What is Rucking, and Is It Right for Me?

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The concept of rucking isn’t exactly new, but its inclusion as a form of endurance training is popping up more and more, including the official term rucking. So exactly what is rucking, and is it right for you? The answer is almost certainly yes, as you’ll see below!

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Table of Contents

What is Rucking?

Rucking is the act of walking or hiking with weight on your back, often a weighted pack. It is a great lower impact form of strength training, and is an ideal form of training for long endurance hikes, trail runs, or challenging uphill treks.

Rucking Focuses on 3 Main Things:

Weight – the amount of weight you can carry
Distance / Duration – how far and for how many hours
Pace – how fast you can move with weight (between 15 – 20 mph is the sweet spot, with 15 mph being the military standard)

Where Did Rucking Originate From?

Modern day rucking as a form of training has its roots in the military. But if you really think about it, rucking has been around forever, and we ruck in various forms throughout our lives without even realizing it. Yes, rucking to train can look like hiking with a weighted pack, but you also ruck if you carry your baby in a back sling, or carry a backpack full of books for school, or move materials by carrying them repeatedly on your back for work. Humanity is quite familiar with rucking, but we are just now beginning to see it in a broader lens in terms of training.

*Rucking has its origins in the military*

What are the Benefits of Rucking?

There are a surprising amount of benefits to rucking:

It’s low cost – no additional, expensive, or specific gear is really necessary, beyond what you’re probably already using on the trails. If you have day pack, it’s just about hiking or walking with it weighted.

It’s simple – no fancy moves, or specific necessary equipment, just hiking and walking with weight on your back. You can use what you already have in your hiking inventory to get started with rucking. Supportive shoes are highly recommended (just as they would be for regular, unweighted hiking and walking)

You can get creative – I ruck all the time by hiking with my toddler in his Osprey Poco carrier, which currently makes for about a 40 lb weighted ruck. There are lots of creative ways you can add weight to your hike or walk.

Pairs Strength Training and Cardio – rucking is a fantastic and simple way to pair these two things together through resistance training. You get the benefits of cardio plus the benefits of strength training thanks to the weight. You’ll build muscle, strength, and endurance with rucking. More bang for your buck. And you can burn about 3 x the calories versus just regular unweighted walking or hiking.

Builds Muscles and Muscle Groups – as mentioned above, rucking targets muscles. Specifically, muscle groups in your back, core, abs, quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes – clearly it’s a full body workout!

Improves Posture, Form, Balance, and Mechanics – especially with hiking, rucking can actually improve your hiking posture, form, and mechanics. The weight on your back will “pull” your shoulders back, which helps to enable proper posture. When hiking or walking, you should always maintain an upright position and avoid leaning too far forward or backward, or hunching over. Rucking helps to naturally prevent these sometimes subconscious responses. Especially on uphills and downhills, when our natural tendency is to maintain our center of gravity by leaning forward on uphills, or leaning backwards on downhills. With a weighted back, rucking helps to prevent these over-exaggerated responses in posture and form.

Increases Caloric Burn – rucking can burn around 3 x as many calories as an unweighted hike or walk. Just how much of an increase depends on how much weight and your rucking pace.

It’s Low Impact – all these benefits and it is still low impact, which is great over the long run for injury prevention and combating overuse!

How to Start Rucking

Add weight to your back and get going. That’s the start. Where you go from there is up to you.

For most people, that’s getting a pack and adding weight. While there are specific ruck packs made just for rucking, you really don’t need to overthink it that much. Any backpack will do to start. And like I mentioned before, rucking can even look like carrying a 30 pound toddler around in his Osprey Poco carrier, so rucking can look different but still reap the same benefits.

Just like there are specific ruck packs made for rucking, there are also specific rucking weights, but once again you don’t need to overthink it that much or spend money on specific rucking weights. Add a couple liters of water, books, dumbbells, bricks wrapped safely in towels, sandbags, bottled water, canned goods, etc. It really can be anything you can comfortably transport in a pack. Aim to keep the weight as high in the pack as possible, which is why some people roll up a towel to keep at the bottom of the pack, in order to help secure their weight higher in the pack and prevent it from sinking to the bottom. This can also help to minimize unwanted shifting or bouncing in your pack.

As far as starting weights go, if you have zero regular hiking or walking experience, 3-5% of your bodyweight is a good amount to start with. If you have some consistent history and baseline, closer to 5-10% can be appropriate. Generally most ruckers also consider around 10 lbs to be a good starting point for rucking weight.

For a more intense workout, you’ll aim to add more weight, and/or hike or walk faster. Either of these increases will burn more calories and improve your cardio workout, while gaining on strength and endurance. Of course, as with all training, you’ll want to add these weight and pace increases gradually and incrementally.

Start on Week 1 with a 10 lb weight, then move to 15 on Week 4, then move to 20 on Week 8, etc. Limit your initial rucking hikes and walks to 1-2 times per week, as you get accustomed to the process.

Over time, as you increase the weight and pace of your rucking hikes and walks, you can also begin to increase the distances (in gradual increments) for the most benefit.

Beginner Rucking Workout Example

An example of a beginner rucking workout might look something like this:

Weeks 1-4:

1-2 hikes a week of 2 miles each with 10 pounds, aiming for a 20 mph pace

Weeks 5-8:

2 – 3 hikes a week of 3 miles each with 15 pounds, aiming for 18 mph pace

Weeks 9-12:

3 hikes a week of 4 miles each with 20 pounds, aiming for a 15 mph pace

And so on….

Rucking FAQs

Answers to some common beginner questions about rucking.

How Much Weight is Too Much?

Generally speaking, traditionally it is recommended to not go past 1/3rd of your body weight. For example, if you weigh 135 pounds, it would be recommended that you not ruck with more than 45 pounds (and that you work up to that amount of weight gradually).

What’s More Important, Weight or Distance?

If you’re considering this question, the better workout is to ruck longer with less weight.

What Gear Do You Need to Start?

Pack
Weights (can be rucking plates, books, bricks wrapped in towels, a toddler in a carrier, etc)
Supportive shoes

What are Common Everyday “Weights” You Can Use to Get Started Rucking?

Dumbbells
Water Bottles
Sandbags
Books
Wrapped Bricks
Canned Goods
Or my personal favorite go to – toddlers
Etc…

Additional Ways to Incorporate Rucking?

There are other low impact ways to train and workout that are aligned and related to rucking.

Weighted steps ups and step downs – step up and step downs are great strength training without weight, but even better weighted. Step up and downs are also great training for long distance endurance events or challenging uphill hikes when you may not have the natural resources to train on (flatlanders, no natural elevation gain or significant uphill local trails).

Additional strength training movements – incorporating weight to do rucking style weighted lunges, squats, etc., can intensify your strength training workout. As always though, work up to this type of rucking workout gradually and in increments, and make sure that you are maintaining proper posture and form.

You can do rucking style workouts with the following exercises:

Lunges
Squats
Burpees
Mountain Climbers
Step Ups
Step Downs
Planks
Push Ups
Pull Ups
Bear Crawls
Etc…

Why Do I Ruck?

I ruck mostly as a way to include my toddler in my outdoor time and workouts. However, with consistent practice, I immediately begin to see the benefits to rucking beyond just the quality time in the outdoors. Many muscle groups, notably my leg and back muscles, are much stronger. Hiking up significant elevation gains and/or longer distances is notably “easier” and I have rucking to thank for that I believe. Rucking is also a more “tolerable” way for me to strength train, while being able to hike and enjoy the outdoors the way I like. I regularly hike challenging hikes like the Grand Canyon’s Rim to Rim, or California’s Mt. Whitney, and being a flatlander from Texas it’s challenging for me to find the natural uphill training. Rucking on local trails is a great supplement for me, as it is a great form of additional strength training for exploits like these.