5 Myths About Rucking – Busted

There’s been a recent trend in a “new” cardiovascular activity called “rucking.” What is it? It’s just walking with a weighted backpack or a weighted vest.

Original source: here.

            Why do people do it? For lots of mostly incorrect reasons. We’ll bust those claims here, as well as when it does make sense to use rucking as your choice of cardiovascular activity.

But first, let’s discuss the origins of rucking.

The Origins of Rucking

Rucking originated in the military, where soldiers prepare for marches by carrying heavy backpacks. The general public then thought “soldiers do it. They’re in good shape. I should do it too.”

On that note, soldiers don’t do it by choice. They do it by necessity – because they need to carry equipment on their back. Second of all, why look at soldiers as the epitome of endurance? They’re in great shape, for sure, but why not look at people who have even better endurance than soldiers, like… endurance athletes (I know, surprising that endurance athletes have better endurance than soldiers)?

First of all, endurance athletes don’t use rucking to improve at their chosen endurance event. Second of all, soldiers do use endurance activities (usually jogging) to improve their endurance. Rucking is something that has to happen, but if it was the best thing ever, wouldn’t soldiers just do more rucking if it built endurance better than other alternatives?

Myth #1: It Builds Cardiovascular Endurance

Sure, rucking does indeed build cardiovascular endurance. But so do lots of things, like jogging, swimming, cycling, rowing, using the elliptical, etc.

Does rucking build endurance better than those other activities? Nope. What determines the improvements in your cardiovascular endurance are:

• The intensity (your pulse)
• Your duration
• Your frequency (number of days per week)
• Whether you do intervals or continuous training

Notice anything missing? The type of activity matters a whole lot less than these other elements. They’re all virtually equal.

Myth #2: It Burns More Calories

This is another common claim by proponents of rucking. Whenever someone says “more”, you have to follow it up with the question of “more than what?” It definitely burns more calories than sitting on the couch. No arguments there.

But it doesn’t burn any more than or less than other common cardio activities (jogging, swimming, cycling, rowing, elliptical, etc.).

The 2 factors that determine the number of calories you burn during exercise are:

1. Your pulse.
2. Your body weight.

…not the activity. As long as you have the same pulse and duration, all activities will be about equal in their calorie burn.

Myth #3: It Builds Strength

This one isn’t so much a myth as a half myth. It does build strength – in people who don’t already strength train, and who were sedentary to begin with.

But if you compare it to strength training, it is far, far inferior. For one thing, it doesn’t build strength very well. What’s the definition of strength? The most amount of force that you can generate. What is strength training? A form of exercise that improves the amount of force that you can generate. To do that, you have to use weights that don’t allow you to do more than 15 repetitions. If you can do 16 repetitions, you’re not strength training. You’re endurance training. Nothing wrong with that. But it’s not strength training.

Nobody loads their backpack so heavy that they can’t take 16 steps. So no, rucking does not build strength very well. Certainly not compared to strength training.

Secondly, it doesn’t build strength through a full range of motion. To do that, the knee needs to bend all the way (if we’re talking about the quadriceps and hamstrings – the muscles on the front and back of the thighs). When you’re walking, the knee might bend only 20-25 degrees. What about the other 150ish degrees?

So no, rucking does not build any appreciable amount of strength.

Myth #4: Rucking Improves Bone Density

As the author of the Amazon bestselling book, Osteoporosis Reversal Secrets, I often get asked about rucking for bone density. The people asking really want it to work. Just like when I get asked about yoga for bone density. They do it, so they really want it to work. Why do they want it to work? Because they want someone to pat them on the head and say “you’re doing a good job.” And while often they are working hard, they’re working hard at the wrong things.  Rucking is the wrong thing for bone density (so is yoga. I recorded a thorough video about that in the video below). Difficulty does not mean effectiveness.

As you learned in the previous section, rucking is not strength training. It is indeed weight-bearing activity, but you’re just not bearing enough weight for it to be effective (if you’re wondering how much weight it needs to be, the answer is quadruple your body weight. Good luck).

Myth #5: It Builds Core Strength

To that, I have to say hahahahahahahahahahaha. I recorded a detailed video on core strength below, so I won’t rehash all of those points.

First of all, when people use the word “core”, they use it interchangeably with “abdominals.” But they’re not the same thing. The abdominals are only one quarter of the core. And they aren’t working all that hard when rucking. Ever done crunches or planks until your abs burn? That’s because they actually work the abs. Ever felt your abs burn from walking, running, cycling, swimming, or any other form of cardio? No? That’s because it doesn’t work the abs (or the rest of the core for that matter). Neither does rucking.

The reason people think it works the core is because they want it to work the core. Unfortunately, wanting is not enough.

The Final Verdict

In my opinion, rucking is just another tool in the toolbox. Personally, I don’t see anything special about it. It has no unique benefits (it doesn’t burn more fat, it doesn’t build more endurance, etc. compared to other forms of cardio). But that doesn’t mean that it’s inferior, either.

Ultimately, if it appeals to you, go for it. If it doesn’t appeal to you, that’s OK, there are many ways to get the same job done.

When to Use Rucking

So when is there a specific time to use rucking? I can think of a couple of situations:

1. If you’re in the military, then well… you don’t have a choice.
2. If you hike a lot, and you find yourself fatiguing during hiking. If you hike a lot and you don’t fatigue during hiking, then there’s no particular advantage to rucking.

Why Is Rucking Gaining Popularity?

Whenever I see a fitness trend that puzzles me why so many people are jumping on the bandwagon, I always wonder if I’m missing something. So I start asking people who are on that bandwagon (with genuine curiosity) why they do it. The above 5 myths are the most common reasons I hear. But they’re just that – myths.

There are a couple of reasons rucking is so popular:

1. It’s the blind leading the blind. Maybe there’s an InstaTrainer (a trainer on Instagram. Again, my definition of an InstaTrainer is someone with lots of followers, and next to no fitness knowledge that gives fitness advice. Plus, takes lots of selfies, and doesn’t post any client success stories).
2. People want to say that they do rucking on social media. It makes them sound cool, hip, trendy, in-the-know. It gets them lots of likes. I wonder how people ever exercised without telling the world they just completed a workout. Sheesh!

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