What shoes to wear to the gym

If you really want to give an accurate answer, there is no one-size-fits-all fitness shoe. What you wear depends entirely on what you plan to do at the gym that day. The most taboo is a pair of soft-soled jogging shoes. Last week, I saw a young man wearing thick-soled "shit-like" jogging shoes doing a 120-kilogram deadlift. When he stood up, his feet were stuck in the foam midsole. He wobbled for a few times before pulling up and his waist swayed. It was a typical hindrance caused by not choosing the right shoes.

If you are focusing on free weight training that day, whether it is squats, push-pulls or dumbbell strength movements, the harder and flatter the soles are, the better. Many veterans who have been in the gym for five or six years just wear classic canvas shoes that cost dozens of yuan. The feedback of the feet directly touching the ground is stronger than anything else. Of course, many people wear special squat shoes with 1-3 centimeters. The stiff heel is very friendly to people with insufficient ankle flexibility. It allows them to go deeper when squatting, but this is also controversial. Many powerlifters feel that relying on the heel of squat shoes for a long time will make them lazy to practice ankle flexibility. After taking off the shoes, the movements will be deformed. Both sides are reasonable. It just depends on your own training needs.

If you don't touch the iron at all that day, but just go to trampoline, boxing gymnastics or HIIT group class, then hard-soled shoes will become a burden. Last month, I tried to save time and wore canvas shoes to go to trampoline class. After jumping for 40 minutes, the soles of my feet were numb for almost an hour. There was not enough cushioning. If the impact of landing is all felt on the knees and ankles, it is easy to get injured. In this case, it is just right to wear comprehensive training shoes with enough grip and moderate cushioning. You don't need to pursue the softness of jogging shoes, otherwise the uppers will not be able to hold up when jumping left and right, and it is especially easy to sprain your feet.

If you are just doing aerobics, jogging on the treadmill, or riding the elliptical machine, it is absolutely fine to wear ordinary jogging shoes, but don’t follow the trend and wear those racing carbon plate running shoes. The rigidity of the carbon plate is used to increase the speed of long-distance running on the road. The running speed in the gym is generally around 10 kilometers per hour. The hard carbon plate is easy to get stuck in the running belt, making the feet uncomfortable and prone to sprains.

Nowadays, it is quite popular to practice deadlifts and freehand movements with bare feet. They feel that the feet are in complete contact with the ground to exert force more smoothly. Some people are firmly opposed to it. After all, the public floor of the gym is stained with sweat and anti-slip powder. If a small dumbbell falls and hits the foot, the gain outweighs the loss. There is nothing wrong with either view. If you mind, you can also wear a pair of thin-soled non-slip indoor training socks.

To put it bluntly, you don’t need to worry about buying expensive professional shoes. Just match the training content of the day. I have seen masters squatting 200 kilograms in canvas shoes, and I have also seen novices wearing limited-edition squat shoes who can’t shake the empty bar. Shoes are always an auxiliary, and the correct movements are the most important.