With the newfound availability of racks and weights, a few of you have asked about appropriate shoes for weight lifting. ExRx posted a great article on Weightlifting Shoes 101 that goes into the general reasons why shoes can make or break your PR attempt:

When we lift weights we want two things to happen: (1) all the force our body produces under the bar should contribute to moving the weight and (2) the weight needs to be controlled in a safe manner.

He compares lifting in a cushiony running shoe to lifting while standing on a giant marshmallow. You are trying to root those heels into the ground and wonder why your shock-absorbing Nikes feel squishy. On the flip side, you want a consistent stable surface to lift on. Standing on a fancy platform won’t mean anything if your shoes alter the “pattern of force transmission” every time you lift.

Some prefer to lift barefoot and encounter no problems with it. Personally, I’ve found that I’ll prefer my Vibrams or bare feet to squishy shoes when the load is light to moderate, but once I get up in the max lifts, I get a much more consistent surface with the WL shoes. While we are bio-mechanically made to prance about barefoot, very few of us have and our feet punish us sometimes when we don’t take that into consideration.

So, dig in your closet, find that old pair of Chucks that you have buried in the back, and throw them in your trunk for the next max lift day. Give it a shot and post your thoughts to comments!

WOD 11.05.09

Max L-Sit for time x2

• 400m run
• 21 Tuck Jumps
• 21 V-Ups
• 21 DB RDLs
• 400m run
• 15 Tuck Jumps
• 15 V-Ups
• 15 DB RDLs
• 400m run
• 9 Tuck Jumps
• 9 V-Ups
• 9 DB RDLs
• 400m run

(Optional – sub Burpees for Tuck Jumps and V-Ups)