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.