Muscle Mint at the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation, Belfast 2026

Zolene Massage therapist, 15+ years of hands-on experience August 19, 2026 7 min read

Athletes crossing the finish line at the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation, Newforge Sports Complex, Belfast, June 2026

By Zolene, Massage Therapist · Updated 19 August 2026

Muscle Mint sponsored the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation at Newforge Sports Complex in Belfast on Saturday 6 June 2026, putting a sample into the gift bag of every registered competitor. The event ran Male Open, Female Open and Mixed Doubles categories over the full eight runs and eight stations, organised by Juice Jar alongside Gym Co. It was Juice Jar's first event of its kind, and for a lot of the people on that floor it was their first taste of the HYROX format.

Where and when: Newforge Sports Complex, Belfast, Saturday 6 June 2026.
Format: a full simulation of the HYROX race, eight 1km runs alternating with eight functional stations.
Categories: Male Open, Female Open and Mixed Doubles, with podium prizes and gift bags for everyone registered.
Muscle Mint's part: a sample in every competitor gift bag, as a sponsor rather than a stallholder.
The stations that show up the next day are almost always the sled push, the sandbag lunges and the wall balls.
Muscle Mint is a peppermint and eucalyptus menthol cream. It gives a strong cooling tingle on the skin. It is not a treatment for anything.

What Was the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation?

It was a HYROX-style fitness race held at Newforge Sports Complex in Belfast on Saturday 6 June 2026, run by Juice Jar in collaboration with Gym Co. Athletes raced in Male Open, Female Open and Mixed Doubles categories across the full simulation format, with podium prizes for the categories and a gift bag for every registered competitor.

Belfast does not get an official HYROX weekend on its doorstep, so if you want to know what your number would be, somebody local has to build the floor and set the stations up properly. Juice Jar did that. It sold out on community goodwill and word of mouth rather than a marketing budget, which is the bit I find genuinely impressive.

Seeing so many people push themselves, cheer each other on, and step outside their comfort zones is exactly what our community is all about.
Juice Jar, event organisers

What Is a HYROX Full Simulation?

A full simulation is a locally organised event that runs the complete HYROX race format, rather than an official HYROX-sanctioned race weekend. You still cover the whole thing: eight 1km runs, each one followed immediately by a functional station, eight stations in total, in the same fixed order used worldwide. What you do not get is an official chip time on the global leaderboard.

The reason the format never changes is the whole point of it. HYROX keeps the runs, the stations and the loads identical everywhere so that finishing times are directly comparable between cities. That standardisation is also why a simulation is worth doing. You come away knowing roughly where you would land on race day, having found out which station is going to be your problem, and you find that out in Belfast on a Saturday instead of paying for a flight to discover it.

The format has pulled in a startling number of people. HYROX reported more than 1.5 million participants across its 2025/26 season, with over 100 race weekends scheduled for 2026/27 (endurance.biz, July 2026). Belfast turning out for a home-grown version of it is not a surprise so much as overdue.

The Eight Stations, and Where Each One Turns Up the Next Day

The stations run in a fixed order: SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, row, farmer's carry, sandbag lunges, wall balls. Each one comes after a 1km run, so nothing is done fresh. As a massage therapist, what interests me is not the station itself but where people are stiff two days later, and it is remarkably consistent.

A competitor carrying a sandbag at the lunges station, with the sled pull station behind, at the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation — Station seven, the sandbag lunges. This is the one people feel on the stairs two days later.

Station	What it is	Where it usually shows up
1. SkiErg	1000m	Lats, triceps and the upper back between the shoulder blades.
2. Sled push	4 x 12.5m	Quads and calves. The one people complain about most, by a distance.
3. Sled pull	4 x 12.5m	Upper back, biceps, forearms and grip.
4. Burpee broad jumps	80m	Chest, shoulders and hip flexors. Often the low back too.
5. Row	1000m	Hamstrings, glutes and the whole posterior chain.
6. Farmer's carry	200m	Traps, forearms and the sides of the neck.
7. Sandbag lunges	100m	Quads and glutes, and stairs become a genuine event on Sunday.
8. Wall balls	100 reps	Shoulders, quads and the front of the hips.

Station order and distances are as published by HYROX. The pattern I am describing is what I see on the table afterwards, not a rule.

Two legs, one story. Sled push at station two and sandbag lunges at station seven both hammer the quads, and they sit either side of an hour of running. That combination is why so many people describe the same thing on the Monday: fine walking on the flat, miserable on stairs. If that is you, my guide to how long DOMS lasts sets out the usual timeline, and whether to train on sore muscles covers the decision most people are actually asking about on the Tuesday.

Because a gift bag at the end of eight kilometres is the one moment where somebody will actually try something rather than read about it. Every registered competitor got one, regardless of category or finishing position, which was the part that mattered to me. Sponsorship that only reaches the podium is not really sponsorship of the event.

A Muscle Mint 15ml sample card resting against a Juice Jar competitor gift bag at the Belfast HYROX full simulation — A 15ml Muscle Mint sample went into every Juice Jar competitor bag.

I make Muscle Mint because I spent years as a massage therapist wanting something for my own clients that was not sticky and did not smell like a hospital corridor. It is a peppermint and eucalyptus menthol cream in a sunflower oil base, made here in Northern Ireland. What it does is simple and I will not dress it up: it puts a strong, cool tingle on the skin. That sensation is pleasant on legs that have just done a hundred wall balls. It is not fixing anything.

Recommended by Zolene

Muscle Mint Soothing Menthol Cream

A peppermint and eucalyptus menthol cream in a sunflower oil base, made in Northern Ireland, UK. It creates a strong, temporary cooling tingle on the skin.

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What the Day After a Full Simulation Usually Feels Like

Stiff rather than sore, and worse on the second day than the first. Delayed onset muscle soreness typically peaks somewhere between 24 and 72 hours after unfamiliar effort, which is why people finish a Saturday event feeling reasonably smug and then struggle to get out of a chair on Monday. Gentle movement, sleep and food do more for that than anything you can buy.

What I tell people who ask me, and I get asked this a lot after events: keep moving, just make it easy movement. A walk, a slow spin, a swim. Complete rest tends to make the stiffness feel worse, and going straight back into a heavy session tends to make everything worse. There is a fuller version of this in how to ease aching muscles after exercise, and if the running rather than the stations is what caught you, calf and shin soreness after running covers that separately.

The honest limit, since I would rather say it here than have somebody find out badly. Stiffness that eases as you warm up is normal. Sharp pain in one specific spot, swelling, a joint that will not take weight, or dark urine after a very hard first effort are not normal and are questions for a GP, not for a cream and a rest day.

Where to Find Muscle Mint Next

We sponsor a handful of events across Northern Ireland each year, usually the ones run by people who are doing it for the community rather than the margin. Earlier in the year that was the Gain Forth Max Out Showdown in Belfast, and in June it was Juice Jar at Newforge.

If you are organising something in Northern Ireland and you want samples in the bags, get in touch. If you are a gym, clinic or club that wants to stock it, the trade side is straightforward and I answer those emails myself.

To Juice Jar and Gym Co: a genuinely well-run day.

Photo Gallery

A few more moments from the day at Newforge. Tap any photo to open it full size.

Athletes crossing the finish line at the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation, Newforge Sports Complex, Belfast

A row of purple Juice Jar competitor gift bags lined up ready for racers in Belfast

A competitor on the rowing station at the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation in Belfast

A competitor throwing a wall ball at the final station of the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation in Belfast

Competitors running one of the eight 1km laps at the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation in Belfast

A competitor mid-lap on the running route at the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation, Newforge, Belfast

A competitor at the wall balls station with the lunges and sled arches behind, Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation, Belfast

Frequently asked questions

What was the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation?

It was a HYROX-style fitness race held at Newforge Sports Complex in Belfast on Saturday 6 June 2026, organised by Juice Jar with Gym Co. Athletes competed in Male Open, Female Open and Mixed Doubles categories over the full eight runs and eight stations, with podium prizes and a gift bag for every registered competitor.

What is a HYROX full simulation?

A full simulation is a locally organised event that runs the complete HYROX race format rather than an official HYROX-sanctioned race weekend. You cover the same eight 1km runs and eight functional stations in the same fixed worldwide order. You do not get an official chip time on the global leaderboard.

Did Muscle Mint sponsor the Juice Jar HYROX event?

Yes. Muscle Mint sponsored the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation in Belfast on 6 June 2026 and supplied a sample for the gift bag of every registered competitor, across all categories rather than podium finishers only.

Which HYROX station leaves you most sore afterwards?

For most people it is the sled push and the sandbag lunges, both of which load the quads heavily, and the wall balls at the end, which hit the shoulders and the front of the hips. Because the sled push comes second and the lunges come seventh, the legs take a hammering either side of an hour of running.

How long are you sore after a HYROX race or simulation?

Delayed onset muscle soreness usually peaks between 24 and 72 hours after unfamiliar effort, so the second day is typically worse than the first. Gentle movement, sleep and food help more than anything you can buy. Sharp localised pain, swelling or a joint that will not take weight is a question for a GP rather than a rest day.

Where was the Juice Jar HYROX Full Simulation held?

Newforge Sports Complex in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Saturday 6 June 2026. It was organised by Juice Jar in collaboration with Gym Co.

Belfast Events fitness NI Gym Co HYROX Juice Jar muscle soreness Newforge sponsorship

Written by Zolene

Zolene is a massage therapist with more than fifteen years of hands-on experience. She created Muscle Mint in Northern Ireland, UK, for the minutes after effort.

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