The move you'll do forever. Nail it now.
Keep your heels glued to the floor and your knees tracking over your toes.
The bodyweight squat is the template every loaded squat is built on: quads bending and straightening the knees through a full range while the glutes control and drive the hips. It rehearses the positions, the bracing and the balance with nothing but your own weight, which is exactly why it never leaves the programme. Get it deep, get it smooth, and everything you load later gets better.
No, that is a myth for most people. Knees travelling forward is a normal part of squatting deep. What matters is heels staying down and knees tracking in line with your toes rather than caving inward.
At least until your thighs are parallel to the floor, deeper if you can keep your chest tall and heels planted. If depth is a struggle, try a slightly wider stance with toes out, and build the range gradually rather than forcing it.
Slow the descent to three or four seconds, pause at the bottom, or raise the reps. When those get comfortable, you have earned the move to loaded variations like goblet squats.
