How Rucking Affects Physical Performance, What a New Meta-Analysis Reveals
- Alastair Hunt
- Jul 29
- 3 min read
A team of researchers pooled data from 23 studies to answer a simple question:
What does a heavy ruck march actually do to your physical performance?
This systematic review and meta-analysis, compared performance before and after military-style foot marches. The results were clear on where fatigue hits hardest.
As ever, please talk to your doctor or medical practitioner most familiar with your medical history before implementing any changes in diet, exercise or lifestyle, especially if you are under treatment. Links to studies at bottom of page.
What This Means for Us
Based on related literature in this space (including other papers by the same author group and other military load carriage research, "heavy" usually means loads starting at the 20kg+ (44lbs) or higher.
After a foot march, participants showed significant drops in trunk strength, lower-body strength, lower-body power, and postural stability (balance). Interestingly, overall upper-body strength held steady, though a closer look revealed shoulder strength specifically took a hit, likely from the pack straps loading those muscles directly.
If you've ever finished a long ruck and felt your legs turn to jelly while your arms felt relatively fine, this study explains why. Load carriage is fundamentally a lower-body and core endurance challenge. Your legs and trunk are doing the constant work of propulsion and stabilisation under load, so they fatigue first and hardest.
The postural stability finding deserves particular attention. A wobblier landing after a long ruck isn't just uncomfortable, it's a real injury risk, especially on uneven trails or during the final stretch of an event like the Norwegian Foot March. Fatigued stabiliser muscles and poor balance are a classic recipe for rolled ankles and awkward falls precisely when you're least equipped to catch yourself.
Are you enjoying this article? If you are training for the PARAS'10, a Norwegian Foot March, or just to get fast and fit, our self-paced online course"Built to Ruck The Science and Practice of Rucking" covers everything the research tells us about load carriage training, pacing, progression, heat management, hydration, fueling and more. It is built for ruckers at every level of experience, and draws directly on the peer-reviewed military and sports science research.
Final Thoughts
The practical takeaway from the researchers is training-focused: build a well-rounded programme rather than just clocking ruck miles.
That means combining aerobic conditioning with dedicated total-body strength work, particularly for the trunk and legs. Strong glutes, hamstrings, quads, and core muscles won't just make the march easier, they'll help you stay stable and injury-free as fatigue sets in during the later kilometres.
It's also worth pacing and load management with this in mind. If you know your postural control degrades as you fatigue, it makes sense to be more conservative with pace or terrain choice in the back half of a long ruck, particularly on descents or uneven ground where balance matters most.
One caveat worth flagging for readers who like to dig into the details: the underlying studies were rated as having significant risk of bias from confounding variables, so treat these as strong signals rather than definitive proof. Still, the consistency of the strength and stability findings across 23 separate studies makes a compelling case for building your legs and core, not just your endurance, before your next big ruck.
Wherever you are: train safe and enjoy the process!
Alastair
Resources
Sax van der Weyden M, Shaul Y, Merrigan JJ, Helton WS, Barringer N, Newman K, Martin J. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Impact of Military Foot Marches on Performance-Part 1: Physical Performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2026 May 1;40(5):e534-e553. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000005437. PMID: 42017984.
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