Everyone loves a shortcut. If there’s a patch of grass on the corner of any sidewalk, it’s likely to be trampled over by someone looking to shave a few milliseconds off their travel time. The problem is, in the world of fitness, shortcuts that actually work are hard to find.
Backpacking (walking with a weighted backpack) may be one of the few exceptions, so I decided to give it a try and walk 10,000 steps a day for a week with weights on my back.
This exercise originated in the military, but has recently caught on with the masses thanks to its ease and good effort-to-reward ratio. By simply adding weights to your walking, you can increase the intensity and challenge your heart, lungs, legs and core. This will improve your stamina and strengthen your entire body. It’s not a bad exercise to do on the way home from a shopping trip or similar outing.
Hoping that this practice would help satisfying my fitness desires feel as easy as a walk in the park, I strapped on my backpack and set off. Here are five things I learned:
Backpacks are accessible
When you start a new type of exercise, there’s usually a period when you have no idea what you’re doing. As an example, when I was a teenager, my gym sessions consisted of a few bicep curls and 20 minutes on the treadmill. But that turned out not to be the case with a backpack.
Not to brag, but I’ve backpacked before, and all it takes is adding a little extra weight to your backpack, and once I noticed the slight shift in my center of gravity, I was fine.
Another important point is that, although I used a special backpack and weight plates from backpack specialist company GoRuck, you don’t actually need any special equipment to get started.
“If you want to start off with lighter weights, I recommend packing a bag with some household items,” says Nichelle Schiller, GoRuck’s training director. “My water bottles are really big and heavy, so I’d put things like that in my backpack and slowly work my way up in weight.”
The Independent fitness writer Harry Bullmore wearing the GoRuck GR2 weighted backpack (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)
It’s versatile
Since I do a lot of walking anyway, I choose to carry a weighted backpack for everyday use rather than trying to cram into a regular long rucksack, and this has worked well for me.
“I always recommend keeping[the weighted bag]by your front door,” Schiller says. “If you have to go through your backpack and find the weight plate, you might not bring it with you. But if it’s right by your front door, you can put it on easily.”
I wore the backpack for walking my dog, for a day at the office, for quick trips around town, and I rarely took it off my shoulders while I was out and about. And I found that doing it this way made it pretty easy to hit 10,000 steps a day.
But a backpack can also be a useful tool if it’s difficult to fit exercise into your day: by increasing the intensity of walking as an activity, you can get more benefit out of short walks.
“I have a couple of French bulldogs, and we live in Florida, so it’s really hot and they can’t walk very long distances,” Schiller says. “For us, the walks are short, so adding a backpack makes them more enjoyable.”
Fitness writer Harry Bullmore backpacks in the park (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)
It helps to build strength
Carrying a heavy backpack can make walking difficult, but few people would find it difficult unless it offered a ton of benefits. Luckily, a backpack can help in this regard.
“Walking is primarily a lower-body exercise, so your quadriceps, hamstrings, and gastrocnemius (the thigh and calf muscles) have to withstand heavy loads,” says Elroy Aguiar, PhD, assistant professor of exercise science at the University of Alabama.
“As a result, you’re likely to see small improvements (in muscle strength and bone mineral density), especially over the long term. And while backpacking may improve muscle mass somewhat, it’s unlikely to equal the benefits you’d get from strength training.”
“When you wear a backpack, the weight is on your shoulders, which also helps develop core strength and the postural muscles of your upper back,” Schiller adds.
After a particularly heavy hike up a hilly road, I felt that familiar dull ache in my thighs that often comes with a hard-working leg day. Carrying a heavy pack also put a lot of strain on my upper trapezius (the muscle you see at the base of your neck).
I was able to carry a weighted backpack as I went about my daily life. (The Independent/Harry Bullmore)
It’s not just about building muscle
Strengthening your muscles is just one of the benefits of backpacking — you also get aerobic exercise by keeping your heart and lungs working harder than if you were simply walking without a pack.
“When you carry extra weight, it takes energy to move that extra weight,” explains Dr. Aguiar. “Your oxygen consumption and heart rate increase when you try to maintain the same walking speed.”
To test this, I ran three 1.2km loops around a local hilly park: one without a backpack, one with a 15 kg load, and one with a 35 kg load, all at the same pace. On the first lap, I burned an estimated 102 active calories and my heart rate averaged 88 bpm, according to the Apple Watch, while on the last lap I burned 119 active calories and my heart rate averaged 108 bpm.
Perhaps this isn’t the most surprising difference, but these incremental increases added up over the course of a week. Increasing your heart rate regularly can also help improve your cardiovascular health, and by increasing your heart rate, you’re more likely to experience this benefit.
As someone who exercises regularly, this last fitness perk wasn’t a huge draw for me, but backpacking has given me another unexpected benefit: I enjoy the challenge.
“The benefits are huge, not just mentally but physically,” Schiller says. “I always say don’t leave the house to go for a run and come back in a bad mood. Running is a great way to clear your mind, get outside and get some fresh air, and it’s definitely bang for your buck in terms of time and energy.”
The heavier the weight, the harder it is to walk (The Independent/Harry Bullmore)
The weight you use is important
Last on this list, but perhaps the most important: walking with a light backpack feels very different from walking with a heavy one, so finding the right weight for you and varying it depending on the type of activity you do is very important.
Schiller typically prescribes a reference weight of 30 pounds for men and 20 pounds for women (roughly 15kg and 10kg on British plates), but stresses that these loads “are not the starting point for everyone.”
“You can literally take any backpack and put in a little weight — a water bottle, a magazine, a snack, anything,” she says.
This can be progressed over time as your strength and fitness improves, and once you’re comfortably carrying more than 5kg it may be worth investing in rucksack plates and a dedicated backpack for comfort.
“Our Rucker 4.0 rucksack is made to hold two plates, so if a heavyweight athlete is training for hiking, they can go up to 60 or 75 pounds,” Cihlar adds.
While these heavier weights are more likely to induce strength adaptations, you don’t want to lift loads that are too heavy for you and risk injury.
“You’re fine,” Schiller says. “Your heart rate will increase, but you’ll be able to carry on a conversation and breathe properly.”
Personally, as someone who regularly weightlifts and weighs around 95kg, I’ve found that varying the weight of my rucksack between 15kg and 35kg suits me, with lighter loads for longer walks or quick jaunts and heavier loads when I’m really trying to push myself.
While training with such heavy weights was very taxing on the muscles and I felt a shock in my thighs and traps after the workout, by the end of the week carrying 15kg had become my default setting and was comfortable to carry.
GoRuck GR2 backpack with 20lb and 30lb plates (The Independent / Harry Bullmore)
Will I continue to carry a backpack?
Although the backpack challenge is over, I still keep my backpack and plate by my front door. I don’t use it as diligently as I did during the seven-day challenge, because I no longer feel the need to pick up my backpack for every walk or to hit my 10,000-step daily quota. But I still pick up my backpack for other activities, like taking my dog to the park.
Why? Because I love that I can turn a short walk into an impromptu workout, especially on busy days when it’s hard to make time. I really enjoy this challenge and I’ve found that a short walk combined with some weight training always makes me feel better.
For these reasons and more, I expect backpacks to become a popular fitness trend.
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