Rucking for Fitness

 Rucking. A now cool term for backpacking. The premise is to improve your walking and exercise by adding weight. I enjoy rucking. I get out and do two, three, up to four hours of trails and paths with weight. I carry 55 pounds. 

This is training for functional fitness. It makes walking without weight easier and smoother. In the military there is all sorts of tucking. Civilians have caught on. 

According to a 1996 report done by the Cooper institute in Dallas, TX that was also supported by the Surgeon General, exercising helps lower your risks of several diseases. Many of which are cardiovascular. This report advises 30 minutes, at least, of moderate exercise seven days a week. Yes, every day. Try to see it as moving more every day that you are in your body.

Walking, a moderate exercise, strengthens your bones, keeps your joints healthy, reduces your risk of heart disease, and it lifts your mood. When exercising, our bodies release endorphins into our brains. Endorphins are the feel-good hormones.

Add a backpack and weights or a weighted vest and you increase the rate at which you benefit. It is a higher intensity than just walking. Some of us have served and somewhat we feel should your share of rucking. That said, it increases the metabolic cost of walking. This burns a higher amount of calories. It places stress on the core, back, and shoulders as well as the legs. This becomes a hybrid cardio/strength session.

Adding 20 to 30 pounds will increase the caloric burn 2 to 3 times. Even if your knees are not great you can still ruck. Just talk to your doctor first. With a small amount of weight you can easily burn as many calories as jogging without the wear and tear on your knees. 

Exercise in general and rucking in particular build mental discipline and toughness. It shows you that you can carry weight and move over terrain at pace. 

Another important benefit of rucking is how it improves bone density. Bone density typically decreases as we age unless we take active measures to strengthen our bones. With rucking you are outside getting vitamin D from the sunlight. A solid diet is getting you adequate calcium. These together with the natural applied stress on your bones results in stronger bones. Thus making late life injuries less likely. 

You walk or jog during the week. Awesome. Add a day or set two days aside for rucking and you have made yourself a calorie burning machine. All that and you have not even changed your schedule. Well, maybe you changed a bit of your schedule.