What Is Rucking & Why It’s A Great Workout
Walking is one of the most accessible forms of exercise, but did you know you can take this workout to another level to really help you boost your strength and endurance. Enter rucking. Rucking is an often underrated or unknown workout that blends strength, endurance, cardio, and even mindfulness into one powerful practice. So what exactly is rucking and why should you add it to your fitness routine? Let’s explore more about it in this post.
What Is Rucking?
Rucking comes from the military where soldiers often march long distances carrying weighted packs (or “rucksacks”) with essential gear. This practice has been a fundamental part of military training for centuries, designed to build the physical and mental resilience needed for demanding conditions. In fitness terms, rucking is walking or hiking while carrying a weighted backpack. You don’t need special equipment to get started, just a sturdy backpack, some weight to add to your backpack like books or water bottles. By adding weight to your back, you transform a low-impact walk into a full-body challenge that elevates your heart rate and engages muscles from your shoulders to your legs. It’s a simple concept with a profound impact on your overall fitness.
What Are The Benefits Of Rucking?
Rucking isn’t just about making your walks harder, but it also offers a wide range of benefits that can improve your physical and mental well-being.
Builds Full-Body Strength
Carrying a weighted pack forces your muscles to work harder. Your back, shoulders, and core must engage to stabilize the load, building postural strength and endurance. Your legs, glutes, and hips do the heavy lifting, and your lower body gets stronger from this. Rucking is an active form of resistance training that builds functional strength for everyday life.
Boosts Cardiovascular Health
Adding weight increases the intensity of your walk, causing your heart to pump harder to supply oxygen to your working muscles. This makes rucking an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise. Regular rucking can help improve heart health, lower blood pressure, and increase your overall endurance. It allows you to get your heart rate into a beneficial zone. A beneficial zone for heart rate is your target heart rate zone⎯typically 50-85% of your maximum heart rate. If you don’t know your maximum heart rate, you can estimate this zone by gauging your level of breathing and finding the zone where you are able to talk, but with some interruptions for hard breathing. So it’s not a conversational pace.
Burns More Calories
Because your body is working harder to carry the extra weight, you burn about 2-3 times more calories than you would on a standard walk. This is what makes rucking such an efficient workout because the pace is steady and less intense than other workouts, but you’re still burning a lot of calories.
Low-Impact
Rucking is a low-impact activity because the movement is a natural walking motion, which reduces the risk of joint strain and injury. This makes it a sustainable form of exercise for people of all ages and fitness levels. If running is hard on your joints, this is a great way to get many of the same cardio and endurance benefits.
Improves Posture & Reduces Back Pain
With the right form, rucking can actually help improve your posture. The weight on your back encourages you to pull your shoulders back and stand up straighter. Strengthening the muscles in your back and core provides better support for your spine, which can help alleviate chronic back pain.
Builds Mental Grit
Rucking is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. Pushing through discomfort and completing a long ruck builds mental resilience and discipline. It teaches you to persevere through challenges, a skill that translates to all areas of your life. Plus, spending time outdoors while exercising is a proven way to reduce stress and improve your mood.
How To Get Started With Rucking
Getting started with rucking is easy, and you don’t need expensive equipment. Here are some tips for beginners.
1. Choose The Right Backpack
You can use any backpack you already own, but be sure it’s sturdy and has padded shoulder straps to distribute the weight evenly to prevent chafing. As you start rucking more, you might consider investing in a dedicated rucksack designed for durability and comfort for long distances.
2. Add Weight Gradually
Start light because you don’t want to overdo it and push your body when it’s not ready. A common recommendation for beginners is to start with a weight that is about 10% of your body weight. You can use dumbbells wrapped in a towel for padding, books, water bottles, or canned goods to add weight to your pack. As you get stronger and more comfortable, you can gradually increase the weight. The key is to challenge yourself without overdoing it, so you don’t get injured.
3. Focus On Proper Form
Maintaining good posture is key when rucking. Keep your back straight, your shoulders back, and your core engaged. Avoid leaning too far forward or slouching. Take shorter, quicker steps than you would on a normal walk to maintain balance and to reduce impact on your joints. Let your arms swing naturally to help propel you forward.
4. Wear The Right Footwear
Wear comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots that provide good ankle support and cushioning. Proper footwear will help prevent blisters and reduce the strain on your feet and legs, allowing you to ruck comfortably for longer distances.
5. Plan Your Route
Start with shorter distances on relatively flat terrain for about 1-2 miles. As your fitness improves, you can increase both the distance and the difficulty of the terrain. Incorporating hills and varied landscapes will make your workouts more challenging and fun.
As you can see, rucking is a great exercise that doesn’t involve a complicated routine to improve your fitness. It’s an accessible, scalable, and highly effective workout that combines the best parts of cardio and strength training. Whether you want to build endurance, get stronger, or simply spend more time outdoors, rucking is a great exercise to try. So grab a backpack, add a little weight, and head out into nature, or join the Unstill Life Half-Fast Walk & Run group on a Wednesday or Saturday and ruck a route with us. You might discover that this is your new favorite workout!
Seattle Outdoor Workouts and Run & Walk Group
If you’re in the Seattle area, check out Unstill Life’s outdoor workouts and walk/run group. It isn’t only about exercise, but about community, motivation, and working towards goals. Our group offers a supportive environment no matter what your fitness level is. We have morning park workouts (6:30am and 9:30am) and our walking and running group meets on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm, or join us for a Saturday neighborhood route. Get a great workout while connecting with amazing people! Sign up for our weekly newsletter so you know where we’re meeting each week. Sign up for our weekly newsletter so you know where we’re meeting each week.
Check out Unstill Life on Heylo, a fitness community app. You’ll see our classes and runs listed, see photos, and chat us up.
