I wish more folks knew about/would take up rucking. Yes, I look a bit odd as a small woman in my neighborhood wearing a giant weighted backpack, but it's a great workout.
I once trained for a mountain hike by walking up down the stairs in our 14 floor apartment building with 25kg backpack. I had no idea it has a name! I also walked 15km to work a few times, but I admit it affected my productivity...
rucking seems like it would be bad for one's back and knees? How much weight do you use? It seems like one of those things that's military inspired, except I don't have the VA to look after me if I wear out my hard goods.
"This can't be good for your body" is a bullshit excuse most of the time, I have 1 in a million chance to pulling a muscle while deadlifting, but someone who sits all day and don't exercise has 1 in 1 chance of slowly rotting away day by day, pick your poison. Unless you morbidly obese I don't think a 10kg backpack will be the straw that breaks the camel's back
Most people got it backwards, your knees and back don't hurt because you overused them, they hurt because they're grossly underused.
I do 10-15 hours of cardio a week lol. I make an effort to take care of my knees because at those training loads, having bad bike fit or an uncorrected varus knee issue can mean really messing things up for yourself.
My question was how much weight is necessary. Also curious whether that applies on the flat or only on incline, and whether a similar training load could be accomplished with lower joint stress by doing unloaded runs and weight room stuff.
If you have good form (e.g. standing upright, shoulders back) you really shouldn't have issues. it's good for your posture and bone density if you ruck correctly. You really don't want to exceed more than 1/3 of your body weight, but if you are just starting out I recommend starting with a 10 to 20lb pack.
My understanding is that most of the "bad for your knees" is actually when you don't soften the landing by bending your knees or ankle and your legs/knees get a jolt, not just the weight involved.
+1 for rucking. It's as easy as walking and you can progressively increase the weights if you want more effort - I need a better backpack for my weights!
Can you extend this into language learning content on YT? I think that would also have amazing utility. As a biologist, so happy to see Crime Pays but Botany doesn't on here. Thanks for the awesome tool. I will be using it.
