How Weightpace Came About

A note from Mauricio Barboza, Founder of Weightpace.

People often ask where the idea for Weightpace came from.

Most assume I come from a weightlifting background or that I’ve spent years rucking.

Truth is, I didn’t. I just wanted to get more out of the steps I was already taking.

I’ve always enjoyed being active, especially outdoors, but I was never particularly drawn to traditional weightlifting or structured workouts. Walking and hiking came naturally to me, so I started looking for a way to make that movement more challenging without completely changing what I was already doing.

Adding weight seemed like the obvious answer.

Put on a weighted vest. Carry a loaded pack. Keep moving.

But once I started doing that, I realized something was missing.

I could track how far I went, how much weight I carried, and how long it took.

But I couldn’t easily answer a much more interesting question:

What had I actually completed—and how did I perform compared to the last time?

Distance alone didn’t tell the full story.

Neither did the amount of weight.

And traditional pace didn’t account for the load I was carrying.

So I started looking at the problem differently.

If both the load and the distance matter, why not combine them?

That’s where Weightpace began.

Load × Distance = Weightpace

That gave me one number I could use to quantify what I had completed.

Then came the second question:

How did time affect my performance?

That became Weightpace Rate—Weightpace divided by time.

That gave me two simple measures:

Weightpace tells you what you completed.

Weightpace Rate tells you how you performed.

What started as a way to make my own steps more challenging became something I thought could be useful much more broadly—to walkers, hikers, ruckers, runners, athletes, fitness communities, event organizers, and anyone who trains or moves with additional load.

Weightpace wasn’t created to replace rucking, lifting, running, or any other form of training.

It was created to give them something in common:

a universal way to measure movement under load.


Mauricio Barboza
Founder, Weightpace