Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, folks, welcome to the podcast. My name is Dave
from Dashiell's Fitness Hope. You are all fit and well
if you've not been here before, where have you been?
You've been missing out on all the phone have a
look at all the other episodes. I think we are
on episode sixteen. Don't quote me on that though. And
this week I wanted to talk about rooking. I have
(00:23):
made a video on my YouTube channel, which I'll make
a link to in the description, but I just wanted
to have a little chat about it here and just
show you how it fits in with my kind of
circumstances at the moment, speaking of which my training has
been going okay, I was in a bit of a lull,
should I say, post Christmas, being injured, not been out much,
(00:45):
put on quite a few pounds. I'd stepped on the
scales and I was up to ninety one CAGs and
you know my fighting weight is normally around you know,
low eighties eighty four, So I had put a few
pounds on and it was it was kind of notice.
So I've embarked on a bit of a program and
I'm working on a program at the moment which I'm
(01:08):
going to send out to the masses and when it's done,
and it's a kind of a six week challenge. It's
a fat loss strength training challenge, so it's it's kind
of accelerated fat loss using metabolic workouts. So I've been
working on a few tweaks on that, and I've been
doing some of the workouts and some of you know,
taking some of my own medicine, so to speak. And
(01:31):
I'm down around six CAGs now in is it six kgs?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
It's not.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It's three kgs in three weeks. So that's about six pounds,
should I say in three weeks? So that's going okay,
So I'm going to I'm going to keep your posted
on that. I have planned to do a challenge in
in summer. So I'm kind of in a base phase
at the moment, sort of general physical preparedness, so getting
the weight off, getting back down to my fighting weight
(02:00):
and and putting putting a bit of muscle on.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
But i want to.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Stay fairly, fairly lean because it's it's going to be
an endurance challenge.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So that's where I'm at at the moment. Now.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I have I've been I've been following like a nutrition guidelines.
I haven't been doing that, you know, a really strict
diet plan. And again I've been taking my own medicine
on that, following my own.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Advice, and it's been working. Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I've been planning my meals and that's that's been good.
Now I have come off the wagon a few times,
and I've kind of identified a few key areas where
where I'm lacking a bit when it comes to food,
because I do love my food. So a few things
spring to mind. One was when my wife took some
(02:47):
impromptu time off when we were off together, kids were
at school, so we went out and we had a
cream tea and it was just a nice thing to do,
you know, and it was a it was a lovely afternoon.
So so yes, I had a couple of SCons and
Kate and things like that, but you know, I factored
that all into my plan and got back onto it afterwards.
The next time was a new bakery just opened in town,
(03:11):
and my kids love a bakery and they know that
I love a bakery. So again they were coming back
from school with my wife and they wanted to get
me something, so they got me the biggest Belgian born
Danish pastry type thing with a cherry on the top,
and it was huge, and because they know I love
a Danish pastry, and yeah, and they were, you know,
(03:33):
when I got home from work, they were all sitting there, expecting,
expectantly watching me eat it.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So I couldn't really say no, so, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And the other times, I think it was when you know,
I'd had an overnight work commitment and I'd come back
the next day and my wife's been working all day
and we hadn't planned anything to tea, so we kind
of raided the freezer and you know, ma nutrition on
that day wasn't optimum. And I think, I'm I'm kind
of letting you know this because it's it's okay to
(04:03):
do that. It's okay to have a you know, not
so strict a diet, but allow yourself those little moments,
you know, because it eating gives me such joy and
such pleasure, and eating with other people, you know, eating
with my family, it gives me even more pleasure. So
I'm not going to sacrifice those sorts of things. And
you know, I am still losing the weight because, like
(04:24):
I say, I'm planning the meals and it's so much
easier when I know what I'm going to eat when
it makes it so much easier for me. And I've
been keeping a protein high and just cut out all
the sweet stuff. Other than the times that I've just mentioned,
what I wanted to talk about them were rocking. So
what is what is rocking? Well, it's not a new thing.
(04:45):
It's kind of become popular, certainly in the state side,
but it's been around in.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The military for years.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
You know that walking with heavy packs is their stable.
It is their bread and butter. It's just what they do.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Soldiers are required to walk long distances carrying heavy packs
and then fighting at the end of it, you know,
so they need to be fit, they need to be
able to do that, and it is a way of
conditioning the body is to walk with a heavy pack.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Now, it's not kind of new.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
To me in one sense because I'm part of my
one of my roles is as a mountain leader. So
I've led groups in the mountains on expeditions and I've
been required to carry heavy bags, you know, on a
two to three night expedition in the hills. Being self
sufficient carrying all my stuff to live in the hills
(05:40):
for a few days plus you know all the emergency
case groups, shelters, ropes, big first day kits, you know
all that kind of stuff, so food and water. So
I'm kind of no stranger to carrying a heavy pack,
but it's kind of always been a means to an
end for me. You know, It's not something that how
we choose to do if I wasn't going on an expedition,
(06:03):
so that that concept of it being an exercise is
kind of new to me. So what what does it involve? Well,
it basically involves putting a rucksack on and walking with
a you know, putting some weight in it and walking
with it. Now, why would you want to do that? Well,
I do enjoy my running, and I'm kind of using
(06:25):
it to compliment my running because I say I enjoy running,
I'm not particularly good at it, especially at the moment
when I'm carrying a few extra pounds. It's quite hard
on the joints of my recovery is quite slow. So
I found that the rooking it gives me a way
of of going out for a walk. Like going out
(06:47):
for a walk doesn't really cut it for me. It's
just not you know, I can go out for a
walk and I'll my heart rate will stay really low
and I don't feel as though I've got any any
benefits from it. Now, this depends on how fit you
are really, but if I'm going up for a walk
with the family, you know that's I don't count that
as exercise or part of my my fitness at all.
(07:08):
So I can put a heavy pack on and I
can get my heart rate up, not too high that
I'm puffing and panting, but high enough to get some
cardiovascular improvement there. So so it's really good for doing that.
It's low impact, so you're not like running where you
(07:28):
jar in your feet every time. You are just walking
with with with it on, and it's going to improve
your strength as well because you're carrying that heavy pack.
You know it's gonna it's going to be a really
good workout for your for your lower body especially you
know your gluts and your quads and your hamstrings, so
you're getting that as well as your your cardiovascular you know,
(07:48):
your heart and.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Lungs being improved.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You'll also there'll also be a certain amount of upper
body and strength required as well on your shoulders and
core definitely, because you need to brace against it and
keep it from pulling your back, so you're going to
feel that core benefit as well.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You'll get an.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Excess calorie burn more so than you would if you
just went out for a walk. You know, maybe not
as much as a run. I've not done much research
into that, but you'd certainly probably have to go out
longer with a rook to get the same effect or
calorie burn as a run. But yeah, you will get
more of a calorie burn than if you just were
(08:28):
going out for a walk. It's going to help you
balance your bone density as well. So there's quite a
lot going for it and not particularly many downsides other
than the fact that you're going to be walking around
with a rocksack on. Nobody knows what you've got in it,
so though the way I do it, I've got an
old day sack. I fished one out of the loft.
(08:52):
It's just an old berghouse day sack, and I've thrown
in it. What I'm throwing it My weight's best. So
I got a weights vest which is twenty kgs. It
is adjustable, and threw that in the rock sock. Cinched
it all down so it's not moving around and I
just pop that on and I go out for a walk.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I started off going out for like twenty minutes in
the evening with it on, and I did notice it.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
It was, yeah, it pulled on the shoulders.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
It's yeah, did you know my core was bracing my
core and I could feel it there and in my legs,
and I basically got longer and longer. And then, you know,
then I started putting it on going do the school run,
and then we go out for a family walk, you know,
for an hour couple of hours, and I'll put it
on and just just walk with it on, and it
just looks like I've got a rucksack on. You could
(09:41):
wear a weights vest, but it just looks a bit
odd when you're walking around with a family with a
weights vest on.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So yeah, I do. I am into it.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I'm kind of doing more of it, and I'm kind
of suggesting you maybe give it a go, you know,
get out of rocksack.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Now, how did you get started? Then?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, I guess, you know, starting with between ten sort
of pounds minimum, between ten and twenty pounds, which is
what five five k five to ten kgs something like that,
and they reckon if you put five kgs on your back.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
You don't really notice it, so start low.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I think it's like anything I mentioned last week, the
progressive overload and the said principle, you know, the specific
adaptation to impose demands. Now, if you haven't got a
clue what I'm talking about, go and listen to a
last week's episode.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
It's all in there.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
But the thing about progressive overload is, you know, you
start slow and then you incrementally overload it. My weight's
best is twenty kgs and it it has really small
little weights in it. I think they're just about one
and a half kg's in it. Lots of them and
they've got little pockets, so I can take them out
or put them, ad them incrementally to make it, to
(11:01):
make it heavier or lighter, depending on.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
What I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
But you know, you don't have to buy weights. You know,
you might have a dumb bell lying round, you might
have a kettlebell line line round.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Put that in.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I might be recommend putting a couple of towels in
or something, maybe old towels, because the missus will go
mad if you put your new towels in there. Yeah,
put put put something in there to bulk it out
of it. Put a kettle bell in there or what
or whatever you've got. Bricks can go in there, you know,
put a couple of bricks in there. I wrap them
(11:33):
up in a blanket. Not not the best duve and
what else. Just you know, milk we have the big
massive like is it are they two liter or three
liters milk things? You know, milk cartons? I guess, plastic ones.
So you know we have loads of those kicking around,
empty ones. You can fill them, a couple of them
(11:54):
full of water and pot put them in whatever that is,
you know, just pop it in a rocksack and pop
it on and can just go for a walk ten minutes,
fifteen minutes and just see how you get on. So yeah,
I'm a big I'm a big sort of believer in
trying new things and you know, anything to mix it
(12:16):
up for me really like you know, like I say,
I do enjoy my running. But rooking is kind of
where it's at now. There's loads of events in America.
It's quite they have this big rooking community, believe it
or not. And people turn up and that you know
that loads of people get up together and they all
go rooking together ten miles, you know, and it's a
(12:37):
bit of a thing, it's a bit of a community.
But I guess we're just not ready for that yet.
Over here it might explode. Who knows, you you just
don't know. Maybe I could get on, maybe I could
get on dragons down or something. Now that the guys
that that have I'm not saying they've invented it, because
they haven't invented invented this because it's been around years.
(13:00):
But some guys that have helped to market the concept.
They've started up a company called go Rook and they
sell roock sacks specifically for this with weight plates, and
they cost a fortune. It cost like a couple of
hundred dollars or something, and there's one that costs bout
three hundred dollars, you know, loads of money. And they've
(13:22):
even put like made shoes, like rooking shoes, so Rook specific.
So there is a market for it out there. Now.
I'm not saying you do that, but I you know,
if you've got a rocksack lying around like a day
sack or something, then you know, bob a bitter.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Weight in it.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I would wear sturdy footwear, don't go wearing your your
Vibo barefoots. I personally put my I've got some like
lightweight hiking boots, so I pop them on and wear those.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
But I guess some like trail shoes or something like
that would work as well.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
But yeah, the main thing is to get out there
and give it a go. Okay, folks, that's about it
for this week. I'm going to keep you posted on
the program that I'm devising and I'll let you know
how it's going with my own personal journey as well
(14:22):
with my conditioning and see how that's going, So keep
a lookout for that. Head over to Dave Fiel's fitness
on Facebook, which is where most of the most of
the action happens, and tune in next week for more
fun and fitness games. Okay, folks, by for now,