Simple but tough treadmill based ruck training session

Photo By: Cpl. Tyler Giguere, USMC.mil

Stop letting weather or time keep you from getting your legs in ruck shape.  You can do this in little time and on the treadmill if you are smart.  Sometimes it is logistically difficult to grab a ruck and find some hilly terrain to train on during the week.  This is especially true for the time constrained tactical athlete.  However, you can still get a very effective ruck woorkout on the treadmill, and it does not have to take long.  Below is a simple workout given to me by a collegue who is an elite warrior.  It looks simple on paper.  Don't underestimate it until you try it.  If you find this workout easy, you need more weight in your ruck!

It is a 20 minute workout total. Pace is 4 mph.  It starts deceptively easy but ramps up quickly!  By the 6th minute, you will be glad that you did not go out too hard.

% Grade	Time
0	1 minute
1	1 minute
2	1 minute
3	1 minute
4	1 minute
5	1 minute
6	1 minute
7	1 minute
8	1 minute
9	1 minute
10	1 minute
9	1 minute
8	1 minute
7	1 minute
6	1 minute
5	1 minute
4	1 minute
3	1 minute
2	1 minute
1	1 minute
0	1 minute

An absolutely brutal variation is to insert a set of a strength training exercise between every minute.  In this case, you do the minute on the treadmill as prescribed, pause the treadmill, do the strength training set, then immediately get back on the treadmill and do the next minute.  This generally stretches the workout to 40 minutes or more.   You cannot fool around when doing this.  You need to yave your weights set up so that you can move quickly.  This works best with a partner.  Hand off the ruck and keep moving.  The easy way to do this is to keep the treadmill running and manually increase the % grade.