What is Rucking?

Rucking combines strength training and cardio. Bringing both types of exercises together provides a fuller range of benefits to improve your health.

The rucksack is a complete gym on your back - you can switch from rucking to Ruck PT exercises in an instant, for a full body workout anytime you choose. This allows you to challenge yourself without significant impact to your joints.

Ruck training is the ultimate full body exercise, and a great way to build muscle in your back (traps, lats), core / abs, legs (quads, hamstrings, calves), glutes, and stabilizer muscles groups.

To travel, to get around town, and to workout — movement is necessary. As we get older, finding a safe and effective way to move becomes essential for injury prevention, mobility, and overall health.

The cardio benefits from rucking help to reduce blood pressure and inflammation, improve sleep quality and brain function, and strengthen bone density, which can help treat or prevent osteoporosis. The best way to stop and even reverse bone loss - according to Dr. Robert Wermers, a bone disease specialist with the Mayo Clinic - is to do “aerobic walking where you’re bearing weight.” i.e., rucking.

Not only is rucking easier on your knees than most other sports or fitness activities, but it also improves your posture as the weight of the rucksack pulls your shoulders into proper alignment while moving.

One of the leading experts on back pain, Dr. Stuart McGill, sat down with GORUCK Founder Jason Mccarthy to discuss the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle and how rucking is used as a safe and scalable exercise to prevent back pain and improve resilience.

Dr. McGill is Professor Emeritus after 32 years at the University of Waterloo where he had a laboratory/clinic that explored low back pain, rehabilitation and performance enhancement. He is the author of Back Mechanic, as well as over 240 medical and scientific journal papers.

You don't need a personal trainer, thousand dollar machines, or even a gym membership. Rucking can be done anywhere, requires minimal equipment, and scales as you progress.

Whether it's a regular everyday task or a life-threatening emergency, rucking prepares you for every scenario. Carrying weight over distance is a fundamental skill that you can use every single day.

If you're traveling out of town, commuting to work, meeting friends in town or walking the dog, rucking is one of the easiest ways to add fitness into your daily life.

The best part about rucking is the people. Social fitness appeals to most people for accountability and support. Rucking allows you to grab some friends, get outdoors and move.

Being outside is a basic need we all have as human beings, as is being part of a community. You might even be surrounded by a community of people who love rucking, also known as Ruck Clubs.

One of the many unique benefits of rucking is the ability to scale with weight, which allows you to ruck at the same pace as anyone else and challenge yourself with an outdoor workout. This is not possible with other movement exercises, which leave you out of breath, unable to talk to your workout partner, and require you to move at the exact same pace in order to exercise together.

“Rucking is very much a social fitness phenomenon for me because it really didn’t need to happen, however the popularization of ruck clubs and people putting weight into backpacks and going together for mileage under the principle of “go fast, go alone; go far, go together” blows my mind. I love it. These days, I will strap 30lbs into my bag, stuff in a hydration bladder full of water, and just go alone or with whomever wants to do miles with me.”

- George Yanez, Washington D.C. Ruck Club member

Start with 1-2 rucks per week, depending on your current fitness activity level, and work up to 3-4 rucks per week max. Generally speaking, we do not advise rucking every day. Give your body time to recover after rucking.

Go at your own pace, you can ruck however fast or slow you'd like. If you'd like to set benchmark goals and you're just getting started with rucking, aim for 17-20 minutes per mile.

The Army minimum standard is 15 minutes per mile, which is a great goal pace to meet (or exceed) over time as you progress in rucking.

Start with 10 - 25 pounds, depending on your current fitness activity level and bodyweight. When in doubt, aim for lighter weight and longer distance on your first few rucks. If you can't maintain good posture for the entire ruck, lower the weight and build up over time.

Work your way up in increments of 5 pounds each week, or as you see fit. Listen to your body, stretch, hydrate, and adjust as necessary.

A good rule of thumb is to not carry more than ⅓ of your bodyweight.

In 1950, Colonel S.L.A. Marshall published a book called The Soldier’s Load and the Mobility of a Nation, which is still widely regarded as the reference of choice on the matter. In this book, Marshall details at great length how and why soldiers are required to carry too much weight, which was as relevant then as it is to today’s combat loads in excess of 100 lbs.

Marshall contends that based on past studies on the loads carried by armies throughout history, the soldier should be limited to ⅓ of his bodyweight.

In our experience, we've found the ⅓ rule to be true, and a great goal to work up to over time, and not exceed. Remember, if you need a bigger challenge you can always increase speed and distance rucked, too.

If you do need to go above ⅓ of your bodyweight, such as for military training or backcountry hunting, make sure you’re ready for it and that you progress safely.

The military ruck march, otherwise known as a loaded march or forced foot march, is part of army training for different militaries all over the world. The ruck march is one course in a series of tests under U.S. Army regulations in order to earn the Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB).

The EIB is a special skills badge awarded to recognize Infantrymen who have demonstrated a mastery of critical tasks, including the ruck march, physical fitness assessment, land navigation, weapons navigation, and other individual tasks.

The ruck march requires the candidate to complete a 12-mile march within 3 hours while carrying a rifle and 35 lb minimum load that add up to the Army ruck weight standards, for a total of up to 70 lbs.

Absolutely, rucking builds muscle in your back (traps, lats), core / abs, legs (quads, hamstrings, calves), glutes, and stabilizer muscles groups.

When paired with a Ruck PT workout, rucking becomes the ultimate full body exercise.

Rucking actually improves knee joint and back health – it is significantly safer than running and even lifting weights, due to the low stress nature of the movement. As with any weighted exercise, incorrect form and bad technique can cause injury.

Rucking injuries are more common in the military during forced foot marches, in which the soldier rucks at weights, distances, and speeds far beyond what is recommended (100 lbs+).

It's important to start with a manageable weight, at a safe pace, and give your body time to recover. Patience is key to achieving all the health benefits of rucking.

Yes, rucking is one of the safest and most efficient ways to burn calories and lose weight.

Also known as Active Resistance Training (ART), which is part active cardio and part strength training, rucking will burn significantly more calories than walking. With the added benefits of permanent metabolic gains from stronger muscles at a fraction of the cost to your knees, and plenty of benefit to your heart.

Check out the Rucking Calorie Calculator to get an estimate of calories burned while rucking.