Rucking is walking with a weighted backpack. A “rucksack” is the military name for a backpack containing all the necessary gear a soldier needs. These bags weigh around 200 pounds and have been used for rucking as a training exercise for decades.
Soldiers sometimes ruck up to 25 miles a day, but the distance they travel and how often they ruck will depend on their specific military occupation. While rucking is most well-known because of the military, anyone can participate if they want to get in shape, and it has recently become a popular recreational exercise for civilians.
Not much is required to ruck, just a backpack with a lot of weight and walking, but it benefits your lower back muscles, burns calories, and reduces fat.
Burning Calories
A typical walk will burn 125 calories every 30 minutes. If you throw on a weighted backpack, you will burn up 325 calories in that same walk. Adding enough weight can help to burn almost three times as many calories, making it a great way to stay in shape.
Easing and Preventing Back Pain
One of the most common reasons for back pain is because people sit incorrectly. When sitting, many people flex their back forward because it is initially easier, but if you continue to sit forward, you could develop a hunch and back pain. If your body is hunched over and you perform other activities such as weightlifting, you could develop disc bulges and have severe back problems.
If this disc bulge develops, you will lean forward when you walk, putting extra stress on your lower back muscles trying to hold up your torso.
Rucking can prevent these issues because the weighted backpack forces your torso to stay upright and relieve some of the lower back pain.
Building Endurance
Rucking offers similar benefits to jogging when it comes to endurance, but unlike jogging, it can help you resist injuries. Rucking forces the body to maintain good posture and hip stability, decreasing the chances of injury.
Success in the Gym
Successfully covering large distances with weight on your back will make lifting in the gym look much easier.
Many people who go to the gym think that, because they are there, they have already done the hard work. The missing link is the determination to push through an efficient workout routine without cutting yourself short.
If you can walk miles with 35 pounds on your back for hours, then an hour workout at the gym will be easy. Rucking provides an excellent foundation for other forms of fitness as it takes time, so short workouts will seem less satisfactory and leave you feeling like you need to do more.
Rucking also provides the benefit of fitness outside of the gym and gets you in touch with nature. The same monotonous routines can be beneficial but boring. An hour-long ruck in the outdoors can leave you rejuvenated.
How to Ruck
Rucking is an easy, inexpensive, and effective form of exercising. Meanwhile, gym equipment can be expensive, and a gym membership can slowly cut into your earnings.
Rucking is simple. You have to first choose your loadout, which is how much weight you will carry. It is important to start at about 10% of your body weight and slowly work your way up to 35 pounds. The most efficient items to use for weight are sandbags and dumbbells, but other items like rocks can also work.
Ease yourself into rucking by starting with a smaller weight and a shorter distance until you’ve built up your endurance.
If you are new to rucking, you can expect your butt, knees, and lower back to be sore after the walk, but if you want to get in shape and reduce the risk of injury, then rucking is a great solution.
