How to Fuel for Hyrox Without Caffeine

• GI distress affects up to 50 percent of endurance athletes during competition, and caffeine can make it worse.*
  
  
• Creatine may help support explosive ATP output during Hyrox's sled pushes, ski ergs, and burpee broad jumps.*
  
  
• Cordyceps mushroom may help support oxygen efficiency and time to exhaustion during high-intensity aerobic work.*
  
  
• HMB may help support muscle recovery between heavy training sessions and on race day.*
  
  
• Smart fueling starts 24 to 48 hours before the gun, not 30 minutes before.
  
  
• Talk to your healthcare provider before adding any new supplement to your race day routine.

Almost every pre-workout on the market leads with caffeine. For short gym sessions, that may be fine. For a 60-to-120-minute event that demands gut tolerance as much as power output, caffeine deserves a second look.

Caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain, temporarily masking fatigue signals — it does not create energy at the cellular level. And there is the gut factor: a 2025 study in Physiological Reports found that caffeine before endurance exercise significantly worsened exercise-induced intestinal cell damage compared to placebo, particularly in individuals with a specific genetic sensitivity variant. The authors concluded that acute gut cell damage from endurance exercise may be exacerbated by caffeine, especially in sensitive individuals.

Many athletes tolerate caffeine well, and this is not a universal warning. But if your current pre-workout is making you queasy at station three, caffeine may be a contributing factor worth examining.

Stimulant-free does not mean weaker. It means the energy source changes: instead of borrowing alertness from your nervous system, you are building the actual fuel your muscles run on — adenosine triphosphate, or ATP.

Creatine and the ATP system. Your muscles store creatine as phosphocreatine, a rapid-recharge system for ATP. During the explosive efforts that define Hyrox, your muscles burn through ATP in seconds, and phosphocreatine replenishes that pool so you can go again. A 2021 review in Nutrients found that creatine supplementation consistently supports performance during short-duration, high-intensity efforts, with one referenced study reporting that ATP loss was approximately 30 percent less when creatine was supplemented, even after greater overall work was completed.*

Cordyceps and oxygen efficiency. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in the Journal of Dietary Supplements found that after three weeks of Cordyceps militaris supplementation, participants showed significant improvement in VO2max (plus 4.8 ml/kg/min) and increased time to exhaustion (plus 69.8 seconds) compared to placebo. In Hyrox terms, a higher aerobic ceiling directly affects how you feel running between stations.*

HMB and muscle preservation. HMB is a metabolite of leucine that reduces exercise-induced muscle damage. A systematic review and meta-analysis in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found a significant time-dependent effect of HMB in reducing markers of muscle damage (creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase levels), with the most meaningful results in studies lasting six or more weeks. For athletes logging heavy Hyrox training blocks, that recovery support adds up.*

Good race-day fueling is a system, not a single supplement.

48 hours out: top off glycogen. Your muscle glycogen stores are your primary fuel for a 60-to-120-minute effort. Aim for 7 to 8 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight in the day or two before your race — white rice, pasta, oats, and fruit over high-fiber or high-fat choices that slow digestion.

Race morning: familiar foods only. Two to three hours before your start, eat a high-carbohydrate, low-fiber, low-fat meal from foods you have tested in training.

30 minutes before: prime cellular pathways. This is where a stimulant-free functional blend fits naturally. L-glutamine is worth noting here: a study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that glutamine supplementation before endurance exercise in the heat significantly reduced markers of intestinal permeability compared to placebo, in a dose-dependent manner. For athletes who run hot and race hard, gut integrity support before a Hyrox is a reasonable consideration.*

During the race: keep it simple. Most Hyrox efforts under 90 minutes need nothing beyond water at stations. For longer races, simple carbohydrate gels can top up glycogen — only if you have practiced in training.

Farmana Workout + Energize is a 30-calorie functional beverage designed to support clean, stimulant-free energy production before movement.* It combines Calcium HMB (1.5g), Creatine Monohydrate (900mg), L-Carnitine L-Tartrate, and L-Glutamine with an organic superfood base including Cordyceps mushroom, beet, pomegranate, and coconut water. Formulated to support cellular ATP production rather than artificially stimulate the nervous system,* it is gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, Non-GMO, and sweetened with stevia only. Mix 15 to 30 minutes before training.

References

1. Oliveira EP, Burini RC, Jeukendrup A. Gastrointestinal Complaints During Exercise: Prevalence, Etiology, and Nutritional Recommendations. Sports Med. 2014;44(Suppl 1):S79–S85. PMID: 24791919. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4008808/
   
   

2. Davison G, Carswell AT, Baron P, Martinez-Gonzalez B. Caffeine exacerbates exercise-induced gut cell damage and is influenced by ADORA2A genotype but not CYP1A2 genotype: A preliminary study. Physiol Rep. 2025;13(22):e70673. PMID: 41261949. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41261949/
   
   

3. Wax B, Kerksick CM, Jagim AR, Mayo JJ, Lyons BC, Kreider RB. Creatine for Exercise and Sports Performance, with Recovery Considerations for Healthy Populations. Nutrients. 2021;13(6):1915. PMID: 34199588. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8228369/
   
   

4. Hirsch KR, Smith-Ryan AE, Roelofs EJ, Trexler ET, Mock MG. Cordyceps militaris Improves Tolerance to High-Intensity Exercise After Acute and Chronic Supplementation. J Diet Suppl. 2017;14(1):42–53. PMID: 27408987. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27408987/
   
   

5. Rahimi MH, Mohammadi H, Eshaghi H, Askari G, Miraghajani M. The Effects of Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-Methylbutyrate Supplementation on Recovery Following Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Am Coll Nutr. 2018;37(8):640–649. PMID: 29676656. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29676656/
   
   

6. Pugh JN, Sage S, Hutson M, Doran DA, Fleming SC, Highton J, Morton JP, Close GL. Glutamine supplementation reduces markers of intestinal permeability during running in the heat in a dose-dependent manner. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2017;117(12):2569–2577. PMID: 29058112. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5694515/