By: Stephanie Reynolds
Want an exercise that is fun, easy, great for your legs and core, and is as easy as a post-supper stroll? We got you covered!
Going along with our discussion of our amazing trails here in Athens-Limestone County, I wanted to talk about one of my favorite ways to enjoy them: Rucking.
Now, you can just walk the trail and that is perfectly fine. Walking a trail is excellent for your mental, physical, and emotional health. But if you want to get extra benefits without any noticeable extra work, try rucking.
What’s rucking? It’s the fancy term for carrying weight in a backpack while you walk. When I hit the trails, I’m rucking. Now, I love to run and I REALLY love to run trails (and treadmill, actually), but rucking is a whole different thing. If you’ve never tried it, here are a few reasons why you should:
1. Easy cardio for beginners, especially those who can’t run. If you’re just starting your fitness journey, rucking is the way to go. If you can walk, you can walk with 5 or 10 pounds in a pack and get so much more bang for your buck. With a moderate weight, you won’t notice the slight extra work your body is doing, but you’ll see the results.
2. Great for bones. If you are like me (a person of a certain age, ahem) hip bone strength is on your mind. Carrying the backpack properly on your hips (not shoulders) is excellent resistance exercise to build bone density.
3. Great for core and balance. When you put weight on your back (again, riding on your hips, not your shoulders), you’re throwing your core a curve ball. It has to work just a little bit harder to remain stable and steady. That means your back and abs get a workout, so do your balancing muscles in your feet and legs. Speaking of legs…
4. Awesome for your legs. Just two weeks after I started rucking (many years ago), my daughter remarked how amazing my calves looked. ‘Nough said.
5. Calorie burner. If you have a moderate amount of weight in your pack, you can burn hundreds of calories an hour without feeling winded and weary.
If you carry a decent sized purse or the occasional kid or grandkid, you probably have more of a foundation for rucking than you think. Women, especially, are used to carrying things on their hips. So you might try it and see if you like it!
Here are a few safety tips for rucking (you know me and my safety tips):
1. Start with a very low weight if you are not used to exercise or carrying things. Just start with an extra bottle or two of water.
What is a good weight to aim for? Whatever YOU can comfortably carry over distance without feeling like you’re losing your balance or hurting yourself. You know your own fitness level, back health, knee health. You do you.
2. Never EVER run with weight on your back. Never. Not even once. It’s terrible for your knees. Plus, my military husband said, “In battle, if you actually need to run, you drop the pack.” So you aren’t wimping out by walking,
that’s what you’re supposed to do. There is something called a “ruck shuffle” that is a slightly faster gait, but is still not even a jog.
3. Do NOT bend over, squat instead. Your legs are stronger than your back and you can make them even stronger. Every time you go out with your pack, just do a couple of little squats. It will be awesome for your legs AND help you learn balance under weight. This too is excellent, especially for we men and women who have passed the half-century mark. Balance, bone mass, and muscle mass are critical for us. Rucking addresses all three.
4. We’ll get into gear in more detail later, but when you first start out and are just carrying an extra bottle of water and your cell phone, you can use any backpack you find. Grab the old “Jansport” bag your kids don’t use anymore and go.
However, when you start carrying heavier weight, you’ll need a pack that has a padded waist strap so the weight rides on your hips. Again, we women have the advantage here, as the waist strap fits perfectly above our hips and suddenly it feels like we aren’t carrying weight at all. When I lift up my pack, it seems so heavy and awkward. When I put it on, it feels nice like a weighted blanket (but not hot, just comfy).
5. Bug spray, sun screen, water, etc. You know the drill.
GoRuck (and other rucking organizations) have monthly challenges you can do to earn patches, such as “ruck to the nearest donut shop” (no, really!). They also have actually difficult challenges as well. A great beginner challenge is to ruck one mile every day for a month. That’s usually pretty accessible for most, but if you are beginning, start with a half mile or even a tenth of a mile. Rucking actually builds pretty quickly. If you have any questions, let me know. See you on the trail!
By: Stephanie Reynolds, Athens-Limestone Tourism Association
September 6, 2024
