Metcon and strength training.

[captainpicard]

First off, I would like to thank you and Doctor Kilgore for authoring Starting Strength and Practical Programming. They are well written and very informative.

Yesterday my roommate said to me, "I just don't get the point of weight lifting. I mean sure, it works your muscles, but you could run or ride a bike and live longer." I suppose he is saying that lifting weights is just for muscles and one would be healthier if they ran or biked instead, as they work the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

This brings me to my question. I prefer to lift for strength, i.e. heavy sets of 5s, and after the novice stage possibly 3s, 2s, 1s. I know that "cardio" and metcon workouts help increase your VO2 max, etc., but while training for such strength levels are not as high.

For general cardiovascular and respiratory health ( improving those systems as well as keeping them active and healthy), is it necessary to do any exercise in addition to training for strength (e.g. 3 day novice workout shown in SS:BBT)?

I read this post: http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1015
and out of curiousity, what would be considered a "sprint day" or "middle distance" day, and also, after a plateau via linear progression would an individual be in good enough shape to attempt such cardio? One reason I ask is that I heard it is a terriblly dangerous idea for someone new to exercise to do a workout like sprint intervals.

Thanks. By the way, I wonder what your response would have been to my roommate's comment.

[Mark Rippetoe]

My response would be same to him as to you: how does increasing VO2max increase longevity? And likewise, how is it dangerous for a person who has not sprinted (as opposed to an untrained person) to begin a sprint training program?

[Polynomial]

Tell your roommate to read this article.

It's about a gymnast kid who had an accident where he fell on his neck. After much diagnosis, doctors concluded that nothing was wrong and sent him on his way. When he returned to practice, he noticed some numbness in his triceps that just wouldn't go away. Few tests later the doctors told him that they were surprised that he was alive.

Why did he survive?

Doctors dismissed the possibility of initial damage because of Drollinger's strength in his neck.

Yes, strength is very important.

Like Rip says in his book, "Strong people die harder."

[captainpicard]

So you are saying exercise other than strength training isn't necessary for respiratory and cardiovascular fitness, correct?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I am saying that unless respiratory or cardiovascular fitness is compromised by some pathology, strength training provides enough improvement in VO2 max to provide all the cardiopulmonary work a healthy person needs, as well as strength and peripheral metabolic conditioning that LSD absolutely fails to provide.

[captainpicard]

Cool, thank you.

[Drewfasa]

I am saying that unless respiratory or cardiovascular fitness is compromised by some pathology, strength training provides enough improvement in VO2 max to provide all the cardiopulmonary work a healthy person needs...

This is the greatest news I've heard in years! (*throws his despised NB trainers in the bin*)

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Captain,
I think I have a few threads hanging around this forum that have some good recommendations for adding Metcon work into your training week. Middle distance metcon work is generally considered to be distances of around 200 meters, 400 meters, and/or 800 meters. Sprint work (by my thinking anyways) is probably something around 100meters or less done at or close to full speed.

If you are training full body 3x week (M-W-F) and want to incorporate a met con day, saturdays work well. I don't advise doing any 100% full speed stuff right off the bat until you see how your body tolerates the added workload. Full speed sprints can be like heavy squats on your CNS.

Here is a decent start up program to be run once per week for four weeks, that will improve your conditioning and work capacity. After four weeks you can play around with it and make any adjustments you like, such as adding a full speed sprint day, or you can just keep cycling it every four weeks just how it is:

Week 1: 10 x 100 meter strides (75-80% effort) Run the straights, walk the curves on a regulation sized track.
Week 2: 8 x 200 meter strides. Walk 100-200meters in between efforts as rest.
Week 3: 4 x 400 meter strides. Walk 100 - 400 meters in between efforts.
Week 4: 1 mile run for time or 3 x 300 yd shuttle run with 1 minute rest between efforts. Try and keep equal times on all 3 efforts.