Just back from a run and was shocked at how unfit I am when it comes to cardio!
There was me thinking high intensity weight lifting cover both bases (cardio and muscle) but in reality it is not so! I could barely manage 25 minutes of jogging!
Gerard Butler in an interview about his movie "300" he mentioned how he hates cardio and that all he does is weight training and when training for the movie he very quickly realised how poorly his cardio fitness was and secondly that weight lifting alone cannot give you the psysique he had during the movie.
Anyway there's a guy I came accross recently and I've been using his training techniques and philosophy for a month now and I really feel this guy is the real deal. His name is Ross Enamait, check out videos here
http://www.youtube.com/user/rossenamait
I've been doing sandbag shouldering but using a concrete boulder. I'll buy an army top loading duffel bag and fill it with sand bags, soon. Just earlier today we were filling plastic bags with horse manure for the allotmont and I was barely able to pick them up to put them in the car boot. Half of them I needed help with so I can really see how sand bag shouldering can be a perfect way to develop real-world functional strength.
I've also been performing his door "pinch and lean" technique to strengthen my grip - ingenious!