You don’t necessarily need to follow a specific rucking training plan in order to be successful. Really, what you need to do is get a clear understanding of the activity and how it relates to both fitness and preparedness, and learn a bit about the fundamentals. From there, you can design your own program for success. And by success I’m not talking about looking cool and sleek for summer on the beach, I’m talking about enjoying this activity to the maximum while reaping all the benefits that can prepare you for life in a post-collapse future.

If you would like to check it out, here is a link to my companion video for this article.

So, in general, rucking is not backpacking and it isn’t hiking. The primary goal is not just to enjoy nature and travel but to gain health benefits, including weight loss, strength, and most importantly, endurance..

You’ve probably seen a ton of rucking plans lately, and it is definitely a good thing that it is getting more popular. That means there is a wealth of information out there now about what was once just considered a basic infantryman conditioning exercise. I’ve prepared several training regimens here for you to take a look at so you can find the right one for you, whether you started to ruck a week ago or three years ago. But again. No program is right for everyone right out of the box. These things are meant to be a general guide to help you try it out and come up with your own program down the line.

Along with detailed training plans for beginners, intermediate, and advanced ruckers, this comprehensive guide by RuckingBasics will provide other essential information as well, such as complementary strength training, muscles worked, and the energy systems involved in rucking.

Beginning Rucker Training Plan

Being a beginner in rucking is much easier than in some other activities or sports. Rucking is a pretty simple form of exercise, so the learning curve shouldn’t be a problem, like when you start kayaking or mountain biking.

If you’re looking for extra guidance, here are some excellent books on rucking that can help you master the basics and set you on the right path. Just remember that, for our purposes, rucking is more about getting your body conditioned to operate in a post-collapse environment, and not so much for weight loss.

As a beginner, it’s natural to feel like you’re lagging behind seasoned ruckers in terms of strength and endurance. However, with dedication, you have the potential to bridge this gap, I promise. I myself am pushing 50, and have no problems keeping up, so trust me when I say that, if you take it seriously, you will end up right there at the front of the pack. But just don’t push it. During the initial few months, it’s crucial to strike a balance between exertion and rest, thereby preventing burnout and injury.

Being a beginner in rucking does not mean your fitness level is low. Maybe you are in great physical shape, which will certainly help, although you will not be able to translate it to rucking 100%. So, first, assess your current fitness level and set realistic goals. 

Understanding your starting point helps tailor your training plan. Don’t overestimate your capabilities. Just because you can ride a bike for hours does not mean that you will immediately be able to have the same success in rucking. Every type of skill and fitness is very sport-specific. A marathon runner cannot play basketball for four hours and vice versa.

Set both short-term and long-term goals to stay motivated. Short-term goals include completing a certain distance or increasing weight, while long-term goals involve tackling more challenging terrain, or rucking as part of an extended backpacking trip.

Training Schedule

Let’s divide the training schedule into two parts over three months. In my experience, this is a generally effective approach.

Week 1-6: Building a Base

Start with a light weight pack (10-15 pounds) and short distances (2-3 miles). You will be looking to lock in a 20-minute-mile pace during this time. Aim to ruck once or twice a week, gradually increasing the duration as your body adapts. Track your time per mile. This is helpful for several reasons. First, you can see whether you are progressing or stagnating. If you’re making progress, keep going; if you’re stagnating, try to work on the mental aspect as well. 

If you’re regressing, you’re probably pushing too hard too fast, and this is leaving you tired and in need of rest. Additionally, it shows the need to improve your entire recovery routine. You should use a smartwatch, fitness tracker, or smartphone to really keep detailed track of your time, pulse, distance, and everything else.

Week 7-12: Increasing Load and Distance

If you have progressed well with the first phase, increase your ruck weight by 5 pounds and aim for longer distances (3-4 miles). See about moving up your pace to an 18 to 19-minute-mile. If you feel comfortable, add an extra rucking day to your week while maintaining a steady, manageable pace. 

Don’t be disappointed if you’re not progressing as fast as you’d like. The body is complex, and on top of that, you probably have a lot of other responsibilities. Your day revolves around more than just rucking when preparing for the collapse of civilization. So, it is entirely possible that stressful economics and worries about other prepping progress can derail you.

Just don’t give up; keep going. It is important to progress and not regress, even if it is baby steps. Don’t forget that stagnation can be a sign of a plateau.

Intermediate Rucker Training Plan

A few of the very advanced beginners will be able to reach this stage quickly. If you are or recently were an infantryman, well, you probably don’t even need to be reading this. But that is the exception, rather than the rule, so in most cases, as a new rucker, you will get to this stage in around three months. 

Spend some time evaluating your progress from the beginner stage. There will be better and worse days. Don’t rely on time and mileage when you are slowest and fastest. Review your distance, weight, and overall endurance with a focus on finding the average. 

Then, you will have a realistic impression of how much you have progressed from the beginner stage. It will give you general guidelines and your data will help you determine exactly how much to increase weight and distance and whether it is time to introduce elevation into your routes.

Training Schedule

This phase also lasts about 12 weeks if you don’t skip workouts. If you do, you can stay in the intermediate phase for months, which is not necessarily that bad, all things considered. Many preppers do not intend to become advanced ruckers and can forever reap benefits out of this stage, with minor tweaks every now and then. Remember, like most other aspects of prepping, your fitness goals will be governed by your overall plan for surviving the fall of civilization and thriving afterward. You aren’t in this for some competition, you are in it to keep you alive.

Week 1-6: Building Endurance

Increase your ruck weight to 15-20 pounds and extend your distances to 5-6 miles. Now you will be looking to move up into a 16 to 17-minute-mile pace on average. You should also aim to make your rucking backpack heavy and get outside your comfort zone. 

Ruck 2 to 3 times weekly, incorporating varied terrains to build endurance. Since you probably won’t have time to go hit the wilderness trails that many times a week, feel free to also integrate urban rucking.

Week 7-12: Enhancing Strength and Speed

Begin moving up distance to 7-8 miles. It’s also time for interval training with your rucksack. Alternate between brisk walking, jogging, and slower recovery paces — like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) but adjusted to rucking. Try and get that overall pace down to a steady 15-minute-mile, and then you will have achieved real rucker status! Add hill workouts to strengthen your legs and improve cardiovascular fitness while you’re at it.

Keep a good focus on your recovery plan with activities like foam rolling, stretching, massage, and healthy nutrition.

Advanced Rucker Training Plan

Congratulations, you have reached the pinnacle of rucking fitness! Your rucking workout is at the top level now, so it’s time to find out what you need to do to stay in the perfect shape and improve further.

Here you will begin setting advanced performance goals. I advised you to temper your expectations in the beginner and intermediate stages. Now is the time to set ambitious goals, such as designing intense bug out training events or completing long-distance, multi-day rucks with heavy weight.

You cannot reach the advanced phase by chance — you have proven your commitment to rucking, and thus to being ready for collapse. 

Training Schedule

Week 1-6: Peak Performance Prep

Increase your ruck weight to 25-30 pounds and aim for distances of 9-10 miles. Incorporate high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions to enhance speed and endurance.

Week 7-12: Specialized Rucking Techniques

Focus on specialized techniques such as speed rucking, where you aim to cover a set distance as quickly as possible. You can also try rucking in bad weather to prepare for various conditions. Remember, this isn’t just about fitness, it is about surviving after the fall of civilization.

As an example, rucking during colder months is a fantastic way to challenge yourself while also gaining unique endurance benefits. However, it requires proper preparation and gear. To ensure you stay safe and comfortable, explore essential tips for rucking in cold weather. Don’t let a little frostbite scare you off—cold weather rucking can toughen your spirit and your body!

I’m not saying you should ruck during a storm, but you should definitely experience poor weather conditions during some of your ruck activities. In a post-collapse world, you won’t have the luxury of choosing when and where to march. Better to get used to such things now, and stick to your schedule no matter what mother nature cooks up for the day. Such experience can be the difference between completing an emergency bug out in variable weather and giving up halfway through.

More than ever, once you are engaging in advanced exercises, you will need advanced recovery techniques such as sports massage, ice baths, and active recovery workouts. Your body is under great stress now, and you have to pay close attention to its signals to prevent overtraining. Otherwise, you risk a prolonged break.

Muscles and Systems Involved in Rucking

Before we move on to the complementary workouts you need, it is important to discuss the muscles and systems involved in rucking. Once you understand which muscle groups and systems propel rucking, you will know how to adjust rucking workouts for maximum effectiveness.

Key Muscle Groups

Here, I will briefly mention the main muscle groups to help you get a better idea of what I am talking about.

Legs

Rucking will significantly strengthen your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. These muscles power your strides and support the additional weight of the rucksack. The quadriceps extend the knee and stabilize your movement, while the hamstrings assist in knee flexion and hip extension. The calves, specifically the gastrocnemius and soleus, make you move forward by facilitating ankle flexion and extension. Therefore, strengthening these muscles improves your ability to handle longer distances and heavier loads, enhancing overall rucking performance.

Core

A strong core, including the abdominals and lower back, stabilizes your body and maintains proper posture while carrying a weighted backpack. The core muscles—the rectus abdominis, obliques, and erector spinae—provide the support to keep the torso upright and balanced. Activating and engaging your core prevents excessive leaning or swaying and aids in transferring power from the lower body to the upper body, an often-overlooked role of the core.

Upper Body

The upper body is significantly less involved than the lower body and core, but it is still important. The shoulders and upper back muscles support the weight of the rucksack. The trapezius, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, biceps, deltoids, and all other muscles stabilize the shoulder girdle, maintain alignment, and distribute the load evenly.

Energy Systems

The human body has different mechanisms for producing energy. The three primary energy pathways are phosphagen, glycolytic, and oxidative. Although many believe that the body uses them alternately, they are actually active constantly. Yet, different energy pathways take the front set in different situations, and the other two are secondary.

Aerobic System for Endurance

Rucking relies heavily on the aerobic energy system, which uses oxygen to convert carbohydrates and fats into energy. This system supports sustained, moderate-intensity activity, which is precisely what rucking is most of the time. Thanks to it, you can keep a steady pace over long distances. 

Anaerobic System for Short Bursts

While primarily aerobic, rucking also engages the anaerobic system during short bursts of high-intensity effort, such as climbing hills or quickening your pace. The anaerobic system breaks down glucose without oxygen to produce energy quickly, supporting short, intense efforts. 

Cardiovascular System

The cardiovascular system is key not only for rucking but also for a long and healthy life. Rucking improves heart and lung health by increasing cardiovascular efficiency. Regular rucking sessions strengthen the heart muscle, making it more effective at pumping blood. Over time, it will lower your resting heart rate and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Rucking as aerobic training also enhances lung capacity. 

How does all of this stuff affect fitness exactly? Your endurance and overall physical performance will go up once your body becomes better at delivering oxygen to working muscles.

Rucking For Preppers

The primary goal for your rucking plan when it comes to prepping is to get you in shape to travel long distances while carrying a load, on foot, and often over uneven or rough terrain. Like all pre-collapse training, you need to be looking to get yourself conditioned to do the things that you will be forced to do in a post-collapse world. That is how you will build functional strength and fitness, and also develop good muscle memory for tasks. In our post-collapse future, you are going to be swimming and climbing, chopping wood and moving logs and rocks. You’ll be digging holes and pulling ropes and sawing lumber, and yes, you’ll be doing a shit ton of distance marching over uneven terrain while carrying a load.

That is why one major difference between preppers and regular ruckers is that we will actively train in the places we will be traveling post-collapse. And we will also wear boots and pants during our rucking training because that is what we will be wearing later. It is about conditioning, you need to be able to do it when it counts, and when that time comes will (hopefully) be wearing boots and pants.

After a real collapse, it won’t matter how cool your offroad truck is, how much armament you have stockpiled, or how well defended your bunker is if you don’t have the knowledge, capability, and willpower to do the stuff that needs to be done. Without those, when the boom comes down, you can just go ahead and bend over to kiss your ass goodbye.

As a collapse prepper, you need to be ready. That is where something like rucking comes into play. Now, collapse fitness is about more than just rucking, of course, but rucking is a great way to get started and to build the physical foundation for everything else. Yes, you still need to do strength training, and yes you still need to work on high intensity burst stuff such as sprinting, but everything will come back to your endurance capacity. Still, let’s take a look at some other things you can do.

Complementary Workouts

I told you before that practically everything in strength and conditioning is sport-specific, and you cannot translate much from one activity to another. That is undoubtedly true. However, every sport and activity needs complementary workouts to prevent injuries, improve performance, and change the routine a bit to avoid monotony.

Strength Training for Rucking

You have to design a strength training routine that complements your rucking schedule. Aiming for 2-3 strength sessions per week is optimal, but I know it can be challenging for multiple reasons. 

First, that would mean you should ruck or go to the gym practically daily. That is too much because your recovery will suffer, and you will not progress. Second, all other obligations prevent you from spending at least an hour every day on sports activities.

So, you have to find a balance. If you are short on time, do two weekly strength workouts, focusing on compound movements that build overall strength. For example, you can do a basic push-pull split. Also, perform functional exercises using your bodyweight, a kettlebell, or sandbag.

You can also follow sports methodology and divide your year into several parts, such as pre-season, in-season, post-season, etc., similar to professional sports. Then, determine the period when your gym will be primary and ruck complementary. That way, you can plan peak performance for ruck during a part of the year when there is an event or when you have the most time to hit the trail. 

Whatever approach you choose, exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges, bench press, shoulder press, and pull-ups must be part of your rucking routine. Isolation exercises can also be helpful, but do them if you have time. Don’t base your training on them because your goal is not some cool bodybuilding look. Your goal is to be fit and conditioned for the hostile-environment activity of living in a post-collapse world.

Cardiovascular Training

Running, cycling, and swimming, while not the sole contributors to rucking performance enhancement, play a role in improving cardiovascular endurance. Incorporating these activities into your rucking training program can significantly boost your overall performance.

If you’re looking for a low-impact alternative, consider rucking on a treadmill. This method allows you to simulate an outdoor rucking program while reducing the risk of strain on your joints, especially during recovery phases or poor weather conditions.

I find it very beneficial to sprint for 1 minute, then walk or jog for 2 minutes, and repeat for 20-30 minutes. This approach is called long HIIT which is similar to what you can do the same in the pool, only with a shorter duration. 

Steady-state cardio builds aerobic stamina. Nevertheless, I haven’t noticed a significant improvement in ruck performance after regular aerobic exercise, so I advise using it more as a cool-down routine.

Mobility Training

Stretching routines are good for improving flexibility and preventing muscle tightness and should be a part of your rucking workout plan. Do dynamic stretches before rucking and static stretches afterward. On a rest day, do dynamic ones first to warm up and then static stretches. 

Mobility is more important than flexibility, so drills like hip openers, ankle mobility exercises, and thoracic spine rotations are a must for me and my clients. A good range of motion (ROM) improves movement efficiency during rucking.

Nutrition and Hydration for Rucking

Vigorous training and performance improvements are impossible without proper nutrition and hydration. 

Yes, someone will give you an example of a world-class athlete who achieved terrific results while eating junk food. Remember, that is one case in a million and is not applicable to regular people like us. Elite athletes make up less than 0.01% of the world’s population. And, while only a few percent of the world’s population is likely to survive collapse, you want to make sure you are in that more important group.

So, let’s see what you should eat before, during, and after ruck sessions.

Pre-Ruck Nutrition

It depends on the length of the ruck, whether it is a competition or training, and so on. As a general rule of thumb, consume a balanced meal around 2 hours before rucking, focusing on complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and healthy fats. 

Complex carbohydrates are better than simple ones for rucking because it is an activity that lasts a long time, so you need a sustained energy level. Avoid heavy, greasy foods that can cause digestive issues during your ruck. Although high-calorie food may seem like a good idea, it usually isn’t (if the source is junk food.)

To get an additional energy boost, eat a light snack, such as a banana, a handful of nuts, or an energy bar, about 30 minutes before rucking. And take extra care to hydrate yourself in the hours leading up to the activity.

Mid-Ruck Nutrition

Energy bars, fruit, and similar items are light, energy-boosting snacks you should have with you. These snacks provide quick energy during long rucks without burdening the stomach since they are small portions. You can also carry some of the glucose-based sports gel packs that are available for good, instant energy,

Sip water every 15-20 minutes to maintain hydration levels. Consider using a hydration bladder for easy access to fluids. In hot weather or during intense sessions, use sports drinks to replace lost minerals and electrolytes to prevent cramps.

Post-Ruck Nutrition

You don’t have to chase the supposedly magical anabolic window because it doesn’t really exist. Nevertheless, strive to consume a rich meal within an hour or two after completing your ruck to support recovery. 

I like to wait around 2 hours for hunger to kick in. This meal should include a good mix of protein and carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores and repair muscle tissue. Also, feel free to eat something you like with a balanced meal, even if it’s not perfectly healthy. Mental recovery is essential, and comfort food helps.

Antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables like berries are also recommended to reduce inflammation and aid recovery. In theory, these foods help mitigate muscle soreness and speed up healing. Even if they don’t help with that significantly, they are still very healthy overall.

Avoiding Common Injuries

You should know by now that rucking is an excellent workout that combines cardiovascular endurance and strength training. Perfect for building a good foundation for post-collapse fitness. However, as with any physical activity, there is a risk of injury. And that risk increases if proper precautions are not taken. 

Rucking is more taxing than walking and less taxing than running. Some of the most frequent rucking injuries are:

1. Shoulder Problems: Carrying a heavy rucksack is not easy for the shoulder muscles and joints. Poorly adjusted straps, uneven weight distribution, and excessive ruck weight can cause pain and sometimes injury. A properly fitting rucksack, regular strength training, and suitable weight (including mindful weight increase) should prevent such problems.
2. Low Back Pain: Rucking is not bad for your back, but chances are that at some point, you will experience the most common type of pain—low back pain (LBP). Poor posture, weak core muscles, and improper lifting techniques can contribute to this issue, but sometimes LBP just appears out of the blue. Keep doing exercise and stretching, and things will improve soon. For a different approach to training, you might try rucking at night as well. It can introduce new elements to your workout, with cooler temperatures and a quieter setting that may help you focus on your form.
3. Knee Pain: Knees are often sensitive and cause problems in many sports. Strong quads will not be enough since rucking places massive stress on the knee joints. You have to buy suitable rucking boots, just remember that you need to train using the kind of equipment that you will be using regularly post collapse. Consider insoles as well and warm up adequately. 
4. Foot and Ankle Injuries: Sprains and blisters are almost inevitable. Shoes are again most important for comfort and support. Buy moisture-wicking, double-layer socks to reduce the risk of severe blisters. Some blisters are a necessary part of training. This is how you build up good, protective calluses in the right places to help you down the road.

Finishing Up

The rucking practice demands patience and consistency from you. The Army, Navy, and even Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children (Marines) are working on mental toughness equally as on aerobic capacity and strength. That drive to win and endure and succeed is an all-important part of prepping for collapse. In fact, you probably won’t survive without it.

So work hard to build that survival mindset. Rucking can help there too. You won’t make miraculous progress overnight, okay? Many miles and workouts are needed before reaching certain achievements. That’s why we encourage you to celebrate small achievements along the way.

Remember that every step forward brings you closer to your goals. Also, keep in mind that fitness has no finish line; it is a lifelong journey you should enjoy, and it will help you be healthy and functional even after the collapse of global civilization.

Whether you’re a rookie prepper or a pro wastelander, rucking offers endless opportunities for growth, strength, and resilience.

So, go ruck it up.