If you're like me, weighted vests are everywhere you look, and their popularity only seems to be growing. Rucking, or walking with extra weight, has gone from something done in military training to a trend squarely aimed at women in midlife, and a lot of the buzz is about bone health. But does the practice hold up when it comes to the research? This week, we’re looking at what rucking might do for women, how to start safely if you’re interested, and its limitations.
KEY TAKEAWAY
A 2026 Osteoporosis International review of 9 randomized trials in 368 middle-aged and older adults found that exercising in a weighted vest improved bone density at the hip and spine compared with not exercising.
The same 2026 review found that the vest itself hasn’t been shown to add bone benefits beyond the exercise. People who added a vest to their workout lost about 1.6 more pounds of fat, but only one trial tested this.
A 2025 JAMA Network Open trial of 150 older adults found that wearing a weighted vest about 7 hours a day did not prevent hip bone loss during weight loss, so movement, not just the weight, seems to matter.
🦴 Want the bigger picture on bone health? Read this piece on bone loss.
What is rucking?
Rucking is walking while carrying extra weight, usually in a weighted vest or a backpack. The idea comes from military training, where soldiers march with loaded packs. For the rest of us, it's a simple way to make an everyday walk work a little harder.
The science behind it is based on the fact that bone responds to load. When your skeleton carries more weight than usual, it gets a signal to maintain or build strength. That matters for women especially because bone loss speeds up around menopause as estrogen declines.
What can rucking do for your bones?
Weighted-vest exercise appears to help bone density at the hip and spine, according to a systematic review in Osteoporosis International. Researchers pooled 9 randomized trials with 368 middle-aged and older adults. Compared with people who didn’t add exercise, those who exercised in a vest saw a moderate improvement in bone density at the femoral neck, the part of the hip that often breaks in a fall, and at the lower spine.
And one of the longest studies is small but encouraging. In a 5-year study of 18 postmenopausal women, those who did weighted-vest exercise plus jumping three times a week kept their hip bone density steady, while a comparable group lost about 4% at the femoral neck.
That program included jumping, so it wasn't rucking alone.
What can't a weighted vest do?
A weighted vest has not been shown to add bone benefits beyond the exercise itself. In the 2026 review, people who added a vest to an existing workout lost a little more fat, about 1.6 pounds, but their bone density didn't improve more than people doing the same workout without one. Only one trial tested this, so the honest answer is that we don't know yet.
Wearing the weight alone isn't enough, either. In the 2025 INVEST trial, 150 older adults, three-quarters of them women, lost about 10% of their body weight over a year. Wearing a vest about 7 hours a day to replace the lost pounds didn't stop hip bone loss. Neither did resistance training.
The vest helps when you move in it. Just wearing it without activity doesn't count.
And just walking with a vest may not be enough. A 2008 meta-analysis in Bone found that regular walking had no significant effect on spine bone density in postmenopausal women and only a small, inconsistent benefit at the hip.
When you think about your bones, how do you feel?
How do you start rucking safely?
If you are interested in adding rucking to your routine, the safest way to start rucking is to go light, keep it short, and progress slowly. YVO shared their Rucking 101 guide with us, and their six-week plan starts with about 8 pounds for roughly 30 minutes, twice a week. From there, it changes only one thing each week: time, weight, or distance. It also builds in an easier "deload" week to let your body recover.
Credit: YVO Warrior
A few more tips:
Choose a vest that sits close to your body. In a small 2020 study of 9 women, participants kept going longer in an evenly loaded vest than with a backpack.
Walk tall and avoid hunching forward under the load.
Stop and rest if something hurts beyond normal muscle tiredness.
And if you have osteoporosis, talk to your doctor or a physical therapist first. The UK's 2022 consensus statement on exercise for osteoporosis advises avoiding deep forward bending. It says people with a spine fracture or several low-trauma fractures should usually keep impact to about the level of brisk walking.
Rucking won't do everything for your bones, but it's an easy, social way to add load to something you already love doing. Pair it with strength training, and your skeleton gets more of what it needs. Like everything in our bodies, it’s one piece of the puzzle that might fit in well with your routine for healthy aging.
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The information provided about wellness and health is for general informational and educational purposes only. We are not licensed medical professionals, and the content here should not be considered medical advice. Talk to a doctor before trying any of these suggestions.
