LIFTING SHOES: The Complete Guide to the Best and WORST Shoes! (Lifting Gear Series)
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Lifting shoes - what they are, why you want to use them, what to look for, where to find them, and stick around to the end - why lifting in Chucks just might be the worst possible decision you could ever make.
Be sure to check out the included videos as they also cover some additional material not included in this article.
This is the fifth article in our “Lifting Gear” series. Click below to read the previous articles in the series:
What is a Lifting Shoe?
A lifting shoe is a shoe that has been - not surprisingly - specifically designed for lifting. To be clear, it’s not just a shoe that you happen to use for lifting. A lifting shoe has three distinguishing features, and it will look similar to the shoes in Figure 1.
The 3 Features of Lifting Shoes (and Why You Want to Wear Them)
The first distinguishing feature is the metatarsal strap(s). Every lifting shoe will have one or two velcro straps - these function to gather the foot together, provide support, and they act as a sort of belt for the foot.
Second, a lifting shoe will have a slightly elevated heel. Usually, the heel height is somewhere between a half inch and three quarters of an inch, and this small amount of heel elevation gets a bit more quad involved in the squat (and deadlift) and also helps with achieving depth in the squat. People often mistakenly focus on the heel as the most important feature, but that award goes to the next and final aspect of a lifting shoe.
Third - and this is the most important feature of a lifting shoe - a lifting shoe will have a rigid, non-compressible sole. When lifting heavy weights - whether squatting, pressing, deadlifting, snatching, cleaning, etc. - you want efficient force transfer between you and the floor. Specifically, you don’t want any loss of force transfer brought about by the variable amount of compressibility (i.e., “squishiness”) found in running shoes, basketball shoes, casual shoes, Chuck Taylors, etc.
figure 2: with 525 lb on his back, nathan appreciates the rigidity and support provided by his lifting shoes.
You can certainly train in non-lifting shoes, and doing so is far better than not lifting at all, but once you’ve trained in lifting shoes, lifting in anything else will feel like standing on pillows by comparison. Again, the non-compressible sole is the most important feature.
What to Look For When Shopping
Several major shoe makers as well as a few specialty companies manufacture and sell lifting shoes. To name a few, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Inov-8, Do-Win, and VS Athletics all make quality lifting shoes.
You’ll usually need to purchase lifting shoes online as most local shoe and sporting goods stores do not have them. Do not trust a salesman’s recommendation . . . ever. He is simply recommending a shoe that he thinks would be good for lifting - he’s not recommending a lifting shoe, which is what you actually want.
You’re simply looking for a quality shoe that has been specifically designed for lifting, so it should possess the three features listed previously. With this in mind, below are a few links to get you started on your shopping:
Note: I would not recommend the Adidas Powerlift or any other lifting shoe with a compressed foam sole. The Powerlift is fairly popular due to its price point and is certainly still better than non-lifting shoe options, but the sole is not as rigid as we’d like, and quite simply, there are better options (such as its sibling, the Adidas Adipower 3).
For Crying Out Loud, Don’t Do This . . .
Chucks are the shoes for people who started to think about lifting shoes but never completed the thought.
Don’t lift in Chuck Taylors. Ever.
figure 3: Chucks are great for little kids and casual wear. They are pretty lousy for lifting.
Typically, those who lift in Chucks do so simply because they’ve seen others do so, which is understandable given the popularity of wearing Chucks for lifting in the 1980s and 1990s. There is rarely ever an actual rationale given for training in Chucks, but when there is, it usually goes something along the lines of “Since it doesn’t have an elevated heel, it’s lower to the ground than a lifting shoe, so I don’t have to pull my deadlifts as far when I wear Chucks.”
Under minimal scrutiny, however, this logic doesn’t hold up. The heel of a lifting shoe isn’t that big, but if you want to deadlift in a “flat” (i.e., a flat shoe with minimal elevation), then you want your feet as close to the ground as possible, and a Chuck is therefore a terrible option since it has a significant amount of padding and cushion between the foot and the ground.
Several companies make a deadlift-specific lifting shoe for those who prefer to pull in flats, and if you’re interested, you can check out the Sabo Deadlift Pro as an example of this sort of shoe (you’ll note that, like a typical lifting shoe, it too has a metatarsal strap). Even wrestling shoes or barefoot-style shoes such as the Inov-8 Bare XF 210 provide better low-profile options (though not as good as the Sabo) than a Chuck.
On one hand, if you’re looking for a flat, low-profile shoe for deadlifting, the Chuck puts a lot of squishy material between your foot and the floor, so it’s terrible in that sense. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a rigid, non-compressible sole, that same cushioning again makes the Chuck a lousy choice for lifting. If purchasing lifting shoes isn’t in someone’s budget at the moment, there are plenty of men’s dress shoes, work boots, and hiking shoes that all make better options than Chucks.
How Important Are Lifting Shoes?
After your training log, your lifting shoes are your second most important piece of personal training equipment, and if you purchase a quality pair, they should last for years. I’ve trained in my Nike Romaleos for 7 years and counting at this point (to be clear, I have the Romaleo 2, which Nike doesn’t make anymore, but here is the current version - the Romaleo 4), so they were easily worth the money.
While you can train in other shoes, (and again, doing so is far better than not lifting at all), there are some very compelling reasons to train in lifting shoes. Runners wear running shoes, basketball players wear basketball shoes, so lifters wearing lifting shoes shouldn’t surprise us.
Get yourself a quality pair of lifting shoes, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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