Oh I think those may be “step-ups.” If I’m picturing it correctly, I belive that’s the name.
Great job on the squats man! If I may, once you’ve reacquainted yourself with the squat, I would recommend doing them anywhere 1-3 days a week (maybe 2 days would be best. 1 might be a little too infrequent, and 3 may be pushing it if you’re still being cautious of your back), and after doing some warmup sets, doing 3 sets of 5 reps, and either repeating the weight once more the next squatting session, or going up 5 lbs if it felt easy.
So like this:
Day 1, Week 1: 3x5 w/ 135 lbs
Day 2, Week 1: 3x5 w/ 140 lbs
Day 1, Week 2: 3x5 w/ 145 lbs (felt pretty hard)
Day 2, Week 2: 3x5 w/ 145 lbs (again)
Day 1, Week 3: 3x5 w/150 lbs
And so on. If you can follow that until you get to a point where progressing that often becomes impossible, then you could do something like Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1:
That’s a pretty good beginner into intermediate progression model. You increase weight fairly slowly so you’re never really rushing things. You can also follow that model for your bench press and overhead press if you want. I know you don’t deadlift currently, so I’m not saying you need to follow that program to a T, but just the progression methods could help your squat.
As far as your shoulders, try doing these before squatting (and before upper body work):
Those really help me feel loosened up to get my hands back there, and I think many have claimed it’s probably the best all around shoulder mobility drill, in case you ever feel like you’re getting tight up in the chest/shoulder area.
Check these out for reverse hyper replacements. The second one may possibly be what you’re referring to - just looping a band around the machine you use for back extensions.
(skip to 7:45 to see the exact part I’m talking about)
For future reference, both of those YouTubers are two of the very few YouTubers I’d ever say actually have anything helpful to say. They may both have some good tips for training.
But again, that’s great about the squats! I hope everything continues to go well!