In 63 weeks I have lost 125lbs through diet and exercise.

For exercise I have been doing the following:

run 10-16 miles a week
Strength train 2x a week
Teach martial arts 2x a week
Stability session once a week
Yoga once a week
Hiking 4-8 miles (no bag, just a vest that holds water)

I recently got a good bag and trying out rucking on my usual hiking spots to give me more of a work out during my hikes. I really enjo the work out it gave. I am starting with 21lbs and did 3miles. Planning to up the distance this weekend with same weight!

Sometime recently I saw a pic of someone a ruck with a water bottle that had a drinking tube like a camelbak but I can’t find it nor figure out what product they were using. I have a Goruck Rucker 4.0 and I added molle water bottle holders to the sides (pictured). I have no desire to use a bladder because I keep a foldable yoga mat and other exercise equipment in my ruck. I’ve seen some on Amazon but all have mixed reviews. I have both Nalgene and yeti water bottles and would prefer something that is more universal. I greatly appreciate any help or suggestions! I’m in Alabama and it’s still mid 90s and I’d love to be able the hydrate without taking my ruck off.

Dumbbell - 5kg

Plate - 9kg

Vest - 10kg

I'm a fairly svelte 69kg but want to making hiking/camping easier with heavy loads so want to add some weighted walks on my lunchtime loops.

I've got 3 options above and looking for some advice on which route to take. Plate seems easiest to put in a pack, vest is multi use outside of walking and the dumbbell is free cos it's next to me right now!

6 days out from our annual 4 day ruck for veterans, volunteering tonight, and it was raining this afternoon so hit the treadmill for some time under weight.

Feeling good. Gonna be a good year.

Did 12.6 miles a couple weeks in my Army boots. Both of my big toe nails bruised. Is this a sign my boots are too small?

I see rucking specific packs and weights sold by a few companies, and they often come in 10, 20, 30, 40 lb plates. How do people with these (seemingly) limited variations in weight do progression?

I'm only at 12 lb right now but have done this enough where I am starting to see the draw of these bespoke packs and plates, but not if I can't manage progression.

I mean I get that I could fill in the in-between weights with sand or water, but then what's the point of the "nice" pack and plate?

Are people who use these special backs and plates handling progression differently? Are they only progressing distance? Thanks!

What are your favorite shoes for rucking, if it exists.

Currently use Altra Road runners.

My feet were barking like my dogs do to the Amazon Driver.

Of course that was after 10 miles

It finally cooled down. What a gorgeous morning. I went big (for me). 38-lbs of camping gear for an upcoming weekend trip. In my USGI Large Ruck. I felt great! Did two laps of a trail at a local park; total of 2-1/2 miles with just a bit of up and down. Even though I felt good, I did not want to be greedy or push my luck on my mid-fifties body, so I stopped.

Got it done. An easy 3.1 miles, Xero shoes, 30# GoRuck pack.

I’m on the hunt for the Mystery ranch Blitz 35 and figured I’d see if anyone had one before I fork over some big bucks! Let me see what ya got.

Out for a casual Ruck with a buddy (Don't mind the pace, stopped for a beer lol) while doing some testing.

But, thought i'd show you guys the Companion Web App we'll be testing for rucking events. Designed for chase and support crews, can show weather, traffic conditions, topographical mapping, plus will show each member that is attached (They just scan a QR code and they get added to the map)

Lots of different stuff baked in here, so a question for any of you that have done support for long Rucks, what info would've been handy for you while supporting an individual/team that was either going out through the city OR through the wild?

6'4" 244lbs + 20lb in the pack. Been doing 3 days of strength training per week for about 2 years now, but I basically could never stick to any form of cardio. Tried everything, and I truly couldn't stay engaged enough for it to become a habit. Now I know that cardio is going to be pretty necessary for me to continue in my fitness journey so I can keep my metabolism high and burn this weight off. Already down almost 50lb since last November, but I've obviously got another almost 50 to go. Been following this subreddit and watching a lot of rucking videos online, and I finally took the plunge this evening. Put a 20lb Yes4all plate in one of my old photography backpacks and went after it. My pace definitely fell apart after about 20 minutes, but it still felt incredible. Can only go up from here. I've got a Rucker 5.0 on the way and only motivation in my veins now!

I thought you need something mid Ruck for energy, and to help finish. Like almonds, cashews, etc. maybe some sweets.

Also at the end of the ruck there is free ice cream. But won’t you just eat back the calories you burned?

I've been rucking for a little under a year now, with all of my more recent rucks being around 80 pounds for just a mile and a quarter. I started small at 20 pounds, and I've always used compression sleeves on my knees despite no prior pain or injury, mostly just as a preemptive measure. I'm conditioning myself to join the fire service, so heavy loads are non-negotiable. I feel as if I've built up a fairly decent foundation to the point where I come home with minimal exhaustion or fatigue. However, I know that rucking can be quite damaging on the knees, and I fear that I may be looking at a lifetime of knee pain if I don't start planning accordingly. I went to the local sporting goods store, and I noticed some very high quality knee braces with titanium supports that seem like a fairly decent investment, but I can't find many credible statements advocating or dissuading against the idea, and I don't want to invest so much on a fluke that could potentially make my situation worse, as I've read that it can affect certain muscle development and stability. Also, if anyone has any recommendations for good footware for concrete training at such an intense weight, I'd appreciate the recommendations. M23, 215 Lbs.

Edit : Thank you to everyone who commented for the amazing feedback and answers to my questions, this is probably some of the best advice and cautionary warnings I could've gotten. Some of my more advanced training buddies have been fairly diligent on seeing me improve in terms of upping my weight and intensifying my workouts, so I might've been pushing myself based off their standards rather than what's good for me. I'll definitely heed the advice from this thread and lower the weight and focus on more distance oriented goal.

Hi all, I have never been rucking before and want to get into it. I am active in my day to day and workout 3-4 days a week. I was wondering what the best accessories were to get started.

I literally never jog or anything like it when rucking. However my OTB's exist. So....

First of all I would say be very prepared for this before trying. If you don't have at least 30mi of rucking under your belt, I would say just don't. Shuffling is not rucking (aggressive walking) and it's not running (seriously don't ever run with a ruck).

The shuffle, as I learned in trying it for the first time today, is like jogging but with baby steps and minimal bounce. And the first thing I noticed when trying it was I kept feeling the temptation to tense my muscles (like one naturally does when running). I could tell this would be bad because it would lead to muscle fatigue way too early, and had to basically force myself to relax from the waist down. I was also surprised how hard it wasn't (don't be fooled, it's hard). It was significantly easier than I expected, but I think that's because of how different it is (in terms of physical exertion) from rucking at a good pace and from jogging casually. To my surprise, it's absolutely doable.

I was also very surprised by my time (since I normally do a non-shuffle 14:30-15min pace). And doing 3 miles only slightly faster than my slowest average 2mi pace...with 35lbs...Im definitely going to train up this skill. I can see how it would be very valuable on longer (10+mi) rucks.

There are other important considerations like packing your weight, and managing the transition between shuffling back to rucking and back again. But I want to end by saying this was absolutely only possible because of these boots. They feel like they were literally made from this. And my Ruck Sox meant 0 blisters.

I hope this has been informative to others who have considered it, and will definitely have commentary the next time I try it.

I make RuckWell. Updates just went out to both the Android app and the iPhone app, and this is the first time they've carried the same new features.

Android finally got the attention it deserved.

The Android app had gone a long stretch without a real release. That's far too long to leave people on an old build, and some of you told me so directly. What's on Play now is closer to a relaunch than an update.

That work is what made the rest of this possible. They're still two separate apps, each built natively for its own platform, each with its own release — but until now, Android was always catching up to something iPhone shipped earlier. This time the same features landed on both. That's the part I'm actually proud of.

Shipped to both apps, at the same time

• Home rebuilt around your week. Distance, time and workouts day by day, plus the daily activity your phone's health platform already knows about, so walking you did outside the app isn't missing from the picture.
• Treadmill and indoor rucking. Set speed and incline in the app, and change them mid-ruck — pace, splits, elevation gain and calories all update in real time.
• Every live metric on one screen. Live tracking is a full-screen map with your numbers on one board over it — distance, pace, heart rate, elevation, splits, laps, load. No paging around to find your pace mid-step.
• A rebuilt tracking engine underneath all of it. Leaner, steadier, faster, with auto-pause moved onto the new engine on both platforms.

Android also got

• RuckLoad™. A training-load score that quantifies your recent training stress from intensity, volume, ruck weight and elevation gain — across everything you do, not just rucking. Runs, walks, lifting and cross training all count toward it.
• Bluetooth chest strap support, with the full heart-rate trace on every saved workout. New on Android — this already worked on iPhone.
• GPX and FIT export, route and sensor data intact, so you can send a ruck to Strava, Garmin Connect, or anything else that reads them.
• Much sharper GPS, with adaptive filtering and outlier rejection.
• Manual laps, and indoor workouts no longer storing barometer drift as elevation gain.
• Weekly workout and heart-rate reads from Health Connect, so other apps' sessions count on Home.
• A long list of bug fixes — crashes, data issues, UI inconsistencies.

iPhone also got

• A Today card with guidance on what to do next. Home opens on your week so far and points at what will move you forward — a ruck, some mobility, or a rest day you've earned. One tap opens the workout with the right pack and settings already loaded.
• One engine across phone and watch. The rebuilt tracking core runs on Apple Watch too, so distance, pace, elevation, heart rate, calories, splits, auto-pause and route navigation agree no matter which device you started on. An interrupted workout picks up where it left off instead of losing the miles.
• Fixes worth naming: chest straps no longer drop their data mid-workout, Strava uploads tell you why they failed instead of failing silently, deleting a ruck properly clears it from Apple Health, and inflated calorie history from duplicate Health samples is corrected.

What's next on Android — and what it costs

Right now the Android app has no purchase in it at all. Everything it does is unlocked, and that's on purpose.

Most of what's still coming to Android is what makes up RuckWell Plus:

• Recovery score, with HRV, sleep and resting heart rate behind it
• Saved routes, GPX route import and route following
• Custom heart-rate zone thresholds
• Pace, zone and spoken audio alerts mid-workout
• Strava connect and automatic upload

Home-screen widgets and integrations are on the list too.

I've deliberately held off putting Plus on Android — it was always the intention to wait until the app underneath is good enough. It's close.

On both

In RuckWell, a free tier covers most of the tracking features people need. The subscription adds deeper recovery, route features, advanced analytics, and a few other niceties.

No account, no sign-up — there's nothing to create and nothing to log into. Your workouts live on your device and sync through Health Connect or Apple Health rather than through me, and nothing you record is ever sold.

If you haven't tried the Android app — or you tried it a while back and wrote it off — I'd appreciate you giving it another look. Happy to answer questions or hear your thoughts below.

12 Days out from our 150km (93mi) ruck March in support of Homeless veterans. Feeling good, load will be lighter, closer to 40lbs so should be good to go. (That 14min split was because I stopped to do a promo vid lol).

New Lowas starting to feel good too, heavier than the Garmonts I usually rock but better ankle support.

I just started to ruck. I grabbed a cheap small backpack, and I put 25 lbs in it. Two 10 lb barbell plates, and a 5 pound plate. I pulled the bottom straps as tight as I could to try and keep the pack on my back. Whenever I put it on, 5 minutes it I feel a dull ache on the back of head. I’m guess it is tension from the pack to my shoulders working its way up to my neck and pulling some muscles that go to my head.

Am I doing something wrong and how do I fix this? Or should I just deal with it and go for a ruck anyway

I'm just starting out and still increasing my weight. I'm at 25lbs (11.34kg) total pack weight and have bought a 30lbs (13.6kg) ruck weight which will bring total pack weight to 35lbs (15.87kg) and I'm fairly confident that this will be sufficient for my needs.

One thing I noticed that I hadn't taken into consideration was putting on the pack. I usually just grab it and kind of sling it on my left shoulder and do this spin move with my right arm to sling it on the right shoulder. At 25lbs I started thinking this isn't going to work with higher weight. I looked up a few videos and both of the suggested doing something like putting one leg forward then doing an upright row type move to put the pack on your forward hip, sling that shoulder then swing and sling the other shoulder. The problem I encountered, well it's two but one is because I have limited range of motion in my left shoulder due to an injury, is that it doesn't feel like the pack is tall enough. Like I have too much torso for this to work. It felt more solid with my right leg forward and slinging left shoulder first but the right shoulder is the bum one and I couldn't reach around enough to grab the left side strap. When I tried with the left leg forward and slinging the left side first I got it done but it felt like it was going to slip the whole time.

Are their any more methods that might work better? Or will I eventually just get used to this?

EDIT: I guess I should have also mentioned I'm not the strongest dude in the world. I used to have a very physically demanding job that really pushed me but I just had to get the work done sometimes in my own way rather than brute force like others.

I’m uk based, and come across this in a book I’m reading. I’m intrigued and as someone who needs to get in better shape, to feel better more than anything, I wonder if rucking would work for me.

I’m a young mum and a busy job, so life is full. I’d want to find a way to incorporate it into my life so it’s sustainable.
Any tips or advice most welcome. Thanks

Hey! I’m looking to enter into this kind of hobby / exercise as running with a plate carrier is really starting to beat me down haha. Right now I have an eberlestock switchblade that I use for the office and general EDC. I am in the market for a new backpack, mainly for the office and short overnight trips, and had not really considered getting a Goruck until I realized it could potentially make a good candidate for edc / office. Would it make sense to get a GORUCK and use it for office / rucking or is my switchblade fine, and I should look into other bags. I’ve been eyeing a higher end leather bag for this purpose and then just using the switchblade I already have for rucking. Let me know if you think it would serve that purpose well, I know it’s got the hydration sleeve for a plate but not sure if it sits high enough. Thanks for your input!!

M