Have you ever give much thought to what type of shoe you’re wearing while working out? For weight lifting, you have a lot of different options for footwear. Actually, you could wear almost any style of shoe, with one huge exception: Running shoes.
Running shoes are built to give support while cushioning the impact of your stride, and this cushioning is horrible for weight lifting; Also, running shoes typically contour to your foot, and thus aren’t flat– Most of the time, this is to keep your feet from pronating, or under pronating. This creates an unstable base for your lift, which could potentially be hazardous. I experienced this first hand when doing “Good Mornings” in running shoes– I kept shifting about while trying to keep steady. (I immediately went out and bought what I currently wear for weight lifting.) Just think about it– Running shoes are meant to help while you run, not stand in place holding a lot of weight. (We’ll get into running footwear in a separate post.)
So, if you shouldn’t wear running shoes for weight lifting, what do you wear? Literally, almost anything else. There is only one distinction: If you’re doing Olympic style lifts, you will want an actual weight lifting shoe, as these have a moderate heel built in that forces your body into a more engaging starting position. They run anywhere from $80 to $300.
If you’re not training for the Olympics, then most shoes fall into one of three categories: Training, Flat, and Barefoot. I use a training shoe now because I was in need of stability while squatting and doing good mornings. A training shoe is typically all leather (or synthetic leather), which helps keep your foot steady as there’s no mesh in it that flexes. There’s also a very solid, mostly flat sole with a slight heel which will help to keep your feet planted and stable during dead lifts, squats, and good mornings.
And then there is the “flat shoe” option. If stability is not an issue for you, or you’ve developed stability and proper form through the use of training shoes, you should optimally weight lift in a flat shoe. The most famous weight lifting shoe in this category, of course, is the Chuck Taylor All Star. You will see this shoe often in old photos of bodybuilders. To get maximum engagement from your muscles, you should have a completely flat base that you’re lifting off of, and flat shoes offer just that as all the shoe is doing is keeping your foot safe from the ground. Other examples of these shoes would be indoor soccer shoes, wrestling shoes, skate shoes, and many varieties of tennis court shoes.
And last, but not least, is the barefoot option.
Barefoot is the best way to lift, but most gyms won’t allow that. For that reason, we have the new line of barefoot shoes that most manufacturers are now making. Now that I’ve gained stability with my training shoes, I plan on switching to a pair of barefoot shoes. There is one thing to make sure of, though. . . When selecting a barefoot shoe, do not pick out the running variety. A perfect example would be with Fila Skeletoes: There is a normal option, and then there is the running variety, and the running variety has the same drawbacks as a normal running shoe.