Fitness researcher Michael Easter joined the Huberman Lab podcast to discuss a great alternative to running and a great cardio/strength exercise.
Easter explained what sparked the research behind weighted walking, and how the military is one specific group that still primarily uses the workout.
A research study highlighted the impact of weighted walking as a fat-burning exercise, while maintaining muscle mass in the process.
When the topic of fat-burning exercises is mentioned, many people point to concepts like running, high-intensity interval training or one of the many other widespread “go-to” workout methods. However, during an interview on the Huberman Lab podcast, longtime health and fitness researcher Michael Easter provided great insight into an exercise we were “born to do” while speaking with Andrew Huberman.
Along with his own revelation, which led to deeper research on the topic, Easter also offered several specific benefits when compared to the widely popular options. In short, Easter and Huberman’s conversation focused on the concept of weighted walking, but its benefits extend far beyond what you might expect.
What Led to Easter’s Initial Fitness Research Into the Often-Overlooked Exercise
The exercise is broadly known as “rucking,” which Huberman correctly refers to it as. However, Easter explains a bit later that he prefers to call it either “walking with weight” or weighted walking.” He points back to the early days of hunting in the Arctic, citing that humans are good at running and carrying, which led to the research behind walking with weight.
“So we go up to the Arctic, we’re hunting. Eventually successfully hunt a caribou, and we’re taking every usable part that we can, so we load our packs with all this weight. It’s like 100-something pounds in this damn pack, and we start walking back to camp,” Easter explains.
“You [then] have to carry that [animal] back to camp. Then it occurs to me, wait a minute, we’re actually pretty unique among animals in that we can carry weight,” Easter said. “No other mammal can just pick up weight on its own and carry it a long distance. So I just start looking into this and, yeah, humans are the only mammal that can pick up a weight and carry it a long distance, and it absolutely shaped us into who we are.”
This ultimately led to some interesting evaluation and unique data about the long-forgotten exercise, including the specific group that still uses it today.
Breaking Down Weighted Walking and Its Impact on Fat Loss and Strength
Arguably, the most interesting piece of information that Easter highlighted throughout this was the fact that the military still uses this exercise as what he calls a “main activity” during physical training.
“Now, the thing is, when you look at running, plenty of people run,” he told Huberman. “Running and marathons, that is a popular activity. But how many people are just carrying weight as a regular form of exercise? The answer was really not that many.”
“Who actually maybe still does this? And it turns out, it’s the military. Rucking is sort of the main activity of physical training in the military. Just throwing weight in a backpack and going for a long walk.”
The benefits are significant, as they focus on both aspects of cardio and strength work, effectively combining the two reasons virtually anyone goes to the gym or works out.
“I’ve actually started to shift my language from using the term rucking to simply saying walking with weight or weighted walking,” he said. “But I think the benefit is that you’re getting cardio stimulus because you’re covering ground, but you’re also getting strength work because you’ve loaded your skeletal system, your muscular system, and that comes with a lot of benefits.”
An Exercise With Significant Cardio Calorie-Burning Returns
While comparing weighted walking to regular walking highlights an obvious benefit, Easter also points out that in most cases, weighted walking burns more calories per mile than running. This alone could make the concept of walking with weight an excellent addition to virtually any workout routine.
“It generally will burn more calories per mile than walking or running and that is simply because you’ve added extra weight,” Easter said. “Of course if you’re running, you might cover more distance in the same amount of time, but if you just compare it by distance, it’s burning more calories. I think it’s one of these activities that can really fill in gaps in people’s training.”
He points out that many gymgoers may not be fans of running and/or cite that walking feels “too easy,” so this can be a great middle ground between the two.
Easter noted a small study featured on Backcountry Hunters in Alaska, where 12 people carried heavy packs into the mountains for a week or so and were tested. The group ended up losing a significant amount of weight, all of which was from fat, and gained a small amount of muscle. This is rare, considering that most people who lose fat also lose some amount of muscle in the process.
It’s an extremely interesting breakdown, and for someone like myself, who truly dislikes running, I love the idea of weighted walking as a potential replacement cardio option.