3 Incredible Rucking Workout Plans to Get Fit in 8 Weeks

What is a good rucking workout to start with?

A simple rucking workout to get started with is rucking 2 miles with 10% of your bodyweight. Ruck a mile out, and do 2 sets of 10-15 reps of the following: pushups, squats, overhead presses, bent rows, and upright rows. You’ll mainly be building cardiovascular endurance, but can also build strength and even muscle growth if you’re relatively new to working out.

You already know all the reasons why you should start rucking.

One reason I love rucking is because it can be a lot more than just walking quickly with a heavy backpack on.

I always like to sprinkle in a little extra resistance training with my rucks to turn them into true full body workouts.

If you’re new to rucking, I recommend just getting out there and starting. No need to add extra difficulty at the newbie stage. But if you’re looking for a little more intensity, and maybe a bit of added strength, then check out my favorite rucking workouts.

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Equipment Needed for a Rucking Workout

Rucking can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. I started with just a regular backpack I had in the back of my closet and a stack of books.

But after my second or third ruck, I went all in and got some specific equipment because I knew it was my endurance cardio workout of choice.

If you’re planning on rucking once a week or more, I recommend investing in some quality equipment to make your workouts more comfortable. Comfort leads to fun, which leads to doing it more often, which leads to better health. That’s a win.

A quality rucking backpack (I like the GORUCK Rucker 4.0—it’s a pack made specifically for rucking workouts)
Standardized weights
A great pair of boots
A great pair of Merino wool socks
A heart rate tracker (optional—I don’t use one, but I can definitely see where it’d be helpful)

Of course, if you’re going for your first rucking workout, you can get some great exercise with a regular backpack, a sack of potatoes, and your beat up old sneakers. Don’t let equipment ever stop you from improving yourself.

Beginners Rucking Workout Plan

Here are a bunch of exercises you can do with your weighted ruck pack.

If you’re a beginner and you’re planning out your first or second ruck and want to work up a sweat, here are some basics.

Rucking—even if you’re only walking with a weighted backpack—is a full body workout. It mainly works your legs and core, but also your lats and back to a certain degree.

You’re mainly going to be triggering aerobic cardiovascular adaptation. In other words, this is going to help you keep your breath for longer, you’ll feel less winded after walking up stairs, etc.

Rucking isn’t the best type of workout for hypertrophy or for building pure strength, but there are a few add-ons you can make during your ruck that can blend in a few of those adaptations while mainly building your aerobic capacity.

With that in mind, I’ve geared these rucking workouts mainly toward the goal of lowering body fat and improving cardiovascular health. But if you’re a beginner, you should also build strength and likely even spur some muscle growth in the process.

Once Per Week Rucking Workout Plan

This workout takes about an hour. You’re going to want to ruck at 4mph, or 15 minutes per mile.

Load up your ruck with 10%-20% of your body weight. Ruck out for a mile. When you hit a mile (or 15 minutes walking at a quick pace), stop and do the following circuit 2 times, with a 1 minute rest in between sets:

10-15 pushups (with the ruck weight on your back)
10-15 squats
10-15 overhead presses (holding your pack over your head)
10-15 bent over rows
10-15 upright rows

Once you’ve finished both sets, take a minute, and then ruck back a mile and complete the 2 circuits again. Your workout is done.

There are a lot of ways you can ratchet up or lower the intensity of this workout, which is a reason why I love rucking. Here’s what you can change if you want a more intense workout, or a less intense workout:

Speed of your ruck. The general speed is quick—4 mph—it’s not a jog, but it’s walking at a pretty fast pace. It’s tough to walk much faster than 4 mph, but if you want less intensity, slow down to 3mph (or a 20 minute mile)
Weight in your ruck. Start with 10% of your body weight. Then move up to 15%, 20%, 25%, etc. Each additional weight will make your ruck much more difficult
Distance. Ruck further—instead of 2 miles, for your next ruck, try 3 miles.
Number of reps. Start with 10 reps of the above exercises. If you felt like you got it easy, move up to 15 reps. If you’re crushing it with 15 reps, then move to a higher weight.
Number of sets. If the weight feels good, but you want some more pump, try 3 sets of the above circuit instead of 2.

I recommend logging your speed, weight, distance, reps, and sets for each rucking workout. If you’re looking to grow, you should ramp up one of those variables each time. This is called “progressive overload.”

Twice Per Week Rucking Workout Plan

If you’re looking to ruck twice per week and you’re going to use it as your main for of exercise, I recommend alternating ruck styles: one day will be focused on distance and speed, and the other day will be slower, heavier, and more strength focused.

For your distance and speed day, do the training circuit recommended above.

For your strength day, double the weight in your ruck, cut the distance in half, and add a set to each circuit. And for your leg exercise, swap out squats with lunges (and do 10-15 reps per leg, not total).

At the end of your strength day workout, do a burnout set of pushups to your max.

So your two-day rucking workout routine might look like:

Day 1 – Speed and Endurance Day

10% body weight in your rucksack. 2 miles rucking at 15 minutes per mile. At the end of the first mile, 2 sets of the following circuit, with a minute of rest in between. Another 2 sets of the following circuit at the end of the ruck:

10 pushups
10 squats
10 overhead presses
10 bent rows
10 upright rows

Day 2 – Strength Day

20% body weight in your ruck. 1 mile rucking at 15 minutes per mile. At the half-mile mark and at the finish mark, do the following circuit 3 times, with 90 seconds of rest in between circuits:

10 pushups
10 lunges (per leg, so 20 total)
10 overhead presses
10 bent rows
10 upright rows

When you’ve finished your full mile ruck and your 3-set circuit, rest for 2 minutes. Then max out your pushups—do as many as you can with the weight, and when it gets too heavy, take the pack off. Then complete as many pushups as you can with only your bodyweight (it’s ok if this is five or fewer—you should be toast by the end of this workout).

Again, with these routines, you’ll constantly adjust the variables. Try to keep your rucking speed the same as best as you can—I prefer to ruck with less weight in order to get the 4 mph or 15 minute mile. Since it’s mainly a cardio workout, I optimize for that goal.

Rucking Workout for Leg Strength

Rucking will build your leg strength and endurance. However, it’s not the best exercise for pure strength—strength adaptation is best triggered with heavy weight (think: what’s the heaviest weight you can squat once).

A lot of people think of leg strength as just “how long do my legs hold their juice.” So it depends on what you’re defining as “strength.”

When I think of strength, I think of the powerlifters who squat 495 pounds for one rep. That’s pure strength, and a lot of it has to do with training your central nervous system to signal your muscles to fire with that much intensity.

But I also know that some people think of strength as “the ability to walk up a hill with weight and not feel like they have noodle-legs.” Technically, that’s actually muscular endurance, but it’s an extremely important adaptation to develop.

Rucking is best for the second definition of strength. You won’t be able to load hundreds of pounds of weight into your rucking pack and do squats—that sort of one-rep max strength is best built in a gym.

But there are all sorts of things you can do to build muscular endurance, and even see some hypertrophy in your legs during a rucking workout.

More weight will mean more strength. If you can ruck somewhere that has some variation in incline and decline, that’s also going to help build your leg endurance, too.

Even just going for a ruck without extra exercises like squats or lunges will help develop your legs—particularly your calves.

If you’re really concerned about building leg strength, add an extra set of squats and lunges to the circuits I mentioned above. That extra volume will help with hypertrophy (or muscle growth), which in turn will help with muscle strength and endurance.

Is Rucking a Good Workout?

Rucking is a fantastic workout. It helps to know what kind of adaptation you’re driving when doing a rucking workout so you can use rucking as part of a weekly routine.

I ruck once a week, usually on Saturdays, and it’s my main form of long interval cardiovascular endurance (or aerobic endurance).

I like to weightlift four days a week, and I’ll usually do sprints once a week to get close to my max heart rate.

And when I ruck, my main focus is on keeping a 4 mph, or 15 minute mile pace for at least 60 minutes. With weight, that keeps my heart rate around 60-70% of my max, so I’m breathing heavy, but could still hold a conversation.

There are tons of benefits to this style of workout, but my main motivation is because it gives me more energy throughout the day, it burns a lot of calories so it’s a great addition for weight loss, and it helps with longevity.

Energy, mental focus, and weight loss are the three benefits from rucking that really stand out to me, and they’re why I really try to get that Saturday ruck as often as possible. I probably miss once per month due to rain or other life events that come up.

If you’re not doing any exercise currently, rucking is a great place to start. It’s one of the few workouts that’s better in nature. And it’s a whole lot easier on your joints compared to running.

What Does Rucking Work Out?

Rucking helps your stabilization muscles, and is particularly helpful for building core, back, and leg strength.

As an interesting anecdote from my own experience—I was stuck at a 315 squat for several months and couldn’t meaningfully break through that plateau. I started rucking once a week—sometimes twice—and after a month of rucking, I was able to break through and start building my 3-rep squat max to 365.

Obviously, I didn’t just suddenly start squatting 50 pounds heavier, but building the entire posterior chain, from the ankles, calves, and hips, all the way through my low back, mid back, and traps definitely helped me shoot that weight up.

Rucking is also great for building aerobic endurance.

And if you’re just after looking better (no shame in that—it’s the main reason I work out), I think rucking’s strongest benefit is that it helps with fat loss. Rucking burns about 50% more calories than walking and jogging (slow jogging) with no weight.

Compared to running, rucking generally doesn’t burn as many calories minute by minute, but if you consider how many more minutes you can spend rucking vs running, usually you’re able to burn more calories rucking.

For example, I love going for a two hour ruck—it can be tough at times, but I’m never dreading it. That makes it easy to want to go again the next week.

But going for a two hour run—or even a one hour run? Absolutely not. I could do it once, I’m sure. But there’s no way I’d be happy about doing it again next week.

Work Up a Sweat

Rucking is one of the most versatile workouts you can do. And with a good rucking backpack, you have a ton of weighted workout options.

Most importantly, the biggest benefits you get from rucking come from keeping that 4 mph, or 15 minute mile pace. Focus on keeping that pace, and add as much weight as you can while maintaining the same speed. That’s going to make for an incredible workout.

But if you want to crank up the strength and muscle growth training, throw in some circuits of pushups, squats, overhead presses, and rows. These basic movements will give you a total body workout that doesn’t leave you destroyed, but still makes you stronger.

FAQs

Does rucking build muscle?

If you’re new to working out or haven’t been resistance training for over a year, rucking will build muscle, mainly in your legs, calves, and core. It will also help build your trap muscles in your back. Focus on keeping your form tight throughout your ruck and you’ll notice muscular improvements in 4-6 weeks.

How many days a week should I ruck?

If you’re training for a rucking event or a physical test, the maximum you should train is four days per week. But if you’re rucking for exercise and as part of a regular workout routine, I recommend rucking once or twice per week, with other forms of exercise for a total of 3-5 workouts per week.

Can rucking give you abs?

It depends. There are a lot of factors that are a part of “having abs,” or having defined, ripped looking abs. The main factor is diet—there is no amount of exercise you can do that will give you abs if your diet isn’t solid. However, if you keep everything about your life the same and add rucking, you will start to lose weight. Losing weight is the best way to get defined abs. Rucking will help develop your core muscles, but not in the same way that crunches or leg lifts will.