Comprehensive Guide to Rucking For Special Operations

The greatest realization I made as a special operations coach is the importance of rucking. If you train properly for rucking, you can increase your chances of getting selected from 10% to 67%. In this article, I am going to tell you everything you need to know to improve rucking from technique to real research studies, including a beginner and advanced routine at the end.

What is Rucking?

Rucking is a fast walk, shuffle, or sometimes even a run performed with a heavy rucksack.  In selection, you’ll typically have 45 to 85 lbs of load in your ruck along with a dummy rifle weighing about 7 lbs in your hand.

Rucking is one of the most practical skills you will do at selection.   The average  Army Ranger  will enter combat with upwards of 100lbs on their back, so if you hate rucking you might want to rethink this career path.

What Gear Do You Need for Rucking?

Before discussing rucking standards and how to improve, let’s walkthrough the training gear you’ll need for rucking.

While you should have significant practice with all of the equipment before you enlist with an 18X or Option 40 contract, you  do not  need to purchase this all on day one. Start by rucking with your regular running shoes, backpack, and some weights in it, and then advance to a Molle II rucksack and boots.

Rucking Standards For Special Forces

The minimum standard is a 12-mile ruck at 3 hours or less with a 40 to 60-pound rucksack.  Keep in mind though, at selection, the terrain is going to be uneven or hilly, and you won’t be completing your timed rucks fresh or under ideal circumstances.  You could be exhausted and fatigued, and depending on the time of year for your class, you could be in extreme heat and humidity. For this reason, your best ruck time prior to selection should not be at the Army minimum. 

A competitive rucking pace is 12:30 or less.  A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to sustain a 13:30-minute pace indefinitely.

How Important is Rucking?

There are three studies in the past three decades on SFAS, and each of them found that rucking performance was the greatest predictor of getting selected, more than any other physical factors like running, pull-ups, or A.P.F.T scores. 

So if you care about getting selected, then you need to care about rucking.

The average selection rate was 31% in the 2019 study. And those in the top quarter of their class in terms of rucking performance had a 67% selection rate. 

Think about that for a second. The top 25% in rucking performance had double the probability of getting selected compared to the average.  

Rucking Performance and Selection Rates

The next question is does rucking performance scales linearly with selection rates? Well, it does. 

The bottom quarter of ruckers have less than a 10% chance of getting selected. 

The next quartile had a 27% chance.

The next 25% had a 43% selection rate

The top quarter of the class had a 67% selection rate.  

Unfortunately, the 2019 study did not reveal what paces separate each of the quartiles.  But based on recent athletes I’ve coached and who’ve been selected, they say the 12-minute per-mile range will land you in that top 25%.

How to Improve Rucking Performance

We know that rucking performance is critical to selection. But how do you make the most rucking improvement in the shortest amount of time?

Here are 2 studies and research papers on the subject that have influenced how I coach athletes to improve their rucking. 

1987 Rucking Study

Kraemer published in 1987 evaluated the effect of strength training and aerobic training on a max effort 2-mile ruck with 99 pounds.  

35 male soldiers were randomly assigned to four groups with each training four times per week for three months.  

• Group 1 was full body strength training and aerobic training
• Group 2 was upper body strength training and aerobic training
• Group 3 was only full-body strength training
• Group 4 was only aerobic training

The study found that strength training combined with aerobic training resulted in significant improvements in ruck march times (12% to 16%). However, zero improvement was seen in the aerobic training-only group, and little improvement was seen in the strength training-only group

This points to the idea that running alone will not improve ruck times. Instead, an optimal program should incorporate a combination of strength training and aerobic exercise.

2001 Rucking Study

Another study by Kraemer published in 2001 reached the same conclusion.

93 female soldiers were randomly assigned to one of four groups and trained for six months:

• Group 1 was Total body resistance training and aerobic training
• Group 2 was upper body resistance training and aerobic training
• Group 3 was plyometric training and aerobic training
• Group 4 was aerobic training alone

The women in the strength training and plyometrics groups showed significant improvements in 2-mile ruck times with 75 pounds. On average, the improvements were 17% or 350 seconds.

Interestingly, again – aerobic exercise alone did not improve ruck times.

Predictors of Rucking Performance

Now, let’s dive into the data on what correlates most strongly with rucking performance and see if it validates what we’ve found so far.

A NATO technical report summarized eight different studies to identify what traits correlate most strongly with fast ruck march times.  And across these studies, the results were remarkably consistent.

They found the following attributes were highly predictive of rucking performance

1. Fat mass (more is bad)

2. Muscle mass (more is better)

3. Height (taller is better)

4. Strength (more is better)

5. VO2 max (more is better)

Interestingly, VO2 max was consistently at the bottom of the list of predictors, although it was correlated.

What this research and the prior studies on how to train tell us is that if you want to improve your rucking performance, you should be building muscle, strength, and endurance. 

How To Improve Rucking Fast

But what’s the fastest way to get better at rucking?  

Don’t Treat Rucking Like Calisthenics

Greasing the groove and brute forcing your way to improvement with high volumes and frequency is only going to result in injury. Plus, rucking is highly taxing and has a recovery cost much greater than strength training or running in isolation.

Target Your Weakness

Instead, you should target your limiting factors.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say that you go on a 35-pound ruck for 10 miles.  If you’re muscular but aerobically weak, I’ll see that your heart rate was through the roof and you struggled to breathe. In that case, your endurance is the limiting factor, and we can directly target that.

A different candidate may do the same ruck and tell me his upper back, traps, and shoulders are exhausted and they felt fine until mile 7, but the last three miles were a struggle. In this case, his upper back strength is the limiting factor.

Where most people go wrong, is they think they need to ruck more to improve the final 3 miles of their ruck. But that’s not sustainable to do multiple 8-mile rucks per week just to train your upper back.

Instead, we can do heavy rows, shrugs, and face pulls to train that area. Or, if endurance is a weakness, we can do nonimpact cardio. Targeting your weakness will delay fatigue, so instead of feeling fatigued at mile 7, you can go until mile 9, 10, or 11.

How Frequently and Heavy Should You Ruck?

Now that you know how to address your weaknesses, let’s dive into the research on rucking frequency and load.

2005 Rucking Study Design

In the study, Is intensity or duration the key factor in march training?, Visser et al. (2005) compared the effect of a standard long distance, moderate ruck to high load, short distance ruck intervals.

The study participants were officers at the royal military academy and did two training sessions per week of both aerobic and resistance training. The study also separated them into groups which rucked twice per month or weekly to evaluate the effect of training frequency.

The four groups are listed on the screen:

• Long distance, moderate load ruck weekly + strength and aerobic exercise 2x weekly
• Long distance, moderate load ruck every other week + strength and aerobic exercise 2x weekly
• Short distance, heavy load ruck repeats weekly + strength and aerobic exercise 2x weekly
• Short distance, heavy load ruck repeats every other week + strength and aerobic exercise 2x weekly

Over the course of the 8 weeks, the ruck weights increased significantly. For the moderate load group, ruck weight went from 20% to 32% of body weight and the duration from 90 minutes to 3 hours. The short-distance groups increased their ruck weight from 45% to 67.5% of body weight, and the intervals went from 3 rounds of 15 minutes to 4 rounds of 15 minutes.

2005 Rucking Study Results

Although all groups saw improvements in their ruck times. The interval groups saw greater improvements (13.5 to 6.5%). And by the end of the study, they were spending 1/3rd of the time training compared to the longer duration group.  

Additionally, the study also found that rucking once per week was more effective than rucking every other week (12.6% vs 7.4%).

The Best Rucking Technique

But, rucking does carry a higher risk of injury than running. And we can mitigate this with proper technique.

First, do not ruck run. Plenty of people get shin splints from unloaded running. And just imagine the additional force you’ll absorb when running with an additional 50 lbs on your back. Those shin splints and injuries will onset much faster.

Use this technique instead:

1. Hinge at your hips to give yourself some forward lean as you would in running to deliver force through the ground.
   
2. Keep one foot on the ground at all times, lift your knees high, and focus on fast foot turnover and short strides. Your knees should be bent when your foot comes in contact with the ground.
   
3. Swing your arms to speed up your foot turnover.

Using this technique, most candidates can get to a 13-minute mile ruck pace.  If you’re doing long strides with locked-out knees or ruck running, that is a recipe for injury. This is a much safer, faster technique.

Aerobic and Strength Standards for Rucking

Before we talk about training programs, here are strength and endurance guidelines I recommend you hit.

Endurance Standards

Run 6 to 8 miles comfortably @ 10-minute per mile pace 

If you want to ruck 45lbs at a 13-minute mile pace, you need to have the endurance to do it unweighted first.

Strength Standards

• 275lb squat
• 335lb deadlift

Achieving those numbers tells me you have specifically trained your lower back and legs with heavy compound movements.

How To Improve Your Strength and Endurance

If you haven’t met those standards prioritize your running and strength work. It’s only through being strong and a fast runner, that you’ll have the foundation to be a good rucker.

Beginner Rucking Program

This program is for anyone who has not met the strength and cardiovascular standards mentioned previously, or for anyone who has not worked up to a 90-minute ruck with 50lbs.

Start with a weight no heavier than 35lbs and begin rucking 30 minutes per week adding no more than 15 minutes per session until you reach 2 hours. 

When you’re starting, the goal is not to break records with these rucks.  It’s simply to find a brisk pace you can maintain a zone 2 pace with the previously mentioned form.

Once you achieve a 2-hour ruck with 50 lbs and have met the strength and cardiovascular standards, you can move on to the Intermediate/Advanced Rucking Program.

Intermediate/Advanced Rucking Program

The intermediate and advanced rucking program keeps the long-duration ruck, and we also add a high-intensity mile repeat ruck earlier in the week. 

The purpose of the high-intensity session is to acclimate yourself to heavy weights and practice moving quickly with the previously mentioned technique.  It’s going to feel very heavy, but it will make your future rucks feel light.

4 Week Intermediate and Advanced Rucking Program

As you become intermediate or advanced in your training, it’s important to allow for some flexibility.

You can tweak the number of intervals, load, duration, or prescribed effort.

I like to start my athletes with with 2 half mile repeats for the intensity ruck and 60 minutes on the long session. I adjust from week to week to ensure progress and recovery is on point.

For a free 4-week rucking template for beginner and intermediate/advanced athletes click here.

Bonus Tip

Remember to incorporate deloads (periods where you reduce your mileage).  Rucking injuries will onset much faster than from running, so don’t add more than several miles of rucking per week on this program, especially if you’re rucking heavy.

Conclusion

If you’re strength training, running, and rucking, 11-12 minute miles with 45lbs is achievable, which would easily put you in the top quartile of your class.  

The one aspect we didn’t cover is body composition – specifically how much muscle mass and body fat you should have on your frame. Check out this article on Why SIZE MATTERS For Special Forces.