The Best Footwear for Weight Training

Forget the new “state-of-the-art” running and basketball shoes, and improve your training with these three footwear options.

You peruse the great articles here on OneResult.com to find information on training, nutrition, and supplements, and as an added bonus, you get my great humor and intelligence. What follows here’ll be no different, as this piece on choosing the right footwear will not only help you train better and improve your weight lifting and performance numbers, but also help you feel better as well.

In thinking about your footwear, there are a bunch of “running” shoes with tons of padding at the heel of the shoe. These teach us, the consumer, to strike our heel first when walking and running, sending shock waves up our body and changing the mechanics of how we move. So, in a sense, what these shoes have done is shut down our feet, causing issues with the arch, weak ankles, and possibly leading to knee and lower back issues. Additionally, sneakers like basketball shoes can lock up your big toe, causing issues with foot movement that lead to problems all the way up your body.

Essentially, your shoes are an investment in the prevention of knee and/or back issues, and so, in a perfect world, I’d only allow one of 3 shoes in my gym, and those three are: Chuck Taylors, Nike Free’s and Vibram 5 Fingers.

1. Chuck Taylors

Chuck Taylors began “training popularity” when people saw powerlifters training at Westside Barbell under Louie Simmons using them on platforms. The thought is that they’re flat, allowing your feet to, “do what they’re supposed to,” meaning you can push the weight out on the outside of your foot while squatting, helping to open your knees and use your hips more, when squatting huge weights (like those guys do). I can say, from experience, that they’re great training shoes. But I wouldn’t do much change of direction or agility work with them as they are somewhat flimsy.

2. Nike Frees

Once the minimalist idea of training barefoot became fashionable, Nike put out the Free. This shoe mimics the mechanics of barefoot training really well, and they’ve honestly done a very good job. Many athletes I work with use these shoes when they train, and I’ve used them in my own movement training. The older models that have the strap by the big toe joint were a little better since the shoe was more stable and more of an “extension” of your foot, but even if Nike doesn’t bring these back, the newer versions are still viable options. They’re HIGHLY effective in helping your feet and ankles get stronger without adding a bunch of unnecessary padding that will negatively impact your movement patterns.

3. Vibram 5 Fingers

The newest “cool shoe” in the training community is the Vibram 5 Finger. These shoes look like water shoes, with holes for each toe, and about 3 mm of sole between you and the ground. Most people don’t see how much they can help, but I can tell you from experience that they’re great in the weight room. I’m setting PR’s left and right training in them without changing anything else. They’re admittedly somewhat flimsy, so I wouldn’t do any movement work in them, but straight ahead sprinting is fine. That said, they do take a bit of “break in” time for your foot to get used to them, and if you start training too long, or too fast, in them you’ll be hurting the next few days. Just don’t go dropping a weight on your toes, not that shoes will help much more, but it’s gonna hurt like a bitch if you bounce a 45 off your pinky toe.

Knowing what you know now, take a closer look at what you’re strapping on your… feet. In just about everything you do, they’re the only part of your body in contact with the ground, which is where force is actually developed from (another long rant here, but I’ll wait on it). So go out, grab a pair of Chucks, Free’s, or Vibrams, and get to work. Give yourself time to get used to them so your feet don’t feel like they’re going to fall off, and then watch your numbers climb as you reap the benefits of your body doing what it was meant to do.