Q: You mentioned that Arnold never used sissy squats [a quad stretch-position exercise]. I know that Tom Platz did them a lot. Do you think that may be one reason Platz had such freaky quads? Did Arnold miss the boat?
A: I’m sure that Platz’s intensity and stretch overload via the sissy squat, knees-forward hack squat and butt-to-the-floor barbell squats had a lot to do with his freaky quads—but so did lower-body genetics…
Arnold quads were not gigantic freakazoid tree trunks, despite being the Oak, but perhaps he wanted them that way. Or maybe his quads were just stubborn. Personally, I liked his more athletic-looking lower body. He could play tennis without setting his shorts on fire due to friction.
Seriously, Vince “Iron Guru” Gironda relied on sissy squats as his go-to quad move. He didn’t even have a squat rack in his Studio City, California, gym. And his quads were more slender, not Quad Father-esque. Here’s a shot of him not wearing pants, only leopard nut-huggers, in front of his famous gym—not bad for his late 50s…
Of course, Vince was not a steroid user—he detested them and said they would ruin bodybuilding (he was right). He also didn’t like over-bulked physiques. So his aesthetic lower body may have been an intentional choice. In fact, he said barbell squats gave you a big butt and turnip thighs, which is why he threw people out of his gym if they did them…
All of that said, the sissy squat is one of the safest ways to load your quads with an almost perfect resistance curve—loaded at stretch and unloaded at contraction—and no spine compression or ass involvement.
An innovative version that Mr. America and biomechanics expert Doug Brignole was experimenting with before he left us was the pendulum sissy squat. Here is trainer Vince McConnell demonstrating…
And if you think they’re for sissies, try a controlled 20-rep set, rest 20 seconds, then go to near failure again. The pain to gain is like the fires of hell—which may be why they are “sissy”: You’ll be screaming like a seven-year-old girl watching “The Amazing Adventures of the Living Corpse.”
Sculpt your perfect physique: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best stretch and contracted add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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Our colleague, the man who owned the gym that Lou Ferrigno trained at in “Pumping Iron,” turned us onto this. He’s using it himself to shed fat faster than ever, and he’s in his 50s. Get the details and see his photo HERE.