When Rucking Meets Real Life: How Daily Chores Changed My Body, Gut, and Strength

By Momma J | The Frozen Herbalist

"She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms." – Proverbs 31:17

When I first strapped on a 20 lb ruck pack, I was not out for adventure. I was cleaning the coop. Hauling feed. Running up and down our driveway in Alaska with an armful of groceries. The weight felt like part of life so why not make it work for me?

I did not call it “rucking” at first. I called it chores. But what started as simple, weighted work around the homestead quickly became a form of functional fitness and a quiet transformation. Over the course of a month, I noticed big changes not just in stamina or strength, but in the core of my health.

The Impact on Visceral Fat

Visceral fat is not just belly weight—it is the deep fat that wraps around organs and drives inflammation, disease, and fatigue. It is sneaky, stubborn, and dangerous.

Studies confirm that rucking, a loaded walking-style movement effectively reduces visceral fat stores. The constant resistance of a pack, paired with low-impact endurance, activates large muscle groups and increases fat oxidation. In a study published in Obesity (2009), load-bearing aerobic exercise led to significant reductions in visceral adipose tissue, even when weight loss was minimal elsewhere.[^1]

Rucking engages the body’s metabolic pathways at a unique pace: slow enough to use fat as fuel, heavy enough to engage deep muscles and lymphatic drainage. For homesteaders like us, who are already hauling feed bags and dragging hoses, we are halfway there.

🦴 Building Bone Density the Way God Designed

Most women are told to take calcium and sit still. But bones respond to weight, not warnings. When the body is exposed to load-bearing movement like rucking, it responds by increasing bone mineral density especially in the hips and spine.

A study in Bone (2017) showed that weighted walking improved femoral neck and lumbar spine density in premenopausal and postmenopausal women, outperforming walking without load.[^2] Another study in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that rucking produced significant bone-loading benefits without risk of injury when properly scaled.[^3]

This is how God designed our bodies: to grow stronger through work. Every time I pick up the pack and get to scrubbing floors or cleaning out pens, I am feeding my bones more than milk ever did.

Rucking & the Gut Biome: Movement That Feeds Microbes

What caught me by surprise was not just the physical endurance it was the change in my gut.

The awful, stinky sweat I used to battle disappeared. My digestion became easier. My cravings steadied. My body stopped screaming for sugar and started asking for water, protein, and greens. Something deeper was healing.

Turns out, rucking is also a powerful gut biome enhancer. A 2014 study in Gut Microbes showed that low-intensity endurance activity increases microbial diversity, encouraging bacteria that regulate inflammation and produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), crucial for gut lining and immune health.[^4]

Another study from Frontiers in Nutrition (2018) found that mechanical movement like walking with load improved peristalsis, reduced cortisol, and altered microbial health in ways similar to dietary changes.[^5]

In other words: when you move your body, you feed your microbes. When you sweat through resistance, especially with intentional breathing and upright posture, you help the body eliminate toxins through lymph and gut flow, not just through calories burned.

What Has Changed Beyond the Physical

I no longer wake up with aching shoulders from side sleeping. My jaw tension is down. My sweat smells… clean. My muscles are stronger, and so is my patience. I am faster at chores, more graceful with my body, and more rooted in my identity.

This is not just about weight. It is about stewardship. My bones are denser, my gut is stronger, my immune system more alert, and my mind quieter. All of this from doing what I already do—but with intentionality and load.

Where I Am Heading

This is not a fad. It is a return. A return to God’s design, where women and men are strong not from gyms and powders, but from doing what He called us to do—building homes, nurturing life, feeding the soil, hauling wood, and bearing up under the work He gives us.

If science wants to catch up with that and call it “beneficial,” so be it. But we knew it already.

So grab a pack. Fill it with books, sand, feed, or rocks. Strap it on your back. And just go do what needs doing.

You are stronger than you think. Your bones, belly, heart and soul will thank you.

As always, Stay Rooted,

Momma J

📝 Citations

[^1]: Irving, B. A., Davis, C. K., Brock, D. W., Weltman, J. Y., Swift, D., Barrett, E. J., ... & Weltman, A. (2009). Effect of exercise training intensity on abdominal visceral fat and body composition. Obesity, 17(3), 606-612.

[^2]: Karatrantou, K., Gerodimos, V., & Zafeiridis, A. (2017). Effects of weight-bearing exercise on bone health in women. Bone, 95, 103–109.

[^3]: Reynolds, K. L., et al. (1999). Injury risk in Army soldiers rucking with different loads. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 13(1), 36-43.

[^4]: Clarke, S. F., et al. (2014). Exercise and associated dietary extremes impact on gut microbial diversity. Gut Microbes, 5(3), 234–243.

[^5]: Allen, J. M., et al. (2018). Exercise alters gut microbiota composition and function in lean and obese humans. Frontiers in Nutrition, 5, 34.