Rucking For Beginners – 2023 Guide

1	How To Prepare For a Ruck?
2	Beginners Rucking Workout Program
3	What to Do During a Ruck?
4	Post Rucking Checklist
5	What Got Me Into Rucking?
6	Join a Ruck Club
7	Frequently Asked Questions

How To Prepare For a Ruck

Ruck March Prep Checklist

1	Plan a Route
2	Pick the right Shoes
3	Pick the right Socks
4	Hydration
5	Choose the Right Rucksack
6	Follow A Program

1. Plan a Route

Planning your routes makes your rucks allows you to stick to a plan and makes your workout program more organized. Most rucking apps or smart watches can also track this information for you. If you do not have a smartwatch, you can just go to plotaroute.com on your phone and plan your route, you can even access older routes that you’ve been on before. Super helpful tool to help you prepare and track your progress. Here’s a tutorial video.

It’s also highly recommended that you use some sort of rucking app to track your performance.

2. Pick the right Shoes

If it is your first time rucking, do not wear your brand new boots. This is because you wont have fully broken into your boots just yet. What you should do is wear your new rucking boots for half or quarter of the distance and just put on your everyday boots right after. That way, you will slowly break into your new boots and do your rucks without any painful blisters and will avoid you slowing down your progress when you’re first starting out.

When buying new boots, make sure they have the following qualities:

• Breathability – To avoid blisters and discomfort, your feet need to be dry. Breathable shoes will help direct the moisture and heat away from your foot. Learn more about how to avoid ruck march blisters.
• Water Resistant or Waterproof
• Durability – Durable material (most common materials are synthetic suede & cordura.

There are lots of different options out there.

If you’re still unsure as to which boots you should consider, here’s a our top picks for the best boots for rucking.

3. Pick the right Socks

This is simple. Merino Wool is always the way to go. If you do not have them before you start, that’s fine. Just make sure to wear socks that have good compression and are long enough to avoid any friction between your foot and leg with the boot.

However, when you get more into it and start increasing your distances, it is best to use socks made from Merino Wool. Here’s a few recommendations for some rucking socks.

Tip: Be sure to have an extra pair of socks with you if you’re planning on going on a long ruck.

4. Hydration

Hydration is key! You are bound to break a sweat when rucking. One thing I would recommend is to get a hydration bladder, although a lot of rucksacks nowadays do come with one. Hands-free hydration is such a blessing when you’re in the zone, nothing more annoying than having to put your entire rucksack down just to pull out your water bottle and then having to strap on the rucksack all over again.

5. Choose the Right Rucksack

There are lots of different rucksack out there. If you’re just starting out, I would not worry too much about the rucksack. A simple backpack should do it. One thing to keep in mind is that most backpacks are either frameless or have an internal frame.

This means that when you start rucking for longer distances, you will start getting the back sweats as there is no space between your back and the back of the backpack.

Following this guide, you may want to consider upgrading your backpack to a rucksack when the distance and time are much longer than when you first started.

6. Follow A Program

It’s tough to stick to a workout program that you’re starting out without having a program or a planned approach. The plan below is what I followed to get me started. You can certainly tailor these numbers to what you think is realistic given your abilities.

Keep in mind those were the numbers I tried my best to stick to, at times I could not really stick to the planned distance but I never quit. One thing to consider is that different terrains, weather, and inclines/declines will speed up or slow down your ruck.

As for the weight, I used books, heavy water dumbbells, and whatever I could find laying around. Although I did eventually switch to ruck plates as the they don’t have any pointy edges that will rub against your back.

Learn more about rucking plates and how to choose the right one for you in our latest guide.

TIP: Always keep the heavier weight closer to your back, this will ensure proper weight distribution.

	Rucks per Week	Distance	Duration	% of BW
Week 1 (or Stage 1 if you want to repeat this week)	2- 3	2.0 miles	1 hour	15%
Week 2 (or Stage 2 if you want to repeat this week)	2 – 3	2.5 miles	1 hour 30 mins	15% – 20%
Week 3 (or Stage 3 if you want to repeat this week)	2 -3	2.5 miles	2 hours	20%
Week 4 (or Stage 4 if you want to repeat this week)	2 – 3	3.0 miles	2 hours 20 mins	20 – 25%
Week / Stage 5+	2 – 3	3.5 miles	2 hours 20 mins	20%-25%

Remember to always assess how you’re feeling during and after the workout. If you feel like 2 miles is too much on the first go, reduce it to a mile or a mile and a half.

If you feel like 15% of your body weight is too much to start with, consider reducing the weight to 10%. Feel free to use a weighted vest for rucking if you’re just starting out if you find that easier to transition into and out of.

Check out our post on what to put in a rucksack for weight for everyday items to get you started on the program quickly.

What to Do During the Ruck

Posture

Maintaining proper posture is extremely important. When the rucksack is worn correctly, you’d be surprised how much support the rucksack provides. Here’s a great instructional video from the Lake District National Park on how to wear a rucksack properly.

Key takeaways from this video:

• Back length of the rucksack – It should cover your back while also making sure that the help belt is centred and wrapped around your hip bone.
• Hip Belt – Make sure this is fastened tightly. Remember, you want your hips to carry 80% of the weight carried on your hip belt so that your legs are carrying most of the weight.
• Tighten shoulder straps so that it fits you comfortably.

Post Rucking Checklist

It is extremely tempting to throw down your rucksack and just collapse on the couch and not move for an entire day. As tempting as that sounds, you may find yourself regretting doing that a day or two later, thanks to Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). According to Elaine Choung-Hee Lee, an assistant professor of Molecular Biology and Applied Genetics, University of Connecticut DOMS is post-workout soreness that is heightened a day or 2 after working out.

So how does one recover from DOMS?

Post Ruck Checklist	Why?
Hydration	Low levels of electrolytes cause further muscle soreness, replenish them to aid recovery.
Massage	Your muscles are damaged and inflamed after an intense workout, a massage will help ease inflammation, reduce pain, and improve blood flow.
Nutrition	Protein and Carbohydrates. Protein will increase the amino acids needed for the process of protein synthesis to recover damaged muscle tissue. Carbohydrates will help increase your glycogen stores after they’ve been depleted after intense exercise.
Sleep	The body needs time to repair and restore energy.
Stretching	Stretching helps contracted and tensed muscles release back to their natural position, and will improve flexibility.

Our article on what to do before and after rucking focuses on the essentials of prepping and recovering from a ruck. While it is often overlooked, it is important to approach rucking comprehensively to ensure longevity.

What Got Me Into Rucking?

Personally, I started my rucking journey as I was extremely fed up with my progress with bodybuilding. I was working out and gaining muscle like I have never seen before. I ate whatever was in front of me and worked out really hard. I did my deadlifts, squats, bench press, and everything else. I had transformed to what the kids call a “meat head”. I went from 136 lbs to 176 lbs in no time.

However with all the muscle building, I never focused on my cardiovascular health. While I was gaining muscle, I also gained a lot of fat. I was big and felt way less flexible. I then switched to a cutting phase (trying to lose fat while maintaining as much muscle mass).

I noticed that I was constantly tracking calories, cutting carbs, and doing much more HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts and began to lose weight.

The journey was difficult and unsuccessful as I was working out all week to ruin it with a crazy binge eating session which I hilariously called a “cheat meal”. The calories I would eat in that session would ruin my work for the entire week. I would then workout and do much more cardio the following day to compensate.

The lifestyle was exhausting and the results were horrible as I gained more weight than when I had started.

I do realize what my mistakes were during my journey, but I realized that I did not really enjoy bodybuilding and knew I had to find an alternative. I tried different things like spinning, crossfit, and calisthenics. I was not able to stick to any of them because of previous injuries and I simply didn’t enjoy them.

If I learned anything from all this is if you do not enjoy your workouts, it will be hard to stick to them. You should enjoy the the process, and not just the final result.

I came across rucking as I was frustrated and looking for a different way of exercising. I came across it and realized how easy it was to start, I gave it a try and haven’t stopped ever since!

I did notice that many people tend to quit after trying it once or twice, so we’ve put together a guide on why rucking is so hard and how you can make things easier to make sure you stick with it.

Before you get into your ruck, learn more about the best exercises for rucking to help you better prepare yourself for the challenge ahead.

Check out my full body transformation through rucking.

Join A Ruck Club

I constantly preach for beginners to start rucking by joining a ruck club. Ruck clubs are easy to find and will seriously motivate you to keep on going.

The biggest challenge when first starting out is not the weight or the distance, it’s staying consistent with it. You have to build rucking as a habit, similar to working out at the gym.

There are many ways to stick to rucking and consistently sticking to your ruck program. However, a more casual approach of going at it is to simply join a ruck club. A ruck club will help you stay consitent with your ruck program, as a beginner for the following reasons:

• It’s more motivating to ruck with people vs rucking by yourself (for most people that is)
• If you commit to joining a ruck event, there’s no going back on your word!
• If the people are fun, you’ll be more motivated to ruck cause it’s a good social activity (your focused will be more on having fun vs viewing rucking as a chore)

Learn more about ruck clubs and how you can find/join one near you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Rucking Build Muscle? What Muscles does Rucking Work?

Yes. Rucking is a comprehensive sport that works out a number of muscles simultaneously.

Quadriceps	When rucking with the correct posture, and wearing the rucksack correctly. The hip belt is situated around the hip bone. This ensures that the majority of the weight of the rucksack is carried using your legs. Plus, the walking movement naturally activates your quads when walking forward. It’s responsible for pushing your leg forward.
Hamstrings	Hamstrings are responsible for pulling the quads back when walking forward. Since the quads are pushing through more weight than usual, the same goes for your hamstrings.
Calves	This is worked more or less depending on the terrain and incline or decline of your path. The more inclined your path is, the more you work your calves
Glutes	Your glutes are activated during a ruck to support your torso and when properly activated, they alleviate lower back pain.
Abs	Your abs are activated and worked during a ruck as they work on maintaining your posture while carrying your rucksack. It’s purpose is to stabilize your entire body. The more weight in your rucksack, the harder your abs have to work to stabilize your body.
Shoulders (Deltoids)	When lifting and putting on your rucksack, you are using your shoulders. If you’re on a long ruck, you will be putting your rucksack on multiple times. Learn how to avoid shoulder pain when rucking.