Hello Gixxer,
My responses regarding squats help arms growth was a rebuttal to your following quote:
I see in your last response to me you stated I'm missing your point, which I apologize for and my weight belt comment.
I still recommend pushing with everything during squats and you'll feel shoulders and chest that day and the next feel sore. It's how I was taught to squat by the big boys.
You'll have to try it for yourself or watch me squat with my shirt off so you can see the flexing of every muscle and consequent involvement of shoulders/chest. Obviously, this isn't an option since the bar will be cold...
I found some info that I remember from the 80's. Believe it or not, the old timers used to increase their rib cage by doing "breathing squats"... (I can't wait for the response from this)
By squatting heavy, and staying in the squat position taking extremely deep breaths, would expand the actual bones of the rib cage. Below is some important information to prove some major points made thus far:
Squats, in their various versions, are the most effective overall strength exercises. Their benefits are not limited to developing lower body strength and endurance. Squats without additional resistance (weight), such as Hindu squats, strengthen knee ligaments, develop muscular endurance in the lower body, and improve lung function. This is why these squats, called baithak, together with one more exercise—Hindu push-ups—are an indispensable part of Indian wrestlers' training. These wrestlers, famous for their stamina, do several hundred deep squats every day (Draeger and Smith 1974). Squats with weights increase muscle and bone mass of your whole body—not just of thighs and hips but of the trunk, chest, shoulders, and neck. This is because squats with weights put heavy stress on a majority of skeletal muscles and most of the bones. The greater muscle mass mobilized in an exercise, the greater are the releases of hormones promoting growth of muscles, bones, and other fibrous connective tissues (Conroy and Earle 1994; Kraemer 1994). Muscle mass grows much less in women who lift weights than in men, so ladies need not worry about becoming bulky.
Breathing squats with weights, in which three or more deep breaths are taken before each squat, in addition to putting on mass very quickly, enlarge the rib cage (Strossen 1989). To learn more about the whole method of training with breathing squats, read Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks by Randall Strossen.