Suggestions for training shoes for box jumps and plyometrics

akafful

Hey guys, I need your suggestions. What are some training shoes that would work for many different training exercises, including plyometrics like box jumps?

pierinifitness

When I did them, I used my regular workout shoes, running shoes. Never saw the need for a specialty shoe.

akafful

I need something designed for lateral movement too.

pierinifitness

What are you wearing now and why aren’t they sufficient?

MikePfirrman

Cross trainers or even "court shoes" should be fine. I think you're right, though, you probably don't want to use running shoes as it would be much easier to turn an ankle. I'm also interested in this thread because I purchased myself a X-mas gift of a nice wooden Plyo Box and then hurt my back pretty severely. The back is starting to feel better and as soon as I finish getting my garage cleaned up from a recent move, I was going to put mine together finally and get some work on it done.

I love Plyo boxes and loved working them in the gym. Unfortunately, now, I'm miles from the nearest gym but have a lot of home equipment.

pierinifitness

I have experience doing box jumps and burpees which have a plyo aspect with the jump at the end of each rep. If this is new to you my best advice is to watch your training volume and frequency, more is not better. When I did box jumps, I did 5 rep max sets and sometimes single progressions ramping up the height each effort. So, in that regard, it was akin to heavy weight strength training. Low reps, heavier loads (height) with lots of recovery between attempts. Got as high as 36 inch box jump for 5 reps when I was doing them. Be safe and remember, more is not better.

akafful

pierinifitness wrote: »

What are you wearing now and why aren’t they sufficient?

The shoes I bought were Puma Electron Street Knit. I haven’t tested them yet on that tho. But for some reason I feel a bit nervous. I bought them less than 1 month ago.

Cherimoose

Good shoes for plyos and also strength have a thin, hard sole and no raised heel. Most shoes have a raised heel, including cross-trainers and your Pumas, and that makes lateral stability worse.. especially if the sole is spongy like with running shoes. It's good if the fabric doesn't stretch much too. I wear skateboard shoes, but leather Chucks can work, or maybe wrestling shoes.
Careful with box jumps. Shin scrapes can turn into serious infections.

bjdw_1977

firef1y72

I use a pair of very basic Reebok flex shoes for all gym work including plyo, find the flexibility in the sole helps me with feeling the surface I'm taking off from/landing on.
(I'm rubbish at box jumps though, still only managing to jump on to a step at the highest level)

akafful

Okay, maybe it’s not just plyometrics, but also HIIT and weightlifting. Basically, all sorts of training, for except running which I can just use the sneakers with the raised heel and spongy sole.

akafful

Cherimoose wrote: »

Careful with box jumps. Shin scrapes can turn into serious infections.

True, I got a shin scrape once from that, so I gotta be careful indeed.

DX2JX2

You want a flat wide sole with stable base. Avoid anything with drop (incline from heel to toe) and a ton of cushioning. Thick cushioning isn't super important because you'll be up on your toes for most of this work anyway and the cushioning could make you lose some connection to the ground.

They do make dedicated cross-training or cross-fit shoes with zero drop and stable bases. I personally like Nike's Metcon series but my workout regime admittedly runs towards endurance so I might not be the best source for recommendation.

cs4156

Love My NoBulls!

jenniday1229

Reebok Nano, Nike Metcon, No Bull would all be good options. I have Nanos because I have a wider foot and Reebok tends to fit me better than Nike. I've heard great things about No Bulls but haven't tried them yet. I hear their width is in between Reebok and Nike though.