Here's a pretty straightforward, compressed to head-of-a-pin size Squat article from the era . . .
The biggest lift in powerlifting, the squat, can shovel on pounds of hard muscle and boost your overall athletic performance in a way no other exercise can match.
Your first step is equipment issues, then on to basic training.
The first thing you need is a lifting belt, which is a key to lifting safety. It takes stress from the weight of the bar on your back and distributes it over your entire torso, by increasing intra-abdominal pressure, as pointed out by noted biomechanics expert Dr. Thomas McLaughlin.
Knee wraps should be next on your list. They keep your knees feeling secure and add a little rebound out of the bottom of a tough lift.
Supportive lifting suits can come later if and when you choose to compete. Until you get through basic training, a nonrestrictive pair of gym shorts and T-shirt are adequate workout gear, because you want your own muscle power to be exercised to build a base of strength, from which you can expand.
One thing you should know about powerlifting: You shouldn't spend much time at it. Many typical "more is better" gym rats never get anywhere in powerlifting because they think if one heavy workout a week is good, three are better. "Back off the natural desire to hit your squats hard more than once a week. The recuperation you get from that week's rest between big ones will pay incredible benefits.
Make that one major workout count, however, with a supreme effort every time out. If you get too hungry between bouts at the squat rack, include a weekly light workout, just going through the motions to get the blood pumping a bit. Here's a good workout plan for a week:
HEAVY DAY - 135x6 (warmup) / 186x6 (warmup) / 225x6 (warmup) / 275x4 (intermediate set) / 315x4 (intermediate set) / 345x5 (first heavy work set) / 345x5 / 345x5 / and 345x5.
After that drop down to 285x8 (back off set), followed by another one if you feel good for it. These final sets should give your thighs a respectable pump, whereas the four work sets should be at a weight (345 is just an arbitrary choice) sufficiently tough that you can just barely make the 5th rep of that last set. The scientific research literature says 4-6 reps are most effective for building strength, and that's what you're doing in this initial stage of training.
Obviously, as you get stronger you'll increase the weight used in those heavy sets. A common progression is simply to add 5-10 lbs. on to your work sets when that final 345 (or whatever poundage you end up doing) starts to feel pretty easy. Progression of this sort does not usually continue regularly over a long period of time, but one way to extend your progress is the old "Three steps forward, two steps back" system first described to me by world middleweight record holder Rick Gaugler.
Here's how it works. Say your work set weight was 345, for 4 sets of 5 reps. Back off to 335 for next week's workout. It will be easy. The following week go for 345 on your tops sets again. Shouldn't be any big problem. The following week, go for it . . . 355!
After that, back off to 345 again, followed by 355 and another try for a personal record -- 365! Then back down a couple of steps to 355 again, and so forth. The variety and recuperation that this mini-cycle puts into your training keeps your progress pulsing forward.
LIGHT DAY -- By the way, a typical light day workout, 3-4 days after your heavy one might go like this for the squat:
135x6 / 185x6 / 225x6 / 275x6 / 315x4 / 315x4 / 315x4 / 225x8.
You'll have plenty of work on the other days, training your bench press and deadlift, so there's no need to hit the squats very hard on your light day. Just work on your form, and get the juices flowing.
Of course, even this kind of basic training can get psychologically wearing and unproductive after a while. That's why you need to divide your training year into various segments. An active rest period might follow a competition. In this phase, weight training is limited and not intense. Play some football, jog, swim, hike for a few weeks, and train every session as if it were a light training day.
The next phase is a bodybuilding period. Hit higher reps here, up to sets of 10 reps, and emphasize the number and intensity of assistance exercises, like leg curls, leg extensions, hack squats, front squats, leg presses, etc. This builds a good generalized muscular base for the regular training phase.
After you've built that power base and picked a competition to lift in, it's time to hit a peaking phase. This can typically last 6-8 weeks. In this phase, your working weight and reps change every few workouts. In the training phase, you hit four 4 sets of 5 reps. In the peaking phase, you would bump your training weight up, to say 375 for 3 sets of 4 reps, and a couple of weeks later, you'd go to 395 for 3 sets of 2 reps, followed by a move to, say, 420 for 2 sets of 2 reps. In the last workout of two, you would move up to a single, but not a limit effort, say 445x1.
At the competition, you might take your three attempts in this fashion: An opening effort at 425, moving up to 450 on your second attempt, and maybe taking a shot at 465 on your third attempt. Peaking means converting the strength you built in those grueling 4 sets of 5 big reps into a single, maximum EXPLOSIVE effort, which is the truest expression of physical power and strength.
TRAINING BOOSTERS
Not roids, silly, although they work enormously well in building strength. Anyhoo . . . continuing the article but not mentioning the obvious important factor just mentioned . . everybody tries them (not the juice!), because everybody wants more pounds on their squat. They're the tricks of the squatting trade, and here are a few of them.
Overloads: The theory is simple, the greater the load on your body, the more muscle fibers activated and thus "trained" to be available for future successful lifting attempts. As you get stronger, of course, you will be using more weight, and activating more muscle neurons, but to accelerate this process, you might simply try a very heavy weight, more than you would normally be able to lift in a complete squat movement.
For example, the hypothetical model athlete we have been following might take 500 lbs. out of the squat racks, with suitable spotters and safety considerations in place, and simply step back with this definitely heavy weight on his back. No need to descend with the weight at all. Simply carrying this weight on your back, in this overloaded fashion, makes the normal training poundage feel light.
This same function can be achieved in a power rack, where the bar is fixed at a particular height, and you can perform partial squats with extra weight as an overload as well. Setting the bar height appropriately can isolate your sticking point in the squat for special attention.
Pause Squats: These are toughies. Take a weight, this time less than your working sets, and instead of dipping down and up with it in the regular manner, pause at the bottom, for one second or several, before attempting to rise with the weight. This one really brings home the amazing momentum factor in squatting -- by taking it away.
Just a few sets of these will bring you the kind of soreness that only the most intense of traditional squat workouts can.
Plyometrics: This method popularized in the Eastern Bloc countries excites more muscle nerve structures, ones that would otherwise be unstimulated and untrained, to contribute to the single max-effort squat you want to produce.
It involves such moves as depth jumps off of boxes into a squat position. No weights are typically used, and the movements must be done with control so as not to result in injury. The Russians theorize that the peak accelerations achieved in a rapid jumping movement are far beyond those experienced in traditional training modes, and thus bring in the additional fibers.
Leg Presses: This is way to overload your legs without involving your back, which is a far more tender muscular structure than the legs, and far more susceptible to overuse. You can even do them with one leg at a time for a productive training variation.
Bicycling: Simply riding a bike in low gear up some modest hills for half an hour on your off days can be a very productive training "secret." Do the equivalent on the exercycle in the gym, or use some other leg exercise that doesn't involve the low back.
There are lots of tricks you can think up yourself, or adapt to your unique physical structure and training potential. When you get the hang of the squat, you are a true powerlifter, handling some of the most massive weights the human body can move in a full range action.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
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