use the right shoes *strength ed.

I kind of wanted to title this post “A Tale of Three Squats.” This post is gonna be about strength-training and some of the most important equipment you can use – your personal gear, namely your shoes.  If you are working with any weight (body weight on up) consider your shoes. The New Balance site has a great article about wearing the proper shoe for your activity if you want more introduction to this topic.

I have been Crossfitting for three months and love the strength-training there.  You should know though that before my car wreck and rebuilding my body I was STRONG.  In my past I power-lifted a good deal as a college soccer and track athlete.  Crossfit works well for me because strength comes easy.

I will demonstrate what I mean about wearing the proper shoes doing a version of the basic squat with a weighted bar and comparing with a variety of shoes. My current squat max  is 215 lbs, I did these with 185lbs.

Here is the New Balance 890 which is a neutral running, cushioning shoe.  It is great for running, but not that great for squats due to the heel depth.

Next up the New Balance Minimus Trail.  It is a minimal trail runner and does have good heel depth, however it does have a flexible sole.

And finally the New Balance Minimus Training.  It is a minimal shoe with a rigid sole.

Now for the comparison.  I love all these shoes but after stepping into the minimal shoes I will refrain from ever squatting in a running shoe ever again  Your body form is not right with that angle of lift in the heel.  You are not evenly distributing your weight as you rise up from the down position in the squat. Besides lifting weights in running shoes will wear them in a much different fashion than if you only ran in them.  In the past I used old running shoes I didn’t run in any longer to lift.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my Minimus Trail shoes for trail running (after taking some time to get used to) and their versatility to take to Crossfit.  The sole is not as stiff as the trainer but it is better than having to switch shoes in between some of the more agile workouts.

I like the Minimus Training a lot for weight training but had to bring more than one pair of shoes each day I went to Crossfit with them because I did not know exactly what we were doing in the workouts and one day we had to run a mile, then half a mile, then a quarter of a mile and the stiff sole would not have felt great with that workout.

I believe that you folks in the New Balance Boot Camp class Friday at EVO will be getting the NB Minimus Training shoe.  Enjoy it, it is a great shoe.

I also want to give a shout-out to Crossfit Niwot and Sarge for snapping my pics as well as the rest of my workout buddies for simply being awesome.  To plug my studio do talk to Shawn (owner) or AJ (manager) about coming in for a free workout and intro to see if this is a style of workout you may be interested in.

Sarge (a.k.a Shawn) – former Marine with has worked at US Olympic Training Center with strength-conditioning

There is another woman under that tire but the one on the side felt she was too small to do it effectively.

BOX JUMPS

Dead-lifts (they did about 50 each as part of a team exercise)

In an effort of full disclosure I did receive these shoes from New Balance but not for the purpose of a review.  I won the 890s from a 3rd party site.  I was given the NB Minimus Trail at Fitbloggin since I already had the 890s they gave all the 5k participants.  And they were kind enough to reach out to me at Fitbloggin when they realized I was a crossfitter.

This post was done on my own volition and not required by the company.  I simply like New Balance and they compliment my lifestyle… after all I am also a yoga instructor and they do  have a yoga clothing line too! See you at yoga at EVO Conference since I am leading or catch me on the trails running in my NB Minimus Trail while in Park City. Namaste.