Be carefull not to stretch too far when you first start off with the excercises, you don't want your hands cramping up. Another good exercise that helped me out is the intro to Killswitch Engage's "End of Heartache."

e |1-----1-----1-----1-----3------------------||
b |--5-----5-----5-----5-----5----------------||
g |----5-----5-----5-----5-----5--------------|| x8
d |--------------------------------------------||
a |--------------------------------------------||
e |--------------------------------------------||

To play this, you use your index on the 1st fret, your pinky on the 5th fret 2nd string, and you ring finger on the 5th fret third string. Then use your middle finger to play the third fret at the end. You have to hold that chord the whole time because if you lifted your fingers up, with the exception of the middle finger, you would lose fluid movement since this lick is played over and over again. Also, to play this, you have to turn your fretting hand so that your index finger is more parallel to the neck.