Why walking around with a heavy backpack on is the internet’s latest fitness trend

Author Michael Easter wrote a bestseller about our need to experience discomfort and escape our climate-regulated environments. Easter has woven rucking into the very fabric of his life: “Rucking is an activity you can do every day so long as you’re not using insanely heavy weights. I throw on a ruck when I walk my dog. Sometimes I’ll go for a longer ruck for the cardio.”

At the other extreme, GOROCK organises group events which need some serious prep. “Some of those events will go 24 hours, even if you’re using 10kg, that 10 kg is going to feel pretty heavy by hour 22,” says Easter. “You need to get miles on your feet if you want to do something like that. You need to get used to the weight on your body.”

He points out that the social element of rucking is quite different to running. A mixed-ability group of runners can only stay together if someone compromises on pace, whereas a rucking group can walk at the same speed each with different loads in their pack.

Easter’s most extreme rucking workout came during a hunting trip. “I was hunting in the Arctic for 30 days. We hunted caribou and I had 100lbs of meat to bring back across the tundra – which is the worst thing you could ever walk on, all uphill. We place a lot of emphasis on the belief that humans were born to run in order to hunt, but we are equally born to carry. We’re hunter-gatherers. What’s gathering? It’s carrying some stuff.”

How best to get into rucking

So short of dragging caribou across the Arctic, how does a novice start carrying a load on their back?  Josh Bryant has written a book offering a complete guide to rucking. “Five per cent to 10 per cent of body weight is a good place to start. I say in my book starting with six per cent of body weight for 20 minutes and you end up with 20 per cent of body weight for an hour but that’s over 16 weeks.”

He recommends progressive overload in much the same way you would steadily build your weights in the gym. Injuries result from taking on too much too soon. He does not advise exceeding brisk walk pace and verging on a run unless you are about to join an armed unit.

That rucking isn’t as huge in the UK as it is in the US is a mystery – in our experience, it turns the outdoors into a truly challenging fitness environment, provides safe cardio, and if you hate running, could be the ideal way to get fit. And if anyone tells you it’s a glorified stroll, just ask them to hold your bag for a while.