It’s early November and the mercury isn’t pushing up quite so high in the thermometer. And it’s only the middle of the season. There are still plenty of whitetail sits left for the rut and for rifle season. Elk shoulder seasons keep rolling until after the first of the year in some states. Long chukar walks and waterfowl sits await us until well into Q1 of 2026. That’s a whole lot of hunting in the cold. You’ll get more out of it if your body is ready for it.

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.

What Hunting in the Cold Does to Your Body

The cold is an energy drain. Resting in the cold can boost your metabolic rate by 15%, and hiking in the cold can jack your energy expenditure up by up to 34%. That’s a lot of extra calories in both cases, kids. That extra calorie burn has a serious effect on your hunt. It can negatively impact your mood and focus, make your movement sloppy, and decrease your recovery. Whether you’re sitting or you’re hiking, you have to prepare for the cold to take more from you. That means offsetting that calorie drain. We’ll talk about how to do that in just a bit.

Cold hunting also increases your injury risk. Your movement efficiency gets worse. And cold muscles are more susceptible to strains. That’s a double whammy that could lead you to have a real bad time if you don’t take precautions.

Then there’s fatigue. If you’re hunting in the cold for multiple days strung back-to-back, there’s a good chance you’ll get sapped. That’s especially true if you’re not fueling well enough during hunts or between hunts. And as we know from the good folks in the white coats, fatigue significantly increases your chances of injury. 

We’ll talk about how to use training, nutrition, and in-the-field tactics to overcome the energy drain and the double-factor increased injury risk.

Combatting the Cold with Smart In-season Training

You don’t need some elaborate training process to help bulletproof your body against the cold. There are a few, simple things that you can do throughout hunting season to make your body more cold resistant. Here they are.

Daily Mobility Training

I’m not talking about some hour-long yoga-esque session or some drawn out workout deemed as a hunting mobility routine. Literally, doing five minutes of mobility work that targets your ankles, hips, spine, and shoulders does a ton for promoting the health of your tissues (muscles, tendons, ligaments) as you head out into the cold. Doing it daily tells your brain to preserve range of motion, and it ensures that your joints are getting enough blood flow. Each is critical for generally maintaining your joint health. And each becomes even more important when you add in the stiffness and fatigue accumulated in the cold. It’s best if you hit this first thing in the morning.

Weekly Strength Training 

Get your backside in the gym a couple times per week to strength train.

Two strength sessions per week will not only help to maintain your strength during hunting season, it’ll also keep your muscles more resilient. That resilience protects you against injury.

If you’re not sure where to start with in-season hunting strength training, check out this article. 

Outdoor Aerobic Conditioning

This one’s a biggie. 

Doing some outdoor aerobic work between hunts does a ton to help you adapt to the cold. You could hit a ruck, a hike, or a run. But I recommend doing some weekly outdoor aerobic work between hunts. Here’s what it’ll do for you.

First up is improving your ability to regulate your temperature. Your nervous system gets better at running your thermostat. It does this by improving your body’s ability to distinguish between your core temperature and and your skin temperature. Then it dilates or constricts your blood vessels as needed. 

It also changes your perception of the cold. It’s a conscious and subconscious deal. You consciously just don’t mind the cold as much. And the subconscious sensory systems become less reactive to the cold. The cold stops bothering you.

There are a host of more things outdoor aerobic work in the cold does for you; it could be the topic of its own article. But I’ll give you just one more for your edification and in the name of brevity. Outdoor aerobic work in cold weather trains your respiratory system to be less reactive to dry, cold air. You know how you’ll often cough in the cold? That’s because your airways become dehydrated. Increasing your respiratory rate by conditioning in the cold trains your airways to better manage mucus, so that they don’t dehydrate when breathing cold, dry air. And you stop coughing so much in the cold — which could be the difference between killing a big buck and blowing it.

Strategies for Combatting the Cold in the Field

While it’s important to use consistent training to combat the cold, it’s just as important, maybe more so, to use some in-the-field strategies to smack the chill in the mouth. I have a handful of strategies for you to use — movement, nutrition, and hydration. 

Warm Up Before You Hunt

I bet this makes sense to you, taking a few minutes to warm up for cold weather hunting. The problem is, I bet you aren’t doing it right now. It doesn’t have to be some super-involved process, and it doesn’t need to take more than a minute or two. Just do some ankle circles, some hip circles, some shoulder circles, and some neck circles. You could slap 10 body weight squats on top to round it all out. This will slightly elevate your core body temp while sending blood to your muscles and joints. It’ll help you perform if you have some walking to do. And even a brief warm-up like the one above cuts your injury risk.

EAT! While You Hunt: Cold Weather Hunting Nutrition Matters

It’s easy to undereat while hunting in the cold. First, you’re hunting and it’s easy to forget to do anything else. Second, there’s that increased calorie burn we talked about. The combination drains you — especially if you’re on an active hunt. So, eat! Keep some calorie dense foods on you like nut butter packets, gels, gummy candy, bars, etc. and put something down your gullet every couple of hours. If you’re moving around a lot, focus more on carb sources until you take a break to sit, then eat more protein and fat. If you’re sitting all day for deer or waterfowl, focus more on fat and protein sources.

Drink! Focus on Hydration

You won’t feel as thirsty while hunting in the cold, but the demand to remain hydrated increases. You use more fluids than you would at comfy temps. It’s a combination that’ll get you if you’re not on top of your fluid intake. Mental and physical performance declines. Injury risk increases. Recovery is shot to hell — especially important to note if you’re hunting multiple days back-to-back. Keep drinking even though you don’t feel thirsty. If you’re sitting in a tree stand, keep a thermos of warm broth or warm water with electrolytes in it at the ready. If you’re on a more physical hunt, and a thermos is too heavy to carry, just keep drinking and sipping electrolytes throughout the day. If you can, heat up some water with a hiking stove during hiking breaks or stops to glass. Just keep drinking. Set reminders on your phone or alarms on your watch if you have to.

Evening Recovery Work

Take a few minutes each evening to breathe and do a little mobility work. It’ll help down regulate your nervous system to help you prepare for rest. And the movement takes blood flow to muscles and joints that need oxygen and nutrients to recover. Listen — I’ll remind you that this doesn’t have to be some 45-minute elaborate process. A few minutes of 4-second inhales with 8-second exhales and some light joint circles is enough to help shift you into rest mode.

Nighttime Replenishment

Eat well when you’re done hunting. If you’re staying in the field, this is the time to eat your big, freeze-dried meal. Make sure it has plenty of protein and carbs — at least 30g of protein and at least 60g of carbs. If you’re headed home, eat a well-composed dinner — protein, carbs, veggies, and fat. You might not feel super hungry, but don’t skimp on this meal. The cold took it out of you. You have to eat to replace its tax. If it’s tough for you to eat a lot at the evening meal, add a snack a little while afterwards to ensure you’ve eaten enough to recover.

Your Cold Weather Hunt Prep Playbook

If you do the right things consistently, you can kick the cold right in the chest for the rest of hunting season. Keep up with your strength and mobility training, and get outside for some aerobic work. Eat and drink while you’re out there. Take yourself a few minutes to move your body around before you take your walk in. This all combines to blunt the cold’s effect on you, help prevent injuries, and give you what you need to recover after a chilly day afield.