Quote Originally Posted by vk60187 View Post
I have a weird question for you. First of all, I'm 45yo male, taking antihypertensive med (5mg Amlodipine) daily for my blood pressure. I'm also having only one kidney now as the other one was removed due to having cancer in it. My goal is to lose weight (I'm 6ft6in, 230lbs now and want to ideally be at 200lb). I've been doing starting strength on and off, I'm up to 165lb squat, 185lb deadlift and 140lb bench press.

Today, after I worked out with the above weights, I felt a bit strange, so decided to take blood pressure measurement. I was at 140/90. Not terrible but not good for me as I'm normally 120/80. I then went for a jog/easy run at around 12 min/mile pace, for 3.12 mi (5k), breathing only through my nose the entire time, and my BP came down and stayed between 112-120/70s range. Much better than a few hours post workout.

As far as eating today, I skipped breakfast and had chicken soup for lunch, with some rye bread and slices of ham.

So, here is my question. It seems that my body is telling me to stick to cardio rather than strength. Is this how you'd interpret it?

Just chiming in to say that your training weights are very low, especially for a 230 lb guy. Those are weights you should be able to get past in a few weeks of training. I don't know if you've only been training a very short time, or if your training hasn't been effective due to not doing the program in one way or another. But, given that you don't have more than a few weeks of effective training under your belt, you are asking whether your body doesn't like strength training without having really tried it. Try it. Learn the lifts, eat, rest, do the program. See if you like strength training after three months of seeing your weight on the bar go up 5-10 lbs a workout. It's a trip, you have to do it to know.

Re: learning the lifts, 1-3 sessions with an SS coach is VERY helpful if not necessary. The way we do the lifts is pretty different from what most people think of a squat or a deadlift to be.