Doing the big things makes the little things littler

A couple of things happened over the last several days that have made me reflect on the impact that being strong makes.

Obviously, being strong makes you better able to lift heavy things. Duh. But what I don't think the cardio-centric mainstream recognizes is the improvement in capacity and ease in doing things that are not necessarily strength dependent. The more strength you have in reserve, the less any given activity actually is "cardio", or work in general.

The first incident that comes to mind is simple: walking up the stairs chatting with a coworker. The coworker in question is an average nondescript fellow, probably within the "healthy" range for his height or close to it. As we walked up the stairs together, I kept up the chat, while he huffed and puffed. I take the elevator whenever possible (yes!), so I was honestly somewhat surprised on both counts.

The next was more obviously a test of strength, or at least strength-endurance, when the sweetie and I bought a new foundation for our bed at Ikea. This is not a terribly heavy piece of furniture, something in the neighborhood of 70lb fully clad in its packaging, but there is a tight turn in the stairs in our house that makes the project a little more interesting. Together we piled it up on top of the car, then got it back down again and up through the house to the bedroom. I did most of the prep of getting the mattress and old box spring out of the way by myself. While there has never been a time when I would've been unable to complete this task, it was a surprise to be energetic and ready for more when it finished. Particularly after doing a few sets of extracurricular front squats earlier in the day.

And then today, the most trivial yet most satisfying in a way: at the gym I made it through 3 sets of jumping rope without trouble, interspersed with push presses and pullup negatives, after squat triples up to 77kg. I am terribly, self-consciously, perhaps-I-really-have-dyspraxia-ly horrible at jumping rope, and more so when exhausted. I literally refuse to do it in front of people. But with the reserve that I have now, it was less of a teary-eyed horror than it has been before.