Let me explain

I walked into my physio’s room the other day and our session started like this;

Physio – “New shoes?”
Me – **glanced down at my feet** – Nope
Physio – But those aren’t the ones you had on last week .. right?
Me – Nope
Physio – So you have more than one pair of Nano’s ..
Me – Yeah, they’re comfy so I have a few.
Physio – You always wear those to work out?
Me – Unless it involves running, then I’ll wear running shoes.

We continued on with our small talk while I suffered under his Thor like thumbs and then out of the blue he said

Physio – You know what I hate about crossfit?
Me – The running?
Physio – Well yeah, but not that’s not the reason I was thinking of.

He then paused to increase the suspense – this was obviously going to be a biggie.

You are supposed to have so many shoes! Crossfit shoes, running shoes, oly shoes, it’s just ridiculous.

Now to be fair he’s a boy, the majority of males think you should be able to get away with 2 pairs of shoes, dress shoes and one size fits all trainers (oh and Mr P.T “allowed” rugby boots to be on his list of shoes a male requires).

And to be fairer to crossfit you can get away with one pair of shoes and some hardcore peeps go without any, bare feet all the way!

Obviously because I’m a girl and have a thing for shoes I do have different types of shoes that I will wear depending on what skills we are working on in the main session and what the WOD entails.

So for those of you who are curious I’ll explain;

Crossfit shoes;

Sport specific shoes such as rugby boots, basketball boots or tennis shoes are designed specifically to be worn for one activity.

A Crossfit participant (or athlete as they tend to be labelled) however is doing all sorts of movements such as running, jumping, climbing, pulling, pushing and lifting.

So it’s helpful to wear a shoe thats light (which helps with quick explosive movements), flexible through the sole (to allow for a greater range of mobility), durable (because shoes aren’t cheap and should last) and with as close to zero drop as you can find for stability.

I also add cute to the list .. for me what the shoe looks like counts 😉

My crossfit shoe of choice is the Reebok Nano 3 – I hated the previous model because they were not flexible enough through the sole but these are so comfy it’s like wearing really garish slippers.

They are really grippy (so you don’t slip on the wooden floor when lifting) and they have what Reebok call RopePro wraps on the medial and lateral sides which means the rope won’t chew up the shoes like it does when you wear ordinary trainers.

I’ve also come to love the really low heel drop (these have a 4mm drop), it makes squatting so much easier because you aren’t falling forward onto your forefoot and makes me feel more stable when I’m weight lifting.

If however I’m working with heavy weights I will wear;

Olympic Lifting Shoes

The heel on an Olympic lifting shoe is raised and is made from a very rigid material (like wood), they lace up the front and will have a cross strap that allows you to narrow the fit so your feet don’t move around.

The heel is rigid for stability, which seems to anchor you to the ground. The heel is raised to help with ankle mobility, basically it makes getting into a deep squat easier (which is also a reason why some people wear these in WODs that have Pistol Squats in them).

True Olympic Lifting shoes would be useless for anything other than Olympic Lifting but you can get a Crossfit/Oly shoe which has the features of an Oly shoe but is lighter and more flexible through the forefoot which allows you to run and jump comfortably.

I wear Reebok Lifters

They definitely make squatting easier and you feel safe and grounded when holding a bar loaded with weight above your head.

I’ve done WODs with Oly shoes (especially if it contains snatches or overhead squats) but I tend to save them just for strength sessions and I won’t wear them if we have to run though ..

If there is any running of “distance” I will wear ..

Running shoes

I’ve worn the same brand/model (and size) of running shoe for over 10 years, if it aint broke don’t fix it – right? 😉

Obviously Nike have changed the design of the years, using different materials but the fit remains the same and I find them comfortable to run in because like most things my technique is shite, I don’t really run, I stomp .. (slowly).

So there you have it an entire blog post on one of my all time favorite things .. shoes!

What a way to start the week

Till next time