Is rucking bad for your body?

You are not going to feel good the following day. How old are you?

How heavy is your ruck? If you’re under about 35 and in reasonably good shape, 75 lbs of ruck shouldn’t bother you too much.

A word to the wise: trying to do any strenuous exercise suddenly, with very little prior prep or without streching exercises is asking for trouble. You sound like you have that pretty well under control.

I’m a former Rakkasan. We do rucks like these all the time, also 26 mile runs. The Army actually did a study on Road marches and back injuries, that’s why we have the MOLLE II system now. It’s also why the IOTV’s had that little back piece that most people just let dangle out. Long ruck marches cause your spine to compress at a rapid rate. This compression is how most people get blown discs later on in life.

@CaptainHarley Our ruck won’t be too heavy, but not sure on the weight yet.

@Moegitto Never heard of Rakkasan,MOLLE II system or IOTVs….What is all this good stuff?

@CuriousLoner he Rakkasans are a unit in the Army, We’re known for doing the harder missions the army has. They’re a regular unit, but we train VERY HARD. The IOTV and MOLLE II system are just the equipment you see us wearing, the IOTV is the vest and the MOLLE II is the ruck. They were designed for long time use. But the MOLLE II has caused alot of back injuries. It was normal for us to do 26.5 mile road marches and I blew my ankle. Certain ruck sack have different weight thresholds, I wouldn’t suggest packing anymore than 30 pounds for a long march and 60 pounds for a short one.

@Moegitto How many miles would you conisder a long/short march to be?

Anything over 12 miles is normally considered long. Anything under that is short. You don’t really realize how short walking 8 miles is until you do it. You can do a 12 miler in under 4 hours easy, we had to do it all the time. We actually had to do 12 miles around 2 hours and 30 minutes to get a perfect score, but that’s with a little jogging thrown in, and of course that would add to the back problems. When we did our once a year 26 mile, it typically took all work day. A quick suggestion, if you want to do a long one, place about 6 water bottles (doesn’t matter if it’s your own personal bottle with tap water or store bought bottles like aquafina) in the refrigerator the evening (not night) before you do it. I would normally carry 6 to 10 cold bottles of water, some hand towels, and a couple cans of ravioli (You can use whatever you want for a snack, but I advise taking something to eat to keep your energy levels up). Don’t drink and Gatorade or Powerade like drinks before or during the march, regardless if it’s a long or short one. Drink a Gatorade like drink about 2 to 4 hours after your done, to keep the salt/electrolytes from rushing into your muscles and giving you a charlie horse later. I would also suggest wearing silk dress socks under your regular socks, they help prohibit blisters. You might want to clip your toenails too. I know I’m throwing alot of information out there, but I’m a Diabetic and I can do these easily, so don’t let the length of your chosen road march scare you from doing it, I always think to myself how there was nothing better to do that day anyway, lol.

Yes it is hard on your body. Don’t do it too often.