[skunkworks]

1) Depends. Stick with 45 and just start progressively adding weight each workout. See where that goes.

2) Squats will torch your legs at first. When I warm up, if my work set is at 225, I will do 4-5 warmup sets that ramp up linearly to my work set. It would probably go something like this:

1x5x45
1x5x95
1x4x135
1x2x165
1x1x195

That's all done basically with little to no rest (besides the time it takes to add weight to the bar). After I'm done with warmups, I'll usually take 30s to a minute to gather myself before jumping into work sets, although this doesn't matter much. As long as your body temperature has risen and your muscles have warmed up (and aren't tired/fatigued at all from the warmup sets) you should be ready to do the work sets whenever.

You probably will feel like your ass is doing a lot of work, but it's mostly because your posterior chain (lower back, glutes, hamstrings) are weaker than your quads. You do not want to lean forward too much, but you also don't want your upper body to be perfectly perpendicular to the ground. It should have a slight forward tilt when you reach the bottom of the squat position to act as a counterbalance, and as you move up it should begin to straighten out gradually. You don't want to fold in half while moving up or have your weight shift to the balls of your feet. DO NOT TWIST YOUR FEET. They should stay anchored during the movement.

One thing that helped me with the up-motion of squatting was to dispel the notion that I am straightening my legs. Instead, I imagine that my hips and ass are exploding upward to propel the weight up.

3) There's a slight back lean, but not so much that you turn it into a standing bench press. Just enough to get the bar past your face without leaving scratch marks [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]