Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Rucking as an Activity

muffly3
over 1 year ago

You guys need to add Rucking as an activity and be able to plug in the weight of the ruck.  Then conduct studies to figure out what the additional training effects are when carrying various ruck weights from say 20 to 80 pounds.  

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to 9713623
    9713623 said:
    The VO2 max calculation looks like I should be on  heart-lung machine

    Log the rucking as hiking and it will not affect the VO2 max since no VO2 max values are calculated for hiking.

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to bluefish

    That will "fix" the VO2max, but there are other metrics like training load and the body battery...

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to 9713623

    I read the page you linked to, but I didn't find anything related to calorie estimation based on heart rate. Yes, if you base the calorie consumption on distance hiked, then the weight of the backback is definitely a factor (compared to walking the same distance without the weight). However, when you are doing rucking with a watch measuring your heart rate, then a) your heart rate is higher than without the weight, increasing the estimated calorie consumption per minute, and b) you walk slower (again compared to without the weight), which increases the time it takes to cover the distance, which in turn also increases the total calorie estimate (since the time is longer). That's why I don't see why a correction factor would be needed, although it's definitely needed if you use just the distance covered as your input. If you work harder to cover the distance in the same time as without a weight, you increased HR takes care of increasing calorie consumption, and if you keep your HR the same, then you move slower and the increased time has the same effect. Or a combination of both.

    Or there was a specific section on the web page you had in mind, just tell me in case I missed it. Slight smile

    But I definitely agree that there's no point in trying to get a VO2max out of rucking, that's why using the hiking activity is a good idea. (And the training load and body battery are calculated solely on the HR analysis, so they should work regardless of what and how you are exercising.)

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to EJAIN

    I just though to add to my earlier comments that training load and body battery are both actually good examples of where I guess this request for additional backpack weight factor might come from:

    I do a lot of multi-day hikes with a heavy backpack (in addition to my normal running/walking). And I know from experience that after a backpacking trip I feel more tired than what my training load suggests. But the reason for that is not that training load doesn't take the additional weight into account, it's that by Garmin's own description, training load tries to estimate the level of cardio-vascular load. And when I've backpacked, I don't feel that my lungs or heart would have been heavily stressed (like I do after a high-intensity run), it's just that my muscles are tired. And that's not something that training load even tries to estimate. In fact it probably couldn't because the level of muscle tiredness depends a lot on how adapted your muscles are to what you are doing (I feel that when I compare my backpacking at the beginning of my backpacking season and at the end of it).

    So I've just come to accept that training load is about cardio-vascular load, and after backpacking (and probably after rucking as well) there's jus additional muscle tiredness to take into account as well (based on how I feel).

    By the way, as an example of an estimate the does require knowledge of the weight, take the running power estimated by the watch. There the watch does not intentionally use heart rate as part of the input, so it has do estimate the power based on your speed, ground inclination, vertical oscillation etc, but in order to get the absolute power in Watts, the watch has to also know your weight (it takes more power to move a heavier object). But that's because it's an instant power estimate without using HR, the length, and the duration of the activity.