How to Pass the 12 Mile Ruck March (Sub 3 Hours) 

What are your favorite rucking boots!?

Now imagine 28 more miles for a total of 40 miles through wv mountains for delta selection.

The fastest I ever did the EIB march was 2h 15m. I bled through my boots. My advice is to tie your canteens to your kit, even if you drop them you can pull the line back in, throw protein bars in your ammo pouches

You got to run my guy. There. Video Done.

First attempt at 12 mile ruck with 50lbs I made it 4 miles in an hour. Mad respect...

I was an 11B for 10 yrs - have numnerous 12's, and several 25 milers- they SUCK - but are doable. The real trick is finishing with the mind set that you could FIGHT after that many miles of movement.

My man just wrote to me and said he is getting ready for the ruck March He recently pulled a hamstring. I’m a little worried but, I have confidence he will make it. Thank you for being so informative about the March.

That was the standard for our Expert Infantry Badge; 12 miles in 3 hours, plus all the other tasks. we had 30 lbs which I found challenging enough. And that was to Birch Hill and back and not a strait line either. You have to work up to it Alvin the Director but as you accomplished it, big time Props to you. I did it in Jungle Boots. Again, congratulations!

man thank you for your service LT! God bless and always humble!

Dedication. shot the video once, didn’t like it, reshot it. That’s dedication.

Thank you. Pcsing there next year. A lot of good information. Look forward to more vids.

This LT time is impressive. How tall are you? I have noticed that taller people have better times simply because they can stride out a lot further than shorter people. Here are my personal tips for us short people (5'6"): 1. You HAVE to do the 12 mile ruck in the form of intervals. IF you try to step it out, you will fall behind even at your furthest stride because your stride will never be naturally as long as a taller person. It just won't. Save your shins and lower and stop over reaching with the walking steps. you have to SHUFFLE. How does one inteval a 12 miler? Use your pace count. For example, my pace count is 67 steps. So, I shuffle for 67 steps (every time my left foot touches the ground, that's 1). Then, I would speed walk not excessively stride) but speed walk 67 steps. I use the speed walk portion to sip water or eat. Repeat the entire time. No joke. 2. When you are approaching hills, do not run the hill. Speed walk. Your steps will be short and choppy but you can do them in rapid succession and you will pass people on the hills. The taller people take these long slow steps and stay on the hills forever. Use your low center of gravity and shuffle them feet up. If the hill is somewhat short, I would run the upper half just to finally get off the hill and roll right into a speed walk as active recovery and then begin the intervals again 3. You need to have really strong quads to absorb all them steps. Do NOT only lift heavy in the gym such as squats or trap bar squats. Do low weight but really high reps with minimal rest in between. For example, use a leg press machine set to 30 pounds and go for 150 reps non stop. Do that for 2-3 sets. On another day of the week, trap bar squat heavy like 5 sets of 5 with 225 pounds (if you can lift that heavy. If not, work up to it as a goal and then work to be able to do more safely over time. Dont hurt yourself) 4. Your core and lower back are your lifeline. If any one of those are underdeveloped, your entire body will crumble. Work that core and lwoer back into the most conditioned and strong part of your body. I cannot emphasize this enough. 5. Not all boots are created equal. Since you will be shuffling the majority of the time, you need a boot that is as close to a sneaker as possible. 6. Insoles. There are 2 types. Gels and support. Gels make the steps feel soft but can damage the knees over time. Support are the stiffer soles for the arch. I have recently discovered that wearing both at the same time helps tremendously. I will put the gel insole in first and then the support one on top with really thin socks and my feet feel like they are ready to go. 7. Know your hot spots. With shuffling, you will rub your feet more than if you were just walking. Some popular hot spots (if you have wide feet) are the pinky toes. Rarely would I get hot spots anywhere else. Go to amazon and buy toe sleeves. There are these jelly tie sleeves and you slip them on your toe like a glove. They stay in place nicely. Put some mole skin or something to protect the skin and then put the toe sleeve on and you will have blister free pinky toes for days 8. To shuffle the 12 miler with weight for good time, you need to be able to run 12 miles casually without weight. Your long slow distance runs should easily be a half marathon just to get used to the load of distance on your feet which is 13.2 miles for reference. If you are short, you're a runner and probably a fast one which brings the next point... 9. Sprints. You NEED to incorporate sprints. 400m and 800m sprints into your program to manage the load of shuffling. If you are on a treadmill, your incline NEEDS to be 1.5 for every run you do. 10. Sleep. If you are not eating, you should be sleeping. If you cannot sleep, you need to be eating and hydrating. Be a furnace and burn them calories. You will still be heavy though. I am 5'6" and I fluctuate between 163 and 171 easily. I don't drink protein shakes. If anything, they dehydrate me quickly. I eat lots of chicken though These are just some tips for getting better at rucking as a short person. Ladies, you can do it too. Do NOT think that just because you are a short female, that you are physically inferior to anyone else performing the same task. Everyone has their own way of doing it and you just need to figure out what works for your body type. Mind you, a lot of these military tasks were made for tall people. Look at the issued rucks. The sizing of them are larger than my torso. So, if you're short, naturally you will have that as an added challenge. BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU FROM DOING IT ANYWAY!!!!

I do 15 min per mile, with 10kg for 5 miles but now I do 50 pounds for 10 miles. Plus the terrain is up hill the first 2 miles which is hard , but been a year now and I have progressed so much and completely transformed. If you want to get fit and just started, start rucking best exercise ever for your complete body especially your core, shoulders and legs!

Hey Army dudes! Thank you for your service and I appreciate what you guys do. I am prior service my kids never saw me as a solider and when we went to a military base and they saw the intimidating MP's at the gates the jaws drop... when we went to the Pentagon they were completely blown away. The men and women in the army are quite impressive... and if you have never done a road march or timed ruck it takes it out of you for sure. The point is as the LT said is you train for it but it is still hard but it is certainly achievable and something to pump your chest about when you do it. All things of value take effort. Thanks for sharing LT!

Even though I didn’t really prepare for the 12 mile Ruck for air assault assessment, I still made just barley under 3 hours. I was going at a 12-13 minute mile pace but on mile 11 and 12, I was considerably slowing down and took me the rest of the time I had left to complete the Ruck under three hours. Still wished I prepared because I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not on those last two miles

More rucking videos for normal people please. I use ADF and rucking to get my life together. 13000 steps X 4 days. Nothing heavy. Like 15 lbs backpack. Thanks King.

I have a ruck run on Monday with 45lbs & I’m about to die thinking of it.🥴

I appreciate the tips sir. Great leadership skills 💪

Wow amazing good job I just now learning about this ruck walking , can you start out with lower weights in aback pack? New sub here trying to get in shape.

Just finished my 20k ruck with 40 pounds dry . It’s very tough your legs start to feel number, I was motivated enough with my NCO to airborne shuffle for about 5 miles. I finished at 2hr 30 mins .

Great Video LT! I go to air assault school in April! Pray for me 🙏

Thank you Sir!!

We are here in JBER and getting on our rucks.

Who you with at Wainwright? You said 12:45 pace you doing some running huh?

What kind boots do you have sir ?

how far is the technical thing at 4 hours?

You motivate me! 💪

LT, I think I’m slowing down....at 62, the best I can get these days is 3:30. If I don’t dog myself, I average more like 4:00. I try ten a day with only FLC (about 15lb with canteens and a basic load), but just ain’t getting any faster. Any ideas? They gonna put me out to pasture if I can’t step it up.

you seem like a good leader. hell yeah LT

Good shit Sir

You definitely need to prepare for that ruck march when it comes up definitely stay hydrated you know stop drinking beer and have to start drinking water prior to the event and then it's just grueling I completed my ruck march in 2 hours and 47 minutes

What’s terrain you ruck on at OCS? And is it a solo event? I assumed it would be lots of uphill to the point where you absolutely must run on the downhills or else you don’t make the hit time, mostly on trails out in the woods, sand, and a touch of road. But I’m hearing from other sources that there is a break mid-way to top off water and it’s done in formation. Would you please elaborate?

Hey man, what was the app you used to map that route? High speed AF

Did my 12 mile for EIB in 2004, just a few months out of boot camp. That was full gear plus a 35lb ruck and water, up and down the hills at Benning. I ran half of it. It will break you off.

you had to ruck 12 in 3 ofr O.C.S.?

My best 12 milewas2:08. I was and lt and didn't want a SSG to beat me. The problem was I had to disassemble and assemble my M16 in three minutes bc this was an Expert Infantry Event. My hands were jelly. I think the SSG that was my grader gave me some slack. My best advice is put KT or leuko tape on every part of your foot that has ever had a blister.

I got a 2:35 on the 12 mile. Never actually trained with an actual ruck just did more cardio and legs.

Would you recommend ruck marching to someone who hasn't joined yet but intends to? What distances should I start marching and for how long. I got weight to lose and I am aspiring to join the infantry and potentially join the rangers and/or green berets. I am motivated but I'm wondering if there are some personal tips you might have. Thanks in advance.

Anyway to combat rolling my ankle on ruck marches? I rolled my ankle on my infantry osut 12 mile AND my bayonet March. shit suckedddd

What happened to 70 lbs?

For the training plan, one ruck per week enough? Maybe 3-4 months training?

I got some important information for those of you who wear safety toed footwear. When rucking in cold climates or mountainous terrain, ditch the safety toed foot wear. Your feet sweat, which condenses on the inside of your steel or composite toed boots. This is a direct contributor to frost bite which by the way is a article 15 offense . Bring a good pair of soft toed boots to do your marches in. US Army 10th mtn div 1989-1992 US Army 8th ID 2/29 FA 1985-1989 US Army 24th ID 2/21 Inf (M) 1984-1985 US Army 8th ID 3/16 FA 1983-1984 UTARNG 117TH Engr (FB) 1981-1982

im 5'6 pretty short for a guy, for me i have no choice but to trott aka or jog my last 400 meters each mile to reach my 15 minutes paste, i cannot do long steps it will mess me up, but i do get it done, heading out to bct in june! 11b

Green Beret video explains Duct Tape your feet. Duct Tape prevents the friction of skin against the fabric. 😯

Just keep walking

The unit I was in we had a March of Bataan... Not for everyone!

What’s a good Ruck weight? I am currently doing 100 lbs in my rucks but they are short. 3-4 miles is all

thank you

Do a video on how civilian rucking is easy and can be incorporated in a housewife's lifestyle. Rucking grew my glutes. My X husband is a navy veteran so I don't know where I picked up rucking. I do love it though.

ready for tmr sir?? AIRBORNE!

My lungs are horrible and I know I’m probably gonna die so… what happens if you don’t complete the 12? Just wanna know so I can prepare myself

Run down hills stride up and on straights run and stride and eat gummy bears boom passed

I had to run a mile and walk a mile.

12 1/2 mile sub 2 hr with 62lbs in sand

35lbs......I wish.

Prepping for ruck march...1st take care of your feet in garrison. Bring foot powder, 3 pair of dry socks, extra pair of boots. On breaks, change socks powder feet put on dry boots. Cannot stress enough bring foot powder and dry socks And those rock marches are timed big time. You will be running at some point I guarantee it. I like bragging about this....12 like March 2 hrs 38 minutes and that is with sock change. When they went to 6 miles my fastest time was 93 minutes. Back in the day I could out ruck you LT!!! US Army 1982-1992 Last duty station Ft Drum, Ny

You say Um a lot in this video. (Constructive criticism)

Just walk

Yeah go ahead and email me that con op -🦆

Lol

I see now that the soldiers are Very different in today's army......every ruck mark I every did......was always 2:15 to 2:30.......hell and most of them I was hung over........lol lol after the march.....me and my roommate use to go straight to the gym and play some serious bball......no problem......

Way too much talking

Almost 12 minutes and never answered the question in a clear concise manner; don’t waste your time in this video.

Way too much talking