232 RuckSack Season - If We Cant Ruck... We Cant SHTF

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Tonight, we’re talking about rucking. What it is, how to do it, and why we do it.

You strap on a fully loaded rucksack to your back, and stand in front of the mirror grinning at yourself. Oh yeah. Don’t I look cool? Don’t I look tactical? Now don’t lie. We’ve all done it once or twice. Hell, I'm guilty of it too. Way back when I was a younger man… I got my first rucksack, ran into the house, stuffed it with pillows, and stood there gaulking at myself in front of the mirror for 10 mins. Then the real tragedy happened. After returning the pillows to my bed, I took my new pack to the closet and hung it up next to my other gear… where it stayed, collecting dust, for the remainder of its sad life.

Rucks, backpacks, and kit, aren't trendy. We don’t get them to look cool or tactical. Are they tactical… yes, by definition they are. Tactical - specialized actions or items designed and used to achieve immediate, short-termed, and specific goals. Rucksacks are designed to help your body carry a load from point A to point B. That is their tactical purpose. Though we may not believe this, people are also designed to carry a load from point A to point B.

But we have to practice these actions to get good at doing them. Very few people can load 60 pounds onto their backs and shoulders and complete a long distance hike. It is a fact that I am one of those who cannot do it. I fully concede and admit the tragic truth that I suck, at some shit.

But in a real SHTF situation — when vehicles won’t start and roads are blocked, and staying home is no longer an option… your body becomes your transport, and your strength and stamina become margins of distance.

That’s the reality of it. It’s brutal. It’s tiring. I’m tired just thinking and talking about rucking. My ego says “cool”. My brain says “run away… hide”. Which is why this episode is important to me… and hopefully, to you as well.  But we don’t have to hope… cuz there is hope. Ya see, We can train for this. By starting light and slow, and being repetitive, we can build up to where we want to be. That’s the essence of training.  

Tonight we’re breaking down why rucking may be one of the most practical, no-nonsense disciplines in preparedness — and why every mile you log now, can make the future less intimidating.

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Transcript

Preppers, Survivalists, Off-Gridders, Homesteaders, and the Like, welcome to Tops Bunker, a Podcast for Preppers.

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I want to thank you all for joining us…

We've got a great show for ya.

… Tonight, we’re talking about rucking. What it is, how to do it, and why we do it.

You strap on a fully loaded rucksack to your back, and stand in front of the mirror grinning at yourself. Oh yeah. Don’t I look cool? Don’t I look tactical? Now don’t lie. We’ve all done it once or twice. Hell, I'm guilty of it too. Way back when I was a younger man… I got my first rucksack, ran into the house, stuffed it with pillows, and stood there gaulking at myself in front of the mirror for 10 mins. Then the real tragedy happened. After returning the pillows to my bed, I took my new pack to the closet and hung it up next to my other gear… where it stayed, collecting dust, for the remainder of its sad life.

Rucks, backpacks, and kit, aren't trendy.
We don’t get them to look cool or tactical.

Are they tactical… yes, by definition they are.

Tactical - specialized actions or items designed and used to achieve immediate, short-termed, and specific goals.

Rucksacks are designed to help your body carry a load from point A to point B. That is their tactical purpose.

Though we may not believe this, people are also designed to carry a load from point A to point B.

But we have to practice these actions to get good at doing them. Very few people can load 60 pounds onto their backs and shoulders and complete a long distance hike.

It is a fact that I am one of those who cannot do it. I fully concede and admit the tragic truth that I suck, at some shit.

But in a real SHTF situation — when vehicles won’t start and roads are blocked, and staying home is no longer an option… your body becomes your transport, and your strength and stamina become margins of distance.

That’s the reality of it. It’s brutal. It’s tiring.

I’m tired just thinking and talking about rucking.

My ego says “cool”. My brain says “run away… hide”.

Which is why this episode is important to me… and hopefully, to you as well. 

But we don’t have to hope… cuz there is hope.

Ya see, We can train for this.

By starting light and slow, and being repetitive, we can build up to where we want to be. That’s the essence of training.  

Tonight we’re breaking down why rucking may be one of the most practical, no-nonsense disciplines in preparedness — and why every mile you log now, can make the future less intimidating.

Let’s do this.

All right. So, yeah, what are we talking about tonight?

00:15.54
Jeremy
Well, today we are going to talk about road marching.

00:19.38
Keith
It is not day, it is night.

00:21.24
Jeremy
Oh yeah, that's true. My bad. And I'll, I'll just apologize to everyone up front. Um, I feel like, uh, a liquefied bag of monkey shit right now. So I will try my hardest to hit the cough button when I get ready to cough, but I've got my tea with a bit of whiskey and some cough drops and I think we're going to be, I think we're going to be okay. Yeah.

00:41.98
Keith
And I gave him an out, everybody.

00:43.45
Jeremy
Yeah.

00:43.62
Keith
I gave him an out. He didn't take it.

00:45.43
Jeremy
This is true. This is true.

00:47.23
Keith
Trooper.

00:47.35
Jeremy
Yeah. So got back from the cruise, which was pretty great. And then like that night, maybe the next morning I started feeling like crap.

00:54.49
Keith
you caught You caught something on the on the cruise, man.

00:57.18
Jeremy
I don't know. Missy went into the cruise feeling kind of funky and it cleared up. So maybe it was like a delayed, i don't know, delayed something or another.

01:04.92
Keith
A two-week delayed? No.

01:07.03
Jeremy
I don't know, man.

01:07.45
Buddy
And every time I travel, I get sick.

01:07.70
Keith
No.

01:09.63
Buddy
It's, it's crazy. I need to take, ah used to, I need I'm taking it.

01:11.58
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:11.58
Keith
you don't take You don't take the, um what's that stuff called?

01:11.78
Jeremy
Like,

01:14.30
Keith
ah Airborne?

01:16.11
Buddy
Yeah. I'm taking it next time. mean, I'm about to go on.

01:17.91
Jeremy
So funny story.

01:18.03
Keith
Hell yeah.

01:19.07
Buddy
So,

01:20.31
Jeremy
um The people that we were traveling with actually gave us this bottle. It's kind of like airborne, but it's for cruises, like being on a ship. And I ate two of them every morning along with my other supplements.

01:32.65
Jeremy
And i didn't get sick.

01:33.09
Keith
Yeah.

01:34.97
Jeremy
I didn't eat them that day that we left. And got fucking sick.

01:38.36
Keith
Yeah, yeah.

01:38.56
Jeremy
Yeah.

01:39.04
Keith
I mean, it it probably has a zinc in it. And that's one of the things, the real, that's one of the real things is that zinc, that stuff's good.

01:44.72
Jeremy
I don't know. I'll have to take a look at it. But but yeah, um so what we're talking about tonight is we are talking about rucking, a.k.a. a road marching, a.k.a. carrying heavy stuff on your back.

01:59.03
Jeremy
And.

01:59.22
Keith
The one thing that most prepper survivalists talk about is most beginner prepper survivalists and definitely prepper groups talk about all the time is your gear and how you're going to carry it.

02:11.16
Jeremy
And I'd like to preface this all by saying, again, there is this romanticized idea that you're going to, something's going to happen. You're going to grab your bag going to slap it on your back and you're going hit the woods and you're going to, you know, live out the SHTF.

02:27.71
Jeremy
There's only one big problem. Um, most people, and I would say probably more than 90%, uh, maybe even 95, they live a minute sedimentary lifestyle.

02:38.93
Jeremy
They're not in shape. They're not in any kind of physical ability to just get their stuff and go. And that's that's the hard reality. In the United States, we are, just from my experience around the world, we are an obese nation. We really are.

02:54.39
Jeremy
um Because we have a lot of wonderful things that are available to us.

02:56.37
Buddy
Thank

03:00.73
Jeremy
And because of that, most people don't like to do hard things. And they also don't have the right mindset for it. So mindset is literally 90% or more of what you do.

03:15.83
Jeremy
um Your body is not going to do anything that you believe that you can't do. If you tell yourself, I can't, your body will not do. um Henry Ford said, when whatever whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

03:26.31
Buddy
Thank

03:31.93
Jeremy
And so I kind of want to start it off with that because rucking or putting your go bag on your back and having to walk an extended period of time, it's not it's not easy.

03:44.50
Jeremy
um You have to have the belief in your mind and the knowledge in your mind and the willingness to tell your body, we're going to get make it home. and Because if you don't think that, the moment that doubt enters into your mind,

04:00.86
Jeremy
You're going to die if you don't have the ability to get your ass up and put that weight back on your back and start stepping it out. um your your mind will allow you to accomplish amazing physical acts. um But you got form it. You got to train it. You got to learn how to take punishment. um And a lot of people dispute that.

04:25.98
Jeremy
But I would just say, i broke my back and my neck in 2007 on jump. And I completed a 100K race in the Uori mountains many years later.

04:38.81
Jeremy
So when I met Missy, i was I was told and I was convinced that I couldn't run anymore. She convinced me otherwise. So we entered into quite many years of long distance endurance events. and In the Army, um as short as I am, i was good at road marching.

05:02.04
Jeremy
I had to learn how to do it though. So what is rucking? Rucking is a form of exercise that's got a lot of roots in the military. um So basically, it is walking a set distance while carrying weight in a backpack or you know a bag of some kind. rucking or we also call it road marching or ruck marching. and It comes from the word rucksack, which is essentially a good backpack on your back.

05:30.52
Jeremy
So that's what, that's what a ruck is. a ruck is your bag.

05:33.62
Keith
always thought that I always thought that the rucksack was that big giant bag they used like in World War II, military. you know It's like a big giant bag that you threw all your stuff in.

05:44.34
Jeremy
Well, I mean, if you're talking about the big cylindrical bag, we call that a, yeah, we call that a duffel bag or a sea bag.

05:48.09
Keith
yeah, yeah, yeah.

05:52.15
Jeremy
The Navy guys, they call it a sea bag. Marines call it that. And literally S-E-A-C, like, because they're on the sea a lot. um Yeah, we call it a duffel bag.

06:03.21
Jeremy
But the rucksack itself is actually the large backpack that we put on our backs. And we go out and we do, you know, what we're going to do in the world with it.

06:12.76
Keith
Okay, so similar to ah backpack backpack hiking, where you carry that really giant one that's got all your stuff on it from the top of your head down to your ass.

06:18.28
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah.

06:24.57
Jeremy
Well, yeah, that is and we'll get into that, but that is, you can consider that a rock. Yeah, you can.

06:30.49
Keith
Okay.

06:31.06
Jeremy
So, um, and it's, it's a really great form of exercise. It's really, i many people dispute this, but I'll just tell you, even though essentially all you're doing is walking with weight on your back.

06:46.87
Jeremy
Um, it's a lot more than that. It's a leg day. It's also core. It works literally your entire body. It is a buttload of cardio. And while you're out there, um, if you're not walking with a group of people,

07:01.94
Jeremy
And even if you are sometimes while you're in the military, because it just sometimes it sucks. It's kind of like a, it's almost like a spiritual thing. Like, like who are you going to talk to? Like if you had to grab your stuff, if you're all alone or if you're out in the world and something happens and you grab your go bag to go home, it's just you.

07:19.29
Jeremy
So um it gives you the opportunity to have some conversations with yourself, you know, face some hard truths, I guess. Um, but this particular form of exercise, you're burning anywhere between 150 to 200 calories a mile.

07:35.26
Jeremy
So, and that's also depends on the person and it also depends on the weight that you're carrying. So if you're just remember more weight, more calories, um, And, you know, despite what a lot of many you know people believe, it really is. And I've said this before, it's one of the best exercises you can commit to. If you do it right, it's got a lot of benefits and it can actually be better for you than actual running.

08:02.55
Jeremy
And people are like, well, you're, you know, you're not, you're not going fast enough to get your cardio up. I would tell you, I dispute that like heavily.

08:13.14
Keith
That's total bullshit, man.

08:13.45
Jeremy
Yeah.

08:14.68
Keith
Total bullshit.

08:15.80
Jeremy
Yeah. So rucking itself, I mean, cause I've carried some damn weight, you know, you, I have, I have carried some significant weight and it does suck. And your heart feels like it's going to come out your eye.

08:30.26
Jeremy
Um, it is a lot of cardio and running itself, especially if you haven't done it in a while. Um, it can be a, it can be a negative impact on your legs and your body. It really can.

08:43.22
Jeremy
Um, but in my opinion, the benefits of rucking outweigh the the negative benefit or the negatives of it. So if that makes sense. So now running, you know, it's great.

08:56.58
Jeremy
Don't get me wrong. It can be really high impact, especially for people who are just getting started. And, um, there's a lot of, there's a lot of reasons why people quit doing it.

09:07.80
Jeremy
You know, they're like, this is my year and I'm going to this and I'm going to do that. And they jump in you know with everything all at once and they don't do it right. They get hurt. And so when they get hurt, they're like, oh, this is stupid. I'm not doing this again.

09:21.89
Jeremy
It's something that you have to build up to. And it's the same same thing with rucking. I just, I can't emphasize it enough that if you are going to live a prepared lifestyle, it starts with physicality.

09:36.82
Jeremy
Gear is great. You know, stuff is is great. But your physical fitness and your brain are your two biggest weapons. They really are. Um, so why is this important to preppers and those who live, you know, a prepared lifestyle? And I've said it before, and I had just said it a while ago, this idea that you're just going to go in the woods and disappear and live out your life.

09:58.07
Jeremy
No, you're not, you're not going to, if you don't train first, you're going to fail and you will get injured while you're trying to do it. And you're not going to survive. So in the real world scenario of something you know terrible happening, um you trying to go out there for the very first time having never carried this bug out bag that's super tact cool and you got 80 pounds of shit in there that you've never actually carried other than just maybe up and down your steps, you're in for a world of hurt because it's it's just not going to work out. It's just really not. Then you're going to end up dumping stuff that somebody else is going to take advantage of.

10:39.19
Jeremy
And when they realize that you're shedding weight, they're going to find you eventually. They're going to find you.

10:43.75
Buddy
Red drums.

10:45.27
Jeremy
Yeah. I mean, if I was going along and I found somebody just dumping gear, I would be like, huh. Well, there's another pile there. Oh, look, there's another pile there. And they're going to find some 300 pound person out there just wheezing and dying. I'm going to be like, Hey, I'm going to take all your stuff now. You know, here's an MRE and a bottle of water. I feel bad for you.

11:08.82
Jeremy
That's,

11:08.88
Buddy
I'll lighten your load, buddy.

11:09.98
Jeremy
ah Yeah. Yeah. So the big question is, where do you want to start? And I tell people before you even think about putting weight on your back, you need to actually be able to walk.

11:22.66
Jeremy
That's what you need to be able to do first. And again, this goes back to that, you know, sedimentary lifestyle, staying on the couch, you know, not doing a whole lot. And, you know, maybe, maybe you work out, maybe you lift some weights, do some CrossFit and stuff like that. That's great.

11:38.52
Jeremy
However, if you don't understand the impact that rucking can have on your feet, and I'm not just talking about like the bottom of your feet, I'm talking about your whole ass foot.

11:50.65
Jeremy
So my training for road marching actually is literally from like the toes up to your hips. That's, that's actually what I'm trying to get at. So you got to be able to walk and I call it the one, two, three, four, five method.

12:07.74
Jeremy
Let's say it's Monday. You are going to walk a mile and whatever shoes it is that you choose to use. Um, go walk a mile. If you can do that, wait two days and then go walk a mile and a half.

12:19.90
Jeremy
And then you get up to two. And if you can go to couple days later, do three, come back, rest, stretch, rehydrate and do all those things. Two days later, go out there and do four.

12:32.54
Jeremy
So when you get up to five miles with no weight, five miles, just straight continuous walking, then you're ready to start with some weight. And as counterproductive as that actually sounds, there's a lot of people out there who can't walk five miles. There's a lot of people out there who can't walk a mile.

12:53.05
Jeremy
So how do they expect to grab all this cool gear that they bought and disappear in the woods? It's just, yeah.

12:58.94
Buddy
ah jeremy Hey can you you explain why you want to wait a couple days in between your rucks?

13:05.08
Jeremy
Oh yeah. um Well, the most common sense like way to explain that is when you walk and when you run, but when you're walking, your muscles are going through this constant push-pull contraction expansion.

13:22.81
Jeremy
And as you're going along, you may not feel it right away. It's kind of like any kind of physical exercise. When you go out there and you have a you know good pump, you're like, hell yeah, dude, that's awesome.

13:34.58
Jeremy
After you're done exercising, if you don't take in the right amount of supplements and to include protein, your body starts to develop what's called lactic acid. latic Lactic acid binds to the muscle fibers and that is where your soreness, when you feel sore, that is actually lactic acid that has bound itself to the muscle fibers. and your the the muscles in your legs are what's called long muscle fibers. So they're weight bearing. They're able to take intensive movement from short to long, rapid to long movements.

14:11.54
Jeremy
um And if you don't, if you go too far too fast and you doing this every single day, you're going to destroy your legs. You really, really are. um You got to do the work.

14:24.41
Jeremy
And then you got to stretch. You got to take in food, protein, water, and you got to be able to get the lactic acid back out of your muscle fibers. It's going to happen again. It's just that the more you do it, the more your body becomes conditioned, the more your legs toughen up.

14:42.39
Jeremy
the less impact that that lactic acid is going to have on you. If you've never done it before and you just get out there and, so you know, slap on 50 pounds and go walk five miles, you're going to hurt like ever live in hell for two days, three days after that.

14:56.89
Jeremy
It sucks, but that's the reality of it. So that's why I say walk first. and ensure that you can actually walk some distance before you put the weight on your back. That's that's what I say.

15:13.85
Jeremy
So does that answer the question?

15:15.63
Buddy
Oh, yeah, yeah. i just wanted you to hit that point there.

15:16.73
Jeremy
Yeah. I mean, it's just, because you can remember this in the army, you know, you you you get started off in basic training, you know, they're going to PT the shit out of you. And all of a sudden one day you're slapping weight on your back and you're like, oh damn.

15:30.90
Jeremy
I can't keep up with this dude who's, you know, 6'2 in front of me. Why can't I do this? What the hell? And then the next day you're getting up to, you hear you're getting ready to do PT again the next morning.

15:37.83
Buddy
Story of my life.

15:43.16
Jeremy
And it feels like there's a golf ball in your hamstrings. It's like, oh, this sucks, you know? So, um but yeah, I mean, again, that's that's where I say that's where people need to start.

15:57.08
Jeremy
Um, and walking is, is interesting because just walking casually versus walking with a purpose has two different kinds of impacts. You can just, cause you have to think about it. If you, if you tracked all the steps that you walk in a day and a normal day, my average steps for 10, my 10,000 steps is about five miles.

16:18.15
Jeremy
you're walking around like that in your house anyways, you know? um So if you're if you're walking around like that casually, you can do distance, you can. You just have to purpose yourself to go and actually go do it.

16:31.93
Jeremy
that's That's really, it's just a mentality. You have to go do it. um But literally the the training part of it, it's literally the toes through the metatarsals, the Achilles, your heel, ah your calves, your knees, thighs, all of those, those are all major impact points while you're actually rocking.

16:54.33
Jeremy
And to be successful while walking with weight, it means you have to toughen up those areas. So, it's so stupid.

17:04.70
Jeremy
When we were on the cruise, Missy insisted that I get a pedicure. I'm all about a pedicure. But the lady was really taking off a lot of my calluses. And I'm like, don't take them all. I need those. I need i need my feet to be tough.

17:20.09
Jeremy
um But the reason for that is, is that As you're going along, there's friction buildup um no matter what, no matter what kind of socks you have on, they could be great socks. And I'll talk about that in a sec. But at some point in time, especially with a lot of weight, you're going to start getting hotspots and you have to be able to recognize the pain as it starts to settle in. And sometimes it's not always beneficial to just push through pain. Sometimes you got to back off.

17:48.41
Jeremy
You know, you got to reduce your pace or you got to take a break and, you know, kind of kind of chill and change your socks and make sure you powder your feet. um And I know a lot of people say that as a cliche, but it's literally the truth. You have to powder your feet to absorb the moisture and you got to change your socks. You want dry socks on your feet.

18:07.51
Jeremy
So, um but yeah, you all of us honestly we all need to be tougher and in order to make be successful and actually make it out with that weight on your back you got to toughen up and that's just the hard truth of it most of us are a lot of us are pretty tough dudes but after a while um it starts to suck no matter what it just it sucks um so starting out When you're ready to put weight on your back, um I say don't start with anything more than 20% of your body weight. So I weighed 185 this morning. That's 37 pounds of gear plus water.

18:49.11
Jeremy
So that's gear and water together on my back. Now, you could say it's 37 pounds of gear and then you can add that water. But if you think about how much water weighs, five-gallon container of water is 40 pounds.

19:04.09
Jeremy
So water's heavy. So you've got to kind of you got to kind of fit like where does my stuff go in line with the weight to include my water?

19:15.26
Jeremy
You know what i mean? So 20% of your body weight starting out and then gradually you increase your weight and gradually and gradually. I'm not saying like Monday you're doing 20 or 37 pounds and then Wednesday you're doing 45. That's not what I'm saying.

19:32.47
Jeremy
you got to get used to 37 pounds before you go up any more than that. So, and that's just the starting weight. Um, I understand that a lot of people who would argue that like how much weight should be in a bug out bag.

19:47.38
Jeremy
Your bug out bag is your bug out bag. You, you put whatever you wanted to put in there. I don't care. Um, my counter argument rotates kind of towards like what happens if your bug out bag becomes your, what's called an inch bag or I'm never coming home bag.

20:02.39
Jeremy
Like what happens if you don't have a a home to come back to? Like you don't have a place to go. And it's it's very speculative, of course, but, you know, from the like but the beginning of what you're trying to do, there you go.

20:15.04
Keith
I coined it the don't look backpack.

20:17.82
Jeremy
Yeah. Don't look back. I mean, and that's that's that's truth. Like what happens if there's a wildfire? You just grab your shit and go. You're not looking back. They look back in Sodom and Gomorrah. Guess what?

20:28.97
Jeremy
Pillars of salt. Don't look back, you know? but um But the beginning of that is whether you can grab your stuff and leave without becoming a casualty.

20:41.11
Jeremy
ah specifically of laziness. Like if you're lazy now, when shit happens, you're going be lazy then. um And that's just the truth of it. You have to toughen up your mind. You have to toughen up your body.

20:53.98
Jeremy
And unfortunately, a lot of people just, they think they're big and bad. You know, like a lot of and unfortunately a lot of veterans fall into that category. They're like, well, I did this and I did that and I can do that still.

21:06.04
Jeremy
No, you can't. Let me tell you this.

21:07.54
Buddy
Keyword is did.

21:08.89
Jeremy
It did.

21:08.96
Buddy
It passed.

21:09.37
Jeremy
Past tense. Yeah.

21:10.85
Buddy
Yeah.

21:11.45
Jeremy
When I did my first Robin Sage after I retired, i I was broke off.

21:11.75
Buddy
Yeah.

21:17.11
Jeremy
Like, I was broke off. I was tired. I was sore. I was like, dude, these kids are like half my age. There's no fucking way I can keep up with them. But I can now.

21:29.11
Jeremy
I just had to get myself back into that old mindset. Um, and I think that's why i and enjoy doing the contracts that I do because it's what I used to do. You know, it's, it's just feels like home.

21:40.95
Jeremy
Um, but how I got my start. So again, military, um, very specifically combat roles. Um, unfortunately the military has a way of not teaching soldiers how to do things safely or correctly.

21:55.57
Jeremy
It's very much, ah you know, toughen it up. And if you can't be tough, you suck at life. And they'll badger the crap out of you until either you're successful or you're just labeled as a shit bag.

22:08.15
Jeremy
And that's unfortunate, but that's that's the way of life for a lot of combat arms roles. Now, it's not like that for everyone. um You know, I had to change jobs more than halfway through my career. I was almost 16 years in when I had to change jobs. And I went from being an infantryman, being an actual combat to being human resources.

22:31.22
Jeremy
And that was like a huge eye opener. So I was in an office setting with people who had never actually gone and done things. And I still had that infantry mindset. So I was like, I got to toughen these kids up. Like, there's no way they're going to survive if we, if we deploy.

22:48.18
Jeremy
So I would encourage everyone to just start walking. Just walk. Like literally that's what you need to start doing. And you're in the, you know, people have questions like, well, what kind of shoes? um Your footwear has a lot to do with your comfort.

23:03.54
Jeremy
And um it is a, it's a careful selection. I would encourage everyone, if you're going to do this, um go get a gait measurement first. So if you don't know what that is, you can actually go to a store like say Fleet Feet.

23:19.19
Jeremy
And you can get on a treadmill and they have these sensors that are built into their treadmill and it measures your gate. Your gate is the distance when you walk naturally and when you run and when you trot from one, the, uh, the tip of one toe to the back of your heel.

23:36.18
Jeremy
So that is your gait. You need to go get that measured and you need to get an analysis of your foot to determine what are the proper shoes that you're supposed to be wearing. And a lot of people don't do that because they just think shoes are shoes or shoes are shoes. I would tell you that they are not.

23:52.73
Jeremy
Um, and let's just say you're, yeah, it's like shoes are important.

23:54.52
Buddy
Yeah.

23:57.34
Jeremy
They're like hugely important. Um,

23:59.40
Buddy
Yeah, I did that. And I was in the wrong shoe. I love New Balance. I used to love New Balance.

24:04.66
Jeremy
oh

24:04.87
Buddy
and

24:06.26
Jeremy
yeah.

24:06.42
Buddy
So I would buy New Balance. And you know the more expensive, the better they are, of course.

24:11.61
Jeremy
hu

24:12.06
Buddy
And I did that same thing and got on the treadmill. The guy goes, you're in the wrong shoe.

24:17.21
Jeremy
Yep.

24:17.19
Buddy
I'm like, no, I'm not. this is I like these. He goes, no. you need He goes, you wear whatever you want. I'm i'm just telling you're in the wrong shoe. If you want to, and he goes, you got all these injuries probably, but you know, because it you're in the wrong shoe and you're putting in mileage and stuff.

24:32.55
Buddy
So, yeah.

24:33.86
Jeremy
would say half of my leg injuries are attributed to the wrong shoes and the and the way that I run, unfortunately.

24:37.83
Buddy
Yeah. Footwear, insoles, all that good stuff.

24:41.93
Jeremy
Yep. So when I first joined the army in 1994, I was an eight before I even got halfway through basic training. i was an eight wide about a year later. i was an eight and a half wide.

24:55.80
Jeremy
I can now wear a 10 wide. So a lot of that has to do with injuries and a lot of that has to do with impact, but my feet have actually grown and they're spreading out. And I stopped wearing New Balance the day I actually busted the seams during a race. I actually busted out of a pair of shoes.

25:13.70
Jeremy
That's how much my feet were swelling. And I'll also talk about that here in just a moment. But um so, yeah, your your your footwear is is extremely important.

25:24.98
Jeremy
um And if you're out and about, you know, and let's say the shit does hit the fan um and all you have on is flip flops, you know, it's going to be pretty uncomfortable for you. You know, it's not to say that you can't make it, but it's probably going to suck for you. um So you've got to find the shoes or boots that I would say always go wide.

25:46.20
Jeremy
Like you want to go wider than what you normally wear. And I say that because as you're going along, your feet are going to expand, but you have to be able to let your toes splay out naturally.

25:59.13
Jeremy
And having a slightly wider shoe is going to allow for the swelling of your feet to be compensated for. Because your feet will swell. They absolutely will swell.

26:10.07
Jeremy
um And they have, and I would say for your socks, you want something that's in between compression and cushion. So compression is extremely important because, know,

26:22.42
Jeremy
One of the reasons that my feet were getting so big is the blood was going to my feet, but it was slow coming back up to my calves and my thighs. So I ended up having to get compression sleeves for my calves. And what that does is it forces the the flow of your blood to actually function correctly.

26:40.76
Jeremy
um And you don't have to necessarily get compression sleeves, but they are they are quite nice once you get used to them. But again, um i always recommend going wider than what you normally would.

26:54.33
Jeremy
And my particular, my brand, I guess my preferred brand would be Ultra. Ultras are made wide. And you can get them even wider, but they're made wide, like from the factory.

27:05.91
Jeremy
um And again, if you're willing to spend the money on them, they're not cheap. um But because they do come wide, um that allows my toes to like go where they need to go as they're being impacted.

27:21.98
Jeremy
um So, you know, I have caveman feet, essentially. um And when I wear them, it doesn't hurt. and That's the best way I can put it. um So if you're if you're looking for a good shoe to wear, you can do those. You can do boots.

27:37.27
Jeremy
um And you can wear, i mean, hell, you could wear work boots, but I would suggest that you don't try steel toes. especially in the cold, um because that's going to suck. um But your your footwear, again, is dependent on your budget and your comfort level.

27:53.18
Jeremy
So if all you can afford is, you know, Walmart shoes, that's fine. You know, and there's nothing wrong with that per se. Just keep in mind that your shoes have got to be able to last to complete the mission of what it is that you're trying to do. If you're trying to get home, You need to make sure that the shoes that you're wearing are going to make it home.

28:16.15
Jeremy
So if you spend money on the cheapest footwear possible and you spend $150 on a plate carrier that you don't ever wear, it doesn't make any sense. You know i mean? Like you can have all this other great gear, but you didn't pay attention to your shoes. Shoes are like extremely important.

28:35.02
Jeremy
Go ahead.

28:35.16
Buddy
So I have a hack that, you know, and because I had my, the my feet are all jacked up because the army.

28:44.36
Jeremy
Yeah.

28:44.60
Buddy
And so I have a lot of foot problems and I have to, you know, get, basically I have to buy for every pair of shoes. I, first thing I do is I'll buy a new pair of shoes or boots.

28:57.60
Buddy
I take out the footbed in it or the, you know the insole and I buy a certain insole for them so you can take a mediocre or even a pair of boots or shoes that are kind of worn out a little bit you know and you can replace those insoles and you can get some extra mileage on them so you're bringing up great points about you know your foot splaying and

29:02.25
Jeremy
Yeah.

29:10.78
Jeremy
Yeah.

29:15.42
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah, you can.

29:20.70
Jeremy
Yeah. and and i've got I've got some of the insoles that the VA gave me and I do like them.

29:27.77
Buddy
Well, not me.

29:27.83
Jeremy
um They're quite dense um and they're may they're the athletic style ones, but they're so they're they're large, they're thick.

29:30.10
Buddy
Yes. Yeah.

29:37.84
Buddy
Yeah.

29:38.04
Jeremy
And I ended up having to get larger shoes to actually compensate for those.

29:38.30
Buddy
Yep.

29:43.16
Buddy
Yep. yep

29:44.50
Jeremy
Um, and it's not to say that that's a bad thing or, or whatever, but like I put them in a pair of shoes that I had a thinner insole in and I was like, oh crap, I can't, I can't use this insole.

29:56.54
Jeremy
and And there's some other brands out there like Dr. Scholl's makes some decent ones. Um, but what you're trying to do is you're trying to reduce the amount of impact from the bottom of your foot down to the bed of the shoe.

30:08.50
Jeremy
If you don't have an insole in there, you're just impacting the bed of the shoe, which is just connected to rubber or, you know, whatever. um So that and ah you might be able to start out like that, but eventually it's going to suck. Like it's really, really going suck. And I, I know from personal experience that I can go a long ways in the improper shoes, but I paid for it.

30:31.70
Jeremy
Like I paid for it hardcore. Um, so there's, there's spend the money now. Uh, what is it that you say? ah buy once, cry later.

30:42.12
Buddy
Buy once, cry once.

30:43.18
Jeremy
Yeah.

30:43.48
Buddy
Yeah, buy once, cry once.

30:43.66
Jeremy
cry Buy once, cry once.

30:44.80
Buddy
Yeah.

30:45.59
Jeremy
You buy a pair of ultras, say like, say the Olympus and you realize what good feeling shoes are supposed to be like, you'll budget that into your life. Uh, they're amazing.

30:56.66
Jeremy
I just, this is my, my personal opinion on it. But, um,

31:00.46
Buddy
Well, I'll spend the money on good boots and good shoes and socks.

31:03.28
Jeremy
hmm. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

31:04.54
Buddy
And insoles, you know what I mean And people, I've had people tell me, why are you spending that money on that? You know, I don't know.

31:15.42
Buddy
<unk> I'll spend, I'll wear a pair of, you know, hell overalls or even just pants that are torn up, but I'll have, you know, a good set of boots on, you know, with with some good insoles and good socks.

31:15.66
Jeremy
Yeah.

31:28.86
Buddy
it's just it's money well spent. I don't know.

31:31.03
Jeremy
Yeah.

31:31.22
Keith
I love the Keens that I've got for hiking.

31:34.01
Buddy
Oh, yeah.

31:34.20
Keith
um I've got a couple pairs of Keens, but ah I got the Targhee 3s, and they are absolutely unbelievable.

31:34.37
Jeremy
Yep.

31:40.32
Keith
The most comfortable shoe ever wore. I just got ah Rhonda for ah for Christmas. I just got her the Targhee 4. four That's the brand new one that's out, and she hasn't taken them off.

31:50.09
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

31:51.70
Keith
She said, this this I've never felt anything like it in her life. She's like, this is the greatest thing ever.

31:56.47
Jeremy
Yeah. my um I had a pair of Keens.

31:57.90
Keith
The shoe matters.

31:58.87
Jeremy
Oh, yeah. I had a pair of Keens, and I literally wore them... slap out like they can eventually they just gave up the ghost um and i wore them on missions i wore them on contracts it was they were so good but again does dollars equal good boots and shoes sometimes yes it it i mean you got to be you got to be willing to spend some money on something other than cool guy gear you got to spend some money on your feet um And you got to be willing to spend some money on some socks. Like not all socks are the same. If you said, Hey, we're going to go ruck march 20 miles.

32:37.21
Jeremy
I think you've got some Hanes white socks. Hell no, absolutely not. I don't know. And in my, my experience, straight cotton socks on a road march will literally tear your foot off.

32:51.34
Jeremy
It's just horrible.

32:52.70
Buddy
You might as well have a match down there. Just light your heel on fire.

32:54.20
Jeremy
Yeah, you might as well go ahead and put sandpaper and like chlamydia in your feet and just walk on that.

32:57.24
Buddy
Yeah.

33:01.56
Buddy
Yeah.

33:01.82
Jeremy
Um, cause I'm going to tell you that the pain from pulling your entire heel off of your foot is indescribable. Like I, uh, here's a point in case Missy was doing PT with me one day, physical fitness and my particular unit, I was in a first special forces command.

33:11.56
Buddy
Oh.

33:22.39
Jeremy
We're going to go do, I think it was, it was either eight or 12 mile, or I can't remember. just road march. And i had a couple officers talking smack and I told her, I was like, Hey, I'm going to lay waste to these dudes.

33:34.50
Jeremy
I'll see you back at the end. Well, she hadn't worn those boots in quite some time. And she was just wearing her plane, um, you know, issue socks. And she pulled the entire heel, like the flesh off of her foot and,

33:50.26
Jeremy
and she had to be in high heels the next day i felt so bad for her i i mean it took forever for it to actually heal up too because that's a constant friction point you know um yeah i mean i've seen dudes literally like you know who hadn't changed their socks and just kept it going and kept going they i and you know that they're in pain you can see it when they're walking

34:01.33
Buddy
Wow.

34:03.70
Buddy
I've seen it, man. It's terrible. It's terrible.

34:15.80
Jeremy
And then they take off their socks for you to look at. And the whole bottom of their foot is just blood. It's just flesh, just rock like completely ripped off their foot. And that's a horror story, but it's the reality of it. You know, again, you think that you're going to just grab your stuff and go, you know, when the stuff hits the fan and you're not, you're going to hurt yourself. And after you've hurt yourself in that kind of situation,

34:39.48
Jeremy
If you can't force yourself to continue and you're a casualty, things could get real bad like super duper fast. You know what mean? Like you you've you got to toughen up your feet and that requires for you to actually get out there and do it.

34:54.07
Jeremy
Like you have to go do the thing in order to get tougher from it. So, you know, socks. Yeah. I prefer the ones that are in between thick and compression.

35:05.88
Jeremy
And for your boots and your shoes, I would suggest, it's not in a requirement, but I would suggest something over the ankles to give you that support. um I've trashed my ankles many, many, many times. I broke my calcanus on my left foot several years ago.

35:22.52
Jeremy
So now if I know that I'm going to go do something like that, I actually have a brace that I put on. just to give myself a little bit more a little bit more support in my ankle.

35:32.73
Jeremy
so And you need to have several pairs with you, and you need to have foot powder or the spray, but powder, i in my opinion, is a little bit better. It lasts longer, but you've got to be able to dry out, and you've got to change your socks.

35:46.10
Jeremy
um So how do you pack your ruck? So that starts with the bag itself. I love my old Alice pack. That's just my personal preference. I grew up with it in the army.

35:57.50
Jeremy
i had one when I was a kid.

35:59.71
Keith
What's an Alice Peck?

35:59.79
Jeremy
It's so Alice pack is like when you see the older army equipment, big bag, three pouches on the outside. It's got a metal frame and on the bottom of the frame, it's got a, you know, a pad that goes against your back.

36:14.39
Jeremy
um And I try to remember the acronym, but it's ALICE. It's an Alice pack.

36:20.76
Buddy
It also doubles as a couch or i mean, not good I get furniture.

36:22.81
Jeremy
Yeah, it double it doubles as a ah you a seat, a pillow.

36:26.13
Buddy
Yeah, a seat.

36:29.97
Jeremy
you can You can wrap it in the poncho and you can float a river.

36:30.53
Buddy
know.

36:34.33
Jeremy
It's literally the bag that we lived out of. so And they've got different sizes. They've got the large, which is your normal, what you see. They have a medium and then they have a small bag.

36:45.56
Jeremy
um I personally have a modified medium. um I've added stuff to it. I've modified it. So it holds a ton of stuff, but it's not physically as large as at large. Like it's not as big as the large Alice pack.

37:03.77
Jeremy
But that's my preference. And I've modified the pad. I have a thing in the frame that actually prevents um the frame from rubbing up against my back. Several different things, different shoulder pads and all this different stuff. But I've had it for years and it's just my preference. Now we transitioned in the military to the Mali and the Mali 2 Rook and they're good. Don't get me wrong.

37:26.87
Jeremy
um But I am not a huge fan of the frame. The frame is this molded polymer kind of plasticky material. I've seen them snap. I've seen them break.

37:36.94
Jeremy
um And especially if they get cold.

37:37.99
Buddy
I was about to say they break easy.

37:41.58
Jeremy
If they get cold, that material gets brit brittle.

37:41.62
Buddy
Yeah. Oh, God.

37:45.14
Jeremy
And I've seen dudes just you know drop their ruck and it snap. Just absolutely...

37:50.36
Buddy
Right in the middle of mission. Then what do you do?

37:51.22
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. So, um, that's just my preference and the, the frame on the Alice's is metal.

37:54.07
Buddy
Okay.

37:59.26
Jeremy
So it's, it's harder to break it, but you can, if you try, but it's just harder to break it. Um, but I do recommend a pack with a frame and that can be an internal frame or an external frame, but you're Your go bag or your bug out bag or whatever you want to call it, your I'm not going home bag or your look don't look back bag.

38:20.86
Jeremy
I would suggest that it have waist, you know, a waist band that you can actually buckle and cinch up. Um, If all you have is your Jansport backpack that you used in high school, that's okay too.

38:34.62
Jeremy
But you want something to go around your waist to relieve the weight from your back and your shoulders. you can it just It's not a lot, but you want to be able to take some of that weight and put it onto your your metal trunk. like you You got to be able to buckle into that thing and tighten it down. And I would also suggest that you have a waist, waist strap, or umm I'm sorry, a chest strap.

38:57.05
Jeremy
So you put your, your arms through your straps and you get it pulled down a little bit, and then you take that chest strap and you cinch it down and it brings your shoulder pads into the center, like towards the center of your chest.

39:08.34
Jeremy
So it's actually.

39:09.17
Buddy
john John Wayne didn't have that. so

39:11.13
Jeremy
No, no. um But the thing also is, is that if you just leave your shoulder straps where they are or whatever, and you don't have a chest strap, what it's doing is, is as you're walking along and the material starts to loosen up and your shoulder straps starting to kind of like go out, you're going to constantly be trying to pull them in.

39:32.09
Jeremy
And it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your shoulders, your traps, your neck. um So you want to try to bring those straps in towards the center of your chest. um And that's just, it's a suggestion you get, you know, y'all can do as you see fit. But if you look at pictures of road marchers or you look at pictures of military ruck marching, you're going to see where most of them will have that chest strap. on both sides and they cinch it down. So it almost looks like a two C's that are curved in towards each other.

40:04.18
Jeremy
So I think that that's pretty important.

40:05.18
Buddy
Yeah, you got to use them, man.

40:06.94
Jeremy
Oh yeah, dude.

40:07.32
Buddy
I'm coming from experience. I didn't use because I was too cool, too cool for it, you know.

40:10.54
Jeremy
Yeah.

40:12.28
Buddy
And then later on my career, it's like, okay, I don't care what I look like. I'm, you know, with the back pain and the strains and the spinal stuff that happened, you know.

40:20.15
Jeremy
Yeah.

40:22.68
Jeremy
Yeah, yeah. So having a waist strap and a chest strap, very, very beneficial. um

40:27.85
Buddy
Yeah, definitely.

40:29.24
Jeremy
So that your immediate your immediate need items and your heavy gear need to be higher. I would say practically no i would say no lower than center mass of your rucksack.

40:44.12
Jeremy
I mean, because your immediate needs, of course, are your things that you want to get out first, right? You want to be able to grab them and you don't want to have to go searching. So you want your immediate needs and you want your heavier stuff on top. I use the phrase high and tight. You want that rucksack high on your back and you want it tight against your body.

41:01.88
Jeremy
um It improves the center of gravity on where the actual ruck sits in your body. And it actually improves your posture. So by tightening that thing down against your body,

41:13.40
Jeremy
and getting it cinched down so where there's not a lot of movement, your body will like kind of like force itself to stand up taller. it's it's It actually does improve your posture over time.

41:26.01
Jeremy
um And you do not, and I mean this, you do not want a bunch of excessive movement from your ruck against your body. If you have never experienced chafing and heat rash from not wearing your gear properly, it will it will literally crush your spirit and it's probably going to stop you in your tracks.

41:41.39
Buddy
I don't

41:47.26
Jeremy
Like if you want to be a casualty during SHTF, have your stuff flopping all over your body because it's going to suck, especially if it's warm outside. And I, buddy can tell you,

42:01.21
Jeremy
heat rash and chafing from your gear is horrible. It's absolutely horrible. And if you don't know what chafing is, um when it starts to warm up, go outside um and wear your shortest booty shorts that you possibly can and just start rubbing your thighs together.

42:23.32
Jeremy
Just start rubbing.

42:23.58
Buddy
Keith doesn't own any of those.

42:25.24
Jeremy
Oh my gosh, dude. oh It's just, it's a hard sensation to like describe. Like I can't describe it well, but it's awful. Especially when you get heat, heat rash mixed in with it or prickly. Some people call it prickly heat. Some people call it heat rash.

42:40.97
Jeremy
It's horrible. It's literally just sweat and dirt and funk that gets forced down into your pores.

42:42.01
Buddy
Oh, Prickle Heat. Oh.

42:46.03
Buddy
Oh.

42:49.05
Jeremy
And it creates, excuse me, it creates a literal rash from the the heat. So, um, so what goes in your ruck? I can't answer that for you.

43:01.40
Jeremy
Excuse me. Stand by. Okay.

43:06.26
Buddy
Well, a lot of, I mean, we preach this all the time, basically. You only put stuff in your ruck that you can use. If you got a bunch of shit in there you're not trained on, don't carry it.

43:16.87
Buddy
Don't put it in your ruck until you're you're trained to use it. And, you know, maybe stop it three ways of starting a fire instead of 18.

43:24.84
Jeremy
Yeah.

43:25.17
Buddy
And, you know, ah instead of carrying, you know, 20 pounds of water, maybe get ah ah something that's going to filter that water for you you know, save yourself.

43:35.96
Buddy
Do bring water with you, but then have some way of, you know, filtering.

43:40.57
Jeremy
Procuring water.

43:41.47
Buddy
Oh,

43:41.88
Jeremy
Yeah. Procuring water is probably, i would say just as important, if not more important than the water that you have with you. Because water do you have with you is going to run out.

43:53.27
Buddy
ah yeah.

43:53.40
Jeremy
um

43:53.87
Buddy
Yep.

43:54.87
Jeremy
I can tell you from personal experience, um having done significant distance during a road march, you will get thirsty AF. Like you will get thirsty.

44:05.82
Jeremy
And again, during physical fitness or any other time of the day, if you feel already feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. You're that's the body's way of telling you, Hey, you have screwed up, you're dehydrated. And that's where thirst actually comes from.

44:19.77
Jeremy
Um, and again, I can't, I can't tell anybody what to put in your rug or your bag or whatever it is that you want to call it. That's up to you. I would just tell you to go back into some of our previous episodes and reexamine the rules of three and the C's of survival. And I'll go over them again.

44:36.76
Jeremy
Of course, I modified them. So the rules of three, three seconds without hope or indecision. And that's a survival mindset. Three minutes without breathable air.

44:48.06
Jeremy
So you go into asphyxiation, you know, even from severe blood loss. Three hours without shelter in an extreme environment. You die of exposure. Three days without water. You're going die of dehydration.

45:00.06
Jeremy
Three weeks without food. Some people can do more. ah You're going to eventually die of starvation. And then there's another one that a lot of people don't think about, and that's three months without human contact.

45:12.57
Jeremy
You know, we have a we have an inherent need to connect with other humans, even if we don't like them, because I don't sometimes. But um you got to have somebody to spill the tea with.

45:23.74
Jeremy
You do. You do. You really actually have to have another human to interact with. um And, of course,

45:29.76
Buddy
I'm just bringing Wilson with me.

45:32.73
Jeremy
Wilson. Um, and then you go in to the seas.

45:36.90
Buddy
that's my dream.

45:37.84
Jeremy
Yeah.

45:39.03
Buddy
Nobody around.

45:39.08
Jeremy
That's a that movie, even though I'm not a huge fan of Tom Hanks, that movie is actually one of the best, uh, movies that I can actually recommend to going back into the tough mindset to actually having the mindset to survive.

45:55.12
Buddy
Yeah.

45:55.22
Jeremy
Um, at one point in time, he almost, you know, ended it. And he told himself he can't. When you tell your body that you can't, you're not going to. Once you've told once you've made up your mind that I cannot do this thing, that's it. You're you're you're done.

46:13.37
Jeremy
So you got to be able to, and and I think personally survival really does start with the mind. You've got to be able to make a decision to survive. If you do not and you don't make that decision rapidly,

46:27.94
Jeremy
you're just another casualty. that's That's all it comes down to. um And then, the course, the seas of survival. I'll just go through those. So cutting, um combustion, cover, a container, cordage, ah cotton bandana or something to face cover your face with, cargo tape, compass.

46:49.21
Jeremy
um And again, in the old model, it's cloth sail needles, something to repair your stuff. and then a candling device, which of course is your elimination. So the 10 Cs have been around for a long, long time. People have modified them. People have changed. This list is a little bit modified.

47:07.26
Jeremy
um But again, road marching, rucking, there's a million and one places to learn about it. um um Missy has actually competed in an event, or not competed, but participated in an event called Go Ruck.

47:24.15
Jeremy
And that is just one of a myriad of organizations out there that actually do rucking as a competitive event or just to build camaraderie or you know something along those lines.

47:37.77
Buddy
Yeah, there's a bunch of accountability groups out there. and and They're all over. They're in your area, I guarantee you.

47:43.03
Jeremy
Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh, especially around Fort Bragg.

47:44.13
Buddy
Yeah.

47:45.42
Jeremy
There's a ton of them, you know, um even some of the guys that run with RWB, it's just red, white, and blue. It's a running group, but there's also another subset that actually does road marches.

47:52.07
Buddy
Yeah.

47:55.98
Jeremy
Um, and they road march these different races, uh, carrying the American flag and they carry, um, pictures, um, on their rucksacks of fallen soldiers.

48:07.35
Jeremy
So, and yeah,

48:08.79
Buddy
Yeah. You can actually go to go rock and get free rock plans.

48:13.40
Jeremy
You can.

48:13.80
Buddy
They'll rucking basics.com is another one.

48:14.46
Jeremy
who

48:18.00
Buddy
We'll see a lot. Ruck training.

48:22.28
Jeremy
Yeah.

48:24.54
Buddy
i don't know if it's.net or.com or something, but, and something I would like to do with you, Jeremy is, is have an accountability group on Facebook where we go out weekly and we, we set our, ah you know,

48:32.81
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

48:37.14
Buddy
a goal we can maybe do accountability groups like we you know did back in the day, do a beginners, intermediate and advanced and put a, put a workout up there and see how people does, you know,

48:41.13
Jeremy
Mm-hmm.

48:44.09
Jeremy
Yeah.

48:49.11
Jeremy
Yeah. um There's a guy, and i i have I think I've actually met him like through happenstance or just somewhere with either within third group or first SFC.

49:00.18
Jeremy
um He's got a YouTube channel. It's called Gritty Soldier. um And he does a whole, he's got a huge series on nothing but road marching. He's got video upon video upon video of it.

49:12.38
Jeremy
And um because i and i recognize the areas that he's walking along. Like here on area in Fort Bragg, we have this training area called Area J. And I was watching one of his videos today just kind of refreshing my brain.

49:24.87
Jeremy
And I looked and I was like, I know where that is. I know exactly where that is. um

49:28.26
Buddy
Yeah.

49:29.37
Jeremy
But again, it's if you went on YouTube and just put on there rucking for beginners, you're going to find probably 10,000 videos. You're literally going to find that many.

49:40.70
Jeremy
because it's become it's become such a popular form of exercise. um Because it, I mean, while you're road marching or wrecking or whatever you wanna call it, depending on how much weight you have, You're working your feet, you're working your legs, you're working your thigh. That's why i have such big legs, honestly. That's the reason one of the reasons why I have these big ass thighs is from road marching for so many years.

50:08.12
Jeremy
um But um as you're going along and you're you youre training up for these these different things, um you start to realize that it has ah a lot of benefits and a people will tell you, Oh, road marching is terrible for you. That's a lie. That's a bunch of BS. It really is.

50:27.03
Jeremy
It is a, if you, depending on how you do it, it's a full body workout. So like I could be in my neighborhood, which is nothing but military. If I went road marching through my neighborhood, actually carrying a weapon, it wouldn't be out of the norm.

50:41.91
Jeremy
And now somebody, somebody might, you know, freak out, But I mean, if you really wanted to practice that mindset, go to an army navy store and find you what's called a rubber duck.

50:55.23
Jeremy
spray paint you know Spray paint it like bright orange or you know ah blue.

50:58.23
Buddy
blue oh

50:58.63
Jeremy
or blue you know And it's literally just a mock, it's a big rubber weapon. And it's made to simulate the weight and the shape of our issued weapon.

51:09.23
Buddy
i have a story about that but that's for another day and yeah a squad of guys with about three police cars coming down on us weapons drawn yeah yeah

51:10.65
Jeremy
Oh goodness. Oh goodness. so my

51:20.12
Jeremy
I have something similar.

51:21.98
Buddy
yeah

51:22.33
Jeremy
um When I very first joined the Army, i was a young private. um I had the brigade sergeant major. So a brigade in the old days was three battalions.

51:33.34
Jeremy
Three battalions equals probably, I don't know, several thousand people, let's just say. um the The brigade sergeant major was very famous. His name was Sergeant Major Purdy.

51:44.78
Jeremy
And Sergeant Major Purdy was a Vietnam vet and he lived through, i think like six or seven ambushes in Vietnam. Horribly ugly man, scarred up from one side to the other. Just the true definition of a gritty ass grunt.

52:00.06
Jeremy
Um, And he had this theory that we as a brigade should go out drinking, get drunk, and then all of us should get shot in the leg and go do a 12-mile road march.

52:16.25
Jeremy
And I remember hearing him.

52:16.89
Buddy
Good training, I guess.

52:17.66
Jeremy
I was like, huh?

52:18.25
Buddy
Realistic.

52:20.34
Jeremy
Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't want to do that. And then i got shot in the leg and had to keep, keep moving. And it sucks. I'm going to tell you right now, if you've never been shot by an actual projectile.

52:37.94
Keith
I'm confused. Somebody shot you with a gun?

52:41.36
Jeremy
Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah.

52:43.86
Keith
And you didn't shoot him back?

52:45.85
Jeremy
Um, different circumstance, um, long time ago. And I'll just say it was an accident. Now that was a long time ago.

52:54.27
Keith
Oh.

52:54.72
Jeremy
Now I have been injured in combat and had to keep going. Um, but I know, right?

53:00.19
Buddy
I'm seeing a pattern with you.

53:02.99
Keith
Ha, ha, ha.

53:03.51
Buddy
yeah i

53:03.67
Jeremy
Something about,

53:04.34
Keith
I shot myself in the leg with airsoft gun. It fucking hurt.

53:07.10
Jeremy
a did you intentionally do it or was it an accident?

53:10.71
Keith
Yes, I did. I was sitting with my kids.

53:11.52
Jeremy
Um,

53:12.31
Keith
I'm like, look, these are safe. going hurt you. Watch. And I put put it right put a point blank right on my leg and shot it.

53:18.88
Jeremy
Ouch.

53:19.86
Keith
And I was like, okay, guys, I'm wrong.

53:19.93
Jeremy
Ouch. Ouch. ouch

53:23.26
Keith
Don't ever, ever do that.

53:28.08
Keith
The one time your dad is wrong.

53:30.58
Jeremy
So when i was when I was in high school, some friends of mine and I, were they got together and they were hot loading shotgun shells. with basically whatever was laying around. And ah a buddy of mine, he had been shooting a BB gun a pellet gun and he had a whole bunch of pellets.

53:49.88
Jeremy
So he hot loaded this 12 gauge. And when he shot, I was standing to the side, but when he shot, it actually mushroomed the barrel completely. And I was like, oh shit. And I put my hands up like you would do kind of defensively. And I looked at my hand and there was a small trickle of blood. i was like, oh dude, I got nicked.

54:08.70
Jeremy
I turned my hand over and it was about four inches high. And one of those pellets had embedded itself in my hand. It was like, My hand ballooned out and I was like, oh, my mom's going to be pissed.

54:24.79
Jeremy
So we had to go to the yeah ah ER and they didn't want to take it out at the time because they were afraid of how much internal like trauma there may be.

54:35.61
Jeremy
So they let the swelling go down and it was just there. It was there for years. And finally, while I was in the army, I got a, I got a PA. I was a former SF dude, but I got a PA to actually cut it out because he wanted to train some of his, his medics.

54:53.37
Jeremy
I was like, yeah, dude, go ahead. Just do it. Do what you got to do. Gave me a couple of shots of a local, took a small scalpel and just cut it out, popped it out and sutured it back up. And that was it.

55:04.09
Jeremy
But it had been in there for so long. He was worried that it might've actually like, had nerve clusters growing around it. And all I did is I just took my hand and I could wiggle it and you could see it moving underneath my skin. i was like, just get it out of me. It's made of lead. I don't think it's probably safe to have it in there that much longer.

55:22.78
Jeremy
So, but yeah, I've had most of the shrapnel removed from my body. um I don't think I have anymore.

55:28.89
Keith
That sucks.

55:30.42
Jeremy
you know um i do set off that little scanner thing at the airport because I've got hardware in my shoulders and one of my legs. But you know it's it's funny because i go through that thing and you got to put your arms above your head and all that.

55:47.70
Jeremy
and he And they end up every time they go over to my left shoulder and they're like, I got to pat you down. There's something there. I'm like, dude, there's there's hardware in my body, man. And they do it anyways.

55:59.03
Jeremy
um Like one time i got so mad at TSA, i had this huge leg brace and i was um I was going through the thing and he's like, hey, we got to look at your leg. And I'm like, ah i just had I just had a major injury and surgery, bro. Like you're going to make me take this thing off.

56:16.60
Jeremy
And I had pants on, loose pants, but I had pants on. So I was like, you know what? Here, take a look at it. And dropped my pants right there in the middle of the airport. I was so fucking mad at them.

56:26.99
Jeremy
I just dropped my pants. And I was like, next time I'm going to take a Viagra before I come through this line. And then you can give me a pat down.

56:33.17
Keith
Damn, Jeremy expeditionist.

56:33.94
Jeremy
i was

56:35.15
Keith
Is that what they call him?

56:35.29
Jeremy
I was furious. I was exhibitionist.

56:37.83
Keith
an x x of x

56:39.60
Jeremy
Dude, I got no shame in my game.

56:40.24
Keith
Exhibitionist? Yeah.

56:41.34
Jeremy
You can ask any...

56:42.14
Keith
Ha ha ha.

56:42.26
Jeremy
group Any grunt around the world, and and a true infantryman has no shame. They'll pull out their shit and in most inappropriate places. um But I was so furious and I was like, I'm going to embarrass myself and going to embarrass them at the same time. And I just walked forward a little bit, undid my britches and dropped them. I was like, there you go. Do what you got to do.

57:05.21
Jeremy
I mean, it's pretty obvious that I've got this this brace from the top of my ankle to above my knee on my thigh. So, yeah, go ahead. Get in there. Probably smells good, too. So, yeah.

57:16.15
Keith
you know You know none of this is getting in the show, right?

57:19.29
Jeremy
oh Oh.

57:20.38
Keith
Like none of it.

57:22.01
Jeremy
Why? why yeah

57:23.61
Keith
Because we're already at an hour and you haven't even finished your ruoks rucking stuff yet.

57:28.06
Jeremy
No, i'm I'm done with that.

57:28.89
Buddy
he's He's done, yeah.

57:29.94
Jeremy
Yeah, I'm done.

57:30.10
Keith
Oh, you were done?

57:30.78
Jeremy
Yeah, I'm done. i'm um i would

57:32.09
Keith
oh

57:32.92
Buddy
you could probably...

57:34.39
Jeremy
I would just say and in conclusion, again, ah being able to ruck march or you know carry your gear properly takes training. It is not something that you can just safely jump into without conditioning your body, conditioning your feet and your knees and your thighs and all those different things.

57:53.05
Keith
Well, I can because I'm awesome, but go ahead.

57:54.90
Jeremy
Right, right. but You know, there's there's some, you know, cockstrong dudes out there. um

58:01.61
Keith
Mm-hmm.

58:02.07
Jeremy
But again, I'll just say this. I'm 5'6 on a good day. I have gone more than 40 miles with about 85 pounds on my back.

58:14.14
Jeremy
So if you, if you have this like romanticized idea that you can carry a shit ton of weight just for a buttload of distance without getting ready to actually do it, then I think for most people that is, that is beyond reality.

58:32.10
Jeremy
It's just not, it's not realistic.

58:32.73
Keith
o

58:34.57
Jeremy
That's what I'll say.

58:36.15
Buddy
Just get out there and train. Oh,

58:37.66
Jeremy
Get out there and train and get your butt and get your butthole checked.

58:39.26
Keith
Get on it.

58:42.14
Buddy
God.

58:44.24
Keith
Did you do that yet?

58:45.40
Jeremy
I

58:46.52
Buddy
No,

58:47.56
Keith
You ain't got to say. You can say fuck off. I'm just asking you.

58:49.69
Buddy
No, no, I haven't yet.

58:49.82
Jeremy
i mean, dude, just go get it done.

58:50.65
Buddy
No, of course not.

58:51.35
Keith
No.

58:53.24
Buddy
Well, yeah. I've got a trip. After my trip...

58:56.92
Jeremy
ah

58:58.13
Keith
Oh, see, he's after the trip. You know what? Get drunk down there and just have somebody check it for you.

59:03.28
Jeremy
Hell yeah, man.

59:03.42
Buddy
Yeah. Yeah.

59:04.92
Jeremy
I mean, once I get past the hemorrhoids, it's nothing. It's just, and that's it

My Prepper brothers and sisters… 

Rucking is uncomfortable.

Our backs, shoulders, and legs will ache.
Our hips, knees, and cankles will feel it too.

In an SHTF bug-out scenario, you won’t be negotiating with the terrain. You won’t be asking the distance to be shorter. You’ll move because you have to. You’ll have no choice.

When you ruck consistently, that future possibility loses its edge. It stops being this looming unknown and becomes something measurable.

You’ve walked five miles under load.
You’ve handled hills.
You’ve trained in the rain.
You’ve proven to yourself that you can carry the weight of what matters most. And you don’t have to be extraordinary to start. You just have to be willing.

Start light.
Be consistent.
Add weight over time.

And let the distances shape you.

Stay Prepped…

Stay Happy…

Thanks for Listening…

And Goodnight…