[Rucking 101] Incorporating Rucking Into Your Training

Taking Things to the Next Level

In my last post, I charted how to get started with rucking from a runner’s perspective. In this post I’m going to explore what it looks like to incorporate rucking into your training regiment and discuss aspects of the mental and emotional strengthening that the rucking ecosystem unlocks.

Several years ago my wife and I did some intense interval training with a guy whose primary paid job was to train MMA fighters. His interval training mixed endurance, strength, agility, and pain which somehow kept us hungry for more every week. After one of our sessions he talked about his methodology, which was built around the type of mental and physical endurance that fighters need to build to stay alert during a fight. Our “resting periods” were often cut short with yelled verbal commands to sprint a quarter of a mile or flip a tractor tire up a steep hill, or do an inchworm for 50 yards. The interjections hijacked our brain’s tendency to let go while at rest and were intended to raise the level of our mental awareness and acuity.

Rucking benefits your “workout stack” in this same way, injecting the mundane and ordinary with something unexpected, albeit at a different scale.

The Unexpected

Your body gets used to routine. This goes for what you put into your body (food, beverage, alcohol, caffeine) as well as what you output from your body in the way of working out and spending energy. Eventually if you do the same the thing every time, expecting different results you will find that your physical strength and stamina begin to plateau. This applies both to our bodies physically as well as our brain functions. The concept of neuroplasticity explains our brain’s ability to become wired and re-wired across neural pathways.

When this becomes the case we need to hijack our body and brain by introducing something new. Rucking is one way to provide a disruptive force in order to push ourselves further in the direction we want to go. This same applies for other workouts adjacent to rucking: stair steps, sandbags, weights, and push-ups (which can all be augmented with a weighted ruck).

By wearing a ruck, changing workout distance and/or duration, or adding weight to normal workout routines, we can provide the needed leverage to push our bodies and minds in the right direction and give ourselves the needed edge to make sure we don’t become complacent.

Also, our body and mind are an integrated whole. Some times of workouts like. Cardio helps reduce blood pressure, improve sleep, increase mood and brain functions, and improves sleep. Weight training helps strengthen bones, regulates insulin, reduces inflammation, and improves strength and posture. Over-indexing on one type of workout means our body is unable to benefit from the fuller range of benefits offered by mixing cardio and strength.

Rucking enables us to achieve both and when mixed with standard running/cycling/swimming routines it can provide our bodies with something we desperately need: a varied and holistic care.

Mental and Emotional Strength

2020 has introduced many difficult challenges to the existing challenges of daily life.

Widespread lockdowns, varied social distancing measures, and restrictions on many normative activities has taken a toll (not just physically and financially) but mentally, as we seek to make sense and survive life in pandemic.

Rising depression and suicide rights are raising awareness that there are lasting effects of being locked up that we actively need to rally around, be aware, and help each combat.

“…mental toughness is… a simple choice you have to make. Are you going to go through this thing that’s hard, this thing that’s tough, this thing that sucks? Are you going to suffer through it? Or are you going to quit?”
—Jocko Willink

This quote from Jocko Willink is a reminder that we have a decision to make about what kind of life we want to chase down. We can accept the painful variables of pandemic life and feel a helpless kind of determinism set in. Or we can choose to band together and do something about it.

“When a human being decides that they are going to achieve their goals and they are going to go through whatever obstacles, then that’s where mental toughness comes from. It is a decision that human beings make to make it happen”.
—Jocko Willink

This isn’t to simplify or negate the complex medical, societal, and chemical realities of clinical depression and anxiety. As someone who has long wrestled with severe depression I can say these issues are very complex (and often personal). But the truth is we still have a decision to make about whether we are going to accept the status quo or whether we are going to fight and push against it.

Rucking has confronted me with my own weakness, and it is also a beautiful reminder that I am capable of pushing myself and achieving more than I ever thought possible. Stay in the fight! Life is worth living—no matter what obstacles are in our way.

Better Together

A huge challenge of pandemic life are the current restrictions and mandates on gatherings, which vary by state and country. Everyone needs community, and if you find yourself unsure of how to best get started with rucking and strength training, then consider joining the Sandbag + Ruck Training Program (SRT):

https://www.goruck.com/pages/sandbag-ruck-training-program

GORUCK’s SRT regimen is built around simple, timeless military principles:

KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid. Special Forces have been training with minimal equipment, and reaching the tip of the spear of human performance since forever. It’s not fancy and it’s not expensive.

If you want to try it out, you can sign up and the first two weeks are free!

Jonathan Simcoe


About the author: 

Jonathan Simcoe is an author, designer, and photographer who lives in the outskirts of Portland, OR with his wife and four kids. In his spare time he enjoys finding adventures with his family, getting outdoors, reading science fiction, and exploring new ideas. Jonathan is the author of A Little Book About Curiosity and his writing has previously been published in Dwell and Lagom: The Swedish Secret of Living Well by Lola Akinmade Åkerström.

10 comments

  1. PedsElite says:

    Additionally, many illicitly manufactured steroids are sourced
    from the black market, posing risks of opposed reactions because of
    tainted merchandise. SARMs usually are not anabolic steroids; rather,
    they’re artificial ligands that bind to androgen receptors (ARs).
    Depending on their chemical construction, they perform
    as full agonists, partial agonists, or antagonists.

    Its relatively safer profile has also led to occasional use
    by feminine athletes underneath strict supervision. Nonetheless, with increasing world scrutiny
    on anabolic steroid misuse, Anavar’s authorized status varies significantly from one country to a different.
    Whether Or Not you’re an athlete, recreational lifter,
    or medical user, understanding these legal frameworks is essential to avoiding unintended authorized consequences.

    You might see steroids also called anabolic-androgenic steroids, anabolic
    steroids, androgenic steroids, testosterone replacement remedy, roids, gear or juice.

    Nevertheless, whereas testosterone is converted into the stronger
    androgen DHT by 5α-reductase (21), the
    conversion of nandrolone into DHN yields an androgen with considerably lower binding affinity for the AR
    (77, 78). Thus, whereas testosterone’s actions might be amplified in tissues
    expressing 5α-reductase, nandrolone’s actions might be diminished (21).
    On the idea of this metabolism, the mix of a 5α-reductase inhibitor with
    nandrolone seems significantly misguided. The key query that remains to be answered is whether high dosages of AAS further
    promote the development of male-pattern hair loss. In the HAARLEM study,
    self-reported alopecia increased from 2% at baseline to 12% at the finish of the cycle (39).
    The study didn’t include an goal measure of alopecia,
    which makes it difficult to differentiate between a
    true rise in incidence and a mere self-perceived one.
    Additionally, many members used other medication concurrently with
    AAS, together with compounds with the potential to advertise hair loss, corresponding to thyroid hormone.

    It is crucial to bear in mind of the potential risks and to
    prioritize one’s well being and well-being above attaining desired bodily enhancements.
    Anabolic steroids are illegal throughout Australia until they’re prescribed by a health care
    provider for a medical function. Due To This
    Fact, it’s illegal to possess, make, promote, or
    inject someone else with anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids, also called anabolic–androgenic steroids (AAS), mimic the consequences of testosterone by binding to androgen receptors.
    Whereas they can be prescribed for certain medical conditions—such as hormone deficiencies—they are sometimes misused for efficiency enhancement or aesthetic positive
    aspects.
    Male-pattern hair loss, or androgenetic alopecia,
    is an androgenic situation par excellence. In the Nineteen Forties,
    James Hamilton described how male-pattern baldness did
    not develop in castrated men until they had been administered testosterone (72).
    Equally, it was later described that males born with 5α-reductase (the enzyme liable
    for conversion of testosterone into DHT) deficiency by no means developed
    male-pattern hair loss either (73). Pharmaceutical remedy of
    male-pattern hair loss exploits this statement through inhibition of 5α-reductase type 2 with finasteride
    (74). Erythrocytosis, or polycythemia, an increase
    in blood hematocrit or hemoglobin ranges, is a standard aspect impact of AAS use, even on substitute dosages.
    It is the most frequent antagonistic occasion in older males receiving
    testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) (40).
    Folks who take exercise dietary supplements mustn’t ignore the significance of
    a balanced food regimen and a consistent exercise routine.
    Both it’s an accelerated set of muscle mass, or the burning of extra fat.
    Such therapy is designed to normalize hormonal levels and to stabilize the production of
    testosterone by the body. Thus, it’s possible to avoid the
    so-called phenomenon of recoil and negative reactions from the
    effects of anabolic steroids. We perform the choice of steroids and are not intermediaries, so one of
    the best anabolic steroids can be bought at an attractive value, both for muscle development and for drying instantly from the producer.

    Thanks to such injections, the fat layer quickly disappears, thus, a beautiful reduction of muscle mass appears.
    Primobolan and Winstrol will be among the greatest steroids in our
    online store for this function. If you’re in search of
    protected and effective steroids in Australia, you’ve come to
    the best place! Our on-line anabolic store specializes in delivering steroids
    throughout Australia. Although Anavar is authorized in South Africa, many people believe
    that it is not safe because it has been linked to serious side effects, together with liver damage, and coronary
    heart issues. Research have proven that Anavar could be toxic
    to the liver and might lead to liver failure.
    This risk is particularly high if someone uses Anavar in combination with other hepatotoxic
    drugs, such as alcohol or road drugs.
    By understanding the legal guidelines and regulations surrounding steroids and
    different controlled substances in South Australia, people can make
    informed selections and avoid potential authorized points.
    Injectable steroids are more typically chosen by skilled athletes who practice power sports professionally.

    As a rule, injections allow you to get a faster and more highly effective effect on the body.
    One course of high-quality drugs lets you enhance as much as
    15 kg of muscle tissue.
    It ought to be famous that DHT just isn’t thought to contribute to the muscle-building results of testosterone.

    DHT levels are (very) low in skeletal muscle as it does not
    significantly express the enzyme. DHT additionally appears to be broken down in skeletal muscle by inactivation to 3α-androstanediol
    by the enzyme 3α-hydroxysteroid-dehydrogenase (20, 21).

    References:

    PedsElite

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *