Ruck Training For Better Tactical Workouts

Rucking is one of my personal favorite ways to “get after it” in my training. Particularly in the early morning hours to catch a sunset, I love strapping a backpack loaded with weights on my back and disappearing into nature for a little while.

A “ruck” is simply a backpack. Rucking is hiking, walking or running with the loaded back pack. That’s it. Nothing overly complicated but rucking can lead to some impressive gains in lower body endurance as well as add extra caloric burning to your day depending on the intensity of your ruck.

How Does Rucking Make Me A Better Tactical Athlete?

Your aerobic capacity is going to be challenged and you’ll notice that you’ll be able to train harder for longer with consistent rucking. How does rucking increase your 40 yard dash or mile time or one rep max on a shoulder press? More time on your legs increases your lower body muscular systems ability to buffer out lactic acid.

When your upper body fatigues during a workout, where does that lactic acid go? It goes to your lower body in order to clear from your system. Well if your lower body isn’t as conditioned as it should be then your legs burn out and your overall fitness suffers.

Now if you ruck for speed, that’s a completely separate challenge. Like anything else, progressive overload works. Try constantly run rucking with just a few pounds in your backpack for a few weeks then go back to your normal runs, notice the improvement? I bet you did.

Rucking is especially critical if you are a tactical athlete since your ability to move your body, with gear on, constantly is a job requirement.

Ruck training isn’t just walking or running, you can easily drop down and perform push ups, squats, lunges or russian twists with your backpack.

Tactical workouts should include some element of rucking each week. It doesn’t need to be 20 or 30 pounds, it can be a job with 5 pounds one day and a three hour hike with 20 pounds a few days later.

The benefits of rucking are going to be seen in your lower body endurance and cardiovascular heart rate management when you do it for an extended period of time so get after it.