Strength / Weight Training

just remember you're not going to put on size in a caloric deficit.

Without a little help from your friends

Thanks for all the advise. My squat game is so weak. I did 3x10 with just 20kg total weight on the bar. I was breathless at the first set. And just felt like I was about to faint

I then went onto the leg press and did 10x10 with 80kg total weight. I can leg press 120kg for several sets.

If you want strength try 3 to 6 rep range?

Anyone tried nad+

This

I’m not sure what you are up to, but you have been given some good advice to address your questions.
From your questions, it seems to ME, that you are bit confused as to what you are doing.
Pick a goal and work towards it. But you need to PICK A GOAL.
Bigger thighs, visable abs, more strength. These are all different things and you need to do different things to achieve them. Pick one please.
I will mention some things which are worth looking at as you ponder - Starting Strength, Stronglifts, Mike Matthews, there are many other sources of info, including here, but be advised to stick to what is proven. Good luck on your quest.

Sir yes sir!

I took your advice. Did shoulders today, I did some warm up sets on a light-ish weight then we as heavy as I could for 3-5 reps. My shoulders are really aching now so hopefully working this way will do the trick.

There’s so much out there in terms of knowledge and opinion. Finding the correct options is challenging.

Which advice? Thought you wanted to get ripped?

Obviously I want everything. Definition, size -> gainz.

I tried the strong lifts thing a while again and although I could lift heavier, I never saw any muscle development.

Stronglifts builds strength. Your diet gets you ripped.
Look at Mike Matthew’s site for diet info.

@Light_EDDed, Like @TGR says, pick a single goal. You couldn't meaningfully train for track sprinting and distance cycling simultaneously- weight lifting is no different.

You say you didn't see muscle development with stronglifts , but you did . Lifting heavier = muscle development. Like TGR says stronglifts will get you strong , but won't get you ripped or swole. Thats not what it's for.

Stick with a program for a while too- results take time! You wont get ripped in 4 weeks, it takes months to see real progress and years to properly develop. There are no shortcuts .

Make sure you get nutrition and rest correct too- if you're not fuelling and recovering properly and in line with your goals you will not see the results you want

Pick a goal, a single goal. then start a program that matches that goal . stick with it , dont deviate from the program too much. If I were starting out , and both aesthetics and strength were important I'd do one of the following two:

6 Months stronglifts followed by a bodybuilding or power building program
Take 6 months to build your strength base and nail technique on compound lifts . Don't fret about being ripped for these 6 months . Assuming you eat enough and stick with it, you'll get much stronger.
Once you have a good base, switch to a more bodybuilding focussed routine and diet. Your improved technique, strength base and work capacity from 6 months stronglifts will help you no end here. Lots of old school body builders like Arnold did something a bit like this .

Straight to a powebuilding routine
This will build strength and size . You wont get as strong as by doing something like stronglifts, nor will you get as swole as doing a full on bodybuilding routine , but you will have a decent balance of a bit of both. Pay attention to you diet, you will have to track macros . Mike Matthews Bigger Leaner Stronger program is good for this . Stick with in for 6 months before considering other options

If you can afford it , it may also be worth getting a couple of coaching sessions on the big lifts. I could have progressed far quicker initially if I'd done this and ironed out major flaws in my technique.

If possible, go to a proper weight lifting coach rather than a gym PT for this .

Someone agrees with me!

The book Starting Strength is a must if you are lifting. From memory, there are around 80 pages on squatting - everything is covered.

It’s a good book for its time but I’d argue very much outdated nowadays. With the advent of YouTube, even the book as a medium isn’t really ideal for learning how the lifts should look and identifying errors. And that’s without mentioning some of the more dogmatic content.

I like to refer to Ripptoe's youtube channel for form and thing to avoid.

I make sure to skip any of his more opinionated stuff though .

Fair point. I’m not one of the YouTube generation. The book stood me in good stead and I do think it has some relevance today but I’m old.

I read starting strength but I think I got more out of various youtube videos. Particularly Alan Thrall and squat university. I also took online coaching with hybrid performance method and got a lot out of coaches reviewing videos as well. But I am definitely slightly more towards the youtube generation.

I personally wouldn't recommend stronglifts or starting strength to a new lifter. I think GZCLP is a much better and more balanced beginner LP program, and there are now apps that support it for people who don't like spreadsheets and notebooks.

A quick (very quick) look at gzclp and it looks very like SL or SS. I found that most of these programs for novices are basically the same but each has a slight difference to make it ‘different’. Each to their own I suppose. SL uses simple lifts with minimal equipment and the app tracks it all. Simple suits me well 😀

Main benefits of GZCLP over SS/SL are more balance between upper and lower body, a far better way of handling failure / stalling (reducing reps per set and keeping the amrap in to keep the work level high), and varied rep ranges. As much as Rip or Mehdi would like to convince you sets of Fahve are the be all and end all, they are definitely not.

Fair enough. I don’t claim to represent either SL or SL but I have used them and found they worked for me. Each to their own.

For sure! I've run all 3 and got gains from all, and if it gets you in the gym its better than not.

SL is hard going and takes time when the weight gets heavy. That’s the only drawback I’ve found. You can do it at home with a bar, cage and some weights which I find a bonus.

Turns out atlas stones are good fun. Getting a grip on them off of the floor seems like the real difficult bit (at until they get really heavy), I can definitely see the benefit of tacky and those forearm protection things, pretty grazed up forearms today.

Sounds fun. Something a bit different. There’s a strongman gym not far from me but I thinks it’s way out of my ability currently.