To Wear Or Not To Wear…Squat Shoes
*High heels are exaggerated squat shoes*
SHOULD I WEAR SQUAT SHOES?
This may be a question you never thought to ask yourself.
If I asked you what type of shoe you squat in I can bet that 99% of you would say…”umm sneakers?”, and there is nothing wrong with that answer.
BUT!
Weight Lifting is slowly becoming more and more popular to people who never before thought of lifting things up and putting them down(outside of daily activity). These same people might seek advice from a friend who lifts or type their Question into google about how to squat properly and what to wear.
If you did not know there are TWO commonly known but completely different ways to squat. The Weightlifter(Olympic) Squat and the Powerlifting Squat. The Weightlifter squat recommends Requires the use of Squat shoes and a narrow stance while power lifting is in a flat soled shoes with a wider stance. That is All you will hear about those lifts because this is not an argument or comparison between the two.
WHAT IS A SQUAT SHOE?
Squat shoes, if you were unaware are heavy, rigid, have a rock hard sole and elevated heel; like the stripper heels, stilettos seen above but less of a HEEL AND WAY LESS SLUTTY LOOKING. They are more like an athletic version of a Mens dress shoe/boot.
Having the heel elevated actually shifts your Center of Mass(COM) closer to the ground and in front of you. Usually your COM is located around your waistline (men have a higher one while women typically are a bit lower) and dominated by the hips.
Why I like Squat Shoes/elevated heels
There is only one reason that I like squat shoes and that is about all.
I will only promote the use of squat shows because it DOES allow any person to Squat in “good” technique with limited to ZERO additional instruction during the movement. While the 1st video posted above is in an extreme case as she is wearing stripper heels and appropriately doing her “stripper squats”; I can bet you no one showed her how to “perform a squat”. She is a pure novice, and while her technique will need some work if she were to use weights; what you saw was a squat.
Unfortunately there is only a small percentage of a percent of the population in the US of A that can get in and out of a deep or even parallel squat in acceptable technique. Most people will not be able to get close to parallel, like the Picture with the red line on it.
Dont belive me? Try it. Take your shoes off and stand in front of a mirror with your feet between hip and shoulder width and sit down as low as you can and just stay there. Tuff right?! I told you so.
Now, I want you to stay barefoot and place a moderately sized book (anything to lift your heels a bit off the floor) underneath both your heels and do the same squat. I bet you go it now!
So if you are a novice lifter and have an interest in Squatting and want to start lifting actual weight then your going to want to wear squat shoes…that is the bottom line.
Why I HATE Squat Shoes
Ready I am going to get right into it; They allow for a movement to happen but do not fix the reason you can not do a squat without them on…which you should be able to do. If you cannot sit down into a squat and get back up without falling over or looking like you’re about to have a seizure then there is a problem. Whether you would like to admit it or not you are not perfect. Like I have said before, the way our society dictates how we spend our hours awake contributes to a shit ton of muscular and structural complications within your body. We live in a world Ruled by Quad Dominant Movements.
Name me a time during your day when you use your hamstrings, glutes and lower back enough they feel a little fatigue. Now do the same for quads…um stairs anyone?
This is a problem because you need good HIP, GLUTE, HAMSTRING, BACK Strength paired with appropriate mobility in the SHOULDERS,UPPERBACK, HIPS, ANKLES. Squat Shoes make it possible for those areas to be insufficient and essentially bad and still be able to perform that movement.
Lifejacket is to assisted floating as Squat Shoes are to squatting.
Wearing these squat shoes only feed into your imbalances and play to your strengths while avoiding your weaknesses. Without doing any special stretches or new mobility drills/ warm ups the easiest way to help yourself is to choose some good footwear. Squat shoes should be left for people who are more advanced lifters and have a solid squat without anything on their feet.
When you wear shoes with an elevated heel you do something very wrong to a vital joint in your body; you reduce the proper function of your ankle. This goes for anyone who wears dressy shoes, boots, heel raised sneakers etc. These type of shoes actually shorten our calves and then the important Achilles tendon while simultaneously reducing the amount of dorsiflexion we have in our ankle. Dorsiflexion is moving your ankle so your toes are up and your heel is down.
Once you lose the ability to do this with your ankle you can kiss the ability to squat safely out the window.
My suggestion is to just avoid them all together. Wear flat flexible soled shoes when you can.
If you chose to squat in squat shoes make sure you bring a pair of flexible flat soled shoes to perform EVERYTHING ELSE IN and WORK ON YOUR WEAK SPOTS!
Originally published at fitletes.com
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