How DEKA Has Built Its Own Lane in the Hybrid Fitness Space
From HYROX to the Hybrid Games to the Deadly Dozen and the Turf Games, hybrid competitions and races have been gaining momentum for some time now, and demand only seems to keep growing.
Today, Spartan DEKA is in the spotlight.
The DEKA Story
After six years at Spartan Race and watching their races “pull 20 million people off the couch with the mud and barbed wire,” Yancy Culp had an idea for a different kind of race.
- His vision was to create a “globally recognized sport designed for all levels,” he explained to the Morning Chalk Up.
In 2019, Culp pitched his idea to Spartan founder Joe De Sena, and the DEKA FIT concept was born. Now it was time to figure out the details of the standardized race.
- “We rented an old abandoned Kmart in downtown Denver, Colorado, and for three-and-a-half months, we started testing the plan,” said Culp, who has been involved in the fitness space for 30 years.
The testing process included people of all levels, including CrossFit Games athletes, lifestyle fitness enthusiasts, and even people who were out of shape, with the goal of creating a hybrid fitness test anyone can do.
- “I said, ‘We’re not leaving here until everybody has crossed the finish line, using the exact same standards. I don’t want Rx and scaled,” Culp remembered.
The result: Ten functional fitness stations, each preceded by a 500m run, that can be completed individually, in pairs, or in teams of four.
DEKA FIT
- 500m run
- 30 alternating reverse lunges
- 500m run
- 500m row
- 500m run
- 20 box jumps or step-overs
- 500m run
- 25 med ball sit-up throws
- 500m run
- 500m SkiErg
- 500m run
- 100m farmers carry
- 500m run
- 25-cal air bike
- 500m run
- 20 deadball yolk over
- 500m run
- 100m sled push/pull (with magnetic resistance sleds)
- 500m run
- 20 weighted burpees
Seven years later, Spartan DEKA is in 14 countries, and tens of thousands of people have participated in a DEKA event since 2019.
Like HYROX, DEKA hosts several large-scale events each year—each with around 2,000 participants—and the season culminates in a World Championship.
Because you’re wondering: A sub-30-minute DEKA FIT time is considered world-class for men, and for women, sub-32 minutes is “cyborg level,” Culp said.
- At one point, 2013 CrossFit Games champion Sam Briggs held the DEKA FIT world record, and HYROX World Champion Lauren Weeks currently holds the women’s world record.
One Big Thing
Arguably the biggest factor driving DEKA’s growth since 2019 — similar to the Deadly Dozen — is its affiliate program.
To become a DEKA affiliate, gym owners pay $159 per month and keep a percentage of registration fees from any event they host. In exchange, Spartan sends T-shirts and medals and provides access to its worldwide leaderboard.
- Culp estimates that DEKA currently has 600 affiliated gyms hosting 8,000 events worldwide, with each event typically drawing 50 to 100 participants.
This model lets most affiliate gyms earn between $5,000 and $20,000 in revenue from DEKA events, depending on how many they host.
- “It’s a very nice revenue generator. We even had one gym make $11,000 with one registration for one event. That’s a game changer for a gym,” Culp added.
Worth noting: Affiliated gym events don’t normally feature the DEKA FIT race. Instead, gyms host the DEKA MILE, DEKA STRONG, and DEKA ATLAS.
- DEKA STRONG is the same as DEKA FIT; however, each run is only 160m rather than 500m. DEKA STRONG is the 10-station event with no running, and DEKA ATLAS is a 10-event strength test. Finally, DEKA ULTRA is five consecutive DEKA FIT races.
The Big Picture
As hybrid fitness continues to expand, DEKA is clearly carving out its own place in the increasingly competitive space. But Culp is confident in what DEKA brings to the market.
- “It definitely feels like a hybrid fitness arms race out there, but we are maniacally focused on staying in our own lane, and we will never shy away from our focus. Ninety percent of our focus is on those gym events, where anyone can step off the street and compete at an official Spartan DEKA event, and keep going back to those events,” Culp said.
He added: “We want 3,000-plus gyms hosting 10,000 events a year, and 10 years from now, people will say Spartan DEKA completely changed the game of celebrating and testing fitness.”
