Technique
How to pack a ruck so it stops pulling you backwards
Dense items high and against your spine, the reason your shoulders hurt, and what belongs where.
7 min read · updated 16 August 2026
Two packs with identical contents and identical total weight can feel completely different to carry. The difference is where the mass sits, and it is the cheapest performance improvement available to you — it costs nothing and takes two minutes.
The physics, briefly
A pack's centre of gravity wants to be as close to your own as possible. Your centre of mass sits roughly at navel height, near your spine. The further the pack's mass sits from that point, the more leverage it exerts on you.
Mass low in the pack pulls you backwards and down. Mass far from your back — out at the pack's outer wall — levers you backwards. You compensate by leaning forward from the waist, and holding that lean for an hour is what produces the classic post-ruck lower back ache.
The target
Dense items high — roughly shoulder-blade height — and pressed against the back panel. Light bulky items fill the space out and down. That is essentially the whole technique.
Where each thing goes
| Zone | What lives there | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Against the back panel, high | Plate, water bladder, anything dense | Closest to your centre of mass; minimum leverage |
| Main body, middle | Spare layers, food | Fills the space; keeps dense items pinned forward |
| Bottom | Sleeping gear, soft bulky items | Light things belong where mass hurts most |
| Top of the main compartment | Rain shell, gloves, hat | Needed at short notice, without unpacking |
| Lid and hip-belt pockets | Snacks, phone, first aid | Reachable without stopping |
| Side pockets | Water bottles | Symmetrical — a bottle on one side only makes you list |
The reach test
Ask one question of everything you pack: if I need this, will I have to empty the bag to reach it? Anything you might need in the next hour — rain shell, snack, first aid — belongs where you can get it without stopping and unpacking. Anything you will need only at the end can be buried.
This sounds obvious and is routinely got wrong, usually with the rain jacket. A shell at the bottom of a packed rucksack is a shell you will not put on until you are already wet.
Lay your gear into the pack and get scored on load, balance and reach, with the centre of gravity computed from where each item actually sits.
Score your loadout →Strap order matters
Most people carry a pack badly by fastening it in the wrong order. Correct sequence:
- Loosen everything, then swing the pack on.
- Fasten the hip belt first, sitting on the top of your hip bones, not your waist. Tighten it.
- Tighten the shoulder straps until they are snug but not carrying most of the load.
- Pull the load-lifter straps — the ones angling from the top of the shoulder straps to the pack body — until the pack sits close to your back.
- Fasten the sternum strap last, loosely. It stops the shoulder straps sliding outwards; it is not a load-bearing strap.
Done properly, a good portion of the weight rides on your hips rather than hanging from your shoulders. If your shoulders are burning after 20 minutes, the hip belt is usually the culprit — either too loose or sitting too high.
Padding and comfort
A plate or dense object directly against your spine is uncomfortable at 3 km and unbearable at 15. Put something soft between it and the back panel — a folded towel, a foam mat, a spare fleece. It costs nothing and changes the experience of a long ruck completely.
Compression straps are not decorative. A load that shifts as you walk forces you to constantly correct, which is fatiguing in a way that is hard to notice while it happens and obvious afterwards. Cinch everything down until nothing moves when you shake the pack.