By Benni Jeffree
The main benefit from wearing Olympic lifting shoes come in the form of the stability and better positioning you receive, feel and the efficiency of the power in your lifts.
It’s common knowledge that up there with our overall love for CrossFit comes the important, if not more important love of CrossFit fashion. This fashion takes many forms; quirky shirts, shorts, bold sock game and lastly, flashy footwear. Gone are the days of strapping on your regular joggers and hitting a workout. With various ‘CrossFit’ specific shoes on the market it all can become a little out of hand for the bank account. This is where we turn our focus to the Olympic Lifting shoe. Within the regime of CrossFit falls a lot of Olympic lifting (Clean and jerk, Snatch). As our love for the latest fashions within CrossFit grows, so does our lust for the next PR clean and jerk/snatch. We’ll stop at nothing to get there. But this begs the question.
Are those flashy lifting shoes really worth the price? Or are my standard training shoes enough?
When it all comes down to it,
NOT REALLY..
The main benefit from wearing Olympic lifting shoes come in the form of the stability and better positioning you receive, feel and the efficiency of the power in your lifts. Not that, but they also are great for people who would lack good ankle mobility. This helps the lifter to get lower/in a better position when squatting etc. In saying that, just because they make you feel more stable does not mean it will automatically translate to your lifts dramatically increasing. There are many other contributing factors to whether you will make a clean lift and/or smash a PR. However they do look pretty damn cool and will last you FOREVER!
Wearing expensive shoes will not make you fitter, just like a more expensive bar won’t make you a better lifter…
For anyone who is doing a considerable amount of training in the Olympic lifts, YES, I would recommend investing in a pair. But remember, they are only to be used for the Olympic lifts. Hitting WODs in lifters is the same as dumping 5kg bumper plates. Not cool!!
However, if you’re content with just hitting the WOD at your box and training for the benefit of your overall health and fitness, go out and invest in all round specific training shoe such as the ‘Metcon’, ‘Nano’, Inov8’s etc. They’re flat, stable and good enough for almost everything you do at the box.
Above all, remember why you started. To get fit, have fun, meet some new like-minded people, and throw some high-five’s!!