01/22/2026
❄️Training in cold weather can be a double-edged sword. ⚔️
👉🏼 On the positive side, cooler temps can improve endurance and work capacity because your body doesn’t overheat as fast. Heart rate stays lower, energy is used more efficiently, and many athletes can sustain effort longer.
👉🏼 On the negative side, cold muscles and tendons become stiffer. Lower tissue temperature reduces blood flow and nerve conduction, which slows muscle contraction and reaction time. Tendons also become less elastic as temperature drops, meaning they don’t stretch and recoil as well—so they absorb force poorly and are more injury-prone. This can decrease power output and increase risk to areas like the hamstrings, calves, and Achilles.
🧊 Cold weather also masks dehydration. You sweat and lose fluid through breathing, but thirst is blunted in the cold, so athletes often underhydrate. Even mild dehydration can reduce endurance, coordination, and recovery.
💭 Bottom line: cold training can be effective, but only with a longer warm-up, intentional hydration, smart layering, and gradual exposure to speed and power.”
At The Complete Athlete, we use a simple process to get you back in the game! All visits are 1:1 with a Doctor of Physical Therapy
1. RESET pain
2. RESOLVE the underlying cause
3. REALIZE what you can accomplish
📍11503 Jones Maltsberger Ste 1101
San Antonio, TX 78216
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📲210-890-2411
