I walked 10,000 steps with a weighted backpack every day for a week – here are five reasons I’m not stopping
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Use rucking to upgrade your walks, build strength and boost your fitness. Everyone loves a shortcut. Any time you see a patch of grass at the corner of a pavement, it’s bound to be trampled down by people looking to shave milliseconds off their journey. The problem is, in the fitness world, you’ll be hard-pressed to find many shortcuts that actually work.
![[The Independent’s fitness writer Harry Bullmore wearing the GoRuck GR2 weighted backpack]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/09/13/09/WhatsApp-Image-2024-09-13-at-09.03.39.jpg)
Rucking – wearing a weighted backpack while you walk – could be one of the few exceptions. So I decided to give it a go, committing to walking 10,000 steps a day for a week with a weight on my back. The practice originates in the military, but it’s attracted the masses in recent years thanks to its accessibility and appealing effort-to-reward ratio. Simply add weight to your walks to amplify the intensity and challenge your heart, lungs, legs, core and more. This can boost your fitness and build strength throughout your body – not a bad return from a pop to the shops, or any similar short jaunt.
![[Fitness writer Harry Bullmore rucking in a park]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/09/13/09/WhatsApp-Image-2024-09-13-at-09.03.26.jpg)
With the practice promising to make fulfilling my fitness fix feel like a walk in the park, I slid on my rucksack and set off – here are five things I learned. When you start a new type of exercise, there’s usually a period where you don’t have a clue what you’re doing. Case in point: my early teenage gym sessions consisted of a few ropey bicep curls and 20 minutes on the treadmill. But with rucking, I found this wasn’t the case.
![[I was able to carry my weighted backpack with me as I went about my day-to-day life]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/09/13/09/Untitled-design-%2889%29.jpg)
