All you need is 🎵 them baggy sweat pants and the Reeboks with the straps…
Sorry…it had to be done. Don’t act like you weren’t singing along in your head.
This subject comes up on a regular basis and I wanted to put together a helpful resource.
Far too often, people have shoes that are NOT ideal for the type of activity they’re doing.
Having the right type of shoe for a particular activity matters.
Nobody ever qualified as an Olympic sprinter wearing high heels.
This post will help you select great gym shoes and take better care of your feet.
Type of Shoe
If you’re running, you’ll perform best with a pair of running shoes.
Different sports use a different style of cleat. Baseball cleats are very different from football cleats.
The same theory applies to the shoes you’ll wear in the gym.
For strength training and cross training, you’ll want to wear Trainers or Training Shoes.
Training shoes will have noticeably less cushion than running shoes.
This is to allow your foot to “feel the floor” better while exercising.
Running shoes are designed to lessen the impact from every stride and this is the opposite of what you want when strength training.
Tripod Foot
When helping someone to “feel the floor”, we will often reference the Tripod Foot Technique.
This involves distributing your weight evenly between your big toe, your pinky toe and your heel.
The Tripod Foot Technique helps strengthen the foot, improves stability and improves force output during exercise.
Training shoes will often have a larger toe box allowing you to splay your toes and more effectively engage the Tripod Foot.
Several strength training athletes (and certifications) will encourage training barefoot to better engage the sensors and muscles in your feet.
Personal Preference
When it comes to selecting great gym shoes, I don’t want to pretend that style isn’t a factor.
Different brands of training shoes will each have a different feel and you’ll want to find the brand or style that you prefer.
Almost every major shoe label has Training Shoes and several brands have multiple lines.
Here are links to Training Shoes for Nike, Under Armour, No Bull for Men, No Bull for Women, Reebok and the Converse Chuck Taylor.
Some of the more popular training shoes are lines I don’t particularly care for.
When we’re talking about taking care of your feet, personal preference matters.
Use Multiple Shoes
If your training frequency is 3 days per week or more, you may want to consider using multiple training shoes.
While this isn’t necessary, as a self-professed Shoe Whore, I believe that having multiple training shoes helps preserve the life of the shoe and it helps you clarify the brand / line you prefer.
At the time of this writing, my favorite training shoes are the Under Armour Reign series (but not the Lifters). I don’t particularly care for Under Armour’s Project Rock series as these have too much cushion for my liking.
I also own Nike Met Cons, No Bulls, Reebok Nanos and of course Chuck Taylors.
By wearing multiple training shoes, I’ve been able to find the shoes I DO like as well as a few that I don’t like as much.
If you only have one pair of training shoes, your frame of reference is limited.
Wear Better Quality Socks
Regardless of the brand of shoe you prefer, I urge you to wear a better quality sock.
For years I overlooked this and believed that a sock is a sock is a sock.
This is a mistake and quality socks can make a huge difference.
There are several brands such as Feetures, Bulliant, Balega, Bomba, Hylea and Saucony (all available on Amazon) that will make a significant difference for your feet.
Conclusion
Investing in good training shoes (and socks) will improve your fitness experience.
If you’ve ever had achy feet, shin splints or sore knees, your perspective on quality shoes will change rather quickly.
Having the right tool for the right job leads to a much better training experience.
