“One of the reasons rucking is growing in popularity may be due to the fact that it’s an easy, low-impact, all-body exercise that boosts cardiovascular and muscular health. One small September 2019 study showed 10 weeks of weighted walking and resistance training improved physical performance in men while significantly reducing their rate of perceived exertion.”

“There are few large studies on rucking, but smaller ones suggest walking with a weighted backpack builds muscular endurance, stamina, and strength. A 155-pound person burns about 430 calories per hour jogging at a moderate pace, but can burn about 100 calories more in the same time by walking four miles an hour at a slight incline carrying a 20-pound pack.

It’s possible to ruck on a treadmill, but experts say that kind of defeats the purpose. At its heart, the sport is about getting outdoors, which itself has been tied to improved cognitive function, brain activity, blood pressure, mental health and sleep.”

Rucking, I remember while sweating under my new pack going up a hill on a sunny day, my heart pounding, is supposed to be about embracing feeling bad. This is one of those “you can do hard things” fitness practices, like CrossFit, Wim Hof baths, and barefoot walking, that have a little bit of throwback, anti-modern ideology underlying it. Rucking finds champions in people like writer Michael Easter, whose book The Comfort Crisis contains this line: “We are living progressively sheltered, sterile, temperature-controlled, overfed, under-challenged, safety-netted lives.”