Rucking crushes calories, spares your joints, is linked to longer lifespan, and protects against almost every disease imaginable.
Unlike dime-a-dozen fitness fads, rucking has been around forever, since hunter-gatherers carried their prey back to the tribe. The only real controversial thing about rucking is if your auto-correct spells it wrong.
More than 50 years of studies have found that rucking is one of, if not the most efficient way to increase your metabolic burn while doing low-impact, joint-friendly exercise. Here’s a short list of some of the physical benefits, with links that can take you as deep down the rabbit hole as you want.
Crush Calories
An average person burns about 125 calories on a 30-minute walk, but according to the Compendium of Physical Activities, throw on a rucksack and, depending on weight and speed, you can burn about 325 calories on the same exact walk. That means rucking burns 2-3X as many calories as just walking.
There are many factors that determine your caloric burn while rucking, such as your bodyweight, pace, how much weight you carry, and how steep the terrain is. The military has studied this extensively for generations and even created the Pandolf Equation in the 1970s to predict energy expenditure. The updated version of this equation is still the most commonly used method of predicting caloric burn while carrying loads. To estimate what your rucks will burn, check out our interactive Rucking Calorie Calculator.
Burn Fat in Zone 2
Rucking is a holy grail for Zone 2 work — that aerobic zone where your heart is working hard pumping blood all over, but you can still carry on a conversation. More than walking, less than running — rucking puts your body into the ideal fitness zone (around 60-70% of your max heart rate) in which fat oxidation is maximized. Translation: maximum fat loss occurs in Zone 2. A Swedish study found that rucking led to three additional pounds of fat loss in a timespan of 3 weeks, compared to subjects who did not wear any extra weight.
Build & Maintain Lean Muscle Mass
Muscles get stronger when you add resistance. Think of rucking as “Active Resistance Training”. You’re adding resistance to all the muscles required to walk, as well as your shoulders and back to carry the load. Compared to running, which kills muscle cells, rucking activates muscles all over the body, which can preserve or slightly increase muscle mass. But do not expect to get too bulky from rucking, just stronger.
In a study on male and female backcountry hunters on a 12 day hunting trip in Alaska, who carried all necessary supplies in heavy packs on their backs, subjects were tested for body fat and muscle mass before and after. Body weight, BMI, cholesterol levels and fat mass all decreased by a significant margin, but the hunters experienced no decrease in muscle mass, defying expectations. Basically, they consumed way too few calories, lost a lot of fat, lowered cholesterol significantly, but saw no decrease in muscle mass. Some hunters even gained lean muscle mass. The exercise “resulted in considerable negative energy balance and provided comprehensive benefits in metabolic health without any reduction in skeletal muscle.”
Don’t Grind Your Joints Into Oblivion
A team of American and Canadian scientists set out to measure the force on the knees when walking and running. Using a combination of motion capture technology and specialized plates that measure ground reaction forces, they found that running puts roughly 8x body weight of force on your knees with every foot strike, while walking only places about 2.7x body weight. That’s a fraction of the impact. Adding weight to your back and walking (aka rucking) — because your gait remains the same, it’s still 2.7x (you plus the weight of the ruck). That means the force load of rucking is only a fraction of what it is while running. Say you weigh 150 lbs. With every running strike that’s 1,200 lbs of force onto your knee. That same 150 lbs person can add 30 lbs to their back and while rucking the force is only 486 lbs. Multiply that difference per strike out over tens of thousands of strides and rucking can save your joints a lot of stress.Prevent Injuries Before They Happen
Rucking causes way fewer injuries than running, even in those who regularly do both. In one study carried out by the U.S. Army, scientists tracked the injuries of soldiers in the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky - the Screaming Eagles. They found that running was the top cause of injury at 34%, while rucking was way down the list, accounting for only 2% of the division’s injuries over the course of a year. The greater force per strike on the body from running leads to sprains and ankle injuries that are not nearly as common when you’re rucking, where you maintain one foot on the ground while moving.
Improve your posture - rucking is actually good for your back
“Text neck” and the modern lifestyle of slouching down to stare at a computer are not helping our backs. Rucking, though, naturally pulls your shoulders back, and as you cinch your rucksack down your shoulders and spine move into their natural north - south alignment. This improves posture and takes strain off of some muscles in your lower back while strengthening your upper back, reducing chronic back pain.
Multiple studies have found that light to moderate loads result in postural changes which actually disengage the muscles along the spine, giving them a chance to rest from the strain caused by poor posture. The near-constant activation of these muscles, from hunching over or engaging our lower back muscles too often, is a key contributor to back pain. For more about rucking and the importance of back health, listen to our podcast with Dr. Stuart McGill, author of Back Mechanic and professor emeritus, Waterloo University.
Manage Your Blood Sugar Better
Rucking is a good option for anyone who wants to maintain healthy blood sugar regulation. Our blood sugar spikes shortly after we eat. This is when our bodies’ systems for controlling blood sugar kick into action and release insulin. Sitting around, lying down, and relaxing all sound great afterward, but our bodies can use our help. Even a light ruck after eating primes muscles to pull sugar out of the bloodstream, reducing the amount of insulin your body needs to bring your blood sugar back down. Decreasing our bodies’ reliance on insulin helps prevent insulin resistance, one of the early stages of developing diabetes. Rucking’s combination of strength and aerobic exercise also directly combats buildup of visceral fat, which has been connected to insulin resistance and a host of other health problems.
Fight Dementia
Apart from its well-known connection to diabetes, insulin resistance causes development of amyloid plaques in the brain, which scientists suspect may be the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, strength and aerobic exercise together reduce dementia risk. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has taken up rucking in part to prevent the negative effects of visceral fat on the brain, which includes Alzheimer’s. According to Gupta, “using a rucksack and walking in a weighted way helps to decrease visceral fat and increase bone, and all of these things make you less insulin resistant.” Dr. Gupta has added weight to his daily walks to protect his brain from the negative effects of visceral fat and insulin resistance.
Stronger Bones
The average person begins losing bone density around 30 years old, and the loss accelerates as we age, particularly in women. Rucking has been shown to combat and even reverse bone loss. One study by the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine found elevated levels of several biochemical markers of bone growth immediately after subjects exercised while wearing weight vests, as well as a few hours later. Their findings indicate that regular exercise that includes carrying weight will have a positive effect on bone formation and resorption. Bone cells weaken over time and resorption is essential for replacing these old cells with new, stronger cells. Carrying weight in a backpack is specifically recommended by multiple reviews of the available data to people with low bone density including osteoporosis to promote osteoformation. Rucking helps those who have lost bone mass over time, as well as anyone who would like to prevent bone loss before it happens.
