Coach Kevin runs through the different types of shoes for your training needs.
Coach Kevin runs through the different types of shoes for your training needs.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hi and welcome back to Get Fit Guy, Kevin Don here. Whenever I go to the gym, it can feel like a bit of a mission. I have to look at what I’m training that day and make sure I pack the right things. Squat day: loose fitting shorts to make sure I can get a larger range of motion on the squat, for example. Or of course, if I’m swimming, I have to remember the budgie smugglers. But aside from thinking about the clothing I’m taking, there is another consideration: footwear. In fact, I often have to take 2 or more pairs of shoes depending on what I’m doing. Why? Well, stay tuned to find out!
The first thing to say is that, aesthetics aside, when you go into a sports shoe store, there must be a good reason for all the different varieties of shoes. In fact, the name of the shoes is often a dead giveaway: tennis shoes are intended for tennis, basketball shoes are for basketball. But can you wear basketball boots to lift weights at the gym or tennis shoes to go for a run?
The first to think about is what you are training and what impact your shoe choices may have on the chosen activity. When it comes to lifting weights, like squatting or deadlifting, for example, we are looking at the creation of force. Specifically, we are looking at ground reaction force. Pretty self explanatory - that is the force that is created when there is a reaction between us and the ground. So let’s have an example of force transmission. Let’s say you will be punched; it’s mandatory but will only happen once. One option: the person will punch you as hard as they can and they will wear a 12oz boxing glove. Or, option two: they will punch you as hard as they can only with their fist. Which would you prefer and why?
Most people of sound mind would choose the boxing glove. The reason is that there is a soft object between you and the punch. The boxing glove also covers a larger surface area, so the force is spread across a larger area. So we can expand this logic to squats using basic logic called modus ponens. Which is: if p, then q. P. Therefore, q. Soft objects reduce force. A running shoe is a soft object. A running shoe will reduce force.
If we were to wear a running shoe, with a big, spongy sole, designed to reduce force from pounding the asphalt, while lifting, the shoes are going to reduce the force between your feet and a lifting platform in a squat. They are also unstable in all directions because of this spongy, cushioned quality. No bueno.
If you are going to be lifting weights, guess what? (This will blow your mind). You want to be wearing weightlifting shoes. There are a few key components of these shoes that help your lifting. Firstly, they have a hard sole. Early weightlifting shoes had wooden heels. In fact, I had a pair myself until someone stole them at a gym in Scottsdale, AZ. Apparently the old Adidas wooden heeled shoes are selling for up to 1000 bucks on eBay, even for used ones! Modern lifting shoes tend to have hard plastic heel cups. This hard sole doesn't allow force to leak out to the sides like cushioned shoes do, and they transmit all the force through your feet into the ground.
The next benefit is that they have an elevated heel. This is massively helpful in the squat. Many lifters have poor dorsiflexion, which is the ability to have your shins close to your toes. This means that at the bottom of the squat, you tip onto your toes and the heels lift off the floor. This is an unstable position. The elevated shoe heel helps with dorsiflexion, and even when it's still a little suspect, the elevated heel keeps your heels in contact with the floor.
Finally, they have one or sometimes two velcro straps across the forefoot, which holds the foot firmly in place, preventing any foot rolling. You definitely wouldn’t want to have your foot rolling about under maximal loading.
If you are serious about lifting and about getting stronger, you absolutely should be investing in a weightlifting shoe. That being said, if you want to do other things at the gym, you won’t be able to run or do any kind of circuits in them. They don’t flex mid-foot and are constructed entirely with the purpose of keeping your foot still. So running or jumping rope or anything with foot movement will be difficult.
The advent of CrossFit saw the need for a shoe that was in the middle ground. Stiff enough to be stable in weightlifting in a circuit but flexible and light enough to do jumping and short runs. There are now many brands making these kinds of hybrid training shoes, so you will be spoiled for choice. I would even say that low rise baseball shoes are perfect for all round hybrid stuff. The sole is pretty firm, making it a good force transmitter, and they are flexible enough to do general functional stuff. These lack any cushioning for longer runs and they lack heel elevation for really heavy lifting. So you might want to have specialised shoes for each training outcome.
I’m going to do some more in depth episodes soon focusing on what to look for in different types of shoes. Every week I get emails saying I haven’t gone into enough depth on a topic. As I explained many times, this is ‘quick and dirty tips,’ it’s not long highly specialised tips. It’s only a 10-12 minute podcast, and it’s intended for general populations. But I am always looking to serve you guys better, so I will try to do more ‘deep dive’ type episodes to get you more information than can possibly ever be relevant or implementable.
Now on to a listener email!
“Hi Kevin,
I am a long time fan of the show (since around 2010 I would guess) and I enjoy your take on things. A question I have is, you mentioned in the cold weather show about preparing your muscle group before activating the muscles. You said something about not doing squats to prepare your biceps. Can you talk a bit more about this activation process and how to go about it (eg, a half set, lighter weight etc)? Is it essentially a warm up in that muscle group?
I’m a 68 year old gym rat and want to keep going and always looking for new ways. Thanks again for your work!
Regards,
David”
Hi David, thank you for the email. Yes, I did indeed say something along those lines. We always want to do a general warm up and a specific warm up. Squats may well be a part of a general warm up but not part of a specific warm up.
Let's say I was going into the gym to squat. Here is what I do myself:
Firstly I go for a general warm up to get moving and get some blood flow. I also use the general warm up to move through all the motor patterns so I might do something like:
3 rounds of
500m row EZ pace
10 alternating bodyweight only forward lunges
10 each side single arm DB strict press
10 ring row @30X2
10 alternating cossack squats
10 banded good morning
10 hollow rocks
That there elevates my heart rate and takes me through a lunge, a squat, a push, a pull, a hinge and a core movement.
After that, I will look at what I am doing that day. If, let’s say it’s my squat day, I know heavy squats involve core stabilisation and glute and quad activation. So I might run through:
3 rounds of
10 each side banded Bird dogs
10 goblet squats @33X3
10 cable pull throughs @40X4
Then I will start to run through squats themselves. I always start with a couple of sets of 10 with the barbell only.
So: general warm up into a movement-specific warm up into lighter sets of the same movement. So, there are 3 distinct warm up phases.
Hope that helps!
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