Yep. Building mass without doing squats is like trying to suck jello through a straw. You MIGHT gain a little, but the end result just isn't worth it.
It's all about intensity and pushing it to the point of muscle failure. Anything less is just wasting time and and working MORE, rather than working more EFFICIENTLY, and actually, working against yourself in the long run.
Ha ha... I've seen guys like this.
I don't care about the weight, because each time I work out, the weight goes up a little more, until I can hit muscle failure between 6-8 reps Trying to start out ultra-heavy (not having any prior experience or some kind of benchmark) and then backing it down, is a pretty quick way to getting injured. Most of these guys that do this are the ones that try doing this without a spotter too, and then someone either has to run over and rescue them, or else they dump all of the weights off of one side of the bar, and then off of the other, announcing to everyone in the gym, just what a kook/poseur/dumbazz they are.
(Very grateful for having my own weight room) LOL