Weightlifting Shoes to Increase Your Strength

Have you ever given any thought to your exercise shoes? Certainly you have. Most likely you have shoes set aside for the express purpose of exercise use at your favorite health club or lifting facility. How did those shoes earn that illustrious title and serve such a noble purpose? Shoes best suited for lifting? Performance enhancement? Exercise safety? Not usually. The prevailing reason for the selection of specific gym shoes is appearance. But if you are using barbells in your training, this is a mistake. Most of us would never consider wearing a pair of Bruno Magli's to play racquetball. They are built to look good, not to perform well on the court. While this may be obvious to some, many of us will make an equally poor footwear decision and wear running shoes to the gym to lift weights.

Proper footwear in the gym is important, especially if you are lifting free weights. In a weightlifting session we are seeking to accomplish two things:1.) The Harnessing of all body power for a concerted power explosion; 2.) Moving the intended weight to its destination without excessive risk of serious injury. If we lift in a running shoe, it's akin to trying to lift while standing on a giant marshmallow. The soles of the running shoes, the marshmallow, will absorb and dissipate a large amount of the force generated against the floor that should be directed towards moving the weight. A gel, or air cell shoe, is a marvelous tool for alleviating the constant pounding and trauma generally associated with jogging or running. But in the weight room, shoes should provide for the efficient transmission of power between the bar and the ground. it is tough to elevate huge weights with improper lifting shoes.

The second important point is trying to maintain good control of the barbell with unstable footing. A buffer which is in between your feet and the floor will not move in a reliable fashion each time, adversely affecting the lift. In other words, it is not possible to execute a standing barbell movement the same way each time. Because of the inconsistent surface, the probability of a weight lifting mishap and serious injury increases exponentially due to the difficulty in obtaining a good balance position.

All weight athletes have been aware of the need for balance for many years, despite the fact that the repertoire of available shoes was very small. Until thirty years ago, all types of shoes were worn in weightlifting sessions, including Chuck Taylor's, combat boots, and even patent leather shoes, worn by lifting icon Paul Anderson. For maximum performance and stability, a weightlifting shoe must fit tightly and have a strong backing, with a solid wedge type bottom to create the required traction for heavy weight lifting. Generally the best models will feature a full lace down the entire shoe to accomodate varying sizes with an additional attachment across the top of the foot for better balance. With the entrance of Adidas and Kahru into the weightlifting shoe market in this country, weight athletes now had access to custom made athletic shoes designed specifically for the iron game. While these shoes were not pleasing to the eye because of their unsightly appearance, lifters didn't care because they were happy with their functionality.

However, this created a crisis: Health clubs featured primarily exercise machines, at the expense of the old standby barbells and dumbbells. These machines were so comfortable to use that they nullified the importance of balance and technique, therefore halting the manufacturing of weight training shoes. However, in the last twenty years the appreciation of the barbell and dumbbell has started to resurface in exercise facilities everywhere. The only available manufacturer to fill the demand was Adidas, which put out several models suitable for exercising. Competitors such as Nike started entering the fitness market with a variety of lifting shoes. In addition, overseas and Canadian companies starting putting out a shoe to compete for the lifting niche, in addition to the U.S. company Safe-USA, which made a serious attempt to acquire market share. These companies all sell shoes that will accomodate the various iron sports and can be worn with good effect in the power movements, such as the barbell squat, because of their powerful construction. Powerlifting shoes, which feature flat soles with no heel elevation, are sold by the U.S.A. company Inzer, and resemble track or wrestling shoes, which makes them suitable for some of the popular weight lifting movements. These shoes are not ideal for performing the barbell squat because of their flat sole, but will work exceedingly well when doing other important lifting movements, such as deadlifts and presses.

Is this just another pair of shoes to purchase? Does the cost justify it? Indeed, it does. Corrett exercise performance results in higher weights lifted. Correct lifting prevents serious injuries. This is just common sense. You can purchase a proven inexpensive lifting shoe or an expensive, modern, high technolology shoe by Adidas, but either way you will be absolutely sure that you have the optimal training tool for weightlifting. The correct lifting shoe is critical for competition and avoiding injury, and you can purchase just such a shoe for far less than the cost of a popular jogging shoe.

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Rob Neville is a fitness and weightlifting author for several internet sites. His reviews of weightlifting shoes can be found on his site at Weight Lifting Shoes and Ab lounger