This might be too late a response, but what eliminated ALL knee pain for me after a Jiu jitsu accident and pain in the meniscus area, was backwards weighted sled drags. Find a sled in a gym, build one, order one, etc, and just drag it backwards. 10 reps back and forth, every day or every other day whatever suits you. It has done nothing but benefit and help knee pain, ankle pain, all lower body pain.
If you are getting into rucking, don't think you need to go as hard as this guy. 25lbs to 50lbs is enough weight to be challenging but not destroy you. You will wear out your joints or get stress fractures if you don't build up your muscles. Also, I recommend good boots with ankle support if you are starting. Ankle stability is important when you are under load. Bottom line, don't over do it. Consistency is key. I've done a lot like of rucking in the Army and I've seen people break themselves buy overdoing it.
"Ankle support" is another word for "knee unsupported". You ancle has a job to do and immobilized it just transfers stress to your knees. The 100lb pack thing does work, but it's better to mix it in with lighter work. It's like lifting max weight in the gym. Done every day, you don't recover. Once a week, you get strong.
Starting at 90lb is idiotic. Just because you can do it at first, doesn't mean you aren't going to get stress fractures and other overuse injuries. Give your bones and tendons and movement patterns a chance to adapt if you actually care about sustainable long term improvement instead of some silly challenge that will just leave you regressing to the mean. (Or worse.)
I am 63. Have been doing this as an alternative to running for years. I don't like to go over 60# due to excessive weight causing injury and back pain. Two things I would recommend to anyone starting out. 1. buy a bag of wood stove pellets for the weight. It distributes the weight evenly in the pack, conforms to your back and nothing pokes or jabs you. A bag weighs 40#. 2. Buy a pack that has a chest strap or make one for the pack you have since most people starting out will be using a soft book bag type pack or military surplus. The chest strap keeps the shoulder straps from working their way off your shoulders and will make your walk more enjoyable since you won't be constantly fighting to keep the pack in place.
I guess if I lost this 90lbs I have been carrying for the last 10 year i would feel pretty damn good! Now I can just tell everyone I have been Rucking for the last decade!
When barefoot, the muscles and soft tissues can respond to the exposed sensors on the sole and collect/store the impact forces (for re-use as kinetic energy later in the walking cycle). The moment you remove this neural connection, the system cannot prepare and so forces just bash into the joints. So, you're (kinda) continually losing free power for re-usage and are less efficient with every cycle. Even in barefoot shoes, the system is disrupted, hence pain over time. Great video. I now walk the dogs with an 8kg kbell in backpack. I'm 57 and be assured, every day remains a schoolday 🙂
i see the point of this. Buddy now knows what hes physically capable of. This sort of training is important just like training during a 72 hour fast, training without sleep, training in ugly conditions. We need to know who we are and suffering will absolutely show you
Must have been ridiculously difficult to keep this up man, big well done. I used to ruck with 30-40lbs every day and it was exhausting, you definitely looked a bit thicker/fuller in the after shots
Appreciate it man! The day to day was a huge grind! But it paid off when it came time to adventure in the mountains. Walking with a properly loaded 20-40lbs bag felt like a breeze
100LBS for 78kg is pretty damn insane! Good job mate! I ruck in hills with only half of that. And im about 200 Pounds myself. Hard enough for me. Ruck around 7 Miles.
Should have taken another note from body building crowds and embraced rest days. Muscles only really grow when you're at rest, prolly would have gotten way stronger if you took a day or two off betweeen sessions. Heat, cold, and antiflammatories all kill your gains too. Next time, do it for 2 months, start out with 40lbs, add 10lbs each week so you progressive overload and take adequete rest days.
I agree, you have to rest and going straight to almost 100lbs of weight is asking for injury. Guys who attend the US Army Special Forces selection will say that the total weight they carry can get over 100lbs, but they spend months and years training up to that. The weight requirement for the pre-selection 12 mile ruck is 45lbs dry (without water), just for perspective.
Heat kills your gains as well? I figured you don't want cold and anti-inflammatories right after a work out but thought heat like sauna was good. What are the downsides to a cold shower first thing in the morning?
This used to be a problem in Marine boot camp sometimes in the old days because you grab a bunch of us city dwellers that have never rucked before and suddenly when you do the infantry portion in the middle of it, you are carrying your house on your back and told to go hump 10-12 miles a day & then up B*tch Ridge & then Mt. Mother F-er to end the days. You also have cheap boots that didn't fit right and weren't fully broken in yet and you have a recipe for foot problems after days of that. But it did make you tough & that was their goal, lol.
Carrying a bergan or ruck with dead weight is a receipe for injury and also the footwear you have or not have on. Ideally you should pack your bergan with a balanced weight, most over the shoulders, mid to top of the bag. By balanced weight I mean gear, clothing, rations, water, tent etc. Footwear need to be supporting, ankle support, sorbethane insoles etc This comes from 30 years plus experience of carrying loaded weight and marches. Just my 10p worth. A bag full a dead weight is not good plus its pretty useless if out in the bondu.
Did you check your Vo2 max before and after, blood oxygen levels? Rucking should help with blood flow over all. Good job. It is a mental challenge as well. I understand the motivational aspect. For myself at the age of 68, and all through my years in the physical fitness world. When starting into something I've been away from for a long period, generally take it so slow as one might believe there would be no gains.. Reasoning with one's body attributes and the subsequent damage over the long haul has always been a priority for myself, ie., what one does today may or can affect you in later life. It looked like through your video taping you were equally tired and realized the challenge may have been overwhelming at times. When we're young, the moon is not too far, hence youth has the ability to endure. The old and young bull story and the dancing with the cows. Better to stroll down and dance with many rather than run down, be out of breath and only dance with one. Should rucking be your new outdoor activity, my only advice would be to go lighter and longer. Say 20-30 lbs and walk 5 miles, 6,7,8,10 and so on. Then increase the weight to 40-50 lbs, same distances. Doing this in each weight and mileage a month at a time. Once this is done, find the mountains, same quest. This is just an old man talking here. Take it as from a life experience of working and being involved in sports. Your body will thank you when you are my age. Try packing 200lbs up and down mountains as when one would when hunting when finding game in the back country.
Let the belly strap out, tighten your shoulder straps and carry the weight on your shoulders. Then stand upright with good posture and walk normally, putting your toes down first. This will engage your abs and posterior chain. This will be hard, but you will get stronger. Hunching into your pack straps with your shoudlers forward is why your knees, feet and ancles are collapsing. Walk on uneven ground. Flat ground means all the stress comes on the exact same joints/muscles every step. You will get injured and you wont be fit for uneven ground. Carrying an extra heavy pack is ideal training because it builds the right muscles but you are veter off with 50m with perfect posture. Walking hunched over is like lifting in the gym with awful posture. You will hurt yourself.
This video just shows the importance of recovery. You will actually hamper progress if you make it impossible for your body to repair and overcompensate and become stronger. These challenges are all fun, but don't do them unprepared. Ease into walking with a heavy bag a few weeks and then start a challenge. And slowly increase the load and distances instead of just amping it up like crazy. If you are unlucky, you get a stress fracture, inflamed tendons.
@@aventuraaustralia It is great for the discipline indeed and well done for that! You will certainly benefit from training with rucking if you plan to hike the alps as is my experience. I have 'Rucked' many weeks into the Alps in europe and being prepared really makes it more enjoyable.
@@aventuraaustralia in general I love the Aosta, Wallis region in Northern italy, and Southern Switzerland, and the French alps are also beautiful. I don't really have a favorite mountain - it's more the areas. Some like Dolimites more - for me it's more the really daunting massifs around there.
Rucking knocked 10minutes off my MURPH time in just 3 weeks.... INSANE!!! I did a combo of walking and running to keep under 15minute miles with 35lbs on my back. I'm fully convinced, I will ruck for life now.
I try and do a heavy ruck, 45 to 60, no more than once a week. If I go again, 20 to 30 at most. That is an immense amount of stress on the body. My first few heavy rucks really wrecked me. I gained 15ish pounds in my first few months despite losing size.
A decent pair of hiking shoes./boots would help considerably. You complained of having sore feet when you are carrying an extra 100 pounds of weight and still wearing soft shoes. Hiking shoes/boots are designed to absorb that weight and support your feet/ankles. Just a thought.
Love the video - thank you for making it. I'm 57 years old and I'll walk 7 miles daily. I like the location you filmed in What country and city is that? Thank you 😊
You narrowly escaped injury. A safer way to accomplish this would be to increase the weight over weeks/months. Yes it takes longer but the risk of injury is greatly reduced.
the only tip I think is crucial is getting a proper ruck sack... naturally they hold the majority of the weight higher up on your back... closer to your shoulders. Makes the grind significantly more comfortable.
@@aventuraaustraliaThe ALICE pack is reliable, I've been carrying 80lbs in mine for the past few weeks and people load it up to 100+ lbs. Tactical Tailor makes the MALICE pack, which is modeled after the ALICE pack. The big differences are the amount of pockets, weight of the frame, shoulder straps, and the kidney pads. All of these add up to a much higher quality of life, but they do run for about $400 dollars atm. I recommend buying the Alice pack and then putting Tactical Tailor's Super straps and Kidney pads on the bag and itll only run you about $280 total. (minus shipping idk how much it costs to ship to Australia.)
After being amazed at the idea of this, I realized he only weighs 20 lbs more than me with the pack on haha. And I do 5 mile runs, run up stairs and such. Really impressive what the body can acclimate to
Amazing video🔥.It would be nice to know how the resting heart rate changed over the challenge as a measurement of your actual endurance improvement, I’m pretty sure the results would’ve been much more impressive than the physical appearance and muscle gain.
I don't ruck but carry a 100lb sandbag up and down my driveway, mainly for grip and conditioning. I started taking creatine this week and I put on 3-4 kg ( muscles have become more hydrated) Creatine is supposed to improve recovery time and increase strength. Anyone with experience taking creatine, I would be interested in their story. " Good luck for the Euro trip"
Long time ago I spent some time as an infantry grunt walking up and down hills in a hot and humid environment with 60-70 lbs in my ruck. Sure, we would get tired, but I do not remember my feet getting sore or hurting in any way. We had “jungle boots” worn with wool socks. I never got blisters. Just a thought.
take it from me: if you hump 100lbs everyday for more than a month, you WILL get injured and you will have pain down the road (pun intended) SAS veterans and Rangers will tell you "don't ruck with over 30lbs more than a couple times a week", check out The Gritty Soldier and SOFlete. Rucking is amazing exercise both physically and mentally but don't be dumb about it like I was. The pros will also say "save ruckrunning for the event"
I am confused. Why did you have no recovery days? You would have probably made more improvement had you taken every fifth day as a recover day with just walking without weight, or not walking at all, maybe swim instead. If you wanted to have 30 total days, just do the challenge in 36 days with 6 days of recovery. You're lucky you didn't get a stress fracture.
Gotta stay hard brother... nah it would've been way better with some rest days in there. Just wanted to push myself and stay disciplined for a full month to see what I was capable of
The shoes you wore looked soft. If you wore a good pair of hiking boots I think you would have eliminated most of your foot pain issues. Thats from my experience, anyway. But an AWESOME job. Well done!!
The ice bath is actually not helping inflimation all it does is temprorarily give releif. You should use hot for it you can also alternate hot and cold
@aventuraaustralia i am heavier then you with your ruksak and i have been walking 16 to 20km daily for 6 months now and i managed to build up quite the tendons initially it was brutal initially plus i was 300lb to start and now i am 265lb but i am also tall 6'4 and not sedentary i used to lift and still carry some of that beef. Now i am considering putting thenweight back on walking at 300lb even as i am losing weight. I was not sure if its going to make me stronger or destroy my joints
i'm suprised at how little change there was, the only thing i could notice was your face is is little more defined, crazy dedication to stick to it though.
couch to handstand in 30 days program i bet would be great to build up shoulders. It feels mostly physico exercises and the cherry on the top is the handstand. it just makes the upper back solid and mobile. i haven't got past the 5th day just cause i have minimal dedication.
The cheap option is to go on fb market place and buy an old hiking bag and fill it with bricks and gravel, otherwise GoRuck makes a super high quality one for around $100.
@Aventura Australia no. That's terrible for your back. Ask any lad that served in the infantry. Get a ruck sack with a frame. ALICE or the like. You want the weight high up and close to your back. Goruck is snake oil.
@@jeanpaulkassdale Europe went great but unfortunately didn’t make it to Mont Blanc. We decided to go for Kilimanjaro instead. That’s coming up in September. I’ve been back on the ruck preparing for it
Started off with way too much weight. You can get major benefits from rucking with 30-45 pounds or so once or twice a week. Overall this would do much more damage than good.
This wasn’t my first time rucking, I’ve done a fair bit of training over the past two years so I didn’t just jump into this out of nowhere. And I wanted a catchy title so had to put myself to the test.
Next time stuff the bottom of the bag with socks or something to get that weight up high. It’ll be easier to put the weight over your hips that way and you won’t have to lean over as much
If you’re going anything over 30-35lbs you should be using a framed ruck sack. Let alone 100lbs lmao. You should be using a Vietnam style Alice pack or invest in a more expensive Malice Frame if you want something that’ll last years
First of all good effort. However you should have done some research. You had the right idea using a pack with a frame but the one you had is not good enough. The shoulder straps should be way wider and you should be trying to find a point of tightness that isnt cutting circulation off at the shoulder. Shoes are a big deal need ankle support. They shouldnt be to tight either your foot will expand as the miles go up. The weight damn good choice go big or go home. I would have chosen different medium layering i guess would be a good term try using all the bag not just putting heavy hard objects in the bag. And their is no great answer for that. Alot of good vids of rangers rucking and teaching how to pack a ruck. I hope you stick with it even after your trip
about 10 years ago I was ready to wear chain mail for training. I gave up. On the other hand I'm 120 kg (like you with 40 kg of backpack every day) XD. Immagine mi legs
I doubt you would gain much if you didn’t bump up your caloric intake accordingly. Going by the fact that you lost weight is a good indicator as to why your measurements didn’t increase. How would it, if you even lost weight to prior. If you are more, who know what the results have been otherwise.
Give that man a rifle + helmet! Chase him up and down a few mountains just for fun - memories of military service many moons ago. PS: pack was about 30kg but carrying a ‘bazooka’ made the whole experience more…
@@aventuraaustralia body weight exercises, dumbbell exercises. Also eating mostly fruit and veggies, I don’t eat anything that’s not natural or home cooked with raw ingredients.
@@aventuraaustralia oh I am 100% motivated now I was having some bad back problems most of it’s already going away , havnt been weighing myself just watching the mirror and can fit into some old pants now . I’m gonna take my weight in March . I was 290 to start
@@aventuraaustralia i just might. hehe. rn my normal gym backpack is like 30 pounds. i gotta buy a pack that has a hip belt cus it's hard on my upperback for real!
Back in December/January, I used to jog/walk 14mi (there and back) with a 30-40lb variable weighted vest and a 3Lcamelback. Prior to that I was already running 4-6 miles a day. My route went through the hills to a local lake. So it was constantly switching between uphill/downhill. The whole trip would take approximately 3hrs. I tore 2 Reebok weighted vests doing this. BUT It actually allowed me to break through a gym plateau. After a few days of repetition, my left ankle started hurting and I eased out of it. Also I was burning a lot of calories. I think the most I burned in one day was approximately 1740kcal. I wasn’t doing it to lose weight but rather build muscle endurance.
It’s very difficult seeing body composition changes and very just 30 days, beside water weight and maybe 3-5 lbs of fat loss, assuming nothing else changes intake wise
@@aventuraaustralia I was a little quick on the comment tho I will admit XD Since like a minute later you adress it in the video XD I'm actually looking into getting plate armor to go under my clothing somehow, it's heavy and you feel like an absolute tank while wearing it XD I could wear it over my clothes but I'm afraid that if I do that and just go around town people will finally know that I'm actually BATSHIT CRAZY XD
Did u get any shin splints or backpackers palsy (brachial plexus nerve damage) ? I did 2 pretty heavy days coming down a river bed with like 65lbs in not optimal footwear, and that’s what I earned myself
No luckily I didn’t have any significant injuries other than the sore foot which healed as soon as I lowered the volume. I had done a lot of hiking to prepare for this
☢☠Warning to all Americans! In spite of the "100lbs" title, this video is not imperial system friendly! You'll never know what the temperature is or how much he weighs!!! ☠☢
Wow great job and good to know. Between a friend or two and FB Ruck group pushing GoRucks for $300+ I just want to walk my dog and burn some extra calories. Have home gym where I do most exercise. Try just walking after weight training you might see what I did I burn more calories 40-50 more in just 15 mins since heart rate is so high after weight training. Not light session intense one.@@aventuraaustralia
No issues at the moment! Had a slight pain in my rotator cuff but don’t think it was related. And actually seemed to fix it during my 30 day hanging challenge
uh huh, well I carried that for a few years in the army. My unit had a "fun" annual event called "Pain Squared". 100 pounds for 100 miles. I got out of the army half an inch shorter. My chiropractor thanks my wallet for my service (jokingly).
