Fundamentals
Also called rucking exercise, weighted walking, loaded carry walking
Walking with a weighted backpack. Originated in military training as a low-impact way to build strength, endurance, and load-carriage capacity.
Modern recreational rucking typically involves a 10-30 lb load in a properly-fitted backpack, walked at a conversational pace (3.0-3.5 mph) for 20-90 minutes. The combination of low-impact movement and added load produces cardiovascular adaptation comparable to moderate-intensity running with substantially lower joint stress.
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Ruck
Either (1) a single rucking session as a noun ('I went on a ruck this morning') or (2) the act of rucking as a verb ('I ruck three days a week').
Rucker
A person who rucks regularly. Used both casually and in branded contexts (GORUCK refers to its community as 'GRT' — GORUCK Tough graduates — but ruckers more broadly is the genre name).
Load Carriage
The military-academic term for carrying weight over distance. The body of research underlying recreational rucking comes from US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) load-carriage studies.
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