From this issue.
Big thanks to Jarrett Hulse for spotting it!
Iron Man, March ’67, Peary Rader:
The other day John McCallum, a
barbell man from Canada stopped in our office while on his vacation. We enjoyed
this visit with him and his wife here, and we talked at length of the days
past, and he told us how he got started in the game.
It seems that as a youth he had
long been interested in developing himself from a very skinny condition, but
after years of struggle wi8th first one course and then another, he found
himself weighing only 140 lbs. This is not much weight for a fellow of about 6’
or more.
Then some friend gave him some old
copies of Iron Man Magazine and he read in there about the squat and dead lift
as great growth stimulators, especially when used for 20 or more repetitions.
John learned to squat, Squat, SQUAT. He really worked at it and followed the
full diet we recommended in Iron Man.
Suddenly, after years of no gains
a miracle happened. He started gaining like mad, at the rate of a pound a day,
and quickly went up to a fabulous 305 lbs. bodyweight at a 6’2” height and
tremendous measurements. He developed an enormous chest and it is still huge.
It was an unbelievable 54.5 inches. The chest cage or rib box is tremendous and
this came from squats and pullovers and chest pulls.
McCallum performed all kinds of
squats but finally settled on the style he liked best with a belt around the
waist which held the weights between the legs. We will tell you more about this
squatting belt in the next issue, but this issue we want to talk to you about
the squat itself and what it can do for you when you perform 20 repetitions of
it.
This may seem like a repetition of
what we have said before, but we find modern lifters and bodybuilders shy away
from the squat partly because it is hard work and partly because they are
afraid they will get big legs and hips. We don’t have the space here to argue
about the values of big legs and hips but will pause long enough to mention
that in the last few days we have received many calls and letters about certain
bodybuilders who might have become among the greatest of all time except for
the neglect of their legs, and I might say hips since these two are closely
related.
Don’t let anyone kid you about the
legs – you must have them if you want the best physique. You must have them if
you want to be the strongest. We can name you many great weightlifters who only
became great after they started squats.
The two men whom most people
consider the greatest bodybuilders or physique men of our time, Reg Park and
Bill Pearl, both have tremendous legs and both are capable of 600 or more in
the squat and both know the great value of the squat as an exercise. Neither
has any great fear of its effects on his physique. Both have found it of
tremendous value, especially in their early training when they were trying to
bulk up.
The other day, the man who really
gave the deep knee bend the big start by his experiments about 30 years ago,
J.C. Hise who had been inspired by Mark Berry to take up the squat, stopped in
at our office while on his way back to Homer, Illinois, from several years in the
uranium mines in Colorado.
Hise, still weighing about 260,
and over 60 years of age now, looks about 35 except for some gray hair. Even
yet he occasionally goes on a heavy squat program and says he works up to 20
reps with 500 with the magic circle. He carries his magic circle and a lot of
weights with him in his pickup wherever he goes.
Hise had worked
with barbells for some time and while weighing about 180, was not satisfied,
and at the insistence of Mark Berry, then editor of “Strength Magazine” and
later “Physical Training Notes,” Hise decided to try it.
He started doing
nothing but the squat and the press behind neck and drinking a gallon of milk
per day along with his regular foods. After a long time with no gains, he
suddenly gained 29 pounds in one month. This progress continued until he
finally weighed nearly 300 pounds. He became quite strong and, I believe Andy
Jackson reported seeing Joe dead lift 700 in his basement gym one day.
This started the
squat craze. Inspired by Hise and his gains, I myself, after 12 years training
and a steady herculean bodyweight of 128 lbs. at 5’10” height, which no system
seemed to change, suddenly began gaining, and added nearly 100 lbs. in one
year, and from that time on for nearly eight years was Midwestern heavyweight
champion.
It was shortly
after this that we began publishing Iron Man, the magazine that McCallum was
given, and which started his squatting spree. We might even say that the squat
success was responsible for Iron Man, as at that time the old Strength magazine
had discontinued, and Iron Man was the only method for telling the world about
the squat program, as the only other magazine then being published fought the
squat like it was poison.
McCallum, who has now trimmed down to a
well-proportioned 240, tells of his training with the squat – how the chest
ached from the super deep breathing which this work forced on him and how his
legs ached and cramped after a squat workout. You may have read articles from
this man’s pen in “Strength & Health.”
Bodybuilders of today
are not aware that the great John Grimek once made terrifically fast gains on a
squat program while under the influence of Mark Berry’s training. However,
Grimek was always a fine gainer and developed the ability to vary his weight 30
lbs. or so in a couple of weeks or so, either up or down, and at one time went
up to around 240 lbs. His measurements were tremendous at that bodyweight.
Many men shot up at
300 lbs. bodyweight almost overnight about this time. At a later date Roger
Eells came along with his body weight squats (that is, using no more than the
amount you weighed on the bar) and lots of deep breathing. He had great success
with this.
Well, we don’t have
to tell you much more about these men who gained so much though we would like
to tell you the full story of Norman Fay and his unbelievably fast gains, then
his equally fast reduction in bodyweight quickly and easily. It is a
fascinating and instructive story in exercise and nutrition and we will bring
it to you soon.
Right now you must
be interested in finding out how to use the squat for these great gains. You
know, the squats, and the squats alone, are mostly responsible for the enormous
power and physique of Paul Anderson. He went from 180 to nearly 380 in
bodyweight. Now I know that few of you will want to weight that much and it
probably wouldn’t be possible, but you can use the squat to weigh what you
wish. Paul did nothing but squats for a long time, even though he disliked the
exercise very much; he knew it was the secret to the size and power he wanted.
A 1200 lb. squat certainly shows that he obtained the power he wanted.
We might mention
that those people who use the squat develop an eventual ability to go up in
bodyweight or down, as they wish, very rapidly.
I also want to point
out that the success is not due to the squat only, but to a combination of the
squat and proper and increased feeding and nutrition. Every one of these
fellows used heavy diet of one type or other, with most of them relying on lots
of milk. They would drink milk after their meals, with their meals, between
meals and before bed time. I never used more than two quarts daily myself, but
some of the fellows went up to a gallon or even six quarts. Some added vitamins
and minerals to their diets, though this was later, as not much was known about
the value of vitamin and mineral supplements for bodybuilders 30 years ago
(1935). I recall that Hise once tried salt pork because it would make him drink
more water and milk. It put weight on, but I’m not sure what kind. Still, we
must realize that the body is about 75% water, so we must supply lots of
moisture if we expect to gain fast. I can recall when Hise came to our house
for a visit, my mother would place a quart bottle of water at his plate and had
to fill it once or twice in addition. She also brought out all the food, for
Hise was a tremendous eater.
Many of the fellows
drank water during their workouts, and some drank milk at this time. I well
recall walking into the home gym of another great gainer and weightlifter in
Denver by the name of Ed Shepperd. There he was, resting after a set of squats
and drinking milk from a quart bottle. Many fancy concoctions of foods were
worked up and many of them seemed to do the job, but milk seemed to be the universal
food they all liked to use.
Today bodybuilders
feel they have to do a lot of sets and pump up the muscles a lot in order to
make gains. In those days we did one set and that was it We worked so hard that
we couldn’t do another set if we had wanted to, and anyhow we didn’t know about
multiple sets then. Sometimes someone would do sets but he didn’t really work
them with a purpose or understand what he was doing. There was no pump because
we only performed one set. Also, because we practiced what we later called the
rest pause in the squat, though we did it for a different purpose then; we
unconsciously used what we are now pushing as the PHA system, though it
certainly was in a crude form.
You see, this is
the way we performed the squat. We would put on all the weight we thought we could
use for 10 repetitions, then we would get under the bar and back off and
perform 20 reps. Between repetitions we would take 3 to 6 breaths, depending on
how tired we were, and often by the time we reached 20 repetitions we were
breathing so hard it took 10 breaths to get ready for the next rep. Anyhow,
those pauses permitted the blood to circulate in our legs and enabled us to
reach the full 20 count.
It has been years
since I have seen anyone work as hard on squats as we worked in those days. You
can’t believe what hard, heavy breathing we did, and after we replaced the bar
on the racks it would be 5 or 10 minutes before we could breathe anywhere near
normal again or were even able to stand up and walk. Talk about tired legs!
Many a man has gone down to the pavement when he tried to walk downstairs after
doing his 20 squats because his legs wouldn’t hold him up.
I recall Chris
Dinkelaker of Columbus, Ohio, who was a skinny lifter whom Harry Paschall had
talked into doing squats to gain weight. He then went out to the races, and on
his way out his legs gave out and he tumbled to the bottom of the stairs and
some dear old lady came over and was so solicitous because she thought he was
suffering from a fit.
I was not kidding
when I said that we loaded the bar to what we thought we could use for 10 reps,
then did 20 reps. Nearly every workout I felt that the 10th rep was
the last, but I would breathe a while and get my mind set to it (this was very
important – without mental control you will never make it), and do another one.
I would continue this until I had 20 reps, with every rep over 10 a real fight.
It’s hard to get back to the squat racks, but you make it and replace the bar
and try to walk away but your legs feel like rags. You pant for a long time and
as soon as you’re able you grasp a 20 lb. bar and do about 20 or 30 breathing
pullovers. By the time you have finished these you are breathing about normal
again, but your legs still don’t feel like they want any more.
When working the
squat in a routine, we always performed it last for a very obvious reason. We
didn’t have anything left for other exercises. Most of the fellows squatted to
parallel, not because of any rules as we now have, but because they seemed best
for maximum results. A few insisted on going to the bottom but this was
considered too dangerous for the sacroiliac area.
Nearly everyone
squatted flat footed, with very few using a block under the heels. All squatted
with the feet well apart and toes pointed well outward. Most of them used a
cambered or bent bar. This kept the bar from rolling up on the neck if they
came up hips first. This did not bother me as I squatted almost vertically.
Most used some padding on the bar though some got tough enough to stand it
without padding.
The biggest problem
was with the arms going to sleep from their long cramped position holding the
bar, but you get used to this in time and just ignore it.
If we got stuck at
the bottom we just pushed against the thigh with on hand and came up. We might
get stuck on the 10th rep, but we went on and finished the full 20
repetitions. Getting stuck early was no indication we were through. We always
seemed to be able to fight it through to the full 20 reps.
We always took that
workout even if we didn’t feel like it. Nothing interfered with it.
I did squats twice
per week, but most fellows worked them three times per week; also most fellows
did something else with the squats but few of them used a large program.
I used the chin and
press behind neck, nothing else. Hise used the press behind neck and the squat.
Some used four or five other exercises but no one had a big program. All seemed
to gain all over, including arms and shoulders.
You can get some
sore muscle from this type of work. I tried to increase the squat poundage by 5
or 10 lbs. each workout even though it seemed I couldn’t make it.
Starting with about
135 lbs. I gradually went up to 20 reps with 340 in a year or so. Some went
higher than this. Even though we were doing high reps, it was amazing how our
strength went up so rapidly. You are usually a little tired the next day after
a workout, but you were ready for the next workout when the time came.
I have told you
about men who went up to 300 or so pounds in bodyweight. I tell you this only
to show what can be done, and do not recommend that you go that high, as it is
not necessary or desirable. I stopped at about 220 and feel this was plenty
heavy enough for me.
Many fellows have
gone quite high and then found they didn’t care to be so heavy, and have
trimmed down to a fine physique. You can stop anywhere you desire. In fact, you
will find it hard work all the way, but you will not make it without hard work.
Because it is very hard work you will also require a great amount of sleep and
rest. If you neglect your rest you are not going to be happy with the results
you get.
This article has
been a recital of what has been done, with details given so that you can do
likewise if you desire. If you go on a squat program, remember that the squat
is the main exercise. Anything else you decide to do will be in the nature of
accessory exercise. You will probably do only one set of about 10 reps on them.
Don’t forget that
nutrition is the real secret of gaining or reduction, but you must also have
exercise with it.
One thing this program
will do is put you into condition. Most of us used 20 reps in the squat, but
Hise experimented with as high as 30 and 40 reps, but found 20 to 30 best.
I can very well
remember how easy it was to run around over mountains like a goat after being
on this intensive program for a while. It was hard then for me to understand
why other people got tired and winded while climbing. I can understand it now
after being off 20 rep squat for a few years.
Good luck with your
squatting, and let us know how you get along. Incidentally, you don’t jump into
this full force all at once. Start with light poundages that seem easy, and
then add 5 or 10 lbs. each workout.
