The Art of Manliness - Get Rucking

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast

00:00:11.040 rucking that is walking with a weighted backpack started as something soldiers did to carry the

00:00:15.620 gear and equipment needed for combat in recent times rucking has become an increasingly popular

00:00:19.940 form of exercise and if you wanted to try it or have already started but would like to improve

00:00:23.660 your practice my guest today has some advice his name is josh bryant and he's a strength coach the

00:00:28.160 author of multiple books on fitness including his latest rucking games josh explains how rucking

00:00:33.000 got its start in ancient armies the kind of loads modern soldiers carry today and why civilians

00:00:37.420 should consider adopting this military-born fitness modality after unpacking the benefits of rucking

00:00:41.940 we get into how to walk with proper form at the right pace and choose what terrains to reverse

00:00:46.960 we then discuss how to program your rucking workouts how to make them progressively more challenging and

00:00:51.380 how to integrate them into your fitness routine without having to interfere with the strength

00:00:54.940 gains you're developing in the gym and we enter a conversation with exercise you can do with a

00:00:58.380 rucksack besides carrying around on your back after the show's over check out our show notes at aom.is

00:01:02.940 slash rucking josh joins me now via clearcast.io

00:01:06.600 josh bryant welcome back to the show i'm honored to be here thanks for having me brett all right so we

00:01:21.840 had you on the show last year to talk about your book jailhouse strong which is all about getting

00:01:25.800 really strong using just body weight exercises we also talked about your philosophy of being gas

00:01:31.460 station ready which is this kind of tactical fitness functional fitness being ready to handle

00:01:36.400 anything whether it's some guy accosting you at the gas station at three o'clock in the morning or

00:01:41.300 whatever else life might throw at you and lately checking your instagram feed looks like rucking

00:01:47.440 has become a valuable part of becoming gas station ready for you that's something you've added to

00:01:52.380 your fitness repertoire lately how did you discover rucking as a fitness modality well i mean i first

00:01:59.140 knew rucking way back like when i was in high school i worked at a gym and it was a pretty hardcore gym

00:02:04.480 there was like you know bouncers there ex-military powerlifters so there was a person there kind of a

00:02:10.880 kind of a scary guy that rucked a lot you know to a high school kid he was scary and so i saw back

00:02:16.600 then was with the introduction but more recently to go let's backtrack to 2018 i've put together a

00:02:23.940 strength conditioning course for issa personal training certification and the course is for

00:02:28.920 becoming a tactical conditioning specialist so working with you know military you know police

00:02:33.920 fire things like that so a large part of the research was on load is you know load carriage what

00:02:40.520 it's called so in that process you know i'd already been programming this stuff i'm like you know what

00:02:45.860 i'm doing all this research on it i'm programming it for other people i need to get out there and do

00:02:50.520 it and i'm just going to do it more as like to experience you know because i'm not a i'm not like

00:02:55.400 a i'm not a law enforcement officer i'm not military so i want to know what you're experiencing more so

00:03:00.200 so went out there and started doing it and i just that was the original purpose more like you know not

00:03:04.960 i'm into rucking more like this is business i need to know kind of thing and i need to you know

00:03:09.820 be empathetic that kind of thing but then i really just fell in love with it after that

00:03:13.720 and we'll talk about why you fell in love because you you highlight in this book all the benefits of

00:03:17.780 it okay but so i think we got to backtrack here we haven't for those who aren't familiar rucking is

00:03:21.720 basically you have a backpack and you put weight in it and you walk around with it you go on a hike

00:03:26.760 essentially it's like an intentional walk you know yes i'm like a relatively fast you know walk type

00:03:32.880 of thing with the thing i found interesting is how long it's been around for this is not like a new

00:03:39.060 thing it's i mean there was like the roman army thousands of years ago they they started off

00:03:45.580 you know with 18.4 miles with 45 pounds they had to do it in in five hours it was called like a

00:03:51.920 military pace and then from there they progressed to what's called faster step or full full pace

00:03:57.320 and they were doing 22 miles in five hours with 45 pounds so so it was it was crazy like how long

00:04:04.780 that's been around they trained with like loaded marches and supposedly they say supposedly because

00:04:09.860 that we weren't there or anything but in the chinese soldiers could walk 160 kilometers straight

00:04:15.980 with armor you know and a crossbows so it's been around forever and how do what what does it look

00:04:23.460 like today in militaries like what are the requirements that if you sign up to be an infantry officer in the

00:04:29.220 army or whatever sure so what's interesting about that is again a little more history here is that's

00:04:35.200 one thing that hasn't evolved technologically so for instance like our smartphones we have are millions

00:04:41.680 of times more powerful than the computer that sent nasa you know to the moon the first man on the moon so

00:04:46.620 and that was like the size of a house or something so it's amazing what technology's done but from like

00:04:51.940 load carriage standpoint for the military loads have continually gone up over time so from ancient

00:04:57.200 griefs like the civil war days the average was about 40 pounds didn't really change then in world war ii

00:05:02.240 it jumped up to 80 plus pounds then by grenada there was an article i read in the research about

00:05:08.300 somebody who's having to like literally throw himself on the ground because he couldn't go over

00:05:12.320 10 yards with 120 pounds in afghanistan infantry's averaging about 99 pounds in that conflict over there

00:05:19.140 but some people are carrying up to 140 so we go you know now we'll talk a little bit about the

00:05:23.900 qualification so for instance an expert infantry badge which is an elite qualification you want

00:05:30.100 to get 12 miles in three hours or less carrying a rifle and a load so it's gonna be about 70 pounds

00:05:35.860 and in the british army ruckings actually considered like a core fitness skill it's something they're

00:05:42.300 tested on so they have pretty tough standards you know already then if you're infantry you have to go

00:05:48.780 through more rigorous standards in france they do a deal where it's actually more like running it's a

00:05:54.020 five mile loaded ruck so it's only 26 pounds but they're doing five miles in 40 minutes and i have

00:06:01.200 that's interesting thing if you look at the history i've read that history too of like how much

00:06:05.180 a soldier is expected to carry now like they have to have all their food their communications

00:06:09.580 different weapons before you would have like you know you'd be on the front line then you could

00:06:14.080 always go back sure to headquarters to get more if you needed now there's there there isn't there

00:06:18.840 isn't that like you have to be able to be self-sufficient on your own out on the line and so you're

00:06:24.080 just expected you have to carry more you have to basically become an army within yourself absolutely

00:06:29.200 so let's talk about benefits of rucking just for the layman all right so what's interesting about

00:06:34.740 rucking in the past few years you've seen this become something that just civilians do as well

00:06:39.020 why do you think it's a great form of exercise for people who aren't expected to you know carry 120

00:06:46.600 pounds out in the deserts of afghanistan well i think for one we have to say you don't need to be

00:06:52.380 rucking with that much weight they're probably if you're not going to do something like you know

00:06:56.020 occupational specific i like to say about 20 of your body weight or less is probably you could work

00:07:01.780 up with so it probably is not going to be the best thing for you to to work up to you know 120 pounds

00:07:07.880 for two hours straight or something like that so i think one of the main benefits is um it's lower

00:07:15.080 impact so like if you look at running it could be up you know you'd be putting like major forces up to

00:07:20.020 11 times your body weight where rucking is gonna be closer like three or four and from how many

00:07:25.820 calories you burn we can look at like a 200 pound man running a 12 minute mile pace for an hour is

00:07:31.420 gonna burn like around 755 calories that same person brisk walking is gonna burn you know under 400

00:07:39.120 calories but if that person adds a ruck they're gonna get up to 600 or more so it's like you're

00:07:44.600 getting like you know over you know 85 percent of the those benefits you know like 10 of the risk type

00:07:51.680 of deal no yeah that yeah i mean that's if i i call rucking like cardio for the man who hates

00:07:57.000 cardio if you hate running car like rucking is a great alternative you need to get some sort of

00:08:02.060 cardio in your in your workout routine absolutely and i think you also pointed out in one of your

00:08:09.140 articles that man's a social creature and i think that's that's very true it's something you can do

00:08:15.860 with other people and you're not you know violating any sort of stay-at-home order or anything as long

00:08:20.100 as you're not right up on the person so there's that social aspect there's you know the whole

00:08:26.100 outdoor thing you know the old thing about nature's best antidepressants vitamin d get outdoors and enjoy

00:08:32.360 yourself and it's huge for it's even for injury prevention i mean you're building up all those

00:08:38.560 muscles to help your posture and it's like you're almost like doing a dynamic plank as you're walking

00:08:44.220 assuming you're doing with good posture it's it's huge for your aerobic base and i think that's kind

00:08:49.620 of discounted by a lot of you know more people that are more strength oriented your aerobic base is

00:08:54.420 what's going to be able to help allow you to recover from you know more volume recover between sets

00:08:59.920 recover between workouts while it's not going to make your squat jump 50 pounds right away it's going

00:09:05.260 to allow you to put in the requisite work to increase your squat by 50 pounds that's and then there's

00:09:10.320 also the simplicity factor you don't need you know a 200 pair of shoes and this or that i mean if you

00:09:17.680 you could get started by you know getting a backpack you know throwing a couple bricks in and going then

00:09:23.180 if you decide it's something you really like then you could get you know a higher quality rucksack

00:09:27.680 the cost is is awesome because there's such a low barrier to entry that way it's not like you know

00:09:33.760 if you take up you know other hobbies or something it'd be like golf or something it'd be really expensive

00:09:38.780 to buy all the clubs you know and all that kind of thing it's very functional you know even like a

00:09:44.620 soccer mom carrying a baby or like a big game hunter i was watching a thing last night about elk

00:09:50.420 hunting in oklahoma actually and they're showing somebody that had to carry you know part of an elk

00:09:55.260 back and he's carrying it like a rucksack so that person would be more prepared for this had he been

00:10:01.760 rucking type of thing and it's very scalable you know if if something you know if you're gonna work

00:10:07.740 out with even if you don't have weights you know if you're throwing like you know instead of a

00:10:12.780 ruck weight in there you just throw a few bricks in there okay you're not as strong you throw two

00:10:15.760 bricks in there type of thing and i think it teaches balance and body awareness too so there's a ton of

00:10:20.940 benefits yeah let's say let's recap the benefits okay so it's great cardio you're gonna burn about

00:10:25.820 the same amount as you would if you took like a light jog uh it's less impact though you're not

00:10:30.620 going to screw up your knees that's great especially if you're an older guy i know a lot i've noticed a

00:10:36.320 lot of um like older men are drawn to rucking for that reason because the low impact improves your

00:10:42.360 posture your strength because you're you're carrying under load you've got the so you can

00:10:46.160 do with friends and socially distance if you need to so you get that social factor you get your outside

00:10:51.560 nature which is great for mental health we've talked about on the podcast and then it's just it's easy

00:10:57.020 like you don't it's super easy super simple doesn't low barrier to entry with that said there are some

00:11:04.220 things you should probably think about if you want to get started with rucking so you mentioned okay you

00:11:08.620 don't need fancy shoes you can do this with the gym shoes you have just in any backpack will do that

00:11:12.980 will carry a load yeah i mean that's a fine place to start but as you get advanced you probably would

00:11:18.740 want to get more of like a real rucksack gotcha and then how do you figure out so you just said okay

00:11:23.680 i want to i want to start rucking how do you figure out you mentioned earlier the weight you should start

00:11:27.540 out with so you're not army guy carrying 120 pounds you said shoot for 20 of your body weight when

00:11:32.960 you're first starting up i think that's where you can where you can end up safely and i'm just going

00:11:37.320 off of i mean there's there's not like hard studies that say that that's you know if you're squatting

00:11:43.140 four times your body weight you know in your perfect back health you probably get away a little bit more

00:11:47.380 type of thing but i think that's a pretty safe recommendation so two things with that so i put i've

00:11:55.040 always said five percent of your body weight to ten percent of your body weight in the high end

00:11:59.160 is a fine place to start in the program in the book rucking gains where you and you start off with

00:12:06.180 six percent of your body weight in week one and that's for 20 minutes straight at a 20 minute

00:12:12.240 mile pace you're walking one mile in 20 minutes by the end you're rucking for an hour straight with

00:12:18.660 20 percent of your body weight up into hills and that's that but but that's over 16 weeks so it's

00:12:24.780 not like you i think that's where a lot of people might if they want to fully benefit from rucking

00:12:30.120 can look at some sort of you know progressive overload of sorts like everybody does with lifting but a lot

00:12:35.760 of times with this kind of thing you know they don't so if you're just looking to improve your

00:12:40.440 health a little bit you don't need to get super advanced and fancy and progressively overload but

00:12:44.340 if you want to you know kick it up to the next level it's definitely something you need to consider

00:12:48.740 and i really don't recommend exceeding the 15 minute mile pace that's a brisk walk and you know i would

00:12:56.020 way rather see you add a hill in there or something than you know get to jogging because we're talking

00:13:00.920 about the lower impact but all of a sudden you you're doing the like that french legion test where

00:13:05.460 you're um doing eight minute miles with 26 pounds on you then it's you've met you've created a worse

00:13:11.200 problem yeah i've ran with a rucksack before it's not pleasant and that would be the time to do it if

00:13:17.900 hey i get it you got some assessment coming up you know your dream job you know your pay is going to

00:13:23.960 increase whatever i'm on board with a specificity there i'm just saying if this is for for you know

00:13:29.160 civilians for general health i do not see the purpose we're gonna take a quick break for your

00:13:33.540 words from our sponsors and now back to the show anything to think about with your walking form

00:13:41.160 people really don't think about their walking form but is there anything people think about

00:13:45.500 what when they're walking when you're carrying a load that you do differently compared to when

00:13:49.900 you're not carrying a load yeah you definitely need to be mindful of how you're walking and you know

00:13:54.440 you're walking with good posture and things like that i mean it's very important that you're not

00:13:59.840 getting you know you keep your head high spine aligned stand tall and if you start slouching over

00:14:05.460 and things that means you're going too heavy you can check yourself you know throughout the walk you

00:14:10.620 shouldn't be you shouldn't be shrugging your shoulders up it's like an anti-shrug position

00:14:14.140 and keep doing that self-check throughout the throughout the walk and you're avoiding you know spinal

00:14:20.360 flexion you're also avoiding you know overextension that's not good either that's not good for your

00:14:24.700 back so you want to stay upright you know achieve full extension of your hips while you're walking

00:14:30.260 and use frequent strides um you know driving your arms hard one thing i found that helps

00:14:35.820 and i i hesitate to say sometimes is because it gets it can sound sort of complicated is keeping your

00:14:41.200 glutes engaged i noticed the first time i you know did it really well like good form my glutes were

00:14:46.800 actually a little bit sore the next day so it's like i kind i keep them engaged and sort of like

00:14:50.900 flex them but it's not like a real conscious thing where i'm trying to like you know lift with them or

00:14:55.080 anything gotcha and then where to rock i mean again you can do this anywhere but i imagine some

00:15:01.180 terrains are better than others absolutely so you're going to be more prepared for real life

00:15:07.220 if if you get out in nature because life's going to happen all around you not just you know

00:15:12.520 obviously if you're just going for a time i want to see you know how many 15 minute miles i can do

00:15:18.280 or whatever then the synthetic track's probably a good choice because it's going to be real measurable

00:15:23.120 and real repeatable type of thing but real life happens on all sorts of different terrains so i'd

00:15:27.760 recommend getting out in nature and and having some fun and it's interesting is there's in texas is pretty

00:15:33.820 flat but where i live there's actually a lot of hills even though it's up the hill country here and

00:15:37.660 i take my kids a lot with me and we went out there the other day and they were just running up

00:15:43.420 and down this real steep hill and i was walking up and down right in the city and we got stalked by

00:15:48.620 by a coyote at four o'clock in the afternoon so that was pretty crazy to you know getting out in nature

00:15:55.080 to see that i didn't know what we were supposed to do except not act scared and we didn't it finally

00:16:00.220 left oh yeah those coyotes are getting bold these days they were super bold this one's fat too it's

00:16:06.260 like um then my wife checked the message board for south like where i live and or whatever that

00:16:12.260 neighborhood is over there and there are people talking about this bobcat that seems to be eating

00:16:16.140 well so i guess it's pretty well known all right so uneven terrains that'll also help with the like

00:16:22.020 that balance aspect you talked about earlier one of the benefits of rucking yeah and learning to move

00:16:26.760 under load like that is going to help you in the weight room too so i think that's where like you got

00:16:31.320 to understand for these strength increases rucking's not going to increase your squatter deadlift like

00:16:36.560 you just do it and that happens it's going to be more like you're as a beginner you're learning to

00:16:40.660 move under load so like the strongman events things like that and then as you improve your conditioning

00:16:45.220 that's where it's real important the regeneration because your work capacity is higher and you're going

00:16:50.920 to recover faster between workouts between sets all that stuff so that that's how that's how

00:16:55.380 something if you do strength training ruck can be a nice supplement to that it's like active recovery

00:16:59.480 in a way it is and that's a good way to put it so like for instance um i i've been rucking since

00:17:05.380 2018 at least once a week so i my favorite time to do it is right now i'm doing it once a week

00:17:12.580 i like to do it the day after i i do you know heavy leg stuff and stuff that involves the lower back

00:17:18.920 on friday so i like to do the the rucking on saturday as an active recovery well let's talk about

00:17:25.200 so yeah with for those who are who are doing some sort of strength and conditioning program

00:17:29.960 sure one of the challenges i've seen in people who get into rucking is that their rucking starts to

00:17:35.040 interfere with the recovery from their their strength training right because they overdo it like how do

00:17:40.940 you what's what's the best way to incorporate rucking so that you get that recovery benefit with

00:17:46.140 but without you know killing yourself and you won't be able to do you know complete a work set 0.60

00:17:51.240 your next workout sure so there's a couple ways to look at this eventually if you keep rucking

00:17:57.020 and assuming you're following the guidelines we're putting out there of not you know exceeding 20% of

00:18:01.540 your body weight not going faster than 15 minute miles you you can possibly get to the point where it

00:18:06.800 doesn't matter like for me now i could you know ruck on saturday and then squat on sunday if i needed

00:18:13.220 to just it's my recovery has gotten to that point took a little while so there's that aspect as your

00:18:18.720 work capacity increases it won't be as much of a challenge because you're somewhat acclimated to

00:18:24.000 this and you're not exceeding that 15 minute mile pace otherwise i would say the best spot to do it

00:18:30.940 would be i like is the day after as an active recovery because we're not recommending you you

00:18:34.720 know i say we i know you're gonna be able to get away with rucking once a week and that's going to

00:18:38.920 improve you know your physical health you probably can get away with it twice a week but i think once a

00:18:43.780 week's a really safe bet to do and it works really well as an active recovery the day after

00:18:48.820 you know something involves your legs and lower back yeah i train monday tuesdays thursday fridays and i

00:18:55.660 ruck or sometimes just walk take a long walk on wednesdays okay that's what i do and then maybe

00:19:02.560 another walk or ruck on saturday and haven't had any problems with it okay so with walking here that's a

00:19:10.300 that's a good point because some people that are into strength training we're taking for granted

00:19:15.860 that you're in shape to do this so i would recommend if you're not able to walk it like you

00:19:20.360 know an hour straight at a reasonably brisk pace you shouldn't be rucking probably so you want to get

00:19:26.120 to that point you know yeah so that's a good okay so okay so if you can't walk an hour don't don't

00:19:32.580 start off with load like you have to start you gotta you gotta crawl before you you walk here or walk

00:19:38.400 without load before you add load imagine if you couldn't even do a bodyweight squat and i said

00:19:42.400 yeah you know let's get out there and start you know with 225 or something would be crazy you know

00:19:46.460 so it's the same type of thing here so okay let's talk about we talked a little bit about this

00:19:50.900 progression here so okay if you've never if you can't walk without load for an hour and not be

00:19:56.380 incredibly winded you should probably just start walking without load how long does that last like a

00:20:02.060 week two weeks like how long before you can you start adding load you think i think once you can

00:20:06.840 comfortably walk an hour straight you know at a brisk pace you can add load so how long will it

00:20:11.540 take you to get there well i mean i've to be honest i've seen powerlifters that you know almost

00:20:16.380 like need oxygen walking up a flight of steps so that person's going to take a while to get to that

00:20:20.740 point where somebody else that you know has been in good shape cardiovascularly somewhat recently

00:20:25.740 just taking some time off it could take a week or two okay and then after that you're going to start

00:20:31.300 off with five to six percent of your body weight so if you're what a 200 pound man what's that going

00:20:36.340 to be like 10 pounds 10 pounds yeah so not not much and then each week are you adding weight sure so

00:20:44.560 there's a lot there's a few different ways that see that's what's what's cool about the the

00:20:48.580 progressive overload so just like um we've discussed before here on on body weight training strength

00:20:54.260 training is we have to look at more than just the weight so there's other ways to do it you can

00:21:00.420 increase the ruck so i recommend not doing you know more than like five pounds between sessions

00:21:04.740 so you start off that 10 it's a joke you go to 15 20 so on so eventually you work up to that 20

00:21:10.020 percent of your body weight so if you weigh the hypothetical 200 pound man we keep discussing

00:21:14.460 it's about 40 pounds is what you'd end up at right then you can also increase the distance so you

00:21:20.900 know i say like between rucking sessions you can if you're going off a distance increase like a quarter

00:21:25.900 mile or so it doesn't have to be like you started off at a half mile then you know next week

00:21:30.080 you're at three miles you can increase the total duration you know just add five minutes to what

00:21:35.220 you're doing at the same pace and another one people don't look at is um the incline if you're

00:21:40.620 on a flat surface when i was researching for my tactical conditioning course it was amazing to see

00:21:47.220 the metabolic expenditure that that changes when you just add a grade to what you're doing to an

00:21:52.600 incline to what you're doing so that's another way to progressively overload and even the surface you're

00:21:57.360 on okay i'm at the the city track with a synthetic surface you feel like you're gliding when you walk

00:22:03.920 you know all of a sudden now i head over to like the park where there's a big sandpit i'm rucking

00:22:08.840 around that it's going to be harder gotcha so you get creative with how you add the progressive

00:22:13.380 overload don't just think weight uh think other things too well to add a little bit to that also

00:22:19.000 one thing i found that works pretty well for people too is if this is just for like general health

00:22:25.340 purposes you don't want to hit a certain goal of like rucking x amount whatever but good guideline

00:22:30.480 is um you can also use as nasal breathing you know how fast can you go and you know how high how steep

00:22:37.440 can you go and continue to breathe out your nose and not breathe out your mouth assuming you're not

00:22:40.620 talking to anybody or anything that's a good one yeah no it's that's harder to do so what how does this

00:22:45.720 change like this programming change for someone who's training for the military or law enforcement

00:22:50.840 well that's that's where this can get you know a little bit tricky so or not tricky but that's where

00:22:57.760 you know all the guidelines you've been talking about are kind of out the window because you're

00:23:01.220 gonna have to look at the specificity of the test you know if you have to do eight minute miles

00:23:07.560 with you know 25 pound rucksack it doesn't matter what we've said to this point if you want the job you

00:23:13.940 want to pass you have to do that so you have to train it's specificities where it trains it's no longer

00:23:19.420 like these guidelines to you know to ruck to be healthy it's what do you need to do to pass the

00:23:24.760 test so you got to think about things like not only the weight of it but like the terrain of what

00:23:29.300 you're gonna be testing on you're just in texas say you know you're in west texas there's hills and

00:23:34.260 mountains out there if you're in other parts it's totally flat so if it's an outdoor test be ready for

00:23:39.380 the terrain the grade of the hill even the climate control if you're in nebraska maybe it's you know

00:23:44.280 minus five in the winter and the test is going to be indoors you don't even have to worry about it

00:23:48.940 you're being a climate control type of thing and then you really need to look at the other

00:23:54.080 predictors because here's the deal a lot you know we talk about like different like say you know you

00:23:59.620 know say you're a police officer and you have to wear 25 pounds of gear a day every day no matter

00:24:05.220 what you're on your feet constantly it's not going to make sense oh like okay i'm you're working 12

00:24:10.340 hour shifts then you get off work and you know or you're afghanistan you're wearing 100 pounds you don't

00:24:15.600 need to get off work and then ruck with 120 pounds so you're ready for 100 pounds the next day then

00:24:20.500 you have to start looking at the other factors that are good predictors of rucking ability those are

00:24:25.580 like muscle hypertrophy having low body fat how strong you are you know your ability to produce

00:24:32.800 power things like that so the example i'll give here is like a manual labor type of job a lot of people

00:24:39.080 think how do you train a manual laborer well you just have them go light and that's not the case

00:24:43.120 because that manual laborer is kind of doing submaximal work at an extreme volume all day

00:24:47.940 so the way to train somebody like that is have this person go with a higher intensity because

00:24:53.220 he's not getting any of that at work and the same here so if you have somebody that's in

00:24:58.500 law enforcement or under load all the time you're gonna have to get some higher intensity you know

00:25:04.540 more traditional strength training because already quote-unquote rucking throughout the day

00:25:08.320 that makes sense well here's a question so a lot of people like in some parts of the country gyms

00:25:14.100 are still closed sure gym equipment is hard to come by you can't find it anywhere for your home gym

00:25:20.320 okay a ruck sack is a weighted object i'm curious based on your work you you think about this stuff

00:25:27.380 all the time how to get creative with minimal resources right what are some like like strength

00:25:32.100 training exercises you could do besides rucking with a weighted rucksack well there's a couple

00:25:38.740 ways to look at this first if you have access to google just google what you can do with a sandbag

00:25:43.260 pretty much anything you do with that you could do with a rucksack you can do um you can do push-ups

00:25:49.520 you can do pull-ups you can do lunges you can even take it off and do a bent over row i mean you

00:25:54.500 could do inverted bicep curls if you had a bar or you could just take it off and grab by the straps

00:25:59.400 and do hammer curls you could do tricep extensions holding it you know by the straps overhead or

00:26:04.800 putting it on your body against the bar you know overhead press it romanian deadlift it i mean there's

00:26:09.880 so many different endless possibilities you could do i mean we could literally have a conversation about

00:26:16.140 this only and run out of time it's endless so yeah just basically any like body weight movement you

00:26:23.540 could do you could do with the ruck absolutely and a lot of the barbell movements too right yeah i know

00:26:29.300 when i there was a period i was i was getting ready when i was training for like go ruck events

00:26:33.620 i uh for some reason i thought i needed to do bear crawls a lot so i did a lot of i would do like

00:26:38.820 100 yard bear crawls with the that's hard with the rug yeah that was insane but then like then i would

00:26:46.360 do push-ups i would do duck walks with the rucksack and yeah those those i hated ruck day that was not

00:26:54.460 fun but it paid off because like what we you know a go ruck challenge is hard but like i trained myself

00:27:00.980 harder than i needed to do like the stuff they had us do was it was brutal but i'd already experienced

00:27:05.520 it that's awesome okay so yeah there's a lot of things you so don't just think okay you you just

00:27:11.680 have to ruck with it there's other stuff if you don't have weightlifting equipment you can actually

00:27:15.780 use this to create and be like the same so like what like like programming wise let's say if you wanted

00:27:20.340 to do like a a push-up a squat like some sort of invert like a row with your rucksack like what

00:27:26.900 would the like reps and sets look like would it be you're looking at three sets of 10 three sets i mean

00:27:32.540 how would you program that i think you'd want to keep it to like what where you traditionally be and

00:27:38.720 what your goals are however you'd have to keep in in intact what your strength level is so again if

00:27:45.940 you're going within that you know 20 body weight threshold and you're really strong you know three

00:27:52.500 sets of six i'm bent over rows with a 40 pound rucksack weighing 200 probably is not going to do

00:27:57.000 a whole lot so then you're gonna have to go to like a higher reps or at least minimally add some sort

00:28:02.220 of tempo to it okay you know i'm doing the three sets of six but i'm holding the um rucksack in the

00:28:08.580 contracted position for two seconds then following it up with like a five second negative and things like

00:28:12.240 that so i think assuming it's like compatible your strength level or you'd want to keep you'd

00:28:18.100 want to keep the traditional rep ranges you're already working with but if you're really strong

00:28:22.640 you're gonna have to you know you have to find another way you're gonna have to add tempo or go

00:28:27.320 with a real high repetition deal gotcha oh another thing another thing i love doing with the rucksack

00:28:31.700 is like other ways to carry like a suitcase carry so you just put in your one hand carry just one

00:28:37.260 hand and switch to the other hand you can carry it overhead so you extend your arms above your

00:28:41.640 head and have the weight and then walk around that can that's another great way to incorporate

00:28:47.160 some strength training with the rucksack yeah i think honestly the the it's it's endless because

00:28:52.140 i mean we talk about like lunges you could hold the rucksack overhead even and if the right so you

00:28:56.080 need creative like the i'm too strong to lunge with 40 pounds okay hold it over your head and see

00:29:00.140 what happens type of thing right or you can even be like a kettlebell i've done that too sort of like

00:29:04.240 some cleans like snatches so you just get yeah up and then press it so a lot you can do and get

00:29:10.320 creative so i mean you've said that you started ruck in 2018 and you just fell in love with it

00:29:15.260 i mean how is it how has it changed or affected your training outside of you know your other stuff

00:29:21.960 that you like just your basic barbell training if anything has helped it it certainly hasn't

00:29:27.540 hasn't hurt it so i'm not trying to push it my because of my background i'm not trying to push like

00:29:32.000 you know for new maxes and things like that like when i'm going to test myself i do more like

00:29:36.100 speed tests or conditioning tests or things like that but there's been absolutely no drop in

00:29:42.220 strength whatsoever fantastic well josh where can people go to learn more about rucking gains

00:29:47.460 the book's available on amazon.com it's available now in paperback to be because before that just

00:29:54.780 until recently it was only in kindle so it's available on kindle and paperback or come to my

00:29:59.380 website joshstrength.com fantastic well josh bryant thanks for your time it's been a pleasure

00:30:03.420 thank you brent i appreciate it my guest today was josh bryant he is the author of the book

00:30:07.880 rucking gains is available on amazon.com you can also find out more information about his work

00:30:11.800 at his website joshstrength.com also check out our show notes at aom.is slash rucking

00:30:16.800 where you can find links to resources where you delve deeper into this topic

00:30:19.760 well that wraps up another edition of the aom podcast check out our website at

00:30:30.220 art of manliness.com where you find our podcast archives as well as thousands of articles written

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00:31:05.320 but put what you've heard into action

The Art of Manliness - February 08, 2021

Get Rucking

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