If you’ve spent any time researching or looking into GORUCK Selection you probably have heard of “The Standards.” The Standards are the absolute bare minimum requirements that you will need to accomplish in order to take part in the event. They are 100% enforced and if you do not meet them upon showing up to GORUCK Selection you are automatically sent home. This means you could be training all year for the event only to get sent away after 45 minutes if you fail one of these requirements. In addition you will not receive a refund for your event. At one point GORUCK would let you come back and try a different Selection class but I think they are planning on stopping that.
The GORUCK Selection Standards
When you show up to GORUCK the cadre will weigh all of the rucks. Any ruck that weighs less than 45 lbs (without food and water) will need to be filled with rocks and other heavy objects to make weight. If your ruck is one of these they won’t tell you how much below 45 lbs it is just that you need to fill it. Once it’s filled they’ll re-weigh it (you won’t see the results) and they’ll let you know if it made the weight. If it did not you are sent packing home.
Once that is over the real GORUCK Standards begin. Below are what will be accomplished in the first four hours or so.
- Minimum 55 push-ups in 2 minutes. (No Ruck)
- Minimum 65 sit-ups in 2 minutes. (No Ruck)
- 5-Mile Run: Maximum time allotted is 40 minutes. (8 min mile, No Ruck)
- 12-Mile Ruck Run: Maximum time allotted is 3 hours 30 minutes.
If you fail any of these events then you are out of GORUCK Selection immediately. This is why it’s so important to practice these… because they will make or break your experience. Some advice I’ve heard is to practice the push-up and sit-up drills at least once per day and keep track of your counts. The 5 mile run and 12 mile ruck should be practiced (for time, pretend it’s the real deal) weekly. Train hard and get confident in your numbers so that when you show up to the beginning you won’t wonder if you’ll make the cut or not.