Gisborne mum and police officer preparing for Hyrox World Championships
Alexa Coleman gets into her work shifting 152kg in the sled push at Hyrox Melbourne in December, when she and Amanda Southgate qualified for the world championships in Sweden. Photo / sportograf.com
Gisborne police constable Alexa Coleman hits the sack when most people are just getting over breakfast. She wakes six hours later when most are digesting lunch.
Her 8am-to-2pm sleep regimen is temporary. She is “flipping” her body clock in preparation for the Hyrox World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, next month.
Hyrox is an indoor fitness competition that combines running and functional workout stations. Athletes run 8km in 1km sections separated by eight workouts, which are always the same, in the same order.
It’s a fitness craze that has caught on across multiple countries, largely because of its uniformity and broad reach. Participants can be ranked internationally because everyone in a division does the same mix of running and workouts, and the exercises have been chosen for real-world movement.
Coleman, 49, and Christchurch-based Amanda Southgate, 39, will compete in the 40-to-44-year pro women’s doubles at the world champs. It’s the top division for their age group.
“Amanda was looking for a women’s doubles partner and [New Zealand F45 athlete] Jordi Duff hooked me up with her,” Coleman said.
“We trained individually, her in Christchurch and me up here, and we met for the first time the day before we competed together in January last year in Auckland, where we got second. We’ve done four Hyrox events together and qualified for the world champs in our first pro doubles in Melbourne in December. We finished third in our division.”
In doubles, both partners have to do all the running – together – but they can split the exercises however they like. That can include dividing one station into two or more parts.
Coleman is heading to Europe early to take part in a Hyrox event in Riga, Latvia, at the end of the month. She’ll do a pro women’s solo (45-49 age group) first, then the women’s open solo with lighter weights the next day. Southgate is travelling closer to the world champs’ start date.
Coleman has done one Hyrox solo. It was in Sydney and she finished sixth in her age group.
“Pro solo was a big step up from my first open doubles with Amanda in Auckland in 2025. I did okay but not as well as I’d hoped.”
She likes Hyrox because it tests “everything”, especially athletes’ physical and mental strength.
“The endurance aspect appealed,” Coleman said.
“I was always better at longer distances. I have a big engine. My coach, Peter Cleaver, calls it my superpower. His training has been a game changer for me and I have thrived learning from his 30 years of powerlifting and strength training.”
Coleman is the alcohol harm prevention officer with Gisborne police and has been in the force for eight years.
Before that, as well as being a mother of two children, she worked in hospitality where she and her husband, who have since separated, owned and ran pubs in Australia.
Daughter Jorja, 18, is at the University of Waikato in Hamilton and enjoys the gym and swimming. Son Thomas, 15, is at Napier Boys’ High School and is into swimming, running, water polo, rugby and hockey. He also has a passion for strength training and the gym.
Alexa Coleman said she was not sporty when she was young. She grew up on her parents’ farm near Waipukurau, rode horses her “entire life” and competed in horse sports. She played a little netball and basketball, and did some running.
But her ambition to join the police caused her to get serious about fitness.
“I’ve always wanted to be in the police,” Coleman said.
Having come back to New Zealand in 2014, she thought her chance of being in the police had passed her by, but a leadership development course convinced her she had to at least apply. That was in 2016.
In pursuit of her dream, she worked with a personal trainer to get fit.
“I was accepted. I went to police college at Porirua at the end of October 2017, graduated in March 2018 and came to my first and only posting in Gisborne.
“I have done frontline duty, front counter, custody and then community. Now I’m in the alcohol side of policing, which is in the prevention space.”
Coleman got into Hyrox because she was looking for fitness inspiration.
She knew Hyrox was coming to Auckland in 2025 and that Duff, who runs an F45 gym in Christchurch, was a fan of the new competition. Coleman got in touch and Duff introduced her to one of his members, Southgate.
The road hasn’t been easy. Coleman has had to juggle her training with her passion for policing and coaching at F45, as well as raising her two children since her separation.
“I’m pretty strong for my size,” she said.
“I have personal bests of 130kg in the deadlift and 140 in the squat. I never would have imagined I could do this if it wasn’t for the belief of my coach Pete. He has pushed me to places I never thought I could go. I have good endurance, teamed with strength and super-quick recovery.
“I’m a working mother. I don’t stop. I go full noise.”
How Hyrox began
The “sport” of Hyrox was founded in Germany in 2017 by Christian Toetzke and Olympic field hockey gold medallist Moritz Furste.
According to a Hybrid Athlete Club article, they intended to call the sport CuRox, derived from the Latin word “currere”, meaning to run, but a trademark dispute stopped that. The “hy” prefix was reportedly added simply because it sounded right.
In a podcast, Furste would not confirm or deny any specific meaning. Some claim Hyrox stands for “hybrid rockstar” but, although the term “Roxstar” is used in official promotions, the longer form has never been confirmed as the true meaning.
The eight Hyrox exercises, in order, starting after the first 1km run, are: 1000m ski erg, four 12.5m sled pushes (152kg), four 12.5m sled pulls (103kg), 80m burpee broad jump, 1000m row, 200m kettle bells farmer’s carry (24kg), 100m sandbag lunges (20kg) and 100 wall balls (6kg).