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.