Careful running with that backpack, too heavy/too fast will hurt your back.

I have a friend in the U.S. Army, he said during basic they ran with no more than 50 pound rucks.

Running with any weight is generally a no-no, especially during BCT since uncle sugar is determined to bring new soldiers into mother army these days. Trust me, a 50 lb ruck is plenty enough for walking at a brisk pace. Running with weight is plain old foolish considering the impact it has on the knees and ankles.

Originally Posted by FutureMedic

I have a friend in the U.S. Army, he said during basic they ran with no more than 50 pound rucks.

He lied.

There are times where we have to run, ruck or not, such as when the formation accordions or when at a very brisk march and going downhill, but for the most part running with a ruck is bad ju-ju for the reasons stated.

Running with a ruck needs to be left for when there is no choice. Basic does not run their soldiers with rucks @ 50 pounds.

Tell your friend that he's going to get someone hurt being the braggart.

The best exercises to make one strong with carrying packs are the cobra (basically where you have someone hold your calves while you are on your stomach, hands on the side of your head and you contract your back muscles to raise your body) and ... err that exercise where you push weights vertically up (machine is good in avoiding injury).
Man the name of those exercises in English elude me...
Maybe Army boot has gone soft and they won't allow for more than 50 lbs now.

Oh yeah and leg exercises.

Don't make running with packs a part of your regular fitness regimen. You might want to do it once every now and then just to see which muscles aren't doing too well but the toll it takes on your knees etc. is not good... especially if you are growing.
The Army will supply the heavy packs for you. Just make sure your muscles are ready for them.

Yeah, leg exercises such as squats are good, aim for more reps and less weight, since rucking is a whole lot of putting one leg in front of the other. One thing I do when I know I'm going to be humping some weight for an extended period of time is I add a lot more stair runs into my weekly PT schedule. 20-30 minutes of stairs at about 75% speed does wonders for the quads and calves as well as help the stability muscles around your ankles. Stability plays a pretty big role in rucking, especially on harsh terrain, but you won't see much of that at first, just a lot of concrete/gravel roads.

A nice side effect of running stairs is it really helps your run times. After implementing a moderate dose of stairs in my PT routine, I knocked off about 1:30 off my 2-mile run time at first, and began to shave seconds off each month down to about 13:15 where I'm currently peaked (can never get 100%, dammit!).

Power cleans and hang cleans are good exercises to do.

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

Maybe Army boot has gone soft and they won't allow for more than 50 lbs

My friend, I think a lot of it has to do with the MOS and DS's. We NEVER ran with rucks, ever. (Running puts about three times your normal weight in stress on your knee. 165 lbs body plus 55 lbs ruck equals 660 lbs while running. Now tell me that much pressure is good.) However, 50-55 pounds sounds light to me, but again that depends on mos / SOP.

Exercises:
Whenever you work out, increase your repetitions every time. Never stop at the same number. If you do, when you do your PT test, you will stop at that number. You have to continually progress in order to improve. Push yourself harder each time and you will continuously get better.

Runs I would take longer rather than faster. If you want to work on speed, do 30/60s. If you want to work on endurance run 3, 5, 8 miles.

Also, work your abs after a run. The hip flexor muscle is a big factor in sit ups and it gets worked during the run as well, so its a good time to keep that workout going.

Yeah I guess so.
Woops. I just assume everyone goes through the same boot because that's how it was where I served.

So, you're looking to get into RMC as an Infantry Officer? As an ex-Cadet, I can give you a rough idea of what to expect for PT standards there for the test.

Push ups - 28, no time limit (35 pts)
Situps - 35 in 2 mins. (35 pts)
Standing long jump - 195 cm (35 pts)
20 meter shuttle run - Level 9.5, or 84 laps (depends on how you want to count. 50 pts)
10 m agility run - 17.8 seconds (35 pts)

However, these are the minimum standards, and with just those, you're looking at scoring 190/500 on the test. Pass mark is 250/500. And as an Infantry Officer, you'll want to be in better shape than your soldiers...how else would you expect to lead them effectively? So, you'll need to not only meet the minimum standard, but exceed it.

As you have plenty of time to go, I suggest gradually increasing the number of pushups and situps per shot, as opposed to per day. Being able to do 50 pushups in the run of a day is fine, but when you consider that even on Basic Training, you'll be lucky to do less than 100 pushups a day (in intervals of 25), and FYOP (First Year Orientation Period) is no easier. I found that Basic was nothing compared to FYOP.

Also, make sure you increase your running ability. Not so much time, but distance. I suggest working your way up to 10 km a pop, and then decrease the time you can do it in. You'll be well prepared for RMC in that case. However, don't stop there. The farther you can go, the better.

As for rucksacks...careful if you start running with it on. Actually, in the CF, it's illegal to run with a rucksack on (I kid you not), so the Army has come up with something called the 'Airborne Shuffle'. It's like running, but your feet barely leave the ground. More of a really fast walk, actually. Good ol' loopholes.

If there's anything else you want to know about the RMC, or the CF in general, just send a PM my way, and I'll answer as soon as I can.

Good luck out there.