Cross-Fit workout;From Men's Journal

[Surgicalcric]

Originally Posted by CFE

...Rucking marching long distances has more to do with muscular endurance than with cardiovascular fitness. Muscular endurance can be trained more efficiently by Crossfit than by walking for miles...

In simplistic terms yes. However, rucking is as much about getting used to having in on your back as it is about the walking itself and the only way to condition your body (back, feet, shoulders, & legs) to the pain brought on by the ruck is to do it for many miles.

I assure you whoever made that statement has never worn the "Tick" for hours on end in a tactical setting. While CF is a good overall program it is not the answer for everything as they would have people believe...

Crip

[abc_123]

Originally Posted by Surgicalcric

In simplistic terms yes. However, rucking is as much about getting used to having in on your back as it is about the walking itself and the only way to condition your body (back, feet, shoulders, & legs) to the pain brought on by the ruck is to do it for many miles.

I assure you whoever made that statement has never worn the "Tick" for hours on end in a tactical setting. While CF is a good overall program it is not the answer for everything as they would have people believe...

Crip

One needs to have a sport-specific component to the overall fitness program if the goal is to truly excel at the specific sport.

CF and other similar programs are a great way to improve general fitness and increase one capacity for work... however, it won't break in your boots, put callouses in you back where your web gear and canteens rub, toughen your feet,or as Crip said, get your mind accustomed to the numbing pain that is unique to carrying the tick for miles.

If it were me, I'd still plan on doing some rucking.

[MILON]

The BEST way to get better at rucking, is to RUCK!

The BEST way to get better at football, is to play FOOTBALL!

The BEST way to get better at basketball, is to play BASKETBALL!

Do I need to continue????

[Razor]

Rucking marching long distances has more to do with muscular endurance than with cardiovascular fitness.

Spoken by someone that has never carried the tick up the side of a heavily wooded mountain.

[Blitzzz (RIP)]

Fitness is a necessity for doing the many things we are required to do but as the voices of experience say. you gotta ruck. In true ZEN fashion you and the tick are one. not for the twelve milers but for the months on end. Long term endurance really doesn't have a play in ruck world. It is a Mind set to take the next step after a very long day under the tick.

Curse it as we all have, it is still our life support, our house, our food, his commo gear, my demo gear, our wardrobe, our ammo and water. That's not to mention the comfort items like a bag of lemon drops to be shared with the team a couple of weeks out as a special. But then I digress. Put it on and live with it. It will become a part of you. Don't think ruck marches, think ruck journey. Up and down mountains, across deserts, through jungles. All of these add a different dimension to "rucking". Enjoy Dave

[MILON]

Since the topic was brought up. Lets set aside the obvious mental toughness one must have to ruck long distances. Is it more muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, a combination of all that come into play during the journey, etc.? I know if I did a search for ruck training there would be plenty of information to find, so I wont ask about that.

Matt

[Surgicalcric]

Originally Posted by matthew.tentis

...Is it more muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, a combination of all that come into play during the journey, etc.?

Was the answers given above not enough for you Matt?

It is combination when broken down to just the physical part of it. However I, as I and others did earlier, submit that it cannot be simply broken down to its physical part(s) unless you are talking short distances, and even then I would argue there is more to it when discussing its tactical application.

As Dave said, a ruck is OUR home for the time we are in the field, whatever/wherever that may be. Rucking on a hardball road is very different than moving tactically across a variety of terrains. The muscles used to cross streams, duck under low branches, weave thru vines, etc arent generally worked in a standard ruck march. A soldier's mind must be in the game to function under such circumstances and to program your mind to do so, time and mileage must be put on your body. I am not talking about a couple hours; I am talking day in and day out on hardball roads, sand (as found at CMK), on hills, thru water, etc. I have seen guys who could run 9 minute/miles with a ruck but couldn't keep up with the patrol because they were constantly shifting or stopping to adjust the weight, on just didnt have mentally what it takes to stay with it in the long haul. Rucking is a great way to separate those with a strong body from those with a strong mind who have properly prepared their body.

If you want to break it down to its purest form (with training in mind), put the damn thing on your back with 55lbs in it and walk, walk until you cant put one foot in front of the other (working up to this goal of course), on a variety of terrains. You will meet both the physical and mental aspects of the task for which you are training.

When it comes to rucking there is but one standard and neither CF or any of the other fad workouts will get you anywhere near it.

BTW, this topic has been covered many times.


Crip

[MILON]

Crip,

I appreciate your time and answer, as it really layed out the bottom line. No more time needed for me on this one.

Matt

[Teacher]

Surgicalcric, abc 123, Razor, Blitzzz, thank you for your responses. When looking over the CFE site for the first time I thought that statement about rucking would raise a few QPs' experienced eyebrows. It seemed to fly in the face of everything that has been covered on this topic.

[BlackDragon0311]

ok, figure i've got a good routine set up, just want some input from those who know best in regards to cross fit....

Day 1: Weights, arms and shoulders.
Day 2: Cross fit, twice a day.
Day 3: Weights, chest and back and abs.
Day 4: Cross Fit, twice a day.
Day 5: Weights, Legs.
Day 6: Cross Fit, twice a day.
Day 7: Rest.

Only just started this routine this week, gonna see how it shapes up, any input is as always appreciated.

~JohnnyBoy

[Razor]

Since most of the CF workouts involve linked movements of large muscle groups throughout the body, when are you allowing your body to rest and recover following your resistance days besides Day 7? Personally, I don't find one day a week of rest to be enough if you're training hard. Who knows--maybe this is a good workout for you. Run it for 3-4 months; if you start to plateau on your gains after the second month and you find yourself getting little injuries that don't heal as quickly as you'd expect, you may want to rethink your work/rest ratio.

[GTRich]

Originally Posted by BlackDragon0311

ok, figure i've got a good routine set up, just want some input from those who know best in regards to cross fit....

Day 1: Weights, arms and shoulders.
Day 2: Cross fit, twice a day.
Day 3: Weights, chest and back and abs.
Day 4: Cross Fit, twice a day.
Day 5: Weights, Legs.
Day 6: Cross Fit, twice a day.
Day 7: Rest.

You might be able to handle this routine. In my case, my body would not be able to adequately recover from day-to-day. When you say "Crossfit," do you mean one of the workouts posted on the main site? If you do, most people who do the program do one of the workouts per day AND rest every fourth day. Crossfit workouts of the day (WODs) are almost invariably total body workouts, so traditional weight-training bodybuilding splits may not blend quite so well with the WOD.

Personally, I find myself able to run three to four days per week in the AM, sometimes with some calisthenics. In the PM, four to five days per week, I a couple compound and/or Olympic lifts to work strength and then do a Crossfit WOD. I like a 5 on/2 off split myself, and then I rest -completely- for the weekend. If you read earlier in this thread, Prester John and Surgicalcric do slightly different splits with frequent rest days, though all of our goals are probably different.

If you can stick with your program at high intensity for a few weeks and it hasn't adversely affected your performance, sleep, general well-being then more power to you, but I would caution you to start a little smaller and work your way up to a program like that to avoid burning out.

Best of luck.

[Blitzzz (RIP)]

A big study by a bunch of PHD's for the Nautilus folks stated that after a muscle fatiguing workout the ole bod requires 48 to 92 hours to rebuild muscle. 48 to 92 hours is based on each individual's metabolism and physical condition. For you young healthy guys it's more likely 48 hours, for me it's more like a month. Blitz

I will always recommend the "blitz" system over any thing else out there.

[frostfire]

Originally Posted by matthew.tentis

Blitzed is based off of Escalating Density Training (EDT) and if readers are interested, I suggest looking it up. The human body is an amazing thing! It adapts to any stress we put on it and then it plateus until we change that stress.

I'll be darn. I've never heard of EDT before. Read about it and the assumptions seems to be around the theory that during your initial first few rep you're exerting much greater force than the resistance used. Hence, by lower reps and not repeating to failure, you keep the muscles trained at that higher level. Doesn't matter. I've been giving it a shot for the last few days. Maybe to early to jump into conclusion, but I do notice increase in performance (reps and resistances). Dunno, maybe it's the food I ate (which is inconsistent), the Rammstein music? Well, I'll keep it up for a few more weeks and we'll see. I also found that it's a very safe method to get back to exercise and high level of resistance that haven't been done in a while. Feel like a wuss for abandoning crossfit, and replacing it with EDT though

I found equipment to be the obstacle in doing the Blitz system. Need to find gym with those bowflex type machines.

[calstyleee]

I text message Cha-Cha (242-242) and ask them what the WOD is. Cha-Cha is a company that answers any question from text. Its free as long as you dont go over your allotted text message usage. This way i get the WOD anywhere I am.