Rucking For Beginners – 2023 Guide.
How To Prepare For a Ruck.
1.
Plan a Route .
Planning your routes makes your rucks allows you to stick to a plan and makes
your workout program more organized.
Most rucking apps or smart watches also track this information for you.
If you do not have a smartwatch, you can just go to plotaroute.com on
your phone and plan your route,.
you can even access older that you’ve been on before.
Super helpful tool to help prepare and track your progress.
2.
Pick the right Shoes.
If it is your first time rucking, not wear your brand new boots.
This is because you wont have broken into your boots just yet.
What you should do is wear your new rucking boots for half or quarter
of the distance and just put on your everyday boots right after.
That way, you will slowly break into your new boots and do your rucks
without any painful blisters and will avoid you slowing down your progress
when you’re first starting out.
3.
Pick the right Socks.
This is simple.
Merino Wool is always the way to go.
If you do not have them you start, that’s fine.
Just make sure to wear socks that have good compression and are long
enough to avoid any friction between your foot and leg with the boot.
4.
Hydration.
Hydration is key!
You are bound to break a sweat when rucking.
One thing I would recommend to get a hydration bladder,.
although a lot of rucksacks do come with one.
Hands-free hydration is such blessing when you’re in the zone,.
nothing more annoying than having to put your entire rucksack down just to pull
out your water bottle and then having to strap on the rucksack all over again.
5.
Choose the Right Rucksack.
There are lots of rucksack out there.
If you’re just starting out, I would worry too much about the rucksack.
A simple backpack should do it.
One thing to keep in mind is that most backpacks are either
frameless or have an internal frame.
This means that when you start rucking for longer distances, you will start getting
the back sweats as there is no space between your back and the back of the backpack.
6.
Follow A Program.
It’s tough to stick to a workout program that you’re starting out without
having a program or a planned approach.
The plan below is what followed to get me started.
You can certainly tailor these numbers to you think is realistic given your abilities.
Keep in mind those were the numbers I tried my best to stick to, at times
I could not really stick to the planned distance but I never quit.
One thing to consider is that different terrains, weather, and inclines/declines
will speed up or slow down your ruck.
TIP: Always keep the heavier weight closer to your back, this will
ensure proper weight distribution.