I hope Garmin's latest surprise feature won’t stay exclusive to just the Instinct 3 Tactical Edition

Garmin announced the new Tactical Edition of the latest Instinct model last week, and among the mouth-watering features and specs, one might have easily missed a big upgrade: rucking mode.

I’ve been waiting for years for the brand to add this. Rucking is an activity derived from military training that involves carrying around a weighted backpack in the name of fitness (or, more accurately, to increase fitness).

Rucking became popular in recent years outside the army, thanks to its simplicity and musculoskeletal benefits. All you have to do is don a weighted bag and go for a walk or, potentially, a run. Couldn’t be easier – we do this every day when we commute.

It feels like I’ve long been waiting for a rucking mode to arrive on my Garmin watch since forever. Even though I don’t specifically carry a weighted backpack for the sake of it, I often run/jog with a running backpack, which slows me down and increases my heart and respiration rate.

Without being able to tell my watch that I’m doing said activity with a weighted bag, it might just think that I suddenly got more unfit. After all, a watch can only ‘see’ with its sensors, which don’t extend to noticing a bag on your back.

My seemingly subpar performance affects my VO2 Max and fitness age estimations, as well as a bunch of other metrics in the Connect app. It's not good.

The rucking mode is an answer to this. The activity implies you’re carrying a backpack, and I can only assume this means the Garmin Instinct 3 takes this into account when looking at your vitals.

The only issue is that the rucking mode is currently exclusive to the army-ready Instinct 3 Tactical Edition, which doesn’t help me as a Garmin Forerunner 965 user.

The company tends to roll out features introduced in its new wearables to older Garmin watches, but there is no word about whether that might be the case with rucking.

I reached out to the brand, and a representative said that “Garmin does not provide forward-looking comments on product roadmap or feature compatibility with existing or future products.”

Oh, well.

It makes sense for Garmin to introduce the rucking mode on a smartwatch aimed at the military, but I hope we’ll soon see it on other outdoor and multisport watches. One can hope!