You've probably seen a few people doing squats and deadlifts barefooted... and you've probably written them off as hippie-granola types. But lifting without shoes has some major benefits.
Here's how ditching your shoes can up the poundage on your big lifts, as well as help mitigate a common training injury.
When doing compound lower-body movements like squats and deadlifts, you want all of your force to be put directly into the ground. Ideally this force should be spread out evenly between three points of contact:
Pressing through the entire "tripod" of the foot allows for powerful, yet even force to be sent into the ground.
If you're currently lifting in a running shoe or other shoe with a soft surface, the force of your movement gets dissipated throughout your shoe. This leads to an inefficient transfer of force. If the line of force doesn't go directly into the ground you're wasting valuable energy that should go towards your lift.
If your shoes squish down as you squat or deadlift, you'll have to make adjustments to your body in an effort to compensate. Generally, this means shifting forward onto the toes since many shoes have thick, soft heels.
This not only puts you into suboptimal positions when squatting, it prevents consistency in your reps which will keep you from mastering the exercises.
As an exaggerated comparison, try air squatting on a pair of BOSU balls. You'll immediately notice how much more difficult the movement becomes due to a lack of stability as your feet squish into the balls. BOSU ball squats are fine for rehab, but if your goal is to improve your squat, you need a stable surface to drive into.
Pressing through the entire tripod of your foot is paramount to having a stable squat built from the ground up. If you're lifting in a shoe that has too much give, your feet will have a tendency to overly pronate which leads to valgus collapse (knees fall inward).
This mechanical advantage gained from barefoot deadlifting will almost instantly put a couple pounds on your max deadlift. If you make yourself an inch shorter by taking off your shoes, you put yourself into a more mechanically advantageous position.
If you're regularly lifting in a shoe not meant specifically for lifting, you're basically doing deficit pulls on an unstable surface every time you deadlift!
Losing an inch or two off your height means you don't have to pull the bar as far. Combine this with the increased force production into the ground and you'll be pulling bigger numbers almost instantly.
Some gyms don't allow you to lift without shoes. If your local gym owner doesn't want your skanky feet stinking up his floor, here are two tips on selecting appropriate footwear.
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