Ruck March

I hate running. Any of you do this? I just picked up a sack of barite and taped the hell out of it to hold it together for a few years, now I have an 88 lb brick in the shape of a cement bag. Stuffed it into a hiking pack, now I look like a jack ass quick marching my fat ass through the hilliest neighborhoods in Calgary, up and down the elbow valley wall for 5-7 km at a go.

Rough calculations tell me that my fat + the added weight = 800 calories / hour, and I'm just adding more weight as I lose it, in 10 lb increments. Once I'm back at my fighting weight, I'll use it as resistance until I reach a total of 200 lb packs. I was in the best shape of my life when I was building trails out there on the coast… I'm guessing the chainsaws, shovels, pails of nails, etc being packed up mountain faces helped a fair amount, clued in that military style rucking was probably as close to a replication as I can get without spending the time actually building trail, as long as I follow the rule of doing pushups or situps every mile.

I sometimes do weighted walks with a max of 20 kg, but only if I am well rested and I feel like doing it. Other than that it is usually around 10kg, and then trying to smoothly and gracefully walk as fast as I can on a 5km round trip through the hills.

I found that tightening my trunk, keeping my body upright (head) and actually focusing on the graceful part packs quite a punch. Similar to proper running mechanics I alwys focus on letting the muscles do the work and not walk so that my bones/joints have to take the impact.

It is definitely recommended by folks who lift big weights as a means to keep body fat in check.