Strength & Endurance: You Can Do Both - #449

<div> <p>Strength and endurance - can you do both!? Yes, in fact, you can.</p> <p>While the adaptations and strength and endurance conflict, you can reach high levels in both.</p> <p>CJ shares his story of ruck marching, voluntary hardship, lifting, and joy. He describes how he balanced life, lifting, and rucking and realized he needed aerobic endurance events to be part of his life.</p> <p>He also shares how you could add endurance training to your program if you miss it (or want to try it out).</p> <p>Check out the <a href= "https://barbell-logic.com/podcast/">Barbell Logic podcast landing page</a> for free resources, recent offers, & more.</p> <h3>Joy Lost but Rekindled</h3> <p>CJ enjoys rucking. He had a background of aerobic endurance events in the military and his free time.</p> <p>During a particularly busy time in his life, he did not realized what he had lost and how he had repeated a foreign narrative of strength exclusivity that left him cold. Strength and endurance are mutually exclusive, right!?</p> <p>Then he injured himself on what should have been an easy event, that he could have crushed a few years ago.</p> <p>He did not want to be that fragile and remembered he enjoyed long, slow, endurance events.</p> <p>He evaluated his priorities, preferences, and available time, and decided to start rucking again.</p> <h3>Rucking as Lifter - Strength and Endurance</h3> <p>What's rucking?</p> <p>Rucksack is the German word for backpack. Its background comes from the necessity of Soldiers to move from one place to another with the equipment they need to fight.</p> <p>More recently, civilians seeking voluntary hardship have begun to ruck by themselves or in group events.</p> <p>Strictly, it's an endurance event, but strength and endurance benefit performance, as rucksacks can be heavy, and having a muscular frame helps.</p> <p>The other aspect of rucking, especially considering its martial history, is the communal aspect - this was something Soldiers did together.</p> <h3>Shared Suffering</h3> <p>Unless you tr