Reply With QuoteDo-Wins for squatting, Chuck Taylors for deadlift. I agree with Candito on this: Any cheap flat shoe is fine for deadlifting. But for squats, get a good Olympic shoe with proper heel lift and zero compression.
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A Marine on Weightlifting Shoes | Grant Broggi
"Every Marine is a rifleman, and it all starts on the ground, inside your boots with proper care of your feet. You must take care of and protect your feet to be an effective Marine. This is no different in barbell training. While you may not be headed for combat in your weightlifting shoes, they are the very place you produce force against the ground."
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Do-Wins for squatting, Chuck Taylors for deadlift. I agree with Candito on this: Any cheap flat shoe is fine for deadlifting. But for squats, get a good Olympic shoe with proper heel lift and zero compression.
TMPHBITEU
Stupidest thing I ever heard. Your feet don't need support under a heavier weight than you're squatting. Brilliant.
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I don't understand putting a raised heel on a weightlifting shoe for the purpose of more quad activation when that's supposed to be the evil of high bar squats. It's also just not anatomically natural. How many of us walk in raised heels the rest of the day? And why make these shoes the be all end all with no flat foot variation when that is what is needed for dead lifting, and then curse the only affordable flat, relatively hard soled shoes out there we have left to choose from?
✓ Member
Wow. A lot to unpack here.Originally Posted by David McClelland
The heel on a weightlifting shoe is not there to increase quad activation. It is there to improve the mechanics of the movement which are typically hindered by lack of ankle flexibility/ mobility. The heel rise allows better knee and hip angles through the bottom of the squat while maintaining balance. It makes squatting to depth easier for most people.
The "evil" of high bar squats is not quad activation; it's the lack of hip and hamstring involvement. A raised heel does bring the quads more into the lowbar squat but it doesn't negate the hips.
Chuck Taylors are better than running shoes, for sure, but they are still pretty compressible under any significant load, and they have absolutely no arch support or stability. And there are flat soled lifting shoes on the market that are much better.
Finally, and this is just my opinion, having lifted in running shoes, chucks, Corcoran boots, and actual lifting shoes, the negative impact of a modest heel on the deadlift is *vastly* overrated. The non-compressibility, support, and stability of a decent heeled lifting shoe is far more beneficial to the movement than the heel is a detriment. Your mileage may vary, of course.
And, last point...my dress shoes, my Corcorans, my cowboy boots, and my work boots all have varying degrees of raised heels. So with the exception of my running shoes, which I mostly wear when walking the dog, I do walk around in raised heels the rest of the day.
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We shouldn't just assume that feet require special support when weight training. A buddy of mine, a retired orthopedic surgeon who specialized in sports medicine, notes that there are more than 100 muscles in the foot and ankle. Like any other muscles, it is beneficial to train them. And like other muscles, they should be trained progressively.
If you currently pull a 500 lb. DL in weighlifting shoes, you should not try it with no shoes or shoes with no arch support. But if you train progressively, your feet will develop the capacity to bear heavy weights the same way the rest of your body develops that capacity: through adaptation to progressively greater stress. Training your feet will increase not only strength but also mobility and proprioception. The assumption that feet can't stand the stress of heavy loads simply isn't supported by empirical evidence. The fact that feet can be trained the same as other parts of the body is supported by empirical evidence.
More here: The Importance of Barefoot Training
TMPHBITEU
Empirical evidence is very important. I've heard that somewhere...
✓ Member
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that your feet get trained no matter what type of shoe you’re wearing, if any at all. The feet don’t have a choice. Just like your hands get trained doing heavy pulls and presses, even if you’re wearing gloves (don’t), and your midsection gets trained even if you’re wearing a belt.
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Evidence, please
I would love to see the empirical evidence for your claim that deadlifting in Chucks is "the stupidest thing you ever heard." Or the empirical evidence for your tacit assumption that muscles and bones in the feet can't be trained like other muscles, and therefore require special support. It's easy to find lifters who pull DLs well above 500 lbs. without shoes and who have strong, healthy feet. That's pretty sound empirical evidence that feet can be trained to handle heavy loads the same as other parts of the body. What is your empirical evidence to the contrary? I put that to you as a serious question. Can you give me a serious answer for a change?
TMPHBITEU
What do you mean by "empirical evidence"? If your assertion that a barefooted 600-pound deadlifter with healthy feet is empirical evidence, if I show you a 600-pound deadlifter with fallen arches, is that empirical evidence too?
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