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This is from the website of the lifting program I'm doing:
"Lifting shoes: Shoes with air or gel filling are compressible, impairing power transfer & stability. Wear shoes with hard soles. Chuck Taylor’s, weightlifting shoes, socks or barefoot are better than running shoes."
So... I went ahead and bought myself a pair of old school Converse Chuck Taylor's - Black, of course!
These things bring back some memories from various phases of my life. When I was a kid, in the 70's, that's all I wore - then in the later 80's - mid 90's, when I got into the Grateful Dead scene, I went back to the Chucks again - I still have that pair that I wore to all those shows (about 100 GD shows and a dozen or so Jerry Garcia Band shows) and they have many miles on them. They're beat to hell because I wore them for 6 or 7 years straight - from Boston to Florida and as far west as Chicago... and many other cities and venues in between. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to see the boys out on the west coast!
Now, here I am again, with a brand new pair in 2010, used for a more specific reason then the style or comfort (which they're really not all that comfortable for an every day shoe). Although, in my opinion, they still style in a simplistic, retro sort of way. Most importantly, they'll allow me to have the stability to lift heavier and not get injured!
When I reach the point of passing my body weight in squats as a full 5X5 set not just a one time max (which shouldn't be too far off in the distance!), I'm going to treat myself to a real pair of weightlifting shoes. Adidas makes a sweet pair called the Adistar Olympic Lifting Shoes. Only $199.00 but I'm worth every cent of it :D
