squatting barefoot

[tomwill]

just like the title says…

what do we think?

pro’s and con’s (apart from the obvious safety issues!) ?

good thing/bad thing?

[ashley]

My thoughts why would Olympic lifters have specially designed shoes to lift in if it were better to train in bare feet, cheers, ash

[Getstrength]

I agree with Ash, however this reminds me of a funny story. When I was in Prague at the 1999 Junior worlds after the day had come to an end. There was a masters lifter who would be well into his 50’s from Germany training on the gear in the warm up room. He must of done about 15 – 20 sets of 3 squats with 300kg plus barefoot. The temperature was freezing, the funny thing was he was swigging from a bottle of port between each set. This was the norm, one of the European lifters told me that he had been doing the same thing for years and years.

[ashley]

Now that is a great story, I see that Dave Tate has just released an ebook of humorous anecdotes on his life in lifting do we have a few more good stories out there to share, ash

[Getstrength]

Not enough to full a book :), but I will see what I can come up with.

Steve

[tomwill]

@ashley 968 wrote:

My thoughts why would Olympic lifters have specially designed shoes to lift in if it were better to train in bare feet, cheers, ash

I agree with you there Ash, I have a pair of olympic lifting shoes which i find help a lot but with regards specifically to squats (and maybe deads?).

I have tried it myself a few times and I have to say it feels more stable and natural… a better option than using normal running trainers if you don’t have weight lifting shoes?

thanks for the thoughts!

[Getstrength]

Most powerlifters deadlift in like a boxing boot or slipper. Because the sole is very thin and the bar has less distance to travel in contest.
Most would compete in socks, but the rules state that you must have some sort of sole.

[Author]

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