Stronglifts 5x5 effective?

[USC2009]

Hi everyone.

My goal at this point is fat loss (primary goal) and strength building/muscle gain. I've already adjusted my diet and calorie intake to help with fat loss, and I recently started Stronglifts 5x5 along with some cardio on the off days and after the exercises.

Have you found this program is effective for people who haven't done serious training (I've been working out for a while now, but no squats or deadlifts or anything)?

Is there a way to adjust it so that you can go more than three times a week to workout? I have a lot of free time and I really hate having more than 2 days off from the gym every week. I like that Stronglifts has a "whole body" attitude to the workouts, but I'd like to try and adjust it so that I keep doing squats and whatnot every other day, but maybe so that I can go 5x a week. Any advice here?


Thanks!

[USC2009]

Oh, I've also been doing a few extra targeted exercises after my 5x5 stuff - arms, chest, etc.

[zephed56]

Yes it is effective. Starting Strength will work longer though, especially for someone on a caloric deficit, since it uses a 3x5 set/rep scheme. Stronglifts is basically SS but with more volume, which kinda defeats the purpose of squatting 3 times a week.

Stop doing OTHER STUFF and just do the ****ing program as written. All that crap is just going to make you stall sooner and keep you in novice land longer.

[USC2009]

Okay, thanks for the advice. I was only doing extra stuff while at REALLY low weights in stronglifts