1) How long have you been training? (if you've just started out, you're going to gain strength/muscle quick due to adaptations, but it will slow down eventually, if you've been doing this for quite some time, slow progress is to be expected and your energy intake play a big role too. However, you can still gain strength while on a deficit, it is when you start reaching the extreme points in BF that you start feeling/looking like shit and everything seems a chore)
2) Squats involve your whole posterior chain on top a whole host of other muscles, your whole body is moving the weight so it's naturally to gain strength easily in this movement.
3) Upper body training -> Please define
4) Upper body movement ( I'm going to assume Bench press, is only using half of your body (generalizing here) so of course progress will be painfully slow and if you're good with your technique (like really, really good), you should be able to also include your whole body in the movement ( lats, hip drive, leg drive etc) and that should help out a lot but you should still NOT expect progress like Squats and deads ( Are you deadlifting btw?)
5) There's no need to be shy around guys, it's a gym, everyone's there to workout.
6) Barbells, Dumb bells, Machines are all means to an end. However personally I'd recommend using free weights to start out with ( to ensure you learn your techniques). As you get more advance, you can start throwing in machine movements here and there.

Bolded 1 - Technique over Weight lifted any day.
Bolded 2 - Clean eating is a fad. There's no clear definition of "clean" eating, apart from washing your food. Watch the following videos to learn more about nutrition.








This post has been edited by razorboy: Aug 21 2014, 02:26 PM