After reading Peter Attia “Outlive” & Michael Easter “Comfort Crisis” (amazing reads BTW) - both big advocates for rucking, I thought I´d give it a try. We live in a mountainous area where trail running can be too challenging at times (steep up to 15-30%)
Been starting out easy with 15-20 kg in the ruck and going 60-90 mins once a week. I can feel the initial (marketed) benefits for functional strength (legs literally trembling on the last decent) and stability, soreness in quads and hips, a bit sore in lower back.
But even when I push hard uphill, my HR doesn´t really go much above 120 BPM, vs a flat, easier Z2 jog at 5:00 min/km where my HR would be 150 BPM.
I love it and it´s low impact (if you don´t crash like I have done a couple of times)
Anybody else picked up rucking?? - maybe somebody wanna discuss benefits for cycling or running?
I admit, I’ve never tried to carry a pack to train for triathlon per se, but in my experience it had the training effect of walking and the impact of running, so I don’t generally do it anymore unless I anticipate needing stuff on the other end of my walk. I don’t even carry a pack to train for carrying a pack these days.
Help me out here. I get the benefit of heavy strength training to make the muscles, bones, joints, etc resilient.
So I can see how targeting, relatively limited duration lifting can promote the growth and resilience.
On the other side, I think about carrying extra weight in often unnatural places and how that can potentially strain areas like hips, knees etc.
Usually with overweight people with joint issues the advice is to lose weight and a lot of their mobility pain issues get better or at least more manageable.
So I always chuckle a little that we see people loading up more weight, some for many hours a week and carry that around.
I get that is not the same duration and likely some hormonal things are going on with fat cells that make the situation worse in overweight people.
But I’m personally cautious with the heavy weighted vest thing. Maybe I’m just being the other end of the spectrum like that guy who always says running is bad for your knees. The soldiers who carry these rocks around usually have bad knees.
You love it and you should listen to your own advice. I actually do some weighted pack stuff on the beach, dragging a dry bag full of sand with hiking poles. People ask me WTF I am doing all the time so I make up all kinds of stupid stories, like I am training to cross the Antarctic or am training for “SAS Who Dares Wins”.
I am interested in all aspects of PT stuff so follow a bunch of varied YouTube channels.
Here is one guy I follow.
I am not sure I am trying to rationalize my own efforts on Rucking, just curious of anybody (or any research) found it either:
great for certain aspects of triathlon performance
it is functional strength training, no doubt about that. But does it work any muscle groups relevant to propelling a bike faster forwad or running stronger on flat
is it counter productive?? in terms of any tiredness, where you´d rather spend your time running or cycling
worth spending time on for longevity, stability, strength in hips, legs, lower back
I would say the most productive it is when you have small run niggles or are injured to maintain fitness
its more supplemental than replacing bike and run for tri performace
where I think its really useful is for newbe and bucket list triathletes to built up tendon strength etc.
for you I guess I would go with a bit less weight and go faster to get hr up a bit more
its also a great off season training .
Having had a long athletic ‘life’ including races (spanning decades) with a small pack and lots of 20 mile days with 20 lbs on my back, I offer a single piece of advice: Make sure the pack is super comfortable and balanced.
After 30+ years I did have an L4/L5 ‘slipped disc’ (spinal disc herniation with 10 days plus of sciatica ) episode which settled down with rest (no running for 10 weeks, physio) and then back into it and back to winning ways three months later.
I put this injury down to carrying a 20 lbs sac with a hard element across the waist and the repetitive stresses when running for hours with it.
Good points. Going faster on such steep hills is not easy some of if is really rocky and technical, almost mountaineering.
A nice aspect of this, is that I can go with my 4yo son - he loves it and actually really helping him with balance and being in nature. Insist on bringing his own ruck obviously.
Also gives you a bit of insight of the terrain we are moving in.
You have an eagle eye there @pk or domain knowledge This is the climb to Sant Isidro in Sitges, 40 km south of Barcelona. The summit is around 400m ASL and I do that in 30-35 mins.
This is some of the most tech parts, but the rock here is sharp (limestone) and can cut and make balance a virtue!
This reminds me of a “Triathlon” i did while in the Navy stationed in Cuba. It was a Four person team consisting of a 1/4 swim, 9 mile bike to the beach into an 11 mile hump with 40 pounds in a back pack over the hilly terrain back to the start/ finish. Each person had to put their pack on a scale at the start and finish of the hump (ruck). Team could not leave transition until all members were together.
Thanks, that’s interesting. I’ve used it to help my portage required musculature where it seems to provide great benefit in improving strength needed in situations where you’re hauling a canoe up gnarly trails where brute force is often required.
I just recognise the rock colours and vegetation and steepness down to the sea so there was little chance for it not to be in Catalunya, anyway you chose well
some of if is really rocky and technical, almost mountaineering.