Hail to the Dinosaurs!
As you might have expected, we got a ton of
great feedback from Dinos in response to
yesterday's email about my seven favorite
exercises. If you missed it, here's a link to
the Dinosaur Training Blog so you can read
it now:
http://dinosaurtraining.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-are-your-super-seven-exercises.html
I always post my daily emails on the Blog,
so you if you don't get an email for some
reason, check the Blog.
I also send the blog links to everyone who
follows me on Twitter -- and I share them
on Facebook -- so follow me on Twitter and
friend me on Facebook.
Anyhow, the feedback included a ton of
questions about lifting shoes -- so let's
cover that in today's email.
A number of readers asked if lifting shoes
were necessary -- or whether they could
train barefoot or with some sort of minimalist
footgear -- or whether Chuck Taylors were
okay for lifting.
So here's the answer.
It depends on what exercises you are doing.
If you do bodyweight training, you can wear
pretty much anything you want. Or you can
train barefoot. There's certainly no need for
OL shoes.
If you train outside, you don't want to be
wearing OL shoes. You'll ruin them in short
order, and there's no point to it. So wear
the Chuck Taylors instead.
Do NOT train barefoot when you are outside.
It's too easy to drop something on your foot
or get a nasty cut.
I remember running in the woods back of
the high school. My buddy and I ran barefoot
so we could run through a big creek. It was
primal, primordial, wild and fun.
Who needed shoes?
One hot day, the water level was lower than
usual, and we were able to take a good look
at the creek bottom. There was enough broken
glass and jagged metal in there to do some
serious damage. As in, slicing your toes right
off your foot.
I don't know how we ever made it without killing
ourselves -- but after that, we started to wear
shoes when we went running.
If you do barbell and dumbbell training, and
you train indoors, wear shoes rather than
train barefoot. Shoes help support your feet,
and when you're lifting a heavy weight you
have a lot of weight on your feet. So wear
shoes.
Also, shoes help avoid nasty accidents
involving your toe nails.
I remember how we used to like to go barefoot
in wrestling practice. I'm not sure why, but we
did.
One day, the coach sat us down and told us a
story about a kid he knew many years earlier.
The kid liked to go barefoot in wrestling
practice.
One day, he caught his big toe on the mat -- and
ripped the toe nail right off.
Apparently, there was a lot of pain, a lot of
yelling, and a lot of blood.
When the coach finished the story, he said we
could take five minutes and go back up to the
locker room and put on our shoes -- if we
wanted to.
Five minutes later, everyone was wearing shoes.
If you think about it, most sports have their own
kind of shoe.
Soccer shoes.
Tennis shoes.
Basketball shoes.
Wrestling shoes.
Track shoes.
Football shoes.
There's a reason for that.
There's also a reason to wear shoes when
you do strength training.
Sp wear shoes when you train. It works a
heck of a lot better that way.
Now -- what about the OL shoes. Do you need
them?
Well, that depends on a couple of things --
and we're out of room -- so we'll cover them
tomorrow. Be looking for it.
As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a good
one.
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. My new Dinosaur Trainign course is selling
like hot-cakes -- and we're getting rave reviews
from readers. Go here to grab the little monster:
Hard-copy edition:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets_03.html
Kindle e-book edition:
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_secrets3_kindle.html
P.S. 2. My other books and courses are right
here:
http://www.brookskubik.com/products.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the day: "Pay attention to your
feet and your shoes. Your feet support your weight
and a lot of iron when you're training." -- Brooks
Kubik
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