Ask any coach and they’ll tell you: injuries climb in winter. It’s not bad luck or soft students — it’s physiology. Once you understand what the cold actually does to a muscle, the fix (and why the usual “quick jog and roll” doesn’t cut it) becomes obvious.
What cold actually does to a muscle
Muscle and tendon behave differently at different temperatures. When tissue is cold it’s more viscous and less elastic — stiffer, slower to stretch, and quicker to tear when you load it fast. Blood flow to the area is lower, nerve signals fire a touch slower, and the synovial fluid that lubricates your joints is thicker and less slippery. So the exact same explosive scramble or deep shrimp that feels effortless in a warm summer class is landing on tissue that simply isn’t ready for it. That’s why the first hard movement on a cold morning is so often the one that tweaks something.
A warm-up that actually prepares you
“Warming up” isn’t five minutes of half-hearted jogging. A good one follows a simple order — raise, mobilise, then potentiate:
- Raise (3–5 min). Light continuous movement until you’re genuinely warm and lightly sweating. In winter this takes longer than you think — don’t rush it.
- Mobilise (3–4 min). Move the joints you’re about to use through their full range: hip circles, shrimping and bridging on the mat, neck and shoulder rolls, wrist and finger mobility.
- Potentiate (2–3 min). A handful of progressively sharper movements — sprawls, sit-outs, a few hard grips — to switch the nervous system on before you drill or roll.
Ten honest minutes and you walk onto the mat warm, mobile and switched on — instead of using your first two rounds as the warm-up (which is exactly when people get hurt).
Why “push through it” backfires in the cold
Winter stacks the odds against you: colder tissue, a rushed warm-up, and the accumulated fatigue of a season where you’re sleeping worse and half the gym is fighting a cold. That’s the injury trifecta. Managing your training load — and treating recovery as part of training, not an afterthought — matters more in July than at any other time of year.
Look after the joint that’s already grumbling
If a knee or elbow is stiff before class, a little heat beforehand helps it move; if it’s swollen and hot after a hard session, cold settles it down. Knowing which to reach for is worth getting right — we broke it down in the ice-or-heat guide.
Warm up properly, keep showing up, and you’ll come out of winter sharper than everyone who didn’t. — Liga Combat
Heat before, ice after
The Re-Gen Hot & Cold Recovery Sleeve warms up cranky joints before training and ices the swelling after — one sleeve for knee, elbow, calf or forearm.
Shop the Re-Gen Sleeve →