my recent (I’ve only been lifting for a year) foray into lifting taught me that base strength is absolutely key to building your body’s work ability.
Once I started lifting and built a reasonable strength for a beginner (dead-lift 340 1rm,squat 245 1rm, 15 chin-ups), I noticed just about every other physical activity I did was easier.[/quote]
This, in two sentences, is EXACTLY what Rippetoe was talking about. Your experience is precisely what he was talking about, just from a slightly different perspective.
Ok really, REALLY I promise I’ll end the hijack now. Sorry.
Not sure if anyone has considered the effect of strength and HIIT training on endomorph physiology, one that is naturally high in cortisol and benefits from slow relaxing steady state cardio as a contrast to the intensity of weight lifting. I think that is why Ronnie Coleman always walks in the AM and PM, is that it reduces cortisol which is naturally high in the endomorph phenotype.
I am doing Vince Gironda’s 8x8 program, 15-20sec rest between sets, 32 sets per session and that seems to kill it. I don’t have the energy to go run after that, but I certainly could walk in the morning or at night. So the main point here is that walking on an incline tread with the assistance of branch chain ingestion, helps to lower cortisol levels from people lifting all that heavy ass weight.
Do I think marathon runners have great physiques? Actually, I think they look terrible. HIIT can thicken your heart walls, but excess cortisol can increase your blood pressure, which harms your heart more than helps it. So weight lifting done with long and slow cardio is OK.