Shoes or No Shoes?

Amanda4MyGrant

Are weight lifting workouts more affective with or without shoes? 🏋🏻‍♀️

ninerbuff

You want to wear shoes as much as possible because though a dropped weight may not fully protect you from injury, having skin break open from it can be messy.
That said, I believe it's fine to squat or do leg exercises barefoot as long as the surface you're on isn't slippery (like when you sweat).
Personally I wear shoes for everything because my shoes are made for lifting.


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

claireychn074

It depends on what you mean by more effective. Shoes can be safer, give you more grip and correct for lack of ankle flexion etc. barefoot workouts can strengthen feet and ankles, give you more feeling for the floor and help balance. It depends on your aims, whether you’re used to wearing shoes and your flexibility. For instance, I always wear lifting shoes because my sport dictates them, but I spent many years training barefoot with martial arts and - given the choice - I would squat barefoot too.

yirara

I personally do strength exercises barefoot (at home) because I have better ground support. In a way I'd say it's more effective, but my guess is that it's so minimal that it makes no difference.

SoCalSwimmerDude

I exclusively wear these when lifting at the gym.

nossmf

You know what they say about guys lifting with big shoes...

1ns1d3_0u7

Normally for weight lifting (or general exercise) I'm wearing new balances. The exception is if I'm deadlifting, I will wear Chuck Taylors (but I prefer just being in socks tbh).

doskvig23

I personally have done some research and I’ve found that lifting with shoes sometimes decreases my power in the different lifts that I do. However, there are shoes specifically designed for weightlifting that are flat and allow for a “barefoot” design. These shows I’ve found to be helpful.

ninerbuff

I've been really concerned as of late because I've had a pain in my left big toe whenever I do a stationary or walking lunge. This has been ongoing for 2 months. At first I thought I might have jammed my toe into something, but I noticed it as soon as I got new shoes. Now I buy the same pair over and over, but new shoes are tighter. So after much trying to rehab it, I looked at some videos and it didn't even dawn to me that I missed bunions. And looking at my feet, I have mild bunion formation. So since that time, I've been wearing toe spacers at home, walking around in them when I'm not at work, and wear them when I sleep. I also stretch my toes apart manually to try to get them to realign after having them for years being squeezed together by shoes.
It doesn't hurt as much now and it doesn't affect me teaching class or running on the treadmill. But my mom had bunions and complained about her feet hurting all the time. I don't want to go into my later years with feet that hurt so, I'm going to take better care of them. Bad feet affect the whole body, so it's important to tend to them. I'll probably start doing all my leg work barefoot or using minimalist shoes again, which was fine before. I do have a couple of pair of Vibrams and Merrills so I plan to start using them again.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition