Which is the best way to pack a ruck, making it top, mid, or bottom heavy?

Just posted a pic of the ruck, if you could look at it tell me which one it is? Thanks for the input, Sergeant.

That’s the Mountain Ruck it should have pouches on either side of the exterior that will stretch to about 8 inches in diameter. It has straps galore too. There should also be a partition that is either zip or 550 cord secured depending on whether it’s an early or late production model. The frame should also only be 2 aluminum bars that slide into pockets. You can adjust that ruck to run high and tight, which is how the Army teaches is the best way, but you will need to use the partition and strap everything down really well. The waist belt on the ruck you have should also be massive in size compared to the other rucks you have looked at.

Jake Lang

That's some of the best training advice right there

Jake Lang - Not on your own, consult with a current or recent RANGER. The reason I say this is about 10+ years ago I used to be a Moderator for the Army Forums on Military dot com. It was like once a month had a future soldier write in they screwed up their lower back or some other muscle trying to get ready for BCT with no supervision on what they were doing. One guy was running around with a ruck with barbell weights in the bottom (bad). Also what they say about micro fractures in bones is correct. If your used to a sedentary lifestyle and just jump into something like this it can cause larger medical issues. The Drill instructors have trained newbies across several cycles and are experts at training people up to be good runners, road marchers, etc. For RANGER or SOCOM find someone recent, two websites here not sure if they are still in business. Professional Soldiers dot com for SPECIAL FORCES and ArmyRanger dot com for Rangers. Some of the vets like to abuse so present yourself well because there are others on those websites that know folks that will be your training cadre more than likely and you don't want them to say "hey watch for a recruit so and so". Social Media is bad that way. Also, with added exercise you should be taking a basic multi-vitamin in the morning to help ensure your body is not falling short of anything.

The goarmy.com ranger page literally has a workout plan. I personally did a lot of weight lifting for legs and slow distance running. Never had any real issues through 19D OSUT and the rucking standards were the same. It was also good for me mentally to know that I could run this distance, or close to it non stop. So with a ruck on walking and talking breaks to fill water it didn’t seem as bad as it for others. Although that Georgia humidity will make you sweat.

Outstanding advice, they’ll teach you the best way to do it because any platoon or squad is only as fast as the slowest man... when it counts. In training you may or may not be on your own at times looking for times on courses. The type of pack counts too, my experiences were very minimal, but with ALICE packs the lower the pack the worse it was. It was easier to get it up to about your shoulder blades for better balance, they were basically lousy packs to begin with imo and always wanted to slide down.

Sgt Dale Briggs - I hated my ruck most of my career before I discovered the frame... after that, I was fine... Like you said, the army ALICE ruck, pack high, strapped down tight for less cargo movement!

Jake Lang If you are humping 100+ pounds of gear 3 miles in an hour, you are doing better than most Soldiers, already. To include your standard infantryman. That is not me telling you to forget about trying to improve yourself, just letting you know where you stand so you give yourself the freedom to pace yourself to avoid injury.
At this point, my recommendation would be to drop literally half of the weight, work with 50 lbs., and work on your endurance. Don't worry about your speed, just work on getting to wear you can walk with the weight for 4, 6, 8, 12, or even 25 miles. This will NOT happen over night or even over a month. But trust me, once you get to thw point where you can hump 50 lbs. for 12 miles, even at a slower pace you will be able to FLY when you only have to do 4.

SFC (Join to see) - The same answer again, huh Sergeant. Honestly though, I'm legit asking for advice here, Sergeant.

SFC Casey O'Mally - Sergeant, I highly doubt I'm doing better than most soldiers. When rucking 100 lbs. in 3 miles at 1 hour and 3 minutes, I am near dying. Although I am not gassed out completely like I do with my runs (perhaps my biggest weakness), I can't help but make that stop on the 3rd mile to return home, huffing and puffing while my shoulders and backs are sore as hell.

I tried 50 lbs. once at 3 miles (with a 47 minute score), it was a challenge, but I still had that "I can keep rucking" mentality at the end. I guess I could try 50 lbs. for 6 miles now and work my way up to 12. I guess once I get that 12 miles down, then it would be to make it down to less than 3 hours. Any more words of wisdom, Sergeant?

Thanks ahead of time for the tips.

Jake Lang So there are two ruck “standards” in the Army. The first is rucking with a 35lb ruck (before you add water) a distance of 12 miles in 3 hours or less (4 mph or 6.5 kph, the Army uses the metric system when measuring so get used to the conversions). This is the standard for literally every Army school or selection (RASP, SFAS, Ranger, Air Assault, etc.) However, when conducting tactical foot marches, the Army adheres to ATP 3-21.18 Foot Marches. The standard per ATP 3-21.18 is 4 kph (2.5 mph) with a 40lb load, decreasing for every 10lb over 40. So with a 100lb (ruck and body armor) load on easy terrain, with no enemy contact (e.g. on a road) the rate of march decreases to 2 kph (1.25 mph) with a 15 minute rest break after the first 45 minutes and a 10 minute rest break every 50 minutes thereafter. The reasoning behind this is that at the end of the march, the formation (squad/platoon/company) still has to be able to conduct what ever mission they have been assigned. We just conducted a 15.5 km (10 mile) tactical march and allotted 6 hours to complete because they had to hit an objective at the end and couldn’t be smoked by the time they completed the movement.

Bottom line, decrease the load you are training with, you don’t want to be pushing yourself too hard because you think you aren’t meeting some standard than you’ve set for yourself, without knowing what the actual standards are. The NCOs and Officers that are giving you feedback are telling you these things for a reason. Probably the vast majority of us tried to go hard all the time when we were younger and now we’re paying for it (I’m 31 and ask me how my back feels after Ranger school and my time as a Scout PL in a light infantry battalion). Heed their advice, learn from our experiences and know that we’re telling you this because we’ve lived it.

You’ll find once you get to OSUT that you’re well ahead of many of your peers and remember, the whole point of OSUT is to take civilians and make them into infantry soldiers by the time they graduate. Will you be Billy Badass at graduation? Hell no, but you’ll have a good solid foundation on which to build.