Positioning the dumbbells full forward limits the weight I can use, and I want it to be an upper leg exercise rather than one for delts. It goes without saying that the upper body is not subject to the kind of stress that accompanies a heavy barbell squat. However, why would you think it would not be a mass builder (for upper legs)? You can adjust the weight to do as few or as many reps as you please, and the exercise involves a full range of motion. Yes, there's balance involved, but it gets easier, much like riding a bicycle. I would think that's a good thing for largely the same reason that some people prefer free weights to machines -- working the stabilizer muscles and so on. I've only been doing pistol squats since June, when I revised my routine. I did barbell squats until about 7 or so years ago and concentrated on leg presses since that time, augmenting them with extensions and curls. The weighted pistols are as hard a leg exercise as any I've ever done. So, again, I'm curious to know why you don't view them as potential mass builders.
Depending on the amount of weight you can move, I would think that a good squat rack with the safety bars properly adjusted for height can allow you to go to failure without a spotter. That's what I used when I did them, and I never liked depending on a spotter for squats.
A rack is a must... but you can't squat to failure without someone helping you lift after the positive failed. The negative (lowering the weight) takes a few extra reps to fail, after the positive (raising the weight) fails. Is there a simple mechanical device to do it without a spotter?. By the way, training to complete muscle failure (positive and negative) is the quickest and most effective manner to train, for all muscle groups, not only squats.
Training to complete muscle failure is the quickest and most effective way to burnout and overload your central nervous system, but it can work if you know what you are doing and utilize a low volume regime with frequent deload cycles. Training to complete failure with squats and deadlifts does not seem like a good idea to me.
LazyFairy : You are out of 'good ideas'. You know nothing. You didn't even know that, till right now.
Actually, I have first hand experience with this and I see a lot of retards failing by training to failure all the time. Like I said, it can be done if you know what you`re doing. Most don`t. That is irrefutable.
Brass and Leap. How do you make a full retraction, all the way down, with safety pegs? Either the pegs are set higher than a full retraction, which provides the spot, but not a full ATG. Or the pegs are set too low, which allows a full retraction, but no spot?