Hyrox Burpee Broad Jumps: The Race-Maker Station (Station Masterclass, Part 5)

Series · Part 5 of 8

The Hyrox Station Masterclass

The station everyone remembers

Part 5 of the Station Masterclass. Previously: running, SkiErg, sled push, and sled pull.

Today: the station every Hyrox athlete remembers. Burpee broad jumps. Station 4. 80 metres of burpee-then-jump, burpee-then-jump, burpee-then-jump, when your legs are already cooked and your lungs have already been introduced to real suffering.

This is the station where the race gets decided. Not because it has the biggest time gaps (sandbag lunges arguably does) but because how you handle the burpee broad jumps shapes the second half of your race. Blow up here and stations 5, 6, 7, 8 all suffer.

The full 8-part series

New parts drop every 2nd day over 14 days. Bookmark the Station Masterclass hub to follow along.

1. Part 1, Running: The 8km You Can’t Ignore
2. Part 2, SkiErg: How Not to Blow Your Race in the First 4 Minutes
3. Part 3, Sled Push: The Station That Stops First-Timers Cold
4. Part 4, Sled Pull: Stance, Rope, and the Hand-Over-Hand Mistake
5. Part 5, Burpee Broad Jumps: The Race-Maker Station (you’re here)
6. Part 6, Rowing: How to Recover Without Losing Time
7. Part 7, Farmers Carry + Sandbag Lunges: Grip, Legs, and the Point Where You’re Allowed to Cry
8. Part 8, Wall Balls: The Final Boss

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What the station actually is

After Run 4, you arrive at a marked 80m lane. Your job:

1. Drop into a burpee (chest to floor)
2. Stand up
3. Broad jump forward (both feet leave the floor together, both feet land together)
4. Immediately drop into the next burpee
5. Repeat until your hands cross the 80m finish line after the final burpee

There’s no rep count, the distance is fixed at 80 metres. The number of burpee-and-jump combos you’ll do depends on how far each jump travels. Typical ranges:

• Elite athletes: ~30–35 combos (longer jumps)
• Competitive: ~35–45 combos
• Average: ~45–55 combos
• Beginner: ~55–70 combos

Approximate finish times (Men’s Open):

• Elite: 2:45–3:15
• Competitive: 3:30–4:30
• Average: 4:30–6:00
• Beginner: 6:00–9:00+

The gap between elite and beginner is 4+ minutes. This is the single biggest time gap of any station in the race.

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Why it’s the race-maker

Three reasons burpee broad jumps matter more than their time suggests:

1. It’s the most metabolic station. Every rep is a full-body, floor-to-feet-to-air movement. Your heart rate will go higher here than anywhere else.
2. It comes before rowing, which demands fresh legs for a strong drive. If you trash your legs on the burpees, rowing becomes brutal.
3. Mentally, it’s the darkest zone. You’re 4 stations in, halfway through, and the station goes on for what feels like forever. This is the one where people quit in their heads.

Elite athletes don’t do burpee broad jumps faster because they’re fitter. They do them faster because they pace them better from the first rep.

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Technique: the 6 cues that matter

1. Use a step-back burpee, not a jump-back burpee

A “classic” CrossFit burpee involves jumping both feet back into a plank. A “step-back” burpee steps one foot back at a time:

• From standing, bend down and place hands on the floor
• Step the right foot back
• Step the left foot back (now in a plank)
• Drop the chest and hips to the floor
• Snap back up by stepping one foot forward at a time
• Stand

Why step-back? Roughly 30% less energy cost per rep. Over 50 reps, that’s the difference between finishing fresh-ish and finishing broken. Jumping burpees look faster but only save you a second or two per rep, at a massive metabolic cost.

2. Chest touches the floor, not bounces off it

Most Hyrox events require your full torso to contact the floor. Light “kiss” touches get no-repped. Fully relax onto the floor at the bottom, don’t hold a half-push-up position.

Paradoxically, relaxing onto the floor is faster than trying to hold yourself up. Let the ground catch you, then push off.

3. Stand fully at the top of each burpee

Your hips must extend. Some events use a reach-overhead standard; others just require full hip extension. Either way, don’t “bob” up into a half-squat and skip the full stand, you’ll get no-repped and lose far more time than you saved.

4. Broad jumps: consistency beats distance

First-timer instinct: jump as far as possible each time. Pro instinct: jump a modest, consistent distance every time.

For most Open athletes, target jumps of 1.2–1.5 metres per broad jump. That’s not very far. It’s a gentle forward hop, not an Olympic long jump. Why:

• Huge jumps require huge setup effort (deeper squat, more arm swing)
• They destroy your quads over 50 reps
• They barely save any time because each jump is followed by another burpee, not a sprint

Consistency matters more than distance. Aim for the same small jump every time.

5. Land soft, burpee immediately

The broad jump landing should be a soft, slightly bent-knee landing: not a hard, stiff-legged thud. From the landed position, you’re going straight into the next burpee:

• Land, hands down, step back, one smooth motion
• Don’t stand tall and then separately go into the next burpee
• Think “land-drop” as a single action

This saves 1–2 seconds per rep. Over 50 reps, that’s over a minute.

6. Breathe in a steady 4-count pattern

Burpees force you to hold your breath if you let them. Don’t. Pattern:

• Breathe in as you set the hands and step back
• Breathe out as you drop to the floor
• Breathe in as you push up
• Breathe out forcefully on the jump

Four-count, one full breath per rep. Sounds simple. It’s the difference between finishing composed and finishing panicking.

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Pacing: the rep-scheme strategy

Burpee broad jumps are long enough that you need a strategy beyond “just keep moving.”

The 5-and-breathe pattern (recommended for most first-timers)

• Do 5 burpee broad jumps continuously
• Stand up, take 2 deep breaths (3–4 seconds)
• Do the next 5
• Repeat until you cross the line

Over 50 reps, that’s 10 micro-pauses of about 3 seconds each = 30 seconds of strategic rest. You might think that costs you time. It doesn’t, it saves you time, because without it, your rep speed would collapse by rep 20 and you’d be grinding each one.

Think of these as active rest. Breathe deliberately, then restart.

The continuous strategy (competitive+ athletes)

More experienced athletes with strong aerobic fitness can go continuous, no pauses, one rep right after the other. If you’ve trained this way and know you can sustain it, great. If you’re not sure, use the 5-and-breathe pattern.

What not to do: the “hero start and crash”

Do not go out at sprint pace for the first 10 reps. This is the most common beginner mistake. You feel fresh-ish on rep 1, start doing huge jumps and fast burpees, then at rep 15 you simply can’t continue. The mid-station collapse is the slowest way to finish the station.

Start conservative. Look like you’re going slower than you could. Maintain that same pace as long as possible.

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The 5 biggest burpee broad jump mistakes

1. Jumping burpees instead of step-back. 30% more energy cost, 1-second-per-rep saving that disappears by rep 20. Fix: step-back from the first rep.

2. Huge first jumps. Your quads die, your jump distance collapses, net speed is slower. Fix: same modest jump, every rep.

3. No breath rhythm. Holding breath leads to a panic response by rep 15. Fix: in-out-in-out, one full breath per rep.

4. Resting standing still instead of resting strategically. Standing and staring = time loss. Planned 3-second pauses at rep 5, 10, 15, etc. = controlled recovery. Fix: micro-rests between sets, not mid-set.

5. Not practising the full 80 metres in training. Most athletes practice 10–20 burpees in training and assume they can extrapolate. You can’t, the metabolic curve at 50+ reps is completely different. Fix: do at least two training sessions that include the full 80m distance.

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How to train burpee broad jumps

Weekly programming

1–2 burpee sessions per week in the 6 weeks before race day. Combine burpees with running to train the compromised state, remember, race day you’re doing this after 4 km of running and 3 stations.

See our station training drills and workouts page for more programming templates.

Three drills that transfer

Drill A, The Half-Station:

• 40m of burpee broad jumps (half the race distance)
• Rest 2 minutes
• Repeat 3 times

Trains the specific metabolic demand at a distance you can actually recover between efforts from. Focus on keeping the same rep speed across all three sets.

Drill B, The Brick:

• 1 km run at moderate pace
• 80m burpee broad jumps (full race distance)
• 1 km run at moderate pace

The most race-specific drill we know of. The 1 km run that follows 80 m of burpees will reveal exactly how good your pacing was on the burpees.

Drill C, Skill repetitions (easy day):

• 10 rounds of 5 burpee broad jumps
• 60 seconds rest between rounds
• Focus: identical technique on every single rep

This is a technique drill, not a conditioning one. Rest fully between rounds. The goal is muscle memory: a burpee broad jump that looks the same at rep 1 as at rep 50.

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Race-day rep scheme

1. Approach. Run 4 lands you at the start of the 80m lane. Jog the last 10m, you need to arrive composed, not panicking.
2. Set up (2 seconds). Step behind the start line. Breathe once, deeply. Visualise the first 5 reps.
3. Reps 1–5. Step-back burpee, small jump. Count them in your head. After 5, stand and breathe for 3 seconds.
4. Reps 6–10. Identical. Pause after.
5. Reps 11–15. The dark zone begins. Don’t check how far you’ve gone. Just count to 5 again.
6. Continue in blocks of 5 until your hands cross the finish line.
7. Exit. Stand up, walk 2 steps out of the lane, start jogging toward Run 5 within 3 seconds. Don’t recover at the station.

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The mental game

This is the station where your mind will try to quit. Expect it. When you’re at rep 30 and your lungs are screaming and you still have 30 reps to go, it will feel like you cannot possibly finish. You can. Everyone around you is feeling the same.

Three mental anchors that work:

• “Just 5 more.” Never think about the end of the station. Only the next 5 reps.
• “This is where races are won.” Everyone is suffering. The athlete who slows down least wins the station.
• “Burpees don’t last forever.” Check your progress every 10 reps, not every rep. Progress feels faster that way.

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Gear notes

• Shoes: A shoe with moderate cushion for the landings. Hard minimalist shoes punish your knees on broad jumps. See our shoes guide.
• Knees: If you have knee sensitivity, some athletes wear light compression sleeves. Not a substitute for technique, but a reasonable support.
• Hands: No gloves. You need clean contact on burpees, and gloves slow you down.

By this station you may be thinking about gel 2, if you’re doing a 75–90 minute race, your second gel lands at Run 5 (the next run). See the gel timing protocol for the full plan.

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What’s next

Part 6, Rowing: How to Recover Without Losing Time drops Monday. We’ll cover the legs-back-arms drive sequence, why 24 strokes per minute beats 32, and how to use the row as an active-recovery window for the second half.

See the whole series on the Station Masterclass hub.

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