How Much Weight Should You Ruck With? The Beginner’s Guide to Weight, Distance, Pace, & Scaling

0:00 Starting with the right weight is critical because it's step one of your rucking plan. I'm going to guide you to making this decision for yourself by feeding you questions and making you reflect on where you are in terms of your current physical fitness. This will get you thinking about what you want to achieve out of rucking, how you want to get there, and then you can make a decision based off of some of your answers to those questions as well as general guidelines that I'll provide. Welcome to the Rucker's Edge podcast, a show all about rucking that is designed to help you develop a rucking routine, lose weight, and ultimately gain your strength and energy back. Whether you're an office worker with lower back pain, a fitness first -timer, or a new parent trying to get back to your pre -kids weight, this is the show for you. I'm your host, Spencer. Thanks for tuning in. Today, we're answering one of the most common questions new ruckers ask. How much weight should I start with? In this episode, I'll walk you through how to make the decision based on where you are right now in terms of your fitness level, your injury history, and the goals that you have.

1:07 You'll also learn about the three core variables in rucking, weight, distance, and pace, how to safely increase intensity, and why going too heavy too soon can set you back. I'll also share a personal story about the time I scaled up too quickly and paid the price so you don't have to make the same mistake. I know we've touched on this before. But let's start out by touching base on the three variables you can change when you ruck. They are weight, distance, and pace. Arguably, there could be a fourth one to increase the intensity of your workout, and that would be elevation changes. But elevation changes are more of an advanced topic. So starting out, it's wise to stick to relatively flat trails until your body is ready to start handling more of a challenge. like stadium steps or hill repeats.

1:58 When deciding how to start rucking, these three variables all have to be considered. Tweak them as you develop your rucking plan and continue to make gains. Deciding what weight to use brought us here today, but first let's consider the other two variables, and then we'll attack what weight to use. Let's talk about distance and pace. How do we set these? Well, for distance, you need to determine how far do you want to go, how much time do you have to ruck, and how far are you comfortable going? The general recommendation is to start with two miles. All right, let's talk about pace. How fast are you going to go? Let's start out at a brisk pace. You may not know exactly how fast you're going to go, but go take a walk without any weight for your intended distance and go at a brisk pace. That's going to be your baseline. When you start adding weight, you're naturally going to be walking slower, but as you get stronger, you're going to increase your pace, and your baseline pace is a good goal to shoot for. The general recommendation is 20 minutes per mile. All right, now let's talk about weight. How much weight should you ruck with?

3:10 The answer is it depends. The general guideline is 10 % of your body weight or 10 to 20 pounds. But it's very situational and unique to each rucker. There are situations where you should start with less than that. You should start with no weight. Here are some examples of that. If you're just getting back into training, you're nursing an injury, recovering from a surgery, going through physical therapy, your body mass index or your BMI exceeds the overweight category, you're suffering from chronic pain, recovering from a major illness, you're an older adult, or you're a postpartum mother. If you fall in one of those situations, maybe consider establishing a good walking routine for a few weeks and then progressing to weighted walks. Now, conversely, there are situations where you could start with more than the recommended starting weight of 10 pounds to 20 pounds or 10 % of your body weight.

4:10 Situations where this might be the case include maybe you've been strength training very regularly. We're talking three to four times a week for more than one to two years straight, and you're in great physical condition already. Starting with the right weight is critical because it's step one of your wrecking plan. Because everyone is different and on different fitness journeys, where you start may not be the same place where I started or where your workout buddy started. I'm going to guide you to making this decision for yourself. by feeding you questions and making you reflect on where you are in terms of your current physical fitness. This will get you thinking about what you want to achieve out of rucking, how you want to get there, and then you can make a decision based off of some of your answers to those questions as well as general guidelines that I'll provide. The first thing to assess is your fitness level. Have you been riding the couch, basically living a sedentary lifestyle, years of inactivity? Are you slightly more active?

5:13 Do you do other exercises casually here and there and have a relatively active lifestyle? Maybe you formally trained and you just need to get back into a rhythm. Or maybe you've been consistently working out for a significant length of time and you're already in decent shape. Do you have any historic or existing injuries or chronic pain? If this is the case, I strongly suggest talking to your doctor. Good time to remind everybody, I'm not a doctor. The contents of this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. But if you fall into this case, talk to your doctor to establish where you should start your rucking journey. For new ruckers that fit into the unfit or sedentary lifestyle currently, maybe start out walking and progressing slower.

5:59 If you're slightly more active and have been working out here and there, a great place to start is 10 pounds. If you lift weights already and run or some other exercise on a very regular basis, you can start off a little heavier and do 10 % of your body weight. Okay, let's talk rucking plans. I've had a few listeners reach out to me asking for some guidance about what rucking plan I follow or what rucking plan I suggest to them. And in each case, it's always different. But let's walk you through developing your own rucking plan and what options there are out there. for you to either use or adjust and tailor it for your own goals. Okay, so we already did our baseline walk. We've established our distance, we've established our pace, and we've decided on what weight we're going to start with. But in terms of developing a rucking plan, the first thing you need to consider is what is your goal? Are you rucking for endurance, weight loss, strength? You can go heavy and short if you're focusing on strength. or lighter and longer if you want to increase your endurance.

7:07 GoRuck has some excellent suggested rucking plans. I'll include them in the show notes. There are several out there. But to summarize GoRuck's general rucking plans, they recommend most beginners start with 20 pounds, regardless of body weight, especially if they're new to fitness or returning after a break. For those over 150 pounds, 30 pounds is acceptable. They suggest keeping the weight manageable. focusing first on form and distance before increasing the load. Scaling up should happen gradually in five -pound increments, never exceeding one -third of your body weight and always listening to your body. Another resource out there is Wild Gym's How to Ruck series on YouTube. They emphasize starting light and moving often. Their guidance encourages beginning with 10 to 20 pounds depending on fitness level and focusing on consistent practice over intensity.

8:01 They prioritize good form, pack fit, and flat terrain early on. As strength and confidence build, users can increase weight and duration slowly while keeping posture and comfort front of mind. The last one I'll summarize is the Pathfinder Ruck Training Plan. They advise new ruckers to begin with a baseline of 10 to 20 pounds and focus on building volume and consistency. Their structure programs guide ruckers through progressive challenges by gradually increasing weight, distance, and intensity over 12 to 16 weeks. They emphasize progressive overload and encourage lighter recovery weeks every fourth week to allow adaptation and avoid injury. These plans are a softer entry than some of the tactical style rucking programs out there. If you're looking to start heavier, longer, and go harder, do some googling. You'll definitely come across a few. Probably one of the most popular options out there is Gritty Soldier's Embrace the Ruck program. Okay, so the key points or takeaways that I have from reviewing these plans, if you're just starting out and new to rucking, are don't start scaling until you nail down the form. I talked about form in a previous episode, episode four, but I'll recap that here in a second as I tell you a story about how I messed up and scaled too quickly. Other takeaways include you can add five pounds every two to four weeks as your current weight gets easier. Don't change more than one variable at a time. Don't exceed one -third of

9:32 your body weight. Don't incorporate difficult terrain or significant elevation changes when starting. You can certainly include it when you're ready to increase intensity. And it's okay to ease off every few weeks and go on recovery rucks to give your body a breather. Progress is not necessarily linear. The last plan that I summarized, the Pathfinder plan, mentioned taking a break every four weeks or so. It's not just okay to ease off. It's smart. Even elite marathoners structure in recovery by including easy days, slow runs, or lighter weeks. And then the last takeaway from reviewing these plans, in addition to rucking, incorporating another type of workout is going to be extremely beneficial for your health. The Pathfinder guides athletes to incorporate functional workouts like I discussed. So functional workouts focus on movements that mimic everyday activities. They improve your body's ability to perform daily tasks with ease and reducing the risk of energy. I previously published a blog post on theruckersedge .com where I summarized the workout routine I used to get my body in shape, and I include using body weight, cinder blocks, and my TRX strap. All right, I want to take a pause real quick to say thanks for listening to this podcast. I make these episodes to help people build healthier, stronger lives through rucking. And if that sounds like someone you know, send this episode their way. And if you haven't yet, hit follow on your podcast player

11:03 so you never miss an episode. All right, back to it. So you've decided how much weight you're going to start with. You've formulated a plan based off of a few recommendations. Now let's talk about scaling. crazy crucial to listen to your body when you're increasing your load or increasing the intensity of your rucks. Let me tell you about the time just five pounds set me back weeks in progress I was making through rucking. Whenever I have free time, I'll go on to a few social media platforms and check out a few rucking groups that I'm a member of. It's great for motivation and accountability purposes.

11:45 I always like seeing the progress other people are making, it energizes me and motivates me to get up and get going again. One day I was on one of these platforms, and this was like early days of me starting my rucking routine. I opened up my phone and saw a few posts about people carrying sledgehammers and axes and a few other things, and I thought, man, that looks pretty cool. They were talking about how it's an excellent addition to your rucks to develop grip strength if you're into that sort of thing. I thought it was a great idea. I was noticing all of my muscles except for my forearms were developing, and it would help make carrying my kids a lot easier. It seemed perfect. So I decided to give it a go. I thought I was ready to do a 20 -pound ruck carrying a 5 -pound dumbbell.

12:32 I started my ruck like I normally did, except this time I brought the 5 -pound dumbbell with me. I plan to alternate it between my hands every quarter of a mile or so. I started out like normal. I was feeling good. The confidence was high. I was pretty excited about this new addition to the ruck. I continued to switch it about every quarter of a mile. Then I hit the mile mark and the sweat started to accumulate on my palms, making the carry just a little difficult. I thought, great, I was expecting this to get hard. I can do hard things. Check this out. Then I hit a mile and a half. The dumbbell got heavier and heavier. My palms were burning. We're just talking about five pounds. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't think it was going to be this difficult, but here I was thinking, you know, what the heck's going on? Am I really struggling with just an extra five pounds? I got to mile two. The sweat made it incredibly hard to hold on to. The weight felt like it was getting heavier and heavier still. I started switching hands even more frequently, probably so frequently it looked like I was playing a game of Hot Potato or something. At this point, I would seriously consider ditching this thing on the side of the trail and coming back for it later. I'll just... Throw it down by the bench and hope it doesn't walk off. I'll drive back and pick it up later. But I was determined. No, I told myself I'm not giving up. And in retrospect, I wish I would have had the thought to just throw it in my backpack. Just throw it in the rucksack.

13:49 I might have avoided the negative impacts I encountered at the end of the ruck. I kept going, carrying it. I got to, I don't know, two and a quarter mile down the trail and started to feel a stinging sensation in my ankle. But I decided to push through it. I got to the two and a half mile mark where I usually check my posture through a window. And holy cow, almost unrecognizable. My head, shoulders, and back were so hunched over. My knuckles might as well have just been dragging on the ground. I looked like the monkey on the chart of human evolution from primate to homo sapien. That was me all the way on the left, hunched over. I fixed my posture and finished the last half mile and threw my gear down in the grass when I finished. The next day, my ankle was screaming. I caused a flare -up that no amount of post -ruck recovery routine could have stopped.

14:41 I was down for weeks. It was a struggle to walk, let alone ruck, and I was itching to get back out there and ruck every day I was sidelined. In my line of work, we typically do an after -action report after an event or important activity to assess what worked and what went wrong. So I did an abbreviated after action report for this ruck where I carried the dumbbell. And here's what went wrong. The added weight and the shift in my center of gravity from carrying the extra weight impacted my posture severely. I was not engaging my core. I was not keeping my head up and my shoulders back. My back was definitely not straight. I was leaning way too far forward, which we all know is a recipe for disaster. I finished the ruck, but I definitely shouldn't have. The moment I felt a sensation or a burning in my ankle, I should have called it quits then and there. I probably should have dropped the excess weight once my body started negatively responding to it. And because I scaled up too quickly and was using improper form, I was making my legs compensate by forcing several muscle groups and associated ligaments and tendons to work harder, specifically my ankles and calves.

15:54 My ego got the best of me as a poor decision to scale up too quickly by carrying extra weight just because it looked cool. And that decision led to me having to take two weeks off to heal and recover. Moral of the story, only scale when your body is ready, especially if you have a pre -existing medical condition or a history of injuries. You need to go slow because your muscles, tendons, cardiovascular system, they're all getting used to this new activity that you started. You need to stay at a certain stage or certain difficulties to allow your body to adjust before pushing any further. There's a saying that I like. Sometimes people will say you're getting out in front of your skis when you act prematurely or take on something that you're not necessarily ready for or is just beyond your capabilities. So on your rucking journey, if you scale up too quickly, you get out in front of your skis, just scale it back. Go back down to the level where you previously were. Go back down to the weight you were previously carrying or the distance you were previously going. And then attempt to scale back up in a week or two.

17:00 Don't rush it. You might be asking, well, how do I know when I'm ready to scale up? Here's a bit of a checklist that you can run through to make that decision. Do the form check. Can you maintain perfect posture for your current weight or distance? Do the comfort test. Is your current rucking routine feeling easy for at least a week? Do your recovery check. Are you bouncing back quickly after your rucks? And then always remember the one variable rule. Only change one thing at a time. In my instance, I changed two. I changed the weight I was carrying and how I was carrying that weight. Now, after you scale up, after you've made the decision to scale up on that first ruck, pay attention is your form being impacted are you feeling more than just a little sore if so scale back stay at the previous step for a little longer scale up later scaling isn't about overloading it's about doing something sustainable for a long period of time there's a good phrase i like that's applicable to my philosophy on scaling up a workout and it's boring is beautiful And I know that sounds sort of counterintuitive, especially when you're scrolling through Instagram or other social media posts, seeing people carrying axes and kettlebells or dumbbells on their rucks.

18:21 But here's the thing. Boring is what builds you up and keeps you injury free. Ultimately, boring is what gets you to your goals. Think about it this way. When you're doing the same 20 pound, two mile ruck every Tuesday and Thursday for two to four weeks straight, that might feel monotonous. But what's actually happening is incredible. Your body is adapting your muscles, tendons, cardiovascular system. They're all getting comfortable with this new demand you're placing on them. And you're building a strong foundation. Here's what I've learned. That boring routine becomes this anchor in your week. Just like you don't think twice about making your morning coffee or brushing your teeth, that consistent rut becomes automatic. It becomes part of who you are. The beauty is in the process itself. Instead of chasing the excitement of adding 10 more pounds or an extra mile, you're focusing on how your form feels that day. You're tuning into whether your pack is sitting right. You're noticing if your core is engaged or if you're starting to lean forward. That internal focus, that's where the real progress happens. So when your buddy asks why you're still doing the same route with the same weight for the third week in a row, tell them, Because boring is building me into the rucker I want to become. The flashy stuff can wait. Right now, boring is exactly where you need to be. Trust the process. Embrace the boring.

19:45 And let consistency do the heavy lifting. Literally. You know what? You want a great example of trusting the process and living the boring is beautiful life? Nick Saban. If you're unfamiliar with who Nick Saban is, he's the greatest college football coach of all time. His teams have won seven college football national championships, and he's created a football dynasty at Alabama over the last couple of decades. Well, he's since left Alabama, but while he was there, he was just absolutely dominant. And even before Alabama, at his previous schools, LSU and Michigan State. But Saban doesn't get his players fired up by talking about winning championships. Instead, he gets them focused on executing each individual play perfectly all throughout the season and even the offseason.

20:32 He tells his team, don't think about winning the SEC championship. Don't think about the national championship. Instead, focus on this practice, this drill, this rep. It's not about winning the game, but winning the seven seconds per play. That's exactly what boring is beautiful means for ruckers. The process is about learning to focus on the things that you can control. You can't control whether you're going to be able to ruck 50 pounds next month, but you can control whether you show up for today's 20 -pound, 2 -mile ruck with perfect form. So that boring Tuesday ruck where you focus on keeping your shoulders back and your core engaged, that's your championship play right there. Saban has won multiple national championships not by dreaming about trophies, but by making the boring stuff beautiful. The daily grind, the attention to fundamentals, and the consistency that nobody sees. Your rucking journey works the same way.

21:23 Trust the process, embrace the boring, and let the results take care of themselves. Speaking of the process and results, in next week's episode, we'll discuss the importance of tracking our rucks and what we can do with the data that we collect. So be sure to follow the podcast so you get notified of new episodes. I make these episodes to help people build a healthier, stronger life through rucking. If that sounds like someone you know, send this episode their way. As always, links to all studies and products mentioned in this episode are provided in the show notes. Thanks again for listening to this week's episode of The Rucker's Edge.