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Rucking: A Concise Guide
What is Rucking? Rucking comes from the German word "Rücken" meaning back, combined with "sack" for what you're carrying. It’s walking with a weighted backpack, not for a destination, but as a workout to improve endurance, strength, and mental resilience.
Benefits of Rucking Rucking is simple yet effective for anyone able to walk. It improves aerobic conditioning, strength, posture, and mental health. Rucking combines the benefits of walking with an elevated heart rate, simulating the impact of jogging but with less stress on the joints.
Gear Essentials
- Backpack: Choose between framed or frameless packs. For most fitness needs, an internal frame rucksack is more comfortable. Ensure a snug fit and balance your load properly.
- Footwear: Combat boots are required in the military, but for fitness, use minimalist shoes that provide enough support without excessive cushioning. Gradually adjust to less support to strengthen your feet and ankles.
Technique and Terrain Rucking can be done on any terrain, but for mental and physical benefits, natural trails are ideal. When walking, maintain good posture: head up, shoulders back, core engaged, and use short, controlled strides. Focus on walking heel-to-toe while engaging your glutes.
Ruck Training for Beginners Start with a 2-4 interval walk ( could be a block or a mile ) carrying 15-25 lbs. Progress weekly by adding either 5-10 lbs or 1-2 additional intervals. Aim for 60 minutes per session, keeping your heart rate in the 125-135 bpm range. If you don't want to increase weight or increase the number of intervals you could focus on increasing the speed of each interval. It takes a while for your body to get used to covering flat ground while wearing a weighted vest so be careful before attempting hilly terrain.
Upper Body Stiffness To alleviate stiffness, periodically raise your arms overheard and rotate your shoulders to maintain mobility.
Foot Pain If you experience any foot soreness start doing foot extensions ( forward and backward ) both before and after each rucking session. I would also make sure your shoes have good support and you wear 2 pairs of socks. My doctor also told me to never walk bare foot as this can lead to foot pain or make any foot soreness you have worse - Since I started doing the foot extensions after rucking and not walking in my bare feet I haven't had any foot soreness.
After I was rucking for a while I started incorporating exercises such as push-ups and planks into my routine - One time I was rucking at dusk and I decided to do some push-ups - A woman driving a car stopped, asked if I was alright and offered to call 911 for me. Another time I was rucking again at dusk and I decided to do some planks - I man walking his dog shined his flashlight on me and asked if I fell. Both times it took a while to convince these people that I didn't fall and that I was just exercising.
If you are interested in starting a Rucking program I recommend the Gymnastics Power Weighted Vest as that is the vest I use and it can be be found on Amazon at the following link just below the Amazon logo
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Weight Lifting
I just purchased an abs stimulator ( NewPine Fitness Belt ) from Amazon which I will be using starting this week. While I Ruck, Weight Lift and do a lot of floor exercises ( Crunches, Planks, Reverse Sit-Ups etc. ) this is a product that I feel can help to improve the definition of my abs. If you would like to work on the definition of your abs this item can be found on Amazon at the following link just below the Amazon logo.
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