Core Weightlifting Shoes Review | Best Budget Squat Shoes?
Whether you are looking to get into olympic weightlifting or crossfit performing clean and jerks and snatches or just passionate about strength training and squatting to your full potential, heavy and with good technique, then a pair of weightlifting shoes (lifters) are a worthwhile investment. They will allow you to lift with greater stability and range of motion which will result in better lifting performance and muscle building stimulus. Whilst there are options offered by big sporting brand such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok, what I think the best option for beginners might be is a much lesser known name.
The Core Weightlifting shoe from Nordic ProStore at a price point of GBP £59.90–69.90 or US$89.90–99.90 are at the lower end of the market and competitive with big brand options such as Reebok PR Lifters, Adidas Powerlifts and Nike Savaloes.
The one standout feature I love about these shoes in comparison to its competitors is that it has a heel height of 1.2 inches or 30mm. This higher heel height is ideal for beginner and novice trainees that lack ankle mobility to achieve good depth in their squats but equally important for intermediate and advanced trainees looking to improve quadricep recruiment (in particular the vastus medialis, VMO) on their squats from hitting greater depth. A great way to illustrate this concept of squatting with a heel lift to yourself is to squat on a raised platform such as weight plate or slantboard / squat wedge like I am in this video.
Most budget squat shoes have a heel elevation of 0.5 inches whilst the premium squat shoes typically have a heel elevation of 0.75 inches (the highest I’ve seen in the popular brands is the Reebok Legacy Lifter which has a heel elevation of 0.86 inches). Whilst you might not think 0.5 inches makes much of a difference it could be the difference that results in you achieving full Ass to Grass (ATG) depth which will allow you to take the quadriceps and gluteal muscles through their full range of motion on a back squat and lead to better training stimulus and hence strength and/or hypertrophy gains.
I also own a pair of Adidas Powerlift 4’s and I’ve found the Core Weightlifting Shoe to be comparable in terms of stability and shoe weight. The Adidas’ have a lower heel elevation of 0.5 inches (1.2mm) which is likely to be sufficient if you have excellent ankle mobility and/or only want to squat to a parallel powerlifting depth rather than full range ATG. They also do have a more stylish design (subjective of course!) and have a bit more street cred being a well known brand that people recognise but other than that I can’t say there are any noticeable advantages they have over Core.
So whether you are looking to get your first pair of weightlifting shoes or just want a pair of lifters with a higher heel elevation than normal to help with achieving greater range of motion on your squat, clean and jerks or snatches, I would highly recommend checking out the Core Weightlifting Shoe.
