Feature Request: Rucking with a weighted pack.

I also want this feature. I am getting into rucking and other forms of weighted walking such as carrying a sand kettlebell while walking and doing various exercises with the bag/bell or walking with  heavier sand bag. 

Wouldn't there be a need for this for accurate VO2 measurement? 

If your watch has an expected exertion level for given activities, then adding 50 lb to your back would throw it off. If it sees you working much harder for a hike than it expects because it doesn't know you're carrying weight, it might perceive your fitness level as worse than it really is, and consequentially assign you a VO2 max score lower than your true level.

Is this not the case?

You just solved a puzzle for me. Garmin connect is telling me my vox is 33 and that I'm in the bottom 15% of 49 yo men. And at the same time my fitness afe is 47. My resting heart rate is high 40s to low 50s and I can bend over, pick up a 90lb bag of cement, throw it over my shoulder and hike it up 3 flights of stairs without breaking into zone 3. Sooo whatever

An option to add carrying weight to hiking or rucking activities is a fantastic idea, assuming corresponding algorithm(s) that adjust health and activity metrics in response to the activity. "Just add a note to the activity" is not a serious response. Carrying 50 pounds up and down a mountain, for example, would surely affect how health metrics are calculated.

the5krunner.com/.../

I would love this too!

Will never happen to I2.

4789034 said:

If it sees you working much harder for a hike than it expects because it doesn't know you're carrying weight, it might perceive your fitness level as worse than it really is, and consequentially assign you a VO2 max score lower than your true level.

VO₂max is not measured during hiking anyway, so there is no risk it gets skewed by the added weight. And most of the other metrics is based on HR, and does not need to know the carried weight.

If you run with weights, you can use a copy of the Trail Run activity profile with disabled VO₂max measurement. Use the standard Run or the other instance of the Trail Run profile with VO₂max measurement enabled, when running without weights. That will assure getting only adequate VO₂max values.

9570918 said:

Garmin connect is telling me my vox is 33 and that I'm in the bottom 15% of 49 yo men. And at the same time my fitness afe is 47.

Fitness Age on Instinct 2 is not based on VO₂max, so getting low VO₂max is not the reason you get high FA values. You either miss Vigorous Days, or Vigorous Minutes, or have high BMI (and did not import Body Fat% data). The fourth parameter - Resting HR of 40-50 bpm should be fine. None of it is depending on the backpack weight, though.

If you tell your HR does not rise easily even while hiking 100 lbs weight, then you have to try harder - run quicker, longer, or with more weight. Or you can cheat, and either adjust the settings for Intensity Minutes, or the HR Zones so, that you get vigorous minutes even at lower HR.

I use the Rucking Calories app which takes into accout the ruck weight and gives useful metrics