So, I’ve been front squatting in olympic weight lifting shoes for the past two years. Yesterday, as I am out of town and away from my shoes, I front squatted barefoot and it felt great!!! My low back felt nice and loose afterward AND I actually felt something in my glutes. I squatted a little wider than I normally do with shoes, because it felt easier.
The negative aspect of squatting barefoot is that, since I have poor shin and ankle mobility, it was hard to keep my feet grounded and my chest up. So, I’ll continuing doing these with a LIGHT weight…I’m guessing that by doing these my ankle and shin mobility will improve over time and perhaps this will help me be more skilled and mobile when squatting WITH shoes.
Maybe I’ll squat some days with shoes and other times without. Anyone have any thoughts on this topic? There’s no right or wrong way to squat, right? As long as your form is good, why not add some variation in there to become more well rounded…wide, narrow, shoes, no shoes…
Well based on your own post I don’t see that you’re going to have any issue. However you did post this in the powerlifting section, which is fine, because you’d think people here would know a thing or two about squatting lol. I do need to ask though, do you plan on competing in powerlifting? Because I’m not sure most feds allow you to squat without some kind of footware, so practicing that way may not be the best.
I know shoes won’t offer protection against a dropped plate but when a plate falls on someone’s foot… Why are they almost always the guy who is going around barefoot?
i do my warmups with barefoot type shoes, and switching to my oly shoes around 60% of RM1, so you get that variety which realy helped my mobility without losing days of working with realy light weight.