Fitness
What is ‘rucking’? Low-impact exercise trend has a wild military link
“Rucking” is on the rise.
It’s well established that Americans need to move more, and for many, walking is the most accessible form of exercise.
“Walking reduces the risk of heart disease, lowers blood pressure and LDL (the “bad” cholesterol), and strengthens the heart,” according to Dalia McCoy, family medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. “Walking helps the heart be more efficient. As your fitness improves, your heart becomes more effective with each pump you perform for that type of exercise.”
Now, those wanting to amplify those positive effects are rocking the ruck.
In basic terms, “rucking” is walking with weight on one’s back.
Rucking elevates walking from simple cardio to compound resistance training through the addition of a weighted backpack — and die-hard devotees say that added weight can help you lose weight.
The low-impact exercise is rooted in military training where “ruck” refers to a rucksack and ruck marching, a core skill used by militaries worldwide.
according to former US Navy SEAL Stew Smith, a fitness instructor and special ops coach.
“The definition can be as simple as walking around with a backpack on a hike or as difficult as moving fast with all your military gear, loaded for bear, over rugged terrain, infiltrating to your objective,” according to former US Navy SEAL Stew Smith, a fitness instructor and special ops coach. “But the terms ruck, hump or forced march all really mean getting your gear from A to B in a backpack.”
Among the tests the US Army requires of recruits looking to earn an Expert Infantryman Badge is a 12-mile ruck, or foot march, which must be completed within three hours while carrying a staggering 35 pounds of gear.
Research has also shown that rucking can improve muscle strength, aerobic conditioning, and endurance.
Smith explained to CNN last year that people can burn 30% to 45% more calories via rucking than by completing the workout without the extra weight.
Per the CDC, adults need 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week and at least two days of muscle-strengthening activity each week.
Rucking, which doubles as cardio and resistance training, helps folks meet both goals. Further, the added weight encourages proper posture and helps to build back strength, making it an excellent counterbalance to hours spent sitting at a desk.
In addition, rucking is an outdoor exercise, and working out in nature has been shown to lower stress, ease depression, improve memory, and help people suffering from ADHD. Working out in the sunlight also triggers the body’s vitamin D production, a nutrient crucial to bone health and mental well-being.
As we must crawl before we can walk, experts say you must have a strong walking or running practice before you can ruck.
“You should not be rucking if you have not started walking,” Smith explains. “First, walk every day for 30 minutes. After a month or so, add weight or distance/speed if walking is getting easier.”
He recommends beginners start with a weighted vest before progressing to a ruck.
Coach Kristina Williams, owner of Gym X, who has more than 10 years of certified experience in strength and conditioning, previously told The Post, “Weighted vests are an awesome addition to most workouts because the added upper body weight makes the core work harder with all exercises.”
When you’re ready to ruck, you can begin with objects you might already have on hand, such as a backpack weighted with books or magazines.
Experts recommend starting with 10 pounds for 15 to 20 minutes and increasing the weight and distance by 10% every three to four weeks, ensuring rest days between rucks.
However, experts maintain that packs designed specifically for rucking are the preferable, safer choice, as regular backpacks tend to sit low on the back, which can cause pain and issues in the long run (pun intended).
“Rucking provides a great external stimulus on your body that, if done correctly with proper weight, burns more calories than just walking, builds your core, and assists in having better posture,” certified personal trainer Christian Rivas told Health.com last year. “In a sense, your entire body is working hard to stabilize the load.”
Smith says that those who want to ruck should prepare themselves for a long road — both literal and metaphorical.
“A regular ruck workout can take hours or fill up an entire afternoon,” he said. “Be willing to invest that kind of time into your progressions each week, building up your level of rucking skill.”
Fitness
Ellie Kildunne built her powerful body by keeping things simple – focusing on these fundamentals
Despite being named World Rugby’s Women’s 15s Player of the Year, England rugby star Ellie Kildunne admitted on an episode of Just As Well that the ‘gym was never easy’. In order for her to feel her best, she sticks to a no-nonsense approach to training and nutrition that focuses on the fundamentals: consistent exercise and eating enough.
‘If I haven’t put the work in, if I’ve skipped reps, if I haven’t eaten the right amount for the game, I would feel anxious,’ she says in her cover interview for Women’s Health UK. ‘But I’ve never put myself in that position because I want to be the best.’
What does being the best mean to her? ‘I want to become world player of the year twice. That’s my focus. Anything else that happens is by the by.’
On her episode of Just As Well last year, she said strength training now makes her ‘feel powerful’, while she ‘hates running’ – but a lot of her training involves speed, agility and endurance practice for her time on the pitch. That mix of conditioning and strength means she has built a strong, fast and resilient body.
Speaking of her physical transformation, she admits her personal body image hasn’t always been positive: ‘Body image is such a mental challenge,’ she tells Women’s Health UK. ‘My body is what made me World Player of the Year… I’ve got to remind myself of that.’ Visibility helps too: ‘We’re in that transition phase… social media is starting to lean more towards athletic women… I see people that look like me now.’ Now, Ellie says when she sees a muscular person, she thinks, ‘Respect. Because I know exactly what goes into that.’
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
Immediate benefits
Some benefits of physical activity for brain health happen right after a session of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Benefits include improved thinking or cognition for children 6 to 13 and reduced short-term feelings of anxiety for adults. Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age. It can also reduce your risk of depression and anxiety and help you sleep better.
Manage your weight
Both eating patterns and physical activity routines play critical roles in weight management. You can gain weight when you consume more calories than the amount of calories you burn.
To maintain your weight
If you are not physically active, work your way up to 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity. This could be dancing or doing yard work. You could meet the goal of 150 minutes a week with 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week, 22 minutes daily, or what works for you.
People vary greatly in how much physical activity they need for weight management. You may need to be more active than others to reach or maintain a healthy weight.
To lose weight and keep it off
You will need a high amount of physical activity unless you also adjust your eating patterns and reduce the amount of calories you’re eating and drinking. Healthy eating combined with regular physical activity help you get to—and stay at—a healthy weight.
More information
Reduce your health risks
Cardiovascular disease
Heart disease and stroke are two leading causes of death in the United States. Getting at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity can put you at a lower risk for these diseases. You can reduce your risk even further with more physical activity. Regular physical activity can also lower blood pressure and improve your cholesterol levels.
Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome
Regular physical activity can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is some combination of too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, low high-density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol, high triglycerides, or high blood sugar. With a regular schedule of moderate-intensity physical activity, people start to benefit from even less than 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity. Additional amounts of physical activity could lower risk even more.
Infectious diseases
Physical activity may help reduce the risk of serious outcomes from infectious diseases, including COVID-19, the flu, and pneumonia. For example:
- People who do little or no physical activity are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 than those who are physically active. In a CDC review, physical activity was associated with a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, while inactivity increases that risk.
- More active people may be less likely to die from flu or pneumonia. In one study, adults who met the aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity guidelines were about half as likely to die from flu and pneumonia than adults who met neither guideline.
Some cancers
Being physically active lowers your risk for developing several common cancers. If you are a cancer survivor, getting regular physical activity helps give you a better quality of life and improves your physical fitness.
Eight types of cancer
Strengthen your bones and muscles
As you age, it’s important to protect your bones, joints, and muscles. This can help ensure you’re able to do daily activities and be physically active.
Lifting weights is an example of a muscle-strengthening activity. Muscle strengthening is important for older adults who experience reduced muscle mass and muscle strength with aging. Slowly increasing the amount of weight and number of repetitions as part of muscle-strengthening activities will give you even more benefits, no matter your age.
Perform daily activities and prevent falls
Everyday activities include climbing stairs, grocery shopping, or cleaning the house. Being unable to perform everyday activities is called functional limitation. Physically active middle-aged or older adults have a lower risk of functional limitations than people who are inactive.
For older adults, doing a variety of physical activities improves physical function and decreases the risk of falls or injury from a fall. Older adults need to include aerobic, muscle strengthening, and balance activities in their physical activity routines. This multicomponent physical activity can be done at home or in a community setting as part of a structured program.
Hip fracture is a serious health condition that can result from a fall. Breaking a hip can have life-changing negative effects, especially if you’re an older adult. Physically active people have a lower risk of hip fracture than inactive people.
Afraid of getting hurt?
Increase your chances of living longer
An estimated 110,000 deaths per year could be prevented if U.S. adults ages 40 and older increased their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Even 10 minutes more a day would make a difference.
Taking more steps a day also helps lower the risk of premature death from all causes. In one study, for adults younger than 60, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day. For adults 60 and older, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.
Manage chronic health conditions & disabilities
Regular physical activity can help people manage existing chronic conditions and disabilities. For example, regular physical activity can:
Also see:
How much physical activity do I need?
See physical activity recommendations for:
Fitness
‘Exercise has been my therapy since I was six’: Joe Wicks on how he became the nation’s PE teacher
Health and fitness expert Joe Wicks has said it was growing up in a “challenging home” which first sparked his passion for exercise.
Best known as the “nation’s PE teacher” after hosting daily YouTube workouts during the pandemic, raising more than £1million for charity and earning an MBE, Wicks has been building an online fitness following since 2014 and now has more than 4.7 million followers on Instagram alone.
However, speaking to the Irish News, the Epsom-born fitness coach said physical activity has served as a form of therapy since he was six years old.
“As a young child I lived in quite a challenging home,” he said.
“My parents both had mental health issues. My dad was a heroin addict and my mum suffered from anxiety, eating disorders and extreme OCD so I had these two very difficult people to live with.
“It was quite chaotic but I realised when I exercised, played sport, ran or did any kind of movement I could soothe and calm myself and take away some of that stress.
“And that’s really where my love for physical exercise and movement comes from. It’s been my therapy really since I was about six or seven years old.”
In addition to his fitness programmes, Wicks has also authored numerous best-selling cookbooks, although he said his relationship with food was also affected by his upbringing.
“In terms of the food side of it, I was exposed to a very unhealthy diet. We were on benefits and any money that came through the house was really funding my dad’s addiction.
“So there wasn’t lots of fruit, veg or homemade meals – it was things like crispy pancakes, potato waffles, chicken nuggets, frozen chicken pies, and lots of sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks.
“I had a very unhealthy diet and even now I sometimes struggle to eat junk food in moderation.”
A turning point came at the age of 13 when he was invited to visit St Mary’s University in Twickenham.
“It was an outreach between the school and the university.
“Lots of the children who went along were on the border of going down the wrong path or came from a difficult home life.
“I knew they were trying to inspire me and get me thinking more positively – that I could actually go to university one day.
“So I did a tour and spent a day there.
Read more: ‘It was an insane hormone disaster’: Newry fitness influencer on how health struggles inspired a thriving wellness platform
“When I got home, I said to my mum that I was going to do a degree in sports science and become a PE teacher.
“And I did actually end up going to that university.”
Although Wicks always had ambitions of becoming a PE teacher, he said he never expected the scale his career would reach.
“I’ve had an amazing career, but it’s been very unintentional.
“I’m not someone who had a big plan or strategy – everything has happened quite organically.
“It’s always been a natural progression and I couldn’t have imagined it going the way it has.
“I’m very grateful for all of it and I don’t ever take it for granted.”
One of his most recent and unexpected highlights has been training children’s TV character Daddy Pig ahead of this year’s London Marathon.
“The PR for Hasbro, who own Peppa Pig, reached out and I actually really love Peppa Pig – we’ve always watched it with the kids.
“They said, ‘we’ve got this campaign with Daddy Pig’s son George, who’s now moderately deaf, so Daddy Pig is running the marathon for his son and for the National Deaf Children’s Society’.
“So I said I’d do it but I really wanted to run on the day with him. So they got me a spot and I’m running with him.
“And it’s obviously Daddy Pig in full character and I’m there coaching and motivating him. It’s been really fun and the kids have obviously seen the videos and think it’s hilarious.”
Read more: Joe Wicks: ‘Don’t convince yourself you haven’t got time to cook and that you can’t, because you can’
Wicks added that he is looking forward to bringing that same energy to Belfast where he will headline the inaugural Wellfest on September 12 and 13.
“There are talks, a nutrition and wellness area and discussions around mental health, as well as workouts from trainers across the board.
“It’s going to be really good fun.”
He will be joined by his wife, Rosie, for the session.
“Because I’ve done the workout so many times, they wanted something a little bit different.
“And it wasn’t like Rosie jumped at it – she’s quite shy. But I said it would be fun and we could make a weekend of it.
“We’re going to go on stage, do a 30-minute workout and it’s going to be great.
“It’s basically a high-energy session where we’ll be chatting and laughing and hopefully people will get involved and feel energised at the end.”
It will be the first time the couple have worked out together on stage.
“I don’t know what to expect,” he laughed.
“We’ve never worked out on a stage together before. I’ve done my workouts and videos and the kids have joined in but they don’t really talk.
“So having Rosie there, mic’d up, we can have a bit of banter and I think it will be more engaging than just me on my own.
“I want it to feel relaxed. People aren’t there to be judged – they’re there to enjoy it. So I think it’s going to be good.”
He said a key part of Wellfest’s appeal is its accessibility, with an emphasis on inclusivity rather than elite fitness.
“The good thing about Wellfest is that you’ll have people of all ages and all different body types.
“You can have kids in the crowd and grandparents as well.
Read more: Joe Wicks to run London marathon alongside Daddy Pig for deaf charity
“It’s essentially a PE with Joe-style workout with music and if you miss something or need to stop, that’s fine.
“You’re not there to compete, just to take part and enjoy it.”
First established in 2015 in Herbert Park in Dublin, the event is designed to appeal to all levels, particularly those at the beginning of their fitness journey.
“Wellfest is an experience – you’re going there to learn something new and you’ll come away feeling energised and positive,” Wicks added.
“It might be a talk on nutrition, stress or mental health or a workout where you realise you can do something you didn’t think you could.
“It’s about taking part, enjoying it and then maybe continuing some of those habits at home.”
Tickets for WellFest NI, which will take place at Belfast’s Ormeau Park on September 12-13, are on sale now via WellFestNI.com.
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