Lifting Shoes and Basic Physics!
Different types of gym shoes and why they matter. I’m sure we have all seen people in the gym with different shoes, whether they are running shoes, crossfit shoes, lifting shoes, or even no shoes (Cough *Boris).
The difference in shoes is all due to the same primary issue, Force. Force is equal to Mass times Acceleration.
So we want to either maximise or minimise this depending on what we are doing. In a maximal compound lift (Back Squat, Deadlift, Box jump for height etc.) One wants to maximise force production, so we want a lifting shoe with a very rigid sole, or even no shoes at all, to maximise force production,
Where in counter, running for example, we have a longer distance repeat impact on the body. So to reduce stress on the body and joints, we want a much softer supportive shoe i.e. the running shoe.
What is we wanted to transfer from lifting to running without changing our shoes every 2 minutes? That’s where our “Crossfit” or training shoes come in. Which try to provide a medium between these 2 extremes. Hard enough to lift in, soft enough you won’t ruin your ankles on a bin run.
That’s all for today, hopefully I’ve brought a little understanding to the variety of shoes you see in the gym.
