That’s right, folks, in the most salacious and exciting firmware news since you discovered accelerometer-based hacks related to ‘sleep’ monitoring, Garmin now lets all you ruckers ruck to your heart’s content on the most recent beta update to Instinct 3 AMOLED.
Garmin lets you improve your fitness assessments and the impact of hiking, accounting for the weight you carry. Rucking fantastic!
A: Something that childish elements of the media have to spell-check very carefully. More precisely, it’s a Garmin sports profile, very similar to hiking, that allows you to log pack weight before or after the activity. This excludes the rucking workout from some Garmin calculations and helps prevent training load errors, but it won’t affect elements of training readiness based on HRV and sleep.
Garmin should further refine rucking in the future to give Load-adjusted pace – factoring in the extra resistance and calorie burn calculations – making energy expenditure more accurate (testing by Desfit shows that this change was not implemented, at least for the low weight/distance combo he used); Endurance and strength impact tracking; and heart rate analysis – avoiding misleading spikes due to the extra load. But these don’t seem to have been implemented yet.
For those who bought the Instinct E version, now might be the time to realise that Garmin has already forgotten you.
In Detail – New Instinct 3 Series Feature Updates
All products:
- Added support for Garmin Connect+ – Garmin knows you want to pay more, now you can.
- Added support for Breathing Variations.
- Added Passcode support.
- Added support for additional locations in Weather glance.
Solar/E Only:
- Added Daily Suggested Workouts to the Workouts app.
Solar/AMOLED Only:
- Added Rucking activity.
- Added Support for Pack Weight.
- Various Gaming activity fixes and improvements.
AMOLED Only:
- Added morning report greeting page animations.
More: Garmin Instinct Series – all models, prices and 13-year history
For the complete guide to hiking technology, navigation, and off-grid safety, see the .
Last Updated on 3 October 2026 by tfk the5krunner
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID
btw, any idea what is support for Connect+? I thought that is is Garmin Connect side only
Why are you saying that it’s on AMOLED only and then list it as Solar/AMOLED feature?
ty ! good spot
Rucking is my main event activity, I’m patiently hanging on for it to be released to Fenix 7pro….any idea if or when?
no sy
however you should already be able to add the pack weight info retrospectively to Connect.
what I wrote above and in the linked article includes intel about what WILL be included. It’s a pretty rubbish feature atm. but once all the bits are added it might be useful
Yeah I’ve seen the retrospective pack weight, doesn’t alter any of the stats. Think I’ll hang on with the 7 and see if it’s added in the next 6months.
It might never come. In the meantime you can use the Rucking Calories app from Connect IQ.
Is it like a beta thing or officially released? I’m not seeing an update.
yep, beta. i’ll add in a note above ty
I’m sure this activity will not be dropped on the 7-lineup anytime soon, if ever! They still want us to upgrade. But I am just waiting for the day when Garmin is selling these new activities on Connect IQ for 5,99, which I think is the next move once their customer base is getting used to get ripped off by their new subscription. I mean it’s quite ridiculous that Garmin watch face are amongst the most expensive in their own store!
take the price of Garmin staps/bands too.
I’m not sure i’m opposed to the idea of a $5.99 rucking app per se. just perhaps not as an option on a $1000 watch. dcr discussed this years ago
so long as there is an open standard and competition then i dont mind garmin charging a premium for accessories. watch straps follow a standard and CIQ is a de facto standard.