Rucking: What It Is and How to Do It

I wrote an article some time ago about physically preparing for combat in mountainous terrain. One of the critical aspects of this preparation was foot marching. I’d like to explore and expand upon this concept of foot marching, also known as ruckmarching, or “rucking” for short, because it’s an activity with many benefits, and can be a tremendously effective addition to your physical training program.

The Definition of Rucking

The term “rucksack,” first used in the United Kingdom and later adopted by many other countries including the U.S., originated from the German word describing a location on the body—“the back” (der Rücken)—combined with the word for what was being carried—a sack.

If you’ve ever been on a long afternoon walk over a pleasurable scenic route through nature while carrying supplies in a backpack, then you’ve been rucking. But unlike backpacking, which has a primary purpose of the hike and destination, when you are rucking, you are purposefully marching—conditioning yourself to travel long distances on varied terrain, carrying weight for the express purpose of physical training.

The Benefits of Rucking

Rucking is applicable to everyone who has the physical ability to walk. Besides being historically the most simple and effective way to prepare a soldier for duty, it is also a fantastic way to improve aerobic conditioning, strength, posture, and mental health.

Rucking gets you outdoors and offers you the elevated heart rate of jogging at the more moderate pace—and less impactful activity—of walking, by strapping a load to your back. These infrequent long-slow distance (LSD) sessions are important for building a wide aerobic base to use as the platform for increased anaerobic performances. Unloaded walking uses your bodyweight for resistance, which is fixed, and speed as the intensity variable. But the velocity in our walking gait has a low ceiling, allowing only the deconditioned among us to even begin to stimulate a conditioning effect.

For those who are better conditioned than your typical sedentary coach potato, another variable must be introduced for increased intensities: loading. Additionally, using rucking for your LSD work provides a natural mental benefit that you can’t quite seem to get from jogging. Get out on a natural trail and explore your world once per week, then dump your anti-depressants (full disclosure: I’m not a doc).

What the Army Doesn’t Tell You About Rucking

To use this tool properly, you need to understand how to apply it. Reading through the U.S. Army’s field manual, number 21-18, “Foot Marches,” leaves one with a lot of guessing to do. Amended in 1990, this manual contains comprehensive information with respect to the logistics of tactically relocating a lot of foot soldiers and their equipment between point A and point B, affording them the energy reserves to be mission-ready upon arrival. But little is mentioned about how to train this activity. What I learned in the service about how to ruck was handed down from NCO to NCO, and was not found in field manuals. Not surprisingly, we did a lot of things wrong. I’ve learned a lot through my experiences since then.

Perusing some of the literature available online written about rucking also leaves one wanting. People have sent me some of these works over the years and my reading of some of the methods discussed have left me feeling anywhere from disappointed to downright annoyed. The disconnect between what works in reality and what some authors recommend is in some cases complete and in others just embarrassing.

Many of these programs focus on some brand of military operator selection course preparation, even those that are marketed to recreational hikers and fitness enthusiasts. They seem to imply we all need to train like prospective operators, or we’re not really training. Preparing for a rigorous military selection course differs from rucking for basic conditioning—for both the soldier and recreational athlete alike. The basic movement and logistics are the same, but the programming is different.

I will take the reader from A-Z: how to prep your gear, how to walk, how to program, and why. This will serve as a multi-purpose use tool, whether you aim to improve your general fitness, or prepare for a more rigorous professional requirement.

First: Your Rucking Gear

Whether you are rucking for aerobic conditioning, soldiering, or selection, you need quality gear that fits. Many elements are important to a successful experience, such as comfortable clothes, safety equipment, and protection from the elements, but I will focus on the two most important here: your pack and your footwear.

Your Pack

Packs are available in two styles: framed or frameless. Frameless packs are essentially schoolbook bags. Framed packs are offered with internal or external frames, the latter usually requiring some assembly.

Just about every rucksack comes with some kind of internal skeleton. Externally framed packs can carry more weight, but are less comfortable. An external frame can also be rigged for other uses, such as carrying elk-meat out of the woods or this crafty weapon used during the Vietnam conflict and later popularized by Jesse Ventura’s character in the movie Predator: 

Predator Rucking Pack
Jesse Ventura’s rucking gear.

If you use an externally framed pack, ensure that you assemble it properly, or you will make it even more uncomfortable than it tends to already be. For those in military service, you will likely be issued an externally framed pack, so you will need to get used to this type of rucksack.

For recreation or physical fitness training, however, internally framed packs are more appropriate. They are more comfortable and can carry more than enough weight for most applications. Any named rucksack distributor offers high-quality merchandise, and you will pay for it. However, it is worth spending near $200USD on a good pack, even if you are using it for general fitness only.

Get a pack that fits you—ensure that you can pull the straps tight enough to cinch down on your shoulder girdle, leaving little space underneath your armpits. You don’t need to fasten your waist or sternum straps for a conditioning walk on relatively flat terrain. However, if you will be running an obstacle course or climbing up steep terrain, it may be a good idea to fasten these straps.

Learn to pack your ruck properly: keep the load’s center of mass close to you. Placing the weight lower in the pack, making it closer to your hips is recommended, but I like it a bit higher. You should experiment with the placement of the load to discover where you like it. It’s also important that the load is balanced from left to right and stable in the pack. This takes some practice to get right, so don’t minimize this task’s importance.

Because packs with internal frames place the gear right up against your back, pack the items such that they do not jab you while you are wearing your rucksack. Nothing is more uncomfortable than getting speared by camping gear while you walk. When you are using your pack for a purpose, such as carrying supplies on a hike, your load will be the total weight of your needs. When training, you can craft any item(s) into a load for resistance.

Sand bags are great tool to use for a training load. You can fill them with various amounts of weight and they conform well inside the pack and up against your back. I use bags of cement varying in weight and wrapped in 100-mile/hour (duct) tape for protection and durability.

Using weights while rucking
I use bags of cement varying in weight and wrapped in duct tape.

These are very comfortable to carry for long durations and are available cheaply at your local home improvement store. I’ve heard of using bricks, rocks, kettlebells, pots and pans, etc., but I would recommend setting yourself up with something more comfortable. Even old textbooks work well.

Your Shoes

If you’re in the service, your footwear is chosen for you: combat boots. You have to train as you fight, so you’ll be rucking in your boots. Make sure they fit well: press your heel to the back of the boot and ensure you have enough room off the front of the toe, but not too much. Your feet will swell when you ruck, so don’t wear boots that are too tight, and try them on in whatever thickness socks you are going to wear.

Modern boots do not require the break-in period that the old leather boot used to, but to avoid unnecessary foot issues, do break in your new boots a bit before you hit the road. If you don’t need to be in uniform on your walk, unblouse your trouser legs and lace your boots like below, using two sets of laces for each boot, the bottom lace tighter, to hold your foot in place, and the upper lace looser, to allow your lower leg room to swell.

How to lace boots for rucking

For the rest of us, I advocate some type of “less” shoe. Not a true minimalist shoe, but one with less support, and minimal heel-toe drop. The Native Americans populated the Americas barefoot or while wearing a thin layer of animal skins on their feet. Let me say it outright: I don’t advocate barefoot running or hiking. I advocate minimal, but sufficient footwear (though I have witnessed more than a few hikers coming off the Appalachian Trail in flip-flops).

If you are overweight (either excessive adipose or muscle tissue) and run for exercise on dense surfaces, then you’ll probably want more cushion than a true barefoot shoe provides. If you are normal weight for your structure and run on softer terrain, then you can go with as little support as possible. This will be an individual choice and experience.

Wearing footwear that allows your foot to be close to the ground will minimize the chances of rolling your ankle, making the ankle support characteristics of boots unnecessary. This lets your own lower leg strength adapt to support your ankle stability. Boots also provide far too much arch and foot support. The more support your foot has, the less it has to navigate the ground and support your body weight, which is unhealthy for your legs and feet.

The work your feet and legs have to do with minimal support maintains the strength and balance within these structures, reversing or preventing muscle atrophy. Many cases of lower leg and foot pain can be traced back to weak and atrophied foot and lower leg muscles not doing their part to support the foot’s arch. So for your training, less support and stabilization is better, but jumping from spending 24/7 in a highly stabilizing and supportive boot to none at all will cause some growing pains.

Be smart, and gradually reduce external foot support. Give your feet and lower legs adequate time to re-adapt to the task of supporting your body—take up to three to six months to work into less shoe. Finally, make sure your footwear fits properly, and play with different lacing techniques. I use this: 

Lacing shoes for rucking

You may wonder why I’m advocating minimal shoes instead of hiking boots. I’m not saying that boots have no place in hiking—they provide protection from the elements, support to your feet and ankles in harsh terrain, and can allow you a better foothold in some cases. In your training, however, why not take the time to also stimulate the proper functioning of the foot and lower legs?

The Proper Terrain for Rucking

Select any terrain or trail that suits you. You can ruckmarch around your subdivision with a loaded pack, getting your training time in, but you may not reap the mental health benefits. Don’t walk too far on heavily crowded roads, and change sides periodically if you must. Choose a terrain which most matches your application: if you’re headed for a selection course in sand, clay, and hilly terrain, do less hardball time (i.e., rucking on firm or paved surfaces—though some training here will be necessary) and more time on a surface similar to your target environment.

For general recreation and fitness, just get out and enjoy nature. Challenge your body to navigate the natural terrain. You can find guided trails in most locations, or simply go off-road and make your own trail. A charged-up GPS and cell phone as well as other emergency precautions may apply. I personally do most of my rucking on the roads, occasionally driving to a trail. I enjoy the convenience of walking right out my front door.

Rucking Technique

How to walk. This seems so obvious that I should just skip over it. No. My clinical experience analyzing human locomotion indicates many people do not walk properly, even without a load on their back, so let’s check this box. Rucking is an excellent opportunity to improve and reinforce your natural walking gait—the one that strengthens your body rather than adding stress and dysfunction.

Walking gait is a heel-to-toe affair that should incorporate the entire body. A stiffened spine should resist trunk motion while the arms and legs transfer force into the ground. So, the core must be strong enough to tie together Dr. Mark’s four knots. Or, Geoff and Tim’s “X” must be tight and resilient. The opposite arms and legs must work together during contralateral locomotion by transferring their respective forces through the trunk. Rucking can develop spinal integrity and core resilience like no other activity.

Stand up tall, take short but frequent strides, and drive your arms hard. The description from top to bottom: keep your head up with your eyes looking out ten to fifteen feet in front of you, using your peripheral vision to navigate the ground directly below your feet. Do not walk with your head down. You may need to drop your head periodically to negotiate obstacles (don’t step on smaller items in your path—step around them), but always seek good cervical spine alignment.

Unloaded walking gait

“Anti-shrug” your shoulders under the straps of the pack. Don’t pull them down hard, but do keep them down and back. The straps of the pack provide a traction-like effect on the muscles of your upper body, as they press down on your shoulder girdle. Use the long duration of the walk under this effect as a tool to open up your chest and increase thoracic spine mobility. Continually check yourself for shrugging or rounding your shoulders forward, and reset them as you go. The postural improvement you can gain here can be phenomenal, if you stay aware of your positioning while you walk.

Keep your midline (the space on your abdomen between your sternum and pubic bone) neutral, that is to say, slightly hollowed. Practice this by standing up and crunching, as in the exercise—close your midline. This is trunk flexion. Now do the opposite—open your midline. This is trunk extension. Staying a bit hollow is to keep your midline slightly closed. Practice this often.

Think of a crisp and sharp kettlebell swing. The desired position while walking is similar to the plank position at the top of the swing. Keep your hips open and extended. Only a very heavy load on your back should cause some hip flexion, but this should be minimized. Your center of gravity shifts rearward as a function of the weight in your pack. Try to offset this shift by leaning forward at your ankles, and less than your hips: 

Proper rucking posture

Bipedal walking, as in human locomotion, resembles an upside-down pendulum. Find this balance between almost falling over forward and backward with the different center of gravity that the load creates, and offset it at the ankles through your stride. You will step out to the front less with a heavier pack and more with a lighter one, but this difference will be within a small margin.

With practice and attention to this, you will get this balance right, and minimize hip flexion. As I like to say, “Walk on your glutes.” Keep these muscles clenched and feel them drive your legs back. This important part of locomotion will help to keep your hips open and balanced. Your knees should naturally get into the correct angle: greater going up hill, and less going downhill. While you can just about let your knees do what they do naturally, your feet are a different story.

You need to concentrate on what your feet are doing. Your stride should be short, landing on the heel or heel/midfoot. As your leg accelerates through the stride, actively push off the ground through your great toe. Your legs are close to extension while walking, so focus on using them as long levers, swinging the ankles about the hips. The glutes (and hamstrings) are to the rear of the leg driving it back, and the hip flexors are to the front, swinging them forward. If you can’t feel this action during your walk, try my two-hand overspeed swings, focusing on the tug-of-war between the opposing body lines, posterior versus anterior:

The concert of your glutes, hamstrings, and quads forcefully catapult the kettlebell forward, then the lats, abdominals, and hip flexors catch it and throw it back into the hinge. This is a similar action to what you should feel as you walk, though with one leg at a time.

Proprioceptively, you should feel your elbow and humerus on one side of your body connected to your knee and femur on the other as you walk. The limbs on opposite sides move together. The momentum of the same side arm counters the motion of the same side leg; and the force of the opposite side arm both pulls the leg forward, and drives it backward by it’s action through the “X”. It may take some time to develop this feeling—do some more crawling.

Gait during rucking

To summarize the technique, keep your head up, shoulders down and back, midline hollowed, hips open, and walk on your glutes while deliberately swinging your arms. This takes practice to master, so practice while you’re walking around during the day as well. This description of rucking technique is in stark contrast to what I first learned: “Put your head down and stay with me,” Sergeant Bo demanded of me on my first team ruckmarch. Learn from my mistakes.

View the ruckmarch not as a task to be finished, like a more conventional fitness goal, but as postural and locomotion practice. Feel the posture of your body and its movements and it will make you a stronger walker. Through this practice of high-quality walking, you will complete your distance goals. Build up to a very brisk walk, but do not run.

If You Get Stiff While Rucking

You will likely experience some stiffness in your upper body during your walk with a loaded pack. From time to time during your walk, do this drill: continue to drive the legs through your midsection as you interlace your fingers in front of your upper chest. Then, raise your elbows to the sky while your interlaced fingers remain in front of your upper chest. Then, force your hands overhead, fingers still interlaced. Rotate your shoulders around—protract and retract your scapulae—with your fingers still interlaced. Then, release your hands, and slowly lower your arms until they point out to the sides, like a cross. Rotate your shoulders some more: like pouring a pitcher of water forward and backward. Then, make larger arm circles before re-cinching your pack’s straps and anti-shrugging your shoulders back down into normal arm carriage. Seek to keep your midline a bit hollow the whole time, and don’t chicken neck during this drill. This periodic flexing and rotating is great for shoulder health and mobility, and will help to open the chest and thoracic spine.

Ruck Training for Basic Conditioning

If you decide to add rucking to your training, please, start out light and short, depending upon your experience. However strong or conditioned you currently are, if you’ve never endured under a load, you will run the risk of joint pain or injury. Start out with a distance between 2-4 miles, carrying 15-25lbs of weight. Walk once per week, and increase only one of these variables each week: either 5-10lbs or 1-2 miles.

Use nasal breathing to guide your pace—you literally should be able to keep a conversation going. For basic fitness conditioning, working up to 60 minutes ruck once per week, with a load that gets your heart rate to an average of 125-135bpm (age dependent) is sufficient. You can use a heart rate monitor or the “180 minus your age” formula to calculate your target, but there’s no need to get particular about it.

First, maximize your speed and give your body time to adapt to walking briskly with a loaded pack. When, and only when, you have achieved your max walking speed, then add weight to your initial 15-25lb load until you acquire the appropriate heart rate. It’s really this simple—your basic LSD work applied to ruckmarching.

Basic program:

  • Practice posture/walking.
  • Increase speed to max.
  • Slowly increase load or distance until desired length and weight is met.

Soldiering and Higher-End Recreation

For specific applications, such as basic soldiering or selection preparation, you’ll need to do more than the above. For basic soldiering, maintain the frequency, but increase the distance and load. Highly dependent on your career field, rucking 8 miles each week with 35lbs is the minimum. Be able to cover this distance on the hardball in around two hours, and over terrain in about 2.5 hours without running. And be prepared to go out to 12-15 miles every once in a while, or when required. The U.S. Army’s standard is 12 miles in 3 hours with 35lbs, rifle, Kevlar-helmet, and boots/BDUs (a former duty uniform moniker).

Ruck Training for Selection

For selection course prep, you are going to have to get to the point that you enjoy having that “tick” on your back. However, this may be true only for those courses that use loaded packing as a foundational activity. Though many of the operator selection courses across the military have you constantly under a loaded pack, some do not. Most (if not all) do require some sort of timed ruckmarch, so although you will have to be prepared for this specific event, it may not need to be to the extent found in this section.

For the majority of courses, you will likely carry 50lbs+ of dry weight in your pack most of the time. Meaning that during any movement, your home will be your back. So, your prep will have to change from the basic model accordingly. Understand that this course will suck no matter how physically prepared you are, so first, get right—mentally.

You will need to ruck two or three times per week, but there is no need to recreate your training into the event itself. Don’t overdo it. Work up to 50lbs for your longer rucks and walk over both terrain and on the road, though there won’t be much “easy” road walking during the course. Push your long ruck out to 20 miles in small weekly increases. Work up to being comfortable walking at near top speed with this load out to this distance. One of your weekly walks will need to be short and heavy, and this is fine to do on the hardball. Work up to 90-100lbs and be able to go 4-5 miles. Stay postured up as described (as best you can), and walk quickly without running.

If you’re capable of a weekly 10-mile with 40lbs at the start of your training, then you should be ready in sixty to ninety days. You will only need four to six weeks of those very heavy walks in your prep program, including the gradual increases up to the training load. Combine this with a simple but intelligent strength program and one weekly run session.

Remember, don’t turn your training program into your event. You don’t need to meet the intensities, distances, and suck-factor of the event during your training. Train intelligently towards a peak, then “compete” at your course with your acquired abilities. Guys have been making the cut for years with nothing more than rucking, running, and calisthenics. Train smart.

Fuel and Water for Rucking

I’m not going into much depth here but it is important enough to mention. It is better to train yourself to complete your walks without food. Try and ruck early in the day on an empty stomach. Unlike endurance races, you are not in competition with others, and some military applications will require you to perform with a lack of fuel. Rucking on an empty stomach will also improve metabolic flexibility and fatty acid fuel use. Eat well after your hike.

Make sure that you hydrate. Do not underestimate the importance of water intake, especially on the longer walks, and in warmer and humid climates. Dehydration can get out in front of you quickly, and with no warning. Drink plenty of water the night before, try to ruck in the earlier, cooler part of the day, and carry water with you on your walk. Drink water throughout your walk, even if you’re not thirsty. In general, if you’re sweating less, then you’ll need to drink less, but this is highly dependent on a number of variables.

Why You Should Consider Rucking

The number one benefit of rucking is aerobic conditioning. Engaging your body in activities that keep your heart rate at an elevated but moderate rate for an extended period of time improves your aerobic base through adaptations seen at the cellular level. These improvements can only be accomplished by moving at a low intensity for a sustained duration. Perform a search for “mitochondria health,” “metabolic flexibility,” “aerobic base,” and “long-slow distance exercise”. There is plenty of material conveniently available elsewhere on this subject and it is too lengthy for this article.

As opposed to jogging, swimming, biking, or rowing, rucking is easy on the joints, places you in a strong and correct posture, and doesn’t compel the user to “go glycolytic” (using primarily glucose metabolism by training too intensely), as you are already moving at the top speed of your walking gait. You could, of course, load too heavy, find an uphill route, etc., to increase the intensity but you won’t get that feeling of needing to move faster for more conditioning once underway, as the “high” of the exercise-induced endorphins washes over you.

I can’t overemphasize the postural benefits from rucking. If you constantly correct your posture as described, you might just remove some of your constant low-back pain, lack of hip flexibility, and thoracic spine issues. You will most certainly tighten your “X” and build resilience into your trunk. This resilience will reduce your potential for non-collision injury, and increase your performances in other activities.

I’ve been ruckmarching for years and have personally found that it is a fantastic mood elevator; and it seems to be more effective at it than jogging. This may occur because walking both steadies your head closer to static than jogging and produces slower locomotive speeds. These two differences allow you to receive greater and more accurate information about your environment. The further you remove yourself from the vehicles and bustle of the roads and the closer to nature that you can get, the greater the positive effect on your mood.

Coupled with my basic program of crawls, get-ups, and swings, ruckmarching rounds out the resilience producing effects within your chassis, improves your mental health, and establishes a wide-platform of aerobic fitness. Happy trails!

Al Ciampa
Al Ciampa has been a barbell athlete for 25+ years. A former powerlifter and bench press specialist, he has a raw bench press of 605lbs in training and 585lbs in competition, at the time, setting an IPA record. He served in the US Army first as a LRS-D team member, then as director of the Army’s hand-to-hand combat program in the South Korea: Modern Army Combatives Program.

After his service, Al co-opened and led training for a fitness and health and wellness center that served military units and the local public, where he specialized in strength and conditioning and nutrition. Feeling a desire to support the military again, he now works as an exercise physiologist and health educator for the US Air Force, specializing in rehabilitation, strength and conditioning, nutrition, and instructor development.

Al has an MS in sports and health science, is an SFG Level I, and is certified through the FMS, ACSM, and USAW. He has been recognized for excellence by the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Chuck Hagel.

52 thoughts on “Rucking: What It Is and How to Do It

  • Great article. I just got back into fitness hiking and plan to do trekking. I found a Rucking group in my town and love it. I do have issues with name branding everything.. I am using an old Telemark pack from Norway and doing it with 45lbs on. My speeds are naturally better with I flex the weight up and down.. but typically keep a 20m mile at that load with about 700ft of elevation change.
    I have shared your article with my group.. so maybe.. just maybe they will see the otherside of it.. keep healthy and we all should finish together.

  • Great article. Great information that a lot of the public would benefit from.

    As an Army Veteran and former Boy Scout, I’m just now getting back into rucking. And I really see what you mean about helping you with posture. And the pace of rucking allows you time to work on your posture while you walk. I think it’s also really good for your bones.

    This morning I had this epiphany that we humans were meant to walk with our heads up – to scout the horizon for prey and predators. We can glance at the ground now and then to look for obstacles, but keeping the head up works with proper posture.

  • Rucking is awesome, of course I hated it when I was in the Army but have always preferred it to running.

    When I was preparing to earn my silver spurs I went on a forced ruck march 2 to 3 times a week, increasing my weight a little each time. I also made sure to ground my gear and put it back on periodically to help prevent strain and injury during the spur walk, by strengthening the supporting muscles used in taking off and putting on my gear.

  • Love rucking. I am off to walk for a few days in June, sixteen to twenty miles a day with all camping gear etc carried in my old tatty internal framed pack. I started training again yesterday, only four miles with six kilos but it seemed too easy so today put a bit more in the pack and incorporated a couple of steep hills. Over the next few weeks I will work up to the full sixteen miles.
    I start early in the morning, generally before I have eaten, and I do wear my Scarpa hiking boots, since that is what I will be wearing on the walk proper. I loaded my rucksack today with trekking tent, three season sleeping bag, waterproofs, map and book, water, hat and gloves and a few toiletries etc.
    When I did my last long distance walk I did a minimum of sixteen miles a day and maximun of twenty for five days. The pack did seem very heavy despite training walks. After the first ten miles I was shaking!! And the blisters on my feet were pretty painful despite me wearing proper footwear, sock etc. This time I am downsizing the trekking tent for a one man bivvi, getting a smaller sleeping bag with a liner, and a good tip, the bubble wrap “Camping mat”, I found that advice online and also my brother told me to use one. Since I work as part of a recycling team it is no problem to get a piece of bubble wrap which is the same length as me and just wide enough. Takes up hardly any space in the pack.

  • Sir,
    First of all , thank you for article .
    Second , “Try and ruck early in the day on an empty stomach. ” is the worst idea I have ever heard.
    How can I carry 75 lbs on empty stomach in hot and humid weather , for over 18 miles?
    I promise you , even our elite Special Operation Forces can’t do something like that .
    That’s freaking !

    • 75 lbs sounds like a lot!! I did a national trail in Britain two years ago with 25 lb and the rule was “Ten miles before breakfast” It was a week before the Summer Solstice and was very hot, so I made sure I carried and drank enough water, and full fat cola, which certainly bumped the weight of the pack up. I think that hydration is the key, folk eat more than is necessary anyway, ten miles on an empty stomach was fine..Found the first two days quite hard going but “Manned up” after that. I am a 45 year old woman who weighs 140 lb and the carrying weight on an empty stomach thing seemed strangely logical. After the first ten miles I allowed myself to have breakfast!! I would definitely not want to walk with a lot more weight than that but hey, endurance is great but I wanted to ENJOY the walk as well. Definitely helped sort my lower back pain out 🙂

    • If you eat a properly balanced diet, you will still have some fuel reserves from the previous night’s meal. So you will have some nutrients in you, and worst case eat a banana and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter before you ruck on.

      Rucking on a totally empty stomach is doable but I would not recommend it for the “regular Joe”. Also, if you are in an area that is hot and humid early in the morning, water would most likely be more beneficial to you.

  • Mr. Ciampa,

    Great article. Extremely insightful, which certainly comes from experience.

    You mentioned that having the weight lower in the pack is recommended, could you expound upon that? I was taught to have the weight high (radio pouch).

    What are your thoughts on foot care by way of sock(s)?

    How do you feel about running downhill, jogging flat, and walking uphill (time based event training prep)?

    Thank you sir.

    • I agree with the close to the body part, But also believe the higher on the shoulders the better. When the load is lower it seems to pull back on the shoulders. This is just my experience, but I have been rucking since I joined the Army in 79. Still do at 55 years of age. I can even still hold infantry standard for 10+ miles. Lol, but it’s not as easy as it use to be. Final comment…..whatever works for you!!

  • Al, thanks for an incredible and detailed article. You’ve inspired my to take up rucking at the civilian level.

  • What are your thoughts on using a weighted vest? I have a MiR 45lbs.
    Thanks,
    Steve

  • Looking at your thoughts about shoes… what would you say about something like the Reebok Crossfit Sprint 2.0 or the older TR?

  • Sorry, my comment was supposed to be on “The Truth shall set you free” article. It doesn’t really make sense on the Rucking article. My apologies.

  • I am just now reading this article; extremely well written Sir! I am just an average guy but managed to graduate from one of the U.S. Army’s more rigorous courses. However, when I went to compete at an All Service competition with other graduates from the same course, I realized there were men competing who were at a level I would never, ever be able to attain. Genetically, they had something I just didn’t have. Fortunately, the military does reward hard work. This is an outstanding article. I look forward to reading more of your work Sir. RLTW!

    • Aaron,

      Thanks for sharing. I was in the same boat as you… I couldn’t imagine where these mosnters got their strength and endurance from. I think that I now know how to develop this, and just trying to pass it along. It simply takes some disciplined time under the load.

      All the way, Aaron!

  • Other organisations would charge a lot of money for instructions that are this valuable, while you publish it for free. Big thanks from a member of the German Armed Forces!

    • Paul,

      An educator? Maybe. But a businessman, I am not!

      Thank you for your endorsement and praise. You’re very welcome.

  • Hi Al,
    Excellent article. Can you go more into detail about the arms. I read to swing the arms from side to side in front of the body leaning forward. Your graphs show the arms in their natural state. Can you specifically clarify this point please?
    Also sometimes i have issues with my hands swelling up (yes my straps are sometimes too tight, but I adjust them to relieve certain muscle groups periodically.) Sometimes they are tight and after 3 hours I loosen them up so the pack sits on my lower back for relief. Any ideas on how to improve circulation when the straps have to stay tight. e.g. during shuffling. Thanks again for your great article. It’s very helpful!

    • Kari,

      More detail? ;]

      Your posterior chain is weak and/or the load too heavy. Minimize hip flexion and swing your arms fore and aft. In a time trial, you might need to do whatever it takes to make time, but proper prep is a better idea.

      You’ll have to do trial and error with gear to find what works for you. But a few hours under heavier load is going to inevitably cause some discomfort. This is simply, life.

  • Great article and inspiring. I walk every day 2 miles in a half hour. My wife has me out hiking on Mt Diablo and adjacent hills on the weekends, sometimes both days for 2-3 hours. I also get in 2-3 KB wo’s per week during the week. The daypack I use to carry our snacks and water is pretty uncomfortable. I’d like to get an internal frame pack as described in the article and start carrying a little more weight on our hikes. I’m sure my wife will be planning a serious hiking outing sometime in the future. She’s still getting back in shape from a hip replacement about a year and a half ago. I’m recovering from an afib ablation in February. But we’re both feeling much better this year and optimistic about getting out for a nice outing. I don’t think I will carry much more than 30-35 lbs but I’d like to be as comfortable as possible. Can you give slightly more guidance on packs? Who makes a good value for the money pack? There are tons of them out there, not sure where to start. There’s Any Mountain and REI and Marmot nearby but I don’t trust those guys to steer me in the right direction. I haven’t shopped for a pack since I hiked Yosemite in the 70’s.

  • Al,

    Great article, as usual. I’m training for a backpacking trip, but I don’t have the time required to build aerobic capacity through long marches. My plan is to do it with your kettlebell endurance program, and to add 1-2 short (up to an hour) / heavy rucking sessions per week, as the “activity specific” work. I’m not convinced that short sessions are optimal preparation for full day marches, but it’ll have to do. Any comments or suggestions on how to tweak this would be greatly appreciated.

    And thank you for all this valuable information.

    Andrei

  • Al, Thanks for the article.

    Interesting that you quote the 180-age aerobic formula. What are your thoughts on trying to build an aerobic base whilst still doing anaerobic training (eg daily S and S)?

    Phil Maffetone seems to imply anaerobic work would be a great hindrance in his writing. Would you agree?

    • Karl,

      You’re welcome; and thank you for the comment. This is not the first time I am hearing about Maffetone’s recommendation of avoiding strength and anaerobic work. I’m not familiar enough with his work to take more than a guess that his idea is driven by his central theme of general health & wellness.

      Extended anaerobic work creates resultant susbtrates that can be damaging to cells and tissues as they accumulate, yes. Does this fact provide enough evidence to completely avoid anaerobic work? My thinking is, no. Should everyone aspire to and focus on increasing their aerobic capacity? Yes.

      Is it likely that one should avoid a training program that is based in anaerobic work, such as runners who always run too fast? Very likely… in fact there is evidence to support this; and not having read this from Maffetone directly, I might think that this is what he is implying. I do not know.

      • And Karl, S&S’s daily routine is not anaerobic, in the sense that it causes an accumulation of unhealthy substrates; it is alactic work + aerobic recovery.

        S&S’s test days will be anaerobic for many, and this small, infrequent dose is probably very safe, if not hormetic in nature.

        Don’t make every S&S session anaerobic by forcing the time to completion.

        • Thanks, great perspective.

          Interestingly Maffetone defines all weight work and even push-ups etc as being anaerobic because you will achieve muscle fatigue before you can push your heart rate into a truly anaerobic zone.

          I really like the idea of rucking with the kids as a great alternative to a long slow run on your own. A great way to experience the outdoors.

  • Al, very good post. I’m very interested in trying this out for me and my wife. Thank you.

      • After the Plan Strong seminar, I wrote a new plan for myself consisting of the MP, pull-up, and pistol. So far I really like it and have been progressing nicely. I’ve had a few volunteers from the forums to practice this programming on too.

        And I finally got my clean fixed… I don’t rotate anymore! Thanks for your help with that.

        I hope things are well with you too.

  • Worth the wait sir tons of great info never thought of the importance or benefits of a anti shrug thanks again for another great article I’m not a soldier just some one that wait to be a badass dude in any situation and I’ve had success with all the tactic u write about but the 2 biggest by far are crawling and rucking thank u again

  • I did a lot of rucking preparing for some voluntary work in SE Asia.

    20kg-30 kg walks for 10-15K on the Welsh mountains.

    This sort of event shouldn’t be underestimated.

    Am actually going to try a 15-20mile walk in mountainous terrain soon to try & prepare for walking the circumference of Wales.

    Timely article!

  • Al,
    Any different advice if using a weight vest instead of a ruck since there is loading in the front and back? Thanks.

  • Awesome comprehensive article, Al! Agree on all points from the “higher-end recreation” perspective.

  • Thanks for a great article!

    Is is okay to ruckmarch a few miles every day? My schedule supports 30-minute sessions every day, but going out for 2 or more hours at a time is a challenge.

    I started rucking 30-minutes per day with a 26-pound load about 5 weeks ago. I am covering 2 miles each time, so am logging 14 miles per week in 7 sessions. I got a GoRuck rucksack two weeks ago and upped my weight to 36-pounds because the new pack made the weight feel lighter. I added a second 30-minute ruckmarch every other day this week, so am now looking at a weekly total of 20-22 miles.

    It is easy for me to maintain nasal, diaphragmatic breathing and I have been walking faster this past week.

      • General fitness. I live in front of a computer, so have developed a routine of training three times per day to keep the chair from killing me.

  • Great article! Any specific advice on adapting the training program for recreational backpacking? I’m planning on doing a 2 week hike later this summer averaging about 14mi per day. Load will be 30-35lb including pack, water, food, etc.

    Your observations on footwear are spot on. In recent years the most popular footwear on the PCT are trail runners. Of course it really depends on terrain as well.

    • Thanks Anthony.

      Nope. Load and speed to train aerobically for an extended period, followed by adding some shorter, heavier walks several weeks before your event.

  • what pace is considered a good pace? I was told sub 15:00min/mile for 18 miles is a gold standard for selection. When I walk at my absolute top speed I can can only get about 16:00min/mile. I don’t think it’s physically possible for me to walk any faster even if I was “sprint walking” for 1 mile. That means I would would have to at least shuffle jog part of that 18 miles. I don’t know if I’m just a poor speed walker or what. How fast should a human be able to walk?

    • MP,

      Yes, you are going to have to pick up your pace, or, in the event, run. What is preventing you from walking 4mph? Mobility issues? Time training? Did you start too heavy? Are you on terrain or hardball?

  • “Don’t walk too far on heavily crowded roads, and change sides periodically if you must.”

    This should read “crowned” roads.

  • Do MIL/LEO backpacks have hip straps? I wear a small pack to and from the grocery store, which means I ruck, such as it is, for about a mile at a time several days a week. I love having a hip strap because of the way it distributes the load.

    • Steve,

      Most issued rucks have frames, with kidney pads. The hip strap is threaded through the kidney pad. Unless you’re climbing or navigating obstacles, the kidney pad is all you need. I think most LEOs only carry medical packs if any. Someone else will know better than me…

      Sounds like you have a frameless pack, and fastening your hip strap provides more stability. “How” you pack is more important with frameless packs. Play with your packing and see how it changes the load distribution on your back.

      • Yes, Al, my pack is frameless. It is my “man purse” as my wife affenctionately refers to it, and a pack with a frame would be more than I want or need for daily use. But I still manage to fill it with heavy enough things that I appreciate the hip strap. What I like about the hip strap is that the weight sits lower, making it less work for my back because a lot of the load is transferred to my hips. I’m not sure a frame would accomplish that same thing.

        I always try to pack with the heaviest items lowest in the pack.

        -S-

        • Almost all military packs I have seen come with a hip strap. LE don’t really use rucks on a regular basis.
          I would also reccomend experimenting with your weight distribution. Lots of military guys reccomend putting the heavy stuff higher up towards the shoulders. Not sure why, but it does seem to work.

          I would keep an eye on these folks, they seem to want to really focus in on what really are “best practices” for rucking.
          http://strongswiftdurable.com/military-athlete-articles/military-athlete-institute-loaded-movement-rucking-deep-dive-studies/

          • Steve, load the heavier items higher (not on the very top) and closer to you… but I wouldn’t put canned goods on top of the eggs ;]

            I’m sure that this is not as important until the total load approaches “heavy”.

            David, not sure what research is going to tell us beyond what Soldier-field knowledge has gleaned over the past centuries of lugging gear around to the fight; but it may be interesting. Thanks!

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