If you use your sniffer and your imagination, you can smell the turkey roasting in the oven. Sniff a little more and you’ll smell the pies baking, too. It’s the Holidays — one of the best times of the year. And it’s also a time of year when many hunters lose fitness. We’ll discuss the reasons why, what to do about them, and develop a holiday hunting fitness plan you can stick to, so you can make progress this holiday season instead of making excuses why you “couldn’t” train.

Here’s what you might not realize: Cold weather hunting fitness is a real thing. You can use your training and your nutrition to make yourself more cold resistant. That means each frosty day in the tree stand is a little less miserable. It means that your legs will have more drive on frigid marches uphill.

If you’ve been following along in the endurance world, you may have noticed recently that muscular endurance training has been a hot button for the majority of this year. This is largely due to some spectacular race results particularly, at UTMB (the most competitive ultra-marathon in the world) where Ruth Croft and Tom Evans took the top podium spots. Each mentioned how weighted hiking was a huge part of their training and a big factor in their success. Their statements created controversy. It seems that coaches who didn't have athletes podium at the UTMB had a hard time accepting that Crofts’s and Evans’s muscular endurance training methods had such a big impact on their success. It’s been the topic of much discussion since, with coaches questioning if muscular endurance training is effective.

I remember the first time I saw a whitetail walk in front of my tree stand. I was 12-years-old and you could have sworn that I was running a jackhammer. The buck fever shakes took control of me. Hell, it wasn’t even a buck, and I didn’t even shoot. But that’s to be expected from a boy on one of his first solo sits. And if we’re real honest, we still get feverish when the right critter walks in front of us. There’s nothing wrong with that. Excitement is part of the fun. There is, however, a problem with excitement that turns into stress that’s not managed. I’m going to teach you two, simple C02 tolerance tests to help see if that’s an issue for you.

Beau Martonik of East Meets West Outdoors and I each grew up hunting whitetails in Pennsylvania. So, early November through December is a time near and dear to each of our hearts. That's the time that extends from the whitetail rut until rifle season opens just after Thanksgiving. We've talked a lot about whitetail hunting over the years, and the toll all-day sits during the whitetail rut take on a hunter. I decided to help other hunters decrease the effect of that toll.

Picture this: You’re standing at the top of a ridge after a big climb. Your pack is heavy — it’s full of elk meat. You look back, your hunting buddies are still slowly making their way up the ridge. So, you lean on your trekking poles and look out over the country while you wait for them. Then you notice something that surprises you. Your back, shoulders, and legs all feel great, even after a heavy uphill climb. You look back down the mountain and smile. You did all those kettlebell workouts for hunting prep, and they paid off.