Is It Really Safe to Climb Barefoot?
A few years ago, the idea that it was possible to run barefoot instead of in sneakers shocked the running community. (End result: The market exploded with expensive shoes designed to mimic barefoot running, followed by a backlash against expensive shoes with the most cushioning and structure possible.) A similar debate is now simmering in the strength training community, with arguments that barefoot lifting is natural. good and better for us, and on the other hand, reckless barefoot athletes bring injury and disease upon themselves. Of course, neither is entirely true, so let’s look at the pros and cons.
Will you annoy people by exercising barefoot?
Before we delve into biomechanics, let’s talk about etiquette. When and where is it acceptable to train barefoot among other people?
If you are in the gym, you must play by the rules of the gym. Many gyms do not allow you to work out barefoot. Don’t try to argue; you won’t get anywhere. This TikTok shows an athlete arguing with gym staff about how he doesn’t want to work out in his running shoes because it looks like a “two-cushion deadlift.” If this is the situation at your gym, buy a pair of shoes with thin soles and a wide enough toe box to allow your legs to move comfortably. (There are many shoes designed to mimic the feeling of being barefoot.)
However, socks themselves are very traditional lifting shoes and are allowed in most gyms. So many deadlift world records have been done in socks (like this one by Rhiannon Lovelace ) or in deadlift slippers, which are basically the same thing.
Are boots more or less safe than barefoot training?
Both sides of this debate will raise the issue of injury risk, and frankly, neither has scientific backing. There are no studies showing barefoot lifting is safer, and no studies showing it increases injury rates. Much of the literature on barefoot training is about running, which does not apply here.
Studies looking at different sports, such as this one , don’t apply to weightlifting either. For example, this review found that beach volleyball played barefoot on the sand had fewer ankle sprains than volleyball played indoors with shoes on. But most ankle sprains in volleyball happen when one player lands on another’s foot—an atypical problem in the gym.
There is one place where barefoot and boot athletes make the same argument: both say that it is safer to place your foot on a stable surface (either on the ground or on hard shoes, respectively) than on a soft and unstable one. sneakers. While, again, we don’t have a significant amount of injury data from lifting weights in sneakers, it’s reasonable enough not to wear soft shoes while exercising. This aligns with our previous advice to use weightlifting shoes, flats, or socks for lifting weights, not sneakers.
What are the benefits of exercising barefoot?
Let’s see why people prefer to exercise barefoot. You will often see this in a “functional” fitness space, for example, some kettlebell groups advocate that wearing shoes allows you to train more effectively.
One common observation is that walking barefoot requires you to work on building a stable platform with your feet rather than relying on the structure of your shoes to keep your feet stable. This takes practice and training: you need to develop a sense of where your weight is on different parts of your legs, and you may need to build small muscles in your legs and lower legs to be able to properly control the movement. and leg position.
Now, why is it so important that you train your legs to provide this stability? Some coaches think that this is good in itself; you have muscles, you might as well work on them. Others claim that as a result, you can apply more force to the ground and potentially lift more weight.
However, this idea has not stood up to scientific scrutiny very well: here is one study , for example, which showed that the force applied to the ground was the same with and without shoes. (I was disappointed to see that they did the research with running shoes rather than shoes recommended for climbing, but that would have further changed the verdict in favor of barefoot climbing if the advantage was real.)
What is it like to climb barefoot?
So what exactly is barefoot training in practice? I asked Emilio Joubert, an RKC II certified trainer from New York (RKC is one of the organizations promoting barefoot training). He talks about barefoot training: “You can get a feel for where you need to be in space. I notice that when I wear the shoes, I skip the setting a bit and take it quite well. When climbing barefoot, I have to wiggle a lot to feel comfortable.”
In practice, he does not push clients to go barefoot or to any particular type of shoe, unless they have a problem that shoes or the barefoot approach can solve. The benefits, he says, are mostly subjective. “My overall strength is almost the same with or without shoes,” he says. “I just feel better walking barefoot with moves like low bar squats, zerchers and deadlifts.”
Why you can wear shoes when climbing
There are certain scenarios in which shoes can help you lift weight better. As we discussed earlier , the stiff, high -heeled weightlifting shoes worn by Olympic weightlifters can help you squat deeper or stay more upright during squats, clean and jerks, and snatches. However, you can achieve similar heel lift during squats while standing on an incline board . These boards are commonly available at gyms where people work out barefoot – it’s just another way to solve the same problem. (I wouldn’t recommend doing dynamic moves like snatching or pushing on an incline board, as these moves require sudden and quick leg movements.)
Shoes can also help you feel more secure when it comes to avoiding minor injuries such as scratches and bruised toes. A layer of tarpaulin (or any other high-tech material that shoes are made of these days) won’t protect you from breaking your toe if you drop weight on it, but it can make you feel better about the possibility. Personally, I’d feel rather iffy doing weightlifting or a heavy barefoot farm carry without dragging my toe on the ground while taking one of those small, shuffling steps.
However, the most compelling reason to wear shoes is that the benefits of exercising barefoot are rather negligible, if they exist, so you don’t need to train barefoot. If you feel more comfortable in shoes, then so be it.
bottom line
Ultimately, whether it makes sense to train barefoot depends on what kind of shoe you compare it to. If you’re deadlifting, you need to lift the bar an inch higher if you’re wearing heels than if you’re barefoot. This would seem to be a win for those with bare feet, but you can also solve the problem by wearing very thin flat shoes instead (this is the reason I do the deadlift in Chucks).
Similarly, if you’re squatting, cushioning shoes can make it difficult to keep your balance when descending, but choosing heeled or thin-soled climbing shoes will solve this problem. And, as we’ve discussed, heeled shoes can help you maintain a better squat position if ankle mobility is an issue, but you can also solve this problem by squatting on an incline board.
Ultimately, most of the benefits of walking with shoes on and the benefits of walking barefoot can be obtained either way. None of them have been proven to make you more prone to injury or lift more. It boils it down to a personal, subjective decision. If you work with a trainer, talk to them about the best shoes for you. And if you’re on your own, there’s no reason not to try the barefoot climb if you’re interested.
“It’s worth trying,” Joubert says. “Not because of the magical effect, but you can just enjoy the sensations and feel more stable. If you do try, you will find that the position of your foot is more comfortable than in shoes.
Joubert also notes that he had clients who successfully climbed even in terrible shoes, including one who did his first deadlift with a weight of 500 pounds. “We greatly overestimate how important sometimes the shoes we wear are.”