From what I gather, you achieve a base level of VO2max with strength training that is better than sedentary people but worse than people who do regular cardio.

From what I gather, you achieve a base level of VO2max with strength training that is better than sedentary people but worse than people who do regular cardio. So if your VO2max is initially low, strength training does have a significant effect on it. But if you want to increase it yet more, you have to do cardio (which you can do with weightlifting too btw!).