[toasterlovin]

"If you're not trying to become an olympic lifter, barbell squats and deadlifts will do more harm than good."

Sorry, but this is utter insanity. The squat and the deadlift, properly performed, are the most important lifts _any_ human being – young or old, male or female – can do. And a person _does not_ need to go heavy on either of these to realize tremendous benefits in their day-to-day life. Spending 6 weeks to get up to a 135x5x1 deadlift (bar + big plates for 1 set of 5 reps) – and then just doing that once a week in perpetuity – would be single most efficient way the average human could improve their daily wellbeing.