes go missing.

The good news: wall balls are cheap to practise and reward practice. This guide covers the standards, technique, breathing, set-break strategies for different abilities, a 6-week plan, how to handle the fatigue, and how to keep your knees happy.

The standards: what counts as a rep

From the official singles rulebook for the 26/27 season ¹:

A valid rep, as the rulebook describes it ¹:

• You start standing tall, hips and knees extended, holding the ball with both hands. You may not pick the ball up off the floor and throw it in one movement.
• You squat until your hips are below your knees, then throw with both hands so the ball strikes your target in the strike zone.
• After the hit you either catch the ball and go again, or let it drop and stand tall with it before the next squat. You may not catch it off a bounce and keep going.
• There are no warnings: a rep is a rep or a no-rep. A judge or a squat depth box may be used to check depth, and digital screens are only a visual aid ¹.

Two more details for race day: the 26/27 rulebook lets you take your shoes off at your target (you carry them to the finish), and powdered chalk at the wall ball station costs a 2-minute penalty ¹. Rules like these can change by season, so read the current rulebook before you race. The rest of the format is on our Hyrox hub.

Technique: throw with your legs

The full checklist is on our wall ball page. What matters most for 100 reps:

1. Stance. Feet about shoulder width, toes slightly out, standing roughly an arm's length from the wall. Too close and the ball comes back into your face; too far and you throw forward instead of up.
2. Hold it high. Ball at chin or chest height, elbows under the ball, not flared out. This is a front squat with a ball, so the front squat cues apply.
3. Squat with the ball. Sit straight down to below parallel, chest up. Do not let the ball drop toward your knees.
4. Drive, then release. Stand up fast and let the hip drive launch the ball. Your arms finish the throw; they do not start it. Think of it as a thruster where you let go.
5. Catch high and ride it down. Catch with arms slightly bent and absorb straight into the next squat. The catch and the descent are one movement.

The single most expensive fault is a shallow squat. A no-rep means another full rep, and on rep 83 that hurts. Practise depth until it is automatic: in training, squat to a low box now and then to check.

Breathing: one breath per rep, on a rhythm

Holding your breath through a set of 20 feels fine for 8 reps and terrible for the last 12. Give the rep a rhythm instead:

• Exhale on the throw, as the ball leaves your hands.
• Inhale as the ball comes down and you catch it.
• Brace briefly at the bottom of the squat, then repeat.

When your breathing gets faster than one breath per rep, that is your cue to take the planned break, not to push for "just five more". During breaks, hold the ball at your waist or set it down, stand tall and take three or four slow breaths through the nose if you can. It sounds dull. It works.

Set-break strategies for every level

In our experience, going unbroken and blowing up at rep 60 costs more than planned short breaks. Research on cluster sets (short rests inside a set) supports the principle: intermittent rest helps keep repetition performance more constant across a session ³.

Pick your plan by a simple test: your best unbroken set of wall balls at race weight when fresh. Our rule of thumb is to race in sets of about a third to a half of that number, with short, fixed rests.

Rules that make any plan work:

• Front-load a little, not a lot. Your first set can be the biggest, but do not empty the tank.
• Count down, not up. "Twenty left" is a better thought than "eighty done".
• Fix the rest by breaths, not feel. Three breaths, ball back up. Long rests feel good and cost a lot of time.
• If a set fails early, drop to the next row of the table for the rest of the station, rather than waiting longer.

The 6-week wall ball plan

An example block with two wall ball sessions a week, on top of your normal running and training. Use your race-weight ball. Beginners scale reps by a third; strong racers add 25 reps to the main set in weeks 3 to 5. For the timed sessions, an interval timer helps.

This follows the ACSM guidance for local muscular endurance: light to moderate loads, more than 15 reps per set and short rests under 90 seconds ⁴. Progress the EMOMs only when every rep in every minute meets the standard, including depth.

Support work, once or twice a week: front squats (3 to 4 × 6 to 8) for leg strength, thrusters or push presses (3 × 8 to 10) for the throw, and a few minutes of squat mobility.

Get the right ball (and a target)

Train with a soft, stitched wall ball at your race weight, so the throw and the catch match race day. A hard rubber medicine ball bounces off your hands and is not the same exercise. A lighter ball is useful for technique and high-rep drills. At home, the target matters as much as the ball: without a mark at 3 m or 2.7 m, home reps drift low.

Fatigue: why it is hardest at the end

Wall balls are not hard because 100 reps of a 6 kg ball is heavy. They are hard because of what came before: seven stations and 8 km of running, the last stretch of it after 100 m of sandbag lunges. In the simulation study, this was where heart rate, lactate and effort all peaked ². Your quads arrive pre-fried, your shoulders are tired from the farmers carry, and your brain wants it over.

How to train for that:

• Always pair wall balls with something before them in at least one session a week: lunges, a run, or both. Our farmers carry and lunges guide has the lunge side covered.
• Rehearse the transition. Get to your target, plant your feet, set your breath, then start. Ten seconds of calm saves a minute of panic.
• Know your number. A full race simulation or your last result shows what your wall balls really cost. Our Hyrox split analyzer breaks your race down station by station.
• Do not sprint the last run. Arriving one notch calmer means bigger sets. The Hyrox pacing calculator helps you set a realistic last-kilometre pace.

Knee comfort and kit

A hundred deep squats on tired legs is a lot of knee bending. Build up gradually, and if your knees ache at the front during or after wall balls, read our guide to knee pain from wall balls and see a physiotherapist if it persists or gets worse. Do not train through sharp pain.

Practical things that help: build volume over weeks rather than jumping to 100 reps, keep your knees tracking over your toes, and warm up with a few sets of air squats and goblet squats. Neoprene knee sleeves keep the joint warm and many athletes like the feeling of support; they do not fix knee pain, and there is no good evidence that they prevent injury. The 26/27 rulebook lists knee sleeves as permitted during the race ¹.

What to wear for 100 deep squats

Clothing matters more than you think on 100 deep squats. Shorts that ride up or rub mid-squat are a distraction you do not need. Fitted compression shorts stop thigh chafing, worn alone or under looser shorts.

Bottom line

Wall balls reward the boring things: hit depth on every rep, throw with your legs, breathe on a rhythm and split the 100 into sets you planned while you were still fresh. Train them twice a week for six weeks, at least once straight after lunges or a run, and the last station becomes the place you pass people instead of the place you stand and stare at the wall.