Why is it that Oly shoes are good for things like snatch and cleans (where you’re pulling the bar off the ground with a lot of force) but are not good for deadlifts?
Because the Center of Gravity for the lifts are different.
The elevated heel enforces having the bar out in front of the body when deadlifting which usually causes a lifter to use all lower back to complete the lift.
In Oly lifts you’re trying to get the bar into the air and then under it to complete the snatch or clean. That bar out front makes it easier to get under and into position than if the bar was closer to the body.
All 3 lifts you try to keep the bar in close but the end positions are different which is where the elevated heel comes into play.
Basically what corst said. Oly shoes are actually fine for deadlifting less than maximal weights. Olympic lifters are doing just that. The weights they’re putting above their heads are less than their max deadlifts. If you’re not training for powerlifting, you could use oly shoes all the time to deadlift. They won’t keep you from getting stronger.
The bar position becomes an issue only when you’re lifting around 90% or more of your max. At that point, it becomes substantially more imperative that you’re using correct leverages to lift to your capacity.
So for me, I could knock out a lot of reps at 400 lbs with oly shoes on, no problem. And if I was trying to get better at olympic style lifting, I would practice this regularly, to get used to pulling with less than optimal leverages to initiate the clean or snatch. If I go over about 500 lbs, I’m gonna go ahead and put on some flat shoes.
Awesome, thanks guys! That makes a lot of sense