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switched from leg press to squats today.     

congrats! You will get a much better and more complete lower body strength stimulus from squats, once you get used to them.

squats are much harder!! i was squatting 180 and it was challenging. to leg press 250 was definitely easier.
i may not have even been going low enough.

yea, youre not lifting in a vertical path against gravity with the leg press, not nearly the level of stabilization required in the leg press that the squat requires, and much more hip involvement in the squat. Your glutes will take some time to catch up with your quads most likely, and be the limiting factor in your squats for a while.  Good thing is, they get stronger in a hurry once you start targeting them more.

is it bad if i feel pain in the base of my spine?  i felt that at some point.

yes, very bad, you need to learn to lock in the LUMBAR spine along with the thoracic.  spread the chest AND push your belt buckle down to point directly at the floor before you begin.

and should i be putting my weight towards the FRONT of my  foot, or towards the back?

Keep the weight centered right over the middle of the foot, or the exact area that you tie the knot in your shoe your laces.

If you can only leg press 250 you have no business squatting 180.

If you can only leg press 250 you have no business squatting 180.

Maybe he's doing quarter squats?

I know 10-11 year old girls that leg press ~300 lbs at the track.

I don't quite understand what you mean here by

1) spread the chest
(As in, I'm standing up straight and throwing my chest out and putting my shoulders back?)

2) Push my belt buckle down
(I don't have a weight belt yet... or do you just mean, angle my ass up so if i were wearing a belt, my buckle would be pointing toward the floor)?

That was what he meant. Set the lumbar spine and keep it the way it is through-out the rep. Ideally there should only be movement in the hips and knees, not in the spine.

If you quarter squatted, that is likely a reason for your back pain as well since you tried to handle a weight that your trunk is not adapted to handling. A weight you can use for a set of 5 in the full squat will be much safer to use right now.

sup zbiz, get vid of your squat man, a nice side angle.

post it up

pC