Upgrade Your Walk By Rucking
Posted on July 22 2026
Walking is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to stay active, but what if there was a simple way to make it even more beneficial? That's exactly what Craig from Elevate Chiropractic explains in this fascinating article on rucking which is walking while carrying a little extra weight.
If you've been reading my newsletters for a while, you'll know Craig is the person I go to whenever I put my back out or pick up an injury. He's helped me on more than one occasion, and I always appreciate his practical advice and evidence-informed approach to helping people feel, move, and function better. Alongside chiropractic care, Craig is passionate about teaching simple strategies that people can use to improve their health and prevent injuries.
In this article, Craig explains why rucking has become so popular, the surprising health benefits it offers, and how adding a little weight to your daily walk could help improve your strength, fitness, bone health, and overall wellbeing.
If you'd like to learn more about Craig or book an appointment, visit Elevate Chiropractic.
After reading about the benefits, it's easy to see why more and more people are giving it a try, and why I recommend it to so many people.
Here are 7 benefits of rucking. Will you give it a go?
1. Rucking Burns More Calories
The best part is that you don't need to run or do high-intensity exercise to increase the challenge. Simply adding a moderate amount of weight can significantly increase the training effect.
The number of calories burnt will depend on the amount of weight that you use, how fast you walk, and the surface that you walk on.
Related: How to get more out of your walking with Interval Walking Training
2. It Can Help Burn Fat While Maintaining Muscle
Because rucking places additional load through the body, it provides a strength-training stimulus while also giving you the cardiovascular benefits of walking.
This combination can help support fat loss while encouraging the body to maintain muscle, which becomes increasingly important as we age.
3. It's Easy to Sneak into Your Life
Rucking solves this problem because it can be incorporated into activities you're already doing.
You can:
Wear a weighted backpack on your daily walk
Wear a weighted backpack whilst walk the dog
Wear a weighted backpack whilst doing the housework or mowing the lawns etc.
In the book, Michael Easter talks about wearing his backpack while vacuuming and doing the housework whilst he was training for an upcoming extra-long walk.
You also don't necessarily need a dedicated workout session. Sometimes simply upgrading an existing habit is enough. I love the idea of habit stacking.
Related: How many steps a day should you be doing? What does the research say?
Related: How long will it take to create a new habit?
4. It Gets You Outside
Getting outside offers benefits beyond physical fitness. Exposure to natural light, fresh air, the sun, and green spaces has been linked to improvements in mood, stress levels, overall wellbeing and even creativity.
Rucking gives you another reason to spend time outdoors and move your body at the same time. It’s a win win.
5. It Helps Strengthen Bones
Bones respond to load. Just like muscles adapt to training, bones adapt to the forces placed upon them.
Carrying weight while walking increases the load travelling through your skeleton, helping stimulate the bone-building process.
This can be particularly valuable as we age and naturally begin to lose bone density.
6. It Builds Strength and Endurance
Over time, carrying additional weight can help improve:
Leg strength
Hip strength
Core endurance
Postural endurance
Overall work capacity
It's one of the reasons rucking has been used so successful in military populations for many years.Related: 4 ways to strengthen your Multifidus muscles
Read the rest of the article on Craig's website here.