Something that’s extremely important, but perhaps we don’t think about very much, is what we put on our feet when we lift weights.
If your workout involves lifting weights, you’re more likely thinking about the muscle groups involved; the exercises you’ll perform; the goals you set for yourself for this workout; or perhaps you’re even thinking about the pre-workout or post-workout nutrition or supplements involved.
It’s not like when you go for a run, or a walk, or a bike. For endurance activities, there are clearly defined options in regards to footwear.
Not so much for lifting weights. From my own observations of 10+ years in various gyms, I can tell you with confidence the most common footwear for a lifting session is “whatever the hell is laying around when I walk out the door.”
I kid you not, I’ve seen people lifting weights in dress shoes and cowboy boots. That’s obviously not the norm, but it shows what we’re dealing with here — those same people wouldn’t have worn that same footwear to go outside for a run.
I think I’ve made my point.
So what IS the best footwear for lifting weights? We can look to the research for some answers, and I will add in my opinion based on personal experience to help identify some answers.
Lower Body Training
For simplicity’s sake, let’s break lifting weights into two categories: upper body and lower body.
And to further simplify this breakdown, I’d like to make one thing clear: I’m not taking into account person-specific traits like flat feet or natural pronation or supination (rolling inward or outward) of the foot. This article would become more confusing than useful if I tried to dive into that level of detail, and quite honestly I’m not a professional in biomechanics so it would be irresponsible for me to play doctor in that respect.
Rather, we’ll focus on general recommendations and base those on the categories of upper-body and lower-body training.
If we focus on one while eliminating the other, it helps us isolate specific traits of lifting weights in regards to footwear. Obviously, lower body workouts are going to more directly involve the feet in exercises, so we can safely assume our choice of footwear for these sessions should be intentional.
If you’re doing any type of heavy compound movement when training your lower body, footwear is extremely important. Let’s take the squat, for instance.
The squat is typically a movement where the goal is to load up the bar to a heavy weight in order to perform multiple sets. When I see people do this in running shoes or some other type of generic activewear, I cringe.
Running shoes, cross trainers, etc. are designed with a padded sole. It’s, in a word, squishy. There’s instability there, which is by design to give your foot a certain level of comfort when repeatedly hitting the ground while running or participating in some other form of physical activity.
These shoes are NOT meant for bearing heavy loads, and wearing them while performing a squat (or any other movement that puts the body under heavy load) can be very dangerous.
It seems that if it’s not a running shoe, many lifters will wear weightlifting shoes with an elevated heel for the squat and other lower-body movements. The thought is it will help you squat more upright, keep your knees from traveling too far forward, and help with ankle flexion. All of those things can be improved with an elevated heel, but as Greg Nuckols wrote in volume 2, issue 1 of MASS, “most people don’t squat with maximum forward knee travel,” meaning the purpose of these shoes with an elevated heel is often not needed by the person wearing them.
In fact, weightlifting shoes with an elevated heel and running shoes (which also often have elevation added to the heel) were comparable in two studies in regards to forward lean and ankle dorsiflexion.
A recent study compared squatting barefoot to squatting with flat-soled shoes and weightlifting shoes. Once again, the results showed no significant differences between each condition.
Upper Body Training
Despite less of a direct application to the actual movements being performed, upper-body workouts still very much involve the feet. You should be intentional here as well.
Similar to the concept of being under load with lower-body training, you’re going to be putting your body under load when you train upper body.
Think about simply pulling a pair of dumbbells off the rack to do any movement. That’s added load on your body.
Let’s make it more specific. Say you’re doing a dumbbell chest press and you use 60-pound dumbbells. That’s 120 extra pounds that you’re carrying from the rack to the bench. That weight is carried in your hands, but it ultimately places added load on your joints, all the way down to your knees, ankles, and feet.
Then you set up on the bench and get in position. If you’re doing this movement properly, you’re digging your feet into the ground and using them as leverage. When your set is complete, you once again have the load of carrying those dumbbells back to the rack.
It’s not as direct as a squat, but your feet are involved in just about every movement you perform (aside from machine-based training, which is probably the only form of upper-body training where footwear is inconsequential). You can probably see how, once again, a soft, squishy, unstable sole on your shoes would present the potential for danger.
I’m working my way to an answer here, and between the pictures and the examples and rationale I’ve worked through thus far you may have already picked up on it, but let’s get to it.
Application and Takeaways
In my opinion, flat-soled shoes are almost always the right answer. I’ve determined this through reading the research cited above along with making a lot of (painful) mistakes along the way.
I used to use weightlifting shoes with an elevated heel for my lower-body days (aside from deadlifts, which I’ve always done barefoot or with a flat sole). I also used to wear running shoes for everything else. Over time, the combination of both put me in considerable pain, some of which I’m still working my way out of.
The fact of the matter is, flat-soled shoes like the Chuck Taylors pictured above are almost always the best choice. Most likely, you don’t have ankle flexion issues. You probably don’t have issues with forward knee travel either.
We are probably both similar in that we’ve chosen our footwear somewhat based on what looks cool. For example, I used squat shoes for three years straight simply because I saw every other powerlifter that I look up to wearing them as well. And oh yeah… I love Nike.
That dug me into a hole, though. Over time I started to experience right knee pain. Nothing specific ever happened to my knee, so I was lost in trying to remedy the problem. One day, when I was seemingly out of answers, I swapped my weightlifting shoes for Chuck’s, and immediately things started to feel better. Upon doing further research, the solution was so obvious.
I have flat feet. Because of that, I often wear added arch support. I was squatting in an elevated heel with elevated arch support. My knee joint hated every last second of every rep because all of the extra “stuff” I was using made the joint travel in an ever-so-slightly different path than it naturally wanted to. Over time, it really messed me up.
That’s just my experience. It’s not yours. But, it’s a great example of what all of this unnecessary “stuff” can do to you.
I’m not suggesting you swap out all of your footwear after finishing this article (unless you’re squatting in running shoes — if that’s you, STOP IMMEDIATELY!). However, I’m suggesting that you take a look at what you’re using and see if there’s a safer option.
Generally speaking, the closer you can get the bottom of your foot to the ground when lifting weights, the better off you’ll be (again, assuming you don’t have a specific foot or ankle issue that requires specific support). It puts you in the most natural position possible and will allow you to lift safely.
If you’re using weightlifting shoes and you feel great in them, you probably shouldn’t change anything about what you’re doing. But if an issue ever arises, consider switching to flat-soled shoes to see if it makes a difference.
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I hope you found this article interesting, and as always thanks for reading! If you’re interested in learning about coaching, be sure to visit my Coaching Services page. And if you’d like to set up a call to talk about your goals and how we can work together to achieve them, fill out my Coaching Application Form and let’s talk!
CGF