Colorado hikers add pounds of steel to backpacks for fun and fitness

GOLDEN, Colo. ( KDVR ) — Hiking in Colorado is a popular activity for outdoor enthusiasts, but some hikers combine fun and fitness by adding plates of heavy steel to their backpacks and call it rucking.

It’s pretty simple and straightforward. You take a perfectly good backpack, load it up with deadweight and hit the trail.

“It’s simply hiking with weight,“ said Jennifer Peters, self-described community ruck leader. “So any backpack you have, you want to put some weight in there to increase your load. That’s the point of it. It’s like you’re increasing your load while you are working out.”

Rucking is a combination of an outdoor hike and a fairly serious workout at the same time.

FOX31 joined Jennifer Peters and fellow rucker Mary Revious on the ascent of the Apex Trail in Jefferson County Open Space.

“It’s not that difficult. This is a pretty mild trail but it’s got some great scenery and wildflowers and a bit of elevation. But it’s not overly difficult,” said Peters.

It’s one thing to go hiking in 90-degree weather up in the foothills of Colorado. It’s quite another to add heavy solid steel plates to your backpack just for the “ruck” of it.

Peters and Revious have been rucking for over a year now. They are part of the Just Be Kitchen rucking community .

“I like it because it’s different than other sports that I do. It’s the weight, the endurance, and the fitness piece of it,“ said Revious.

This FOX31 reporter gave it a go, too.

“I didn’t mind the weight at all — waiting for them to come back to the trailhead, that is.”

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