Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Rouse
Hi Rebecca, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
The earliest influence that has gotten me where I am in my life today was getting involved in gymnastics at the age of three. My parents started me in ballet when I was two, but after my apparent disinterest in tutus and ballet slippers, I was introduced to leotards and somersaults. The rest, as they say, is history. I began competing at age seven and continued until high school. Competitive gymnastics is quite demanding, on both the body and the schedule. Because of this, from a young age, gymnastics instilled in me an immense amount of structure and discipline – two things which I have carried with me into adulthood. From a physical standpoint, it fostered strength, power, body awareness, flexibility, and mobility – also aspects that I have carried into my athletic career as a competitive weightlifter as an adult.
In college, I met my now-husband, who has served as an active-duty Marine for over 19 years. In our 13 years together, we’ve spent as much (if not more) time geographically apart than together – whether for deployment, military training evolutions, or my own career obligations. We’ve moved 7 times in those 13 years, including two cross-country road trips. We’ve started a business and a nonprofit. We’ve supported each other through illnesses, injuries, and surgeries. What gymnastics afforded me in terms of physical strength, being a military spouse has provided me in terms of mental and emotional strength and resilience.
Being a military spouse has also opened my eyes to just how much military members put their brains and bodies through in service to our country. Through my husband, as well as my own networks, I have met countless friends and colleagues who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, gunshot wounds, limb amputation(s), PTSD, and myriad physical injuries as a result of their time spent serving our country and communities in uniform – both as military personnel and first responders. Gaining a deeper understanding of their sacrifices and commitments to selfless service has opened my eyes to the vast need for effective treatments and therapies that result in actual healing – not just ones that put band-aids on bullet holes (quite literally, at times), so to speak. This was a driving force for why we started our nonprofit, the Semper Stronger Foundation, and for the trajectory-shift in my coaching career from working with general population clientele to working primarily with military members, first responders, and veterans.
I am fortunate to be able to wake up every day and live a life of purpose and fulfillment in my professional life, in tandem with my athletic career in competitive weightlifting, which I’ve been doing for about five years. Since I first stepped on the weightlifting platform as a novice lifter in 2019, I have worked my way up to winning my weight class in the 2023 Texas state championships and finishing 3rd in the nation at the 2024 National Championships.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Life is rarely a smooth road without challenges, forks, and unforeseen obstacles. It’s facing, and overcoming, these obstacles that shapes us and strengthens us. One of the biggest obstacles I’ve faced has been with my health. In 2009, at the age of 18, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC), a form of inflammatory bowel disease. UC is an autoimmune condition for which there is no cure. I was a freshman in college at the time of diagnosis, freshly out of ‘the nest’ on the complete opposite side of the country from my family and my childhood doctors. The symptoms were painful, urgent, and highly unpleasant, and I spent most of my college years extremely sick and heavily medicated on prescription drugs to combat the symptoms in a (mostly futile) attempt to achieve remission. Due to the immense pressure that I put on myself to achieve perfect grades and highest honors, remission during those years was elusive, as I found myself flaring up every semester around midterms and again at final exams – a product of self-induced chronically high stress levels. It wasn’t until after college that my flare-ups reduced in frequency, once I was no longer a student and began to find purpose and fulfillment in the work that I was doing to help others as a health and fitness professional.
Also during my early college years, I enrolled in the ROTC program with aspirations of becoming an officer in the U.S. military upon graduation. Those aspirations were never realized because of the UC, which I came to find out is disqualifying for all branches of military service. Just when I thought I had my future all figured out, I had to forge a new path for my life. It ended up being a blessing, as I eventually discovered my true calling and purpose; but it was crushing it the time.
Within about a year after my husband and I got married, he was selected for a 7-month overseas deployment. As a 25-year-old brand-new military spouse, in the early stages of my career as fitness manager, I was suddenly completely alone, with minimal communication with my husband, who was across the world in the middle of the ocean and in foreign countries. Part way through the deployment, I had a series of back-to-back unfortunate events: I lost a mentor to suicide, my great aunt dropped dead, our dog suffered a severe spine injury that rendered him unable to walk, and I had to evacuate our home with only our ‘essential belongings’ in tow due to one of the infamous southern California fires that was just a few miles away – all of this occurring within a 2-week time span. There’s no guidebook that prepares a young, new military spouse for these types of things, let alone how to navigate them solo. But I figured it out and came out stronger and more resilient as a result.
As we’ve progressed through our journey as a military couple and now also business partners, we’ve certainly encountered our fair share of obstacles and troubled waters. Each one has helped us learn, grow, and bounce back stronger – both as a couple and as individuals with our respective careers, aspirations, and journeys.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Semper Stronger / Semper Stronger Foundation?
My organization is called Semper Stronger, which my husband and I co-founded in 2020 after I lost my corporate personal training/management job at the beginning of the Covid era. “Semper” comes from ‘Semper Fidelis’, the motto of the Marine Corps, which translates to ‘always faithful’. We took ‘Semper’ and combined it with ‘Stronger’, because strength – in its various forms – is the intertwining thread in our lives that has enabled us to do all that we do, and it’s how we strive to inspire and empower others.
The company is an online fitness platform providing 1-on-1 fitness coaching, training programs, and membership options to clients all over the world. Our mission is to empower people to build physical and mental strength and fitness so that they can overcome life’s challenges with confidence.
In addition to the online app-based component of the business, I also work in-person with military members, veterans, and first responders. As a tactical strength and conditioning coach, I work hands-on with units and departments on fitness and wellness, and also speak at conferences on a variety of wellness-related topics, such as fitness, nutrition, and sleep/recovery, in order to help men and women in uniform improve their short and long-term health outcomes and quality of life.
In 2023, we started our nonprofit, the Semper Stronger Foundation. Our objectives are twofold: 1) to support injured service members, combat veterans, and first responders injured in the line of duty on their journey towards better health and longevity; and 2) to provide military members and first responders who are currently serving with knowledge and practical tools they can implement to train/fuel/recover effectively, minimize injury risk, and maximize quality of life during and after time in service.
Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to continue to share knowledge and practical application tools to help as many people as possible become stronger, healthier, and more resilient. Whether military, veteran, first responder, or civilian – everyone can benefit from improving their physical and mental health, strength, and wellness. Despite the countless sources of information on the subject, and myriad ways to improve in these areas, our society at large continues to be weak, sick, and unhealthy; and we are on a mission to help remedy this.
I aim to secure more opportunities to get in front of audiences of all sizes to empower and inspire people in this arena. We are working to grow our platform’s reach, giving more people access to affordable and accessible strength training and nutrition tools and resources. Modern medicine is necessary, absolutely; but it is based largely on treating problems after they occur. Our approach is to guide people to become their own advocates for good health, taking a more proactive and preventive approach to health and wellness through training and lifestyle means. There is a lot of work to be done, but we are committed to the cause.
In addition, my husband is closing in on 20 years of active service in the Marine Corps. As we prepare for his retirement from the military, we are also gearing up for some big changes in our personal life, as he plans his transition into civilian life and an entirely new career field. He has aspirations to work with our nation’s youth, ages 13-17, on leadership and personal development, in order to develop the next generation of leaders of our country and communities. We have also talked about opening a Semper Stronger gym – a physical location, in addition to our online platform – where people in our local community can come together and support each other on their mission to live healthier, longer, and stronger.
Wherever the tide takes us, our mission will always be to leave behind a legacy of strength and service.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://semperstronger.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebecca.rouse/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.rouse.5
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rebecca_rouse
- Other: https://semperstrongerfoundation.org/
Image Credits
Michael McKee (Detroit Lifts Photography)
Joel Knoop (Mind Shift Media)
