Five Important Questions on Rucking, Challenges, Longevity, Seed Oils, and Inspiration
You’ll learn: The truth about rucking weights, physical challenges, seed oils, longevity, and what inspires me.
Housekeeping
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I had the opportunity yesterday to host an AMA through Substack. Many thanks to the Substack team for inviting me and making the event happen.
We got many great questions, and I tried to answer as many as possible.
But AMAs are rapid-fire. You can’t spend too much time on any one question because more are coming in hot.
In today’s post, we’ll go deeper into five questions I received. We’ll cover more information on:
- When should I increase the weight in my ruck?
- Does taking on extreme physical challenges make you better at dealing with mental struggles?
- Any opinion on seed oils?
- What’s one thing you’d recommend to promote longevity?
- What inspires you?
Let’s roll …
When should I increase the weight in my ruck?
Here is my initial AMA response:
We often think we should be forever progressing in our fitness. Progress is good! But it happens most when we first pick up an activity.
An extreme example: A new runner might take three minutes off her mile time over a couple of months of running. But a professional might train for years to take three seconds off her mile time.
Most of us aren’t trying to be professional ruckers—we don’t need to progress forever! We’re trying to find a sweet spot that maintains our health and fitness.
Rucking is hard when you first take it up. But eventually the same weight, pace, and distance become easier.
In general, people can add more weight faster when they first start rucking. For example, you might start with 15 pounds. Then, when that feels easy, you go up to 20. When 20 feels easy, you go up to 25. And that might all happen in six months.
But you can’t do that forever. Once you’ve been rucking regularly, I think your goal should be to find a couple of weights you use regularly.
Find a “go-to” weight. This is a weight you use most often, like if you’re walking your dogs. It’s a weight you could go with for a few hours. For me, it’s 30 pounds.
Then, find a “heavier” weight. This is one you use when you want more of a challenge. This is a weight that might really start to suck after an hour or two. It’s reserved for when you want to get after it. For me, it’s 50 pounds.
Then, if you’re training for a rucking-specific event, you might have an even heavier weight you use, so your body will be more ready for the event.
For example, if you’re planning to hunt in the fall and know you might have to ruck with a 60-pound pack, you’ll want to do a couple of rucks with that weight. You don’t want to overdo these heaviest rucks. You might use this weight once every two or three weeks just so the heavy hunting pack isn’t shocking.
Next week, I’ll run a guide about finding a good weekly rucking routine.
