I started StrongLifts a couple months ago. Can't recommend it enough. Starting each exercise with an empty bar helps me to hear my body. As I go down for those

I started StrongLifts a couple months ago. Can't recommend it enough. Starting each exercise with an empty bar helps me to hear my body. As I go down for those first couple empty squats, I can feel which muscles are tight, then take a couple minutes to loosen them up before adding weight. I wasted years of time in the gym doing leg extensions and leg curls -- single joint exercises and seeing no results before I embraced squats. Before StrongLifts (which eased me into squats with the +5lbs ever lift day, of which there are three per week) I was squatting on the Smith machine. That was bad for my jointsbesause it restricted my range of motion. Also, I through I needed the bar pad, but it turns out I can bear a lot of weight with the bar across my shoulders. Because I have poor join flexibility, I only squat to horizontal thighs, not deep squats like some people can do. Maybe the biggest difference I can tell from the squats (plus the other four exercise) is that the ROI on my metabolism is huge! I used to have to run to keep the weight off, but that was bad for my knees. I'm about to level off at my first set of eight goals, and start incorporating the rowing machine for cardio into my weekly workout. StrongLifts recommends to eat a lot of protein, and not to do any other exercise while on the program, so you can keep progressing through the weight increases by giving your body all the rest it can get between workout days.