Controversial to the nth degree, the ‘Iron Guru’ Vince Gironda made as many friends as he did enemies within the Iron Game. Unafraid to speak his mind, regardless of the consequences, Vince spent several years writing for the muscle mags in the 1980s. There he would dispatch advice and communicate with trainees. As the following excerpt from 1988 shows, such writing was not without its antagonism….from both Vince and his Readers!
Q) What do you think of pro, expert in bodybuilding knowledge, Stuart McRobert’s views about the back squat? (Iron Man, Oct~Nov. 1985). He states “The squat IS King of bodybuilding exercises, squatting with the barbell resting on the back of the shoulders. All other squats are parodies of the basic back squat for building lots of size and strength.”
Maybe, Vince, he is referring to your sissy squats, hack squats, roman chair squats, front (delinger) squats, etc., etc., Huh? Maybe, Vince, he feels that your are afraid of doing hard, heavy back squats and therefore you condemn it. Huh?
My regular leg routine consisted of 10 sets of 10 reps with 300 pounds (on toes) in 10 minutes. I have also performed 700 pound hack squats! I have also done sissy squats with 275 pounds! I recently destroyed a guy on the roman chair who claimed to squat with 700 pounds! He couldn’t walk for three days. By the way, who did Stuart McRobert ever train? Chuck, your problem is listening to these self-styled experts! There are hundreds of them out there!
For a detailed video from Vince himself on the Sissy Squats check out the following
Source: Musclemag Magazine, March 11:2, (1986).
The back squat is often touted as a way to build a lot of mass.
But to Vince, bodybuilding was not about sheer size and mass… it was about aesthetic development.
An artist making a clay figure does not indiscriminately heap on more and more clay in the assumption that it will look better that way. Physique development should be the same.