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As a high school power lifter and athlete, exercise made Melonie feel awesome! Lifting heavy and going hard was also a form of therapy.

Fast forward to adulthood and the ups and downs we experience in this thing called life! Fed up with weight gain and feeling lost, she took the advice of her father and firefighter friend to try walking....and rucking. She was hooked!!!

She trained for a special forces event and has goals of doing another GORUCK Light in the Spring after completing her first Light this Fall! Woo woo!!

I agree with Melonie on rucking feeling better on the knees! Running feels awesome but only in short bursts. This rucking thing gets us going for hours and hours and we can still feel INCREDIBLE during and after....mostly! ;) 

Listen in for more of Melonie's story that is also the story for many of us. What I love about listening to each woman's story is how so so similar we are to each other and this one thing, walking outside with a back pack, and showing up for these crazy events, bonds us even stronger together to have more connection, community, empathy, and kindness. We are not alone sisters, not for one second. We are all out here just like you doing the damn thing!

Her advice for newbies: get a backpack over a weight vest once you go over 20lbs as the compression on your spine can feel and be worse with the weight vest. The backpack can improve posture and remove such aggressive compression. Body nerd chiming in: physiologically speaking, our body's are millions of years practiced in the art of carrying things on our backs and shoulders. Women have an advantage of pregnancy and carrying smaller weights on our fronts. But still, heavier loads should be carried at sides and back.