Rucking help Running?

[sandhillhunter]

Does weighted rucking help improve running strength or endurance?

I’m curious about this as I am training for a marathon in December.

I really enjoy rucking in preparing for my mountain hunts, but don’t want to waste time doing it if it’s not going to help with distance run training.


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[Coach Chris]

No
Running improves running

 

[Poser]

Professional/competitive runners do not spend time rucking for training.
I agree with the above comment: you'll want to train for a marathon by focusing on running.

 

[V2Pnutrition]

+3. Specificity is one of the fundamental components of training.

With that said, I think employing some muscular endurance training 1-2x/week would be a very wise move to reduce injury risk/improve your running. That's been a huge personal shift for me and several other guys I know who do endurance/ultra/whatever and often advised by coaches in mountain training programs like Uphill Athlete and Evoke.

This podcast is primarily geared at helping people prepare for moving through the mountains with weight, but they have a small blurb about ME and the value it holds for folks doing running and competition without weight. Here is a simple ME workout progression to follow, too.

While not a direct answer to your question, it does have you use weight. One method I've used and like alot is loading my pack with 80lbs to do the movement instead of using a barbell/db/kb, etc...

Best of luck on your marathon!

 

[sandhillhunter]

Thank you all for the info. Kind of what I figured.

I’ve got a good running base. Just wondered about mixing things up.

Plus there’s a memorial ruck for a fallen soldier coming up in a couple of weeks I was thinking about doing.


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[strattonje2020]

If you cant run in zone 2 then rucking will help you, until you can run in zone 2.

 

[mtbraun]

Rucking is a great active recovery method. For example, if you run in the morning, ruck in the evening for a 2 a day.

 

[molliesmaster]

Are you training to win the marathon?

If not, then I think rucking would be a great benefit to your overall health, including your running. I do not think it will hinder your running performance unless you are overtraining.

 

[Poser]

Are you training to win the marathon?

If not, then I think rucking would be a great benefit to your overall health, including your running. I do not think it will hinder your running performance unless you are overtraining.

Rucking is fairly stressful to extremely stressful depending on the load and the grade. It doesn't necessarily feel or is perceived as being stressful in the same way that running is because it is muscular endurance -your leg muscles are "doing the work" vs. being more reliant on the cardiovascular system when running. For this reason, it can be extremely stressful on your legs and taxing on your CNS (You'll experience this with that "heavy leg" feeling), thus impacting your recovery and impacting your training sessions for running.

Marathon training programs are very well established as the data points on them are based on hundreds of thousands, if not millions of successful marathons. None of them include rucking. If a person wants to run and ruck because they enjoy it or because they need to also be in rucking shape, go for it. If a person wants to put up a competitive time or PR in a marathon, focus on a marathon training program. Thorwing in a dose of stressful rucking on top of a marathon training program will negatively impact most anyone's marathon performance.

 

[rickyw]

For me, rucking combined with some heavy A+A kettlebell work, preserved a certain level of running ability when I would go months without running. When I was running 6-7 miles in a session and stopped for months I could come back and do 4.5 or so and then quickly progress back up. It never improved it

 

[molliesmaster]

Rucking is fairly stressful to extremely stressful depending on the load and the grade. It doesn't necessarily feel or is perceived as being stressful in the same way that running is because it is muscular endurance -your leg muscles are "doing the work" vs. being more reliant on the cardiovascular system when running. For this reason, it can be extremely stressful on your legs and taxing on your CNS (You'll experience this with that "heavy leg" feeling), thus impacting your recovery and impacting your training sessions for running.

Marathon training programs are very well established as the data points on them are based on hundreds of thousands, if not millions of successful marathons. None of them include rucking. If a person wants to run and ruck because they enjoy it or because they need to also be in rucking shape, go for it. If a person wants to put up a competitive time or PR in a marathon, focus on a marathon training program. Thorwing in a dose of stressful rucking on top of a marathon training program will negatively impact most anyone's marathon performance.

Nearly every training plan mentions/recommends doing some form of cross-training to supplement your running days and overall fitness to include leg workouts. Cross-training helps prevent injuries. Rucking, as long as it isn't overdone, could be a very beneficial recovery/cross-training exercise.

If he was trialing for the olympics, he wouldn't be reaching out to the rokslide elite for advice.