Tuesday Tip #31: 5 Essentials to Consider When Selecting a Weightlifting Shoe
Weightlifting shoes are one of the most essential pieces of equipment that powerlifters and barbell strength athletes benefit from. There is no “one-size-fits-all” rule when it comes to what weightlifting shoe is right for you but there are specific things you should consider. Here are 5 things you need to consider when choosing what lifting shoe is right for you!
Stiffness & compressibility of the weightlifting shoe material stability
Stability that the shoe provides mediolaterally and front to back
What lifts you will be using the shoe for
How the weightlifting shoe and your anthropometry work together to improve your biomechanics
Any injuries you have or may have recovered from
The goal of this podcast is to provide insight into the purpose of lifting shoes as a whole and per lift. By the end of this episode we hope you’ll have new insight and confidence in selecting the right lifting shoe for you, your budget, and goals. For coaches and clinicians we hope to help you better provide recommendations based on the needs, abilities, and injuries of your clients.
In this episode of the PRS Podcast we discuss:
The purpose of lifting shoe
The features we are looking for in a lifting shoe
Similarities and differences in our philosophies about lifting shoes
Some elements of a shoe that may help/hinder ankle mobility when lifting
We also discuss considerations around helping you purchase the right shoe. We answer:
"Should I buy a belt or lifting shoes first?”
“How do you help justify the cost of a higher quality shoe?
“If you had to choose ONE shoe to recommend to a new lifter, what shoe would it be and why?”
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
10 Minute Tip 30: How To Keep Training With Foot & Ankle Injuries in Barbell Training & Powerlifting
GET IN TOUCH WITH THE SHOW!
Email: podcast@progressiverehabandstrength.com
Rori IG: @rorimegan_prs
Alyssa IG: @alyssahope_prs
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:00:00] Alright, welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Rori Alter, here with a very special person, Stacie Barber. Some of you may know her as The Physio Fix on Instagram, but we're not talking about treatment or your business. We're actually talking about you and an injury that you sustained. So, you're a doctor of physical therapy, you're a practice owner, and you're an Olympic weightlifter / gymnast. You had a pretty serious injury in the last year and a half ish. We're in our foot and ankle month here at Progressive Rehab & Strength on our podcast, so we wanted to speak with you about your experience as both a clinician, a rehab clinician, and an athlete who sustained an Achilles rupture and went through with having a surgical repair. We actually did also interview a unique scenario, a physical therapist and competitive powerlifter who had a full rupture without surgical repair, so we're interested in kind of getting both your experiences as an athlete, but with the physical therapy background behind it. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about your background, your hobbies, and your family life.
Dr. Stacie Barber, PT: [00:01:32] Alright. Well, thanks, Rory, for having me. I know we've obviously been friends for a long time, but I've never been on your podcast, so it's a pleasure. My name is Stacie. My former last name, which some people still know me by, is Maurice, but my new last name for the last three years now is Barber. I am the owner and the founder of The Physio Fix, which is a physical therapy and sports performance facility in Phoenix. I was a solopreneur for the first three years of my practice and then kind of opened up a brick and mortar the last three years. We're celebrating our three year brick and mortar facility anniversary in September, so very exciting. We've got like six team members now, physical therapists on the staff, which is huge. My background is basically that I was a gymnast my whole life for 18 years, with a full college scholarship. Everyone sustained a ton of injuries throughout gymnastics, as it's just kind of part of the sport. Then I kind of got into physical therapy school. I went to Duke University, and that's when I kind of fell in love with the strength side of things.
Dr. Stacie Barber, PT: [00:02:35] I started doing burst bodybuilding and then I was like, this is cool, but I didn't really like how crazy people were on stage and how restricted they were. I just didn't feel like it was for me. Then I found powerlifting next and I competed in a few different powerlifting competitions. Then I found Olympic weightlifting, and from there I kind of fell in love with the sport and how technical it was. That's kind of what I've been doing ever since. I've been doing Olympic weightlifting for ten years now at a very high level. I've qualified for the American Open finals three times now. I've never been able to actually compete in the American Open finals, and I was going to actually compete this year, but I am now pregnant. Some people may know we've been trying for four years now, so this is super exciting, so I'll just have to qualify next year and then compete next year. No big deal.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:03:27] No big deal. Yeah. So, tell us a little bit about your weightlifting background and have you ever sustained any injuries with weightlifting?
Dr. Stacie Barber, PT: [00:03:39] You know, I have sustained little things here and there. I would say that when I was first new to powerlifting, I was that person that didn't always know which volume to be training within. Then I would always try to max out, which is stupid, and my back would always kind of bother me. My back would just ache and ache for what I swear was weeks after I would heavy deadlift. I wouldn't say that was a true injury, but I would say that was definitely hindering my progress when I was a power lifter. I also had a little bit of shoulder stuff that would flare up, but I had three shoulder surgeries previously from gymnastics. When I was first starting to bench press, just trying to get the technique down and trying to make sure that I was really tight and stable, that would kind of bother me from time to time. But no true injuries with the sport of either powerlifting or weightlifting, which is kind of normal. I mean, I know that you might get weightlifters knee or any of that stuff, but these things aren't usually very traumatic and they're not very serious that they need surgical intervention. So, I just kind of trained through them.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC: [00:04:46] Yeah. And I think it's interesting, you know, because people look at barbell sports and just say they're so dangerous, right? You're going to get hurt and whatever. But relative to other sports, even my past history is dance and triathlon and yours is gymnastics. And you said, you know, oh, you'd have some shoulder aches or pains from it but never major injuries. It's because you had three injuries that led to surgery from gymnastics, so just looking at the relative safety of barbell training, whether it's weightlifting or powerlifting compared to other sports, is pretty significant. But interestingly, you did have to undergo a surgery related to this Achilles rupture, so tell us a little bit about the rupture, how you sustained that, and was it related to barbell training?