Rucking Rocks!

At the start of October, I decided to give rucking a go in pursuit of greater productivity and creativity at work (and more health and fitness, obviously). As I elucidated in the post below, getting outside when you work from home can be tricky, but can also provide great benefits:

I've tried rucking for a month or so now. I've been out 16 times in the last four weeks for distances between 2 and 5 kilometres. (I work in kilometres because I'm a runner.)

Rucking is awesome, and it is incredible how much it pushes you. I'm a keen runner and a relatively fit and healthy 51-year-old, so I started with a 20 lb. plate, which is what the company GoRuck suggests.

Blimey, does rucking give you a workout! As someone who hates weight lifting rucking is an excellent way to get some sneaky strength training while out walking in the woods.

No doubt I'll go on about this more in the future, but—you'll be shocked to know—this got me thinking about gaming and encumbrance.

As I said earlier, I'm relatively fit and healthy (although I know I could be stronger), and my best recent hilly 5k time is sub 24 minutes. However, sticking 20 lbs on your back somewhat changes that equation. I doubt I could run any meaningful distance at a decent speed, and I certainly wouldn't want to climb anything. And, remember, this is a dense, easily secured 20 lb. and not a voluminous hiking pack filled with everything I’d need for days in the wild.

My son goes wild camping in training to join the army, and this is his pack:

They weigh roughly the same. Imagine trying to run, walk a decent distance over rough terrain, climb something or fight with that on your back.

I suspect the chaps over at Goruck didn’t expect rucking to give their users a great appreciation of encumbrance in gaming (one of the sexiest aspects of dungeon crawling), along with all the other benefits it provides. I doubt this particular benefit will make it into their marketing literature, but there you go. More proof that inspiration is everywhere!

Learn more about rucking, here.

Alternatively, The Comfort Crisis, an excellent book by Michael Easter, has an entire chapter dedicated to moving with weight. It's a great book, and I highly recommend it.