Fitness, Fellowship, Faith
Fitness, Fellowship, Faith
Ruck U(niversity) is retooling to focus on training for the GrowRuck Training Event (GTE) coming in October this year. The re-launch this morning was designed to provide a little preview of the GTE as well as set the tone for future Ruck U workouts.
Not sure if Ruck U is for you? It’s not just walking with a weighted backpack. Read below for a sample of what to expect:
Warmup: A ruck-less mosey around the parking lot with some SSHs, some Mtn Climbers, and some alternating planks, elbow planks, and 6 inch planks.
Back to the start, ruck up and a medium paced mosey around the church. Everyone gets a partner for the remainder of the workout. You are now tied to your new Battle Buddy and everyone quickly learned the hard way (via 5 ruck-on burpees) what happens when buddies get too far apart.
After the initial loop around the church everyone grabs a piece of gear (40# sandbags, 60# sandbags, coupons, 30#, 35#, and 40# kettlebells) and we head off towards the football field.
Once we’re at the field it’s time for the PT test (ruck off). We will be performing this test once per month at Ruck U and today is a baseline to see where you stand. The standard is 50 hand-release merkins in under 2 minutes and then 50 butterfly sit-ups in under 2 minutes. There is also a 2 mile run in under 19 minutes but you can do that OYO. Your Battle Buddy is your counter and encourager (or heckler). After the first set of Battle Buddies have finished we swapped and the other Buddy goes.
After completing the PT test we participated in a Time Hack. Q instructs all pax to ruck up and grab a piece of gear. Once everyone is ready we rucked around the football field and upon returning to the starting endzone all gear down and ruck off. Unbeknownst to the pax they were being timed. 4 minutes, 25 seconds. All pax were immediately instructed to ruck up and grab a different piece of gear. Around the football field again. Once we were moving the Q informed the pax of their previous time and warned if this time wasn’t faster then we’d be doing ruck-over burpees. The pace quickened. Back to startex and gear down, ruck off the timer stopped when the last piece of gear/ruck hit the ground. 3 minutes, 55 seconds. Improvement!
A new exercise: ruck up and bear crawl 10 yards, 5 ruck-on merkins, bear crawl, 10 ruck-on squats. Repeato to the 50 yard line, turn around and repeato back. A shoulder burner. First finishers did 20 ruck high pulls, 20 flutter presses, and 20 ruck curls. All participants finished.
One more loop around the field with rucks and gear and then we had 5 minutes to get back to COT and endex. Mission accomplished.
We had a good crowd this morning. The cold was a distant memory just a few minutes in. Whether you’ve never rucked before or you ruck up all the time, I’d encourage you to give Ruck U a try. It’s a different experience.
Catfish took us out