Weighted rucking

[andy t]

I started doing weighted rucking for fitness and noticed a few things that I am curious about:
I use Camelbak trizip with 2 (30 and 20 lb)Titan fintess plates together with the waist belt.
Salomon goretex boots and keene socks.
I can do around 5.5 miles in 1 hour, 45 minutes. However, at the end of the walk, I develop hot spots/blisters on my feet. Can anything be done about it?
I like using the waist belt on my pack and definitely feel its benefit. However, goruck and others recommend avoiding the waist belt in order to improve upper back/shoulders. Should I follow that ?
Any other tips/suggestions?

[Wake27]

Hot spots will happen until your feet and shoes are conditioned together. They suck, but hotspots aren’t too bad. If you don’t have to ruck, I’d stop once the hot spots get annoying. Continuing to push will cause the to develop into blisters which will take significantly longer to heal and will likely be affected by any footwear you have. Case in point - I don’t typically have the problem, even with new boots, but two weeks ago I went out to break a pair in. I was planning on going out to the o-course and back, and didn’t want to turn around early. The Loop was less than four miles but the combo of hilly terrain and these specific boots (for whatever reason) destroyed my heels. The skin came off with my sock on one of them. It took a little over a week of blister bandaids and moleskin before they had healed enough to run without making it worse. There are some basic tips to help, the first being make sure your shoes/boots and socks are good. Salomons are typically solid if they fit properly so pair them with Darn Tough Vermont socks and you should be ok there.

The belt has pros and cons. If you can use it, it makes sense to unless you really want to condition your upper body to deal with that weight all by itself. A lot of times we can’t use the belt because of a chest rig or plate carrier, so I don’t practice rucking with it. But if I could, I definitely would.


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[Inkslinger]

Sock liners and/or Leukotape.

[J-Dub]

Sock liners and/or Leukotape.

This all day every day. Saved me on a backpack archery hunt this September. Leukotape is amazing

[sinister]

Use the waist band / belt. Put the weight on your hips, not your back and spine muscles.

Not much you can do about your feet except grow calluses.

Army standard (35 pound ruck, non-specific as to job) is 12 miles in 4 hours.

Over 40 years living with the Dome of Obedience and the Great Green Wart (performer previously known as Large ALICE).

[CRAMBONE]

First thing I would do is get rid of the gore-Tex boots. My feet sweat a lot and gore-tex boots just exacerbate that for me. For me, if my feet become wet the skin becomes soft and I develop blisters.

[KevinC]

Army standard (35 pound ruck, non-specific as to job) is 12 miles in 4 hours.

The Army standard is 12 miles in 3 hours - always been since the dawn of ALICE

[Nightstalker865]

First thing I would do is get rid of the gore-Tex boots. My feet sweat a lot and gore-tex boots just exacerbate that for me. For me, if my feet become wet the skin becomes soft and I develop blisters.

This advice X 10!

GORE-TEX boots are awful to ruck in. Get something that breathes.

Also the sock liner thing would not be my first choice. Having done several 30+ mile rucks over the years, I’ll take a good quality sock and changing them out periodically over any type of layering system.


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[sinister]

The Army standard is 12 miles in 3 hours - always been since the dawn of ALICE

Nope. That's for Air Assault School, the Expert Infantryman's Badge, Expert Field Medical Badge, Sapper Badge, and the Special Forces Qualification Course.

ATP 3-21.18, Foot Marches, April 2017 (superceding FM 21-18, June 90).

[Eurodriver]

Is weighted rucking a good form of exercise?

It seems inefficient at best, and downright unhealthy at its worst.