Your First Ruck: How to Prepare, Pack, and Crush It Without Getting Injured

0:00 I tape up right before I go. I tape the back of my ankle. That's where majority of my blisters have historically popped up. After you get used to your shoes, you likely won't have blisters, but never say never. 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. I'm glad you're here today because we're going to continue the conversation we started last week in our preparations to make our first ruck. In today's episode, we're going to be covering blister protection, the importance of stretching, warming up, correct posture while rucking, cooling down, and then how to start your recovery process.

0:51 Okay. What do we need to do on rucking day? The first thing we're going to do is pack our bag. Now, obviously you want your weight in there already, but you're also going to want to bring some water. So bring a bottle of water or bottles of water or jugs of water or a hydration pack, which is like kind of like a camel back, something with a bladder, a hose and a mouthpiece with a bite valve to drink from hands free. I recommend putting in a first aid kit with medical tape in case you develop any blisters. Also throw in a poncho because a storm can pop out of nowhere, at least here in Louisiana. And then lastly a carabiner in case you want to take your hat off and you want to hang it somewhere. I always just leave my bag packed, ready to go, and stored in a dry place. That way it's always in the same spot and I know exactly where it is when I need it. After your bag is packed, go ahead and tell someone that you're going on a ruck and tell them where you're going with an estimated time you're going to be back, especially if you're going on a long distance ruck. Make sure someone knows the route you plan to take in case something happens and they need to go find you. That's actually just an overall good rule of thumb for anything, for any length of time, any outdoor activity. I always tell my wife the route that I'm going to take with an estimated time on when I'm going to be back. I also share my location with her on my phone so she can see where I am at any given point if she wants to check in on my ETA. Then you're going to want to go ahead and make sure that you're prepared for any blisters that are going to pop up. It's very likely that you're going to develop at least a few. I tape

2:21 up right before I go. I tape the back of my ankle. That's where majority of my blisters have historically popped up. After you get used to your shoes you likely won't have blisters but never say never. There are several products out there that can help prevent blisters. Some of them are Body Glide, Molescan, Leukotape, and KT Tape. In addition to taping, you may want to consider getting a new pair of socks. I have been using, I've always historically used cotton socks, but recently I switched to wool socks when I started rucking. Darn Tough is a company that makes wool socks, but I have a pair of the Go Ruck Merino Challenge socks. Ankle sized, obviously, because I'm a millennial. but they do a fantastic job of wicking away sweat and keeping my feet pretty cool and comfortable and additionally they help prevent blisters specifically merino wool i'll include a link to those in the show notes if you want to learn more about them okay next up it's time to stretch this is and has always been my weakness in any of my exercise habits even back in my running days Stretching will help prevent injuries and will improve your performance. It's crazy critical for rucking. Now there's a difference between stretches. There are dynamic stretches and static stretches. I remember when I first learned the difference between dynamic and static stretching. It was in my junior year and my cross -country coach was teaching us the importance of dynamic stretching and gave us some homework to do. He wanted us to research the difference and conclude which one would be better. And I was the only one that brought in multiple sheets

3:52 of paper with several lines highlighted. I think it was that moment when I realized that I should probably go into a research field for my occupation. Two science degrees later, here I am with the desire to research a topic I'm curious about and care deeply about, all for your benefit. Anyway, back to dynamic and static. When you think dynamic, stretching, think movement. So using the muscle itself to perform the stretch rather than holding a position, you're actually moving a joint through its full rotation. It's going to loosen you up a little bit. as opposed to static being still that's when you just you're bending over and you're grabbing your your ankles or uh you're touching your toes as you can imagine dynamic stretches are better when warming up before a ruck as opposed to static stretches the dynamic stretches i do before rocking include ankle circles leg swings shoulder raises arm circles, and butt kicks. These are all gonna target majority of the muscles you're gonna need to use when rucking. I'll include a link to a PDF that will show you how to do these different stretches. So after you do your stretches, you're gonna warm up. And you gotta warm up because it's similar to stretching, it's gonna help prevent injuries, and it's gonna enhance your performance.

5:00 But it also increases your heart rate, your blood flow, and your breathing. And so doing so will help your body acclimate to the increased activity. It helps make the exercise feel easier to do at the start. I build my warmup into my ruck, so I just start off slower than the pace I strive for. So the first five or so minutes, I'll go at a slower pace, and then I begin to pick up the pace once I start getting into the actual ruck. All right, so we stretched, we warmed up, now it's time to get going. Now, when you start rucking... We've mentioned this in the past but there are three variables that you need to consider when setting a goal and I highly recommend you set a goal because without one you may not have the direction or purpose required to achieve whatever end result you would like to have. In fact in an upcoming episode we're going to be focusing specifically on how to set and what makes a good goal. Three variables to consider when setting your goal are going to be weight distance, and speed. Again, the recommendation is 10 % body weight for approximately 20 minutes a mile for your pace. When you ruck, it's very critical that you maintain good posture so you don't accidentally injure yourself and set you back. Good posture for rucking includes having your head up, your shoulders back and down, your back is straight, you're engaging your core, your arms are relaxed, and your backpack as tight and as high up as possible. You don't want any

6:32 weight moving around. Make sure your weight is evenly distributed so it's not messing with your momentum forward. If you're anything like me, you might struggle with good posture during different activities, so I'm always constantly trying to check myself, make sure it's correct. One way to do this is if you're in the city, you can... pass by buildings that might have a mirror tent or just check yourself out in the reflection of the mirror of the windows and see if everything lines up correctly. There is one building in particular on the route that I usually take that has a mirror tent and I almost always check myself out to make sure that my posture is correct and it's actually conveniently located. It's at the beginning and the end of my out and back route and usually my posture is correct going out but It's when I'm coming back is when I find myself correcting my posture the most. Also, another good way to check your posture is to listen to your body. Are you using certain muscle groups more than others? Are they getting tense? Are they getting sore? It's a good idea to pay attention so that we don't heavily use some muscles and not others. For example, engaging my core is difficult for me and I'm often relying on my shoulders for a lot of the weight carrying. So I'm constantly reminding myself to engage my core. Also, pay attention to previously injured parts of your body. If you had previous knee injuries or ankle injuries, think about those different areas throughout your rock and see if they're aggravated or if you feel comfortable.

8:01 If you feel the slightest hint of any soreness or pain, consider slowing down or reducing your weight. Since we're talking about listening to our body and previous injuries, it's crazy important to be able to determine the difference between this is hard and something's not right. This is where you could really exacerbate an injury or cause an old injury to resurface. And that is absolutely what we're trying to avoid. That is the exact opposite of what we're trying to achieve. Another way to avoid injury during the ruck is to do a proper cool down. A cool down is after your ruck When you're trying to get your body back to its pre -workout state, you're going to be bringing your heart rate and body temperature back down. A proper cool down will help you reduce soreness and stiffness after a ruck, which is really vital, especially if you have other activities that you need to do later that day or the next day. I handle my warm -ups and cooldowns similarly in that I include them in the workout. So I build the cooldown right into the ruck. My cooldown is just the last five or so minutes of the ruck where I'm walking at a much slower pace and just bringing my heart rate down. After the cooldown, we're going to go into stretching. Instead of the dynamic stretches we did pre -workout, we're actually going to be doing those static stretches now.

9:30 To reduce soreness and to help us with our elasticity, we're going to be stretching our hamstrings, our quads, calves, and we'll also be doing some shoulder blade squeezes. Those are the stretches that help me post -ruck. And those will actually start your recovery process. The whole episode for next week, we're going to be discussing all things related to recovery and what to do on your rest days. Stretching, certainly, kicks off the recovery process followed by hydrating and icing any of those injured areas or areas that you think need special attention. Okay, so that pretty much wraps it up for the day of your first ruck. I will say lastly and most importantly, be safe out there. Make safe choices. Avoid injuries so you can continue to get the results and be there for the ones that depend on you. Listen to your body. As I mentioned before, be able to determine the difference between this is hard and something's not right here. Now I challenge you, go out there, get your first ruck in. It doesn't have to be a world record. It doesn't matter how fast or how far you go, just lacing up and stepping out there is a win. Every step gets easier. Okay, to recap, in this week's episode, we touched on ruck day preparations, which include stretching, warming up, and telling someone when they can expect you back. We discussed maintaining good posture while rucking, listening to your body to avoid injury, and cooling down post -ruck

11:02 with slowing your pace and doing static stretches. Now that we know the basics for rucking, I encourage you to get out there and complete your first ruck. In next week's episode, we'll be discussing all things related to post -ruck recovery and your days of rest. In the meantime, if you haven't already, please follow the show and share this episode with a friend that might find it helpful. As always, links to all the studies and products mentioned in this episode are provided in the show notes. My name is Spencer, and thanks for listening to this episode of The Rocker's Edge.