The World’s Toughest Mile: The Viral Workout Challenge That’s Actually worth Doing
I've been in the fitness world long enough to remember when the first "Workout of the Day" was posted on CrossFit.com, before "WOD" even became common lingo. Since then, I've witnessed the explosion of fitness on social media – both for better and for worse.
These days I mostly let whatever ‘viral challenge’ that's doing the rounds go straight past me without so much of a sideways glance, because, well, a lot of them are just weird. That being said, I’m a huge advocate of making curiosity a central tenet of your workout philosophy. So, when I saw the ‘world’s toughest mile’ challenge, a HYROX/hybrid training inspired crucible that's designed to test your will, building grit, strength-endurance and stamina, my curiosity was piqued.
What is The World’s Toughest Mile Challenge?
The brain child of entrepreneur and hybrid endurance athlete Eric Hinman— a five-time Iron Man competitor who is known for sharing his training and nutritional wisdom online— the world’s toughest mile is at simple as it is sinister. Simple in that it only consists of four laps of a 400m track. Sinister in that you’re only ‘allowed’ to run the final lap, the preceding three laps are made up of a combination of burpee broad jumps, walking lunges and bear crawls. Sounds grim.
In a recent YouTube video, Hinman shared that when he first tried this challenge variation, he started with 400 meters of handstand walks, which took him nearly 30 minutes. He then decided to 'scale it to something anyone can do' so that the challenge could be performed with friends.
‘I started hosting these community "hardest mile you you’ll ever do” workouts and people really took to it,' says Hinman, who believes the community aspect of performing the toughest mile is one of the most important parts for him. ‘It is pretty hard but what I love about it is everyone walks away after, having accomplished something really hard. I love combining bonding over discomfort with an endorphin rush and that allows for people to deeply connect with each other’.
Hinman adds that 40-60 minutes is around the average time that he sees people finishing the challenge in, and that anything sub-40 minutes is very good. But, of course, pace yourself as necessary and scale the challenge to your own abilities to avoid injury. But push yourself, this is a challenge after all.
1.400m x Burpee Broad Jumps
Hinge, squat and drop down, placing both hands on the floor between your feet. Jump your feet back into the top of a press-up and lower your chest to the ground (A). Straighten your arms to press back up and hop your feet back forwards (B). As you stand up, explosively jump forwards as far as possible. As you land, immediately drop down into your next burpee.
2. 400m x Walking Lunge
Stand tall and take a deep breath, keeping your torso as upright as possible. Take a long step forward with one leg, bending your front knee until the back knee touches the ground (B). Stand up explosively, either pausing at the top before taking another step or lunging directly forward with the opposite leg. Keep moving forward in this fashion.
3. 400m x Bear Crawl
Drop onto all fours, knees raised a few inches from the ground, reach forward with one arm, advancing with your back leg on the opposite side (A). Repeat on your other side, crawling forward (B). Keep alternating, edging forward as quickly as possible, keeping your hips low and back flat.
4. 400m x Run
Finally, stand up and polish off your final lap with a simple, but by this point exhausting run. Running on fatigued legs, with a fatigued torso sat on top of them is no small challenge, but push yourself hard to finish strong.
More Workouts Like This
Take Your Training Outdoors with This 1,000-Rep Hybrid Bodyweight and Running Partner Workout
This Hybrid Bodyweight Workout Promises a Bonus Sleeve Splitting Arm Pump
Build Muscle and Smash Calories With Our Strongman-CrossFit Hybrid Workout
You Might Also Like
