Could Weightlifting Shoes Help Fix Your Knee Pain?
I’ve struggled with PFPS (patellofemoral pain syndrome, the most common form of knee pain) for the past year. I generally experienced it most when my body is cold and not warmed up but having some type of blood flow to the area (e.g from backward sled pulls or walking) has helped me to train pain-free. Whilst following KneesOverToesGuy and implementing many of his exercises in my weight training routine such as Backward Sled Pulls, Forward Sled Pushes, ATG Split Squats, ATG Front and Back Squats (including using a slantboard), Reverse Step Ups (Patrick, Poliquin and Petersen), Deficit Romanian Deadlifts, Seated Good Mornings, Nordic Curls, Seated Calf Raises, Tib Raises and others have definitely helped, it has never truly gone away.
I recently made a purchase of a pair of Core Weightlifting shoes from Amazon and have been performing my lower body quad dominant training in them for the past month i.e. squat variations. Previously I was training in barefoot minimalist shoes. Interesting to note the knee pain I normally experience in my day to day has completely cleared up as a result of this change. I believe the explanation for this might be the following:
- Weightlifting Shoes have an elevated heel
The elevated heel on the shoes allows you to squat deeper without needing additional ankle mobility. This video from Ben Patrick (KneesOverToesGuy) explains this concept quite well. This is particular important for longer limbed lifters (e.g. if you have a short torso and long legs and find yourself easily falling into a leant forward position on deep squats). An alternative to this would be using a squat wedge or slantboard or a olympic bumper weight plate, however I have tried all of these options in the past and was never satisfied with the feel and always had to drop my working weights to accomodate which resulted in less
2. Weightlifting Shoes provide a much more stable platform to lift from
Having a more stable platform will allow you to have greater force transfer from the floor to the bar and feel more confident in your squat which will improve your performance (more weight and/or repetitions) which will result in greater stimulus for strength and muscle gains in the primary movers (quadriceps and gluteal muscles). I also have relatively flat feet and whilst walking and training in barefoot minimalist shoes such as Vivobarefoot have helped me a great deal in developing a foot arch the additional arch support the weightlifting shoe provides is valuable in this respect too.
To illustrate the difference in squatting in weightlifting shoes vs flat barefoot shoes see the screenshots below with links to the full videos. As you can see my posture at the bottom of the squat is noticeably more upright with the weightlifting shoes which will result in greater utilisation of the quadriceps muscles.
My lower body workouts have been focused on high bar ATG (ass to grass) back squats as my primary movement with a mix of high and low repetition work. Typically I start with a series of warm-up sets working up to a heavy set of 3–5 repetitions and then drop the weight down to perform a set of 20 repetition breathing squats ala Randal J. Strossen’s Super Squats. I believe anyone with knee pain should be squatting as deep as possible with full ROM as it will result in greater stimulus for both the quadricep and gluteal muscles, in particular the VMO (Vastus Medialis) which is responsible.
Whilst weightlifting shoes may or may not be the answer for your own knee pain for less than £100 or $125 they are worth a shot if you haven’t seen results from everything else you’ve tried so far. As mentioned I would strongly recommend Core Weightlifting shoes. These shoes have the highest heel elevation (1.2 inches or 30mm) I’ve come across which will allow you to squat deeper than a flat or lower heel elevated shoe. The budget weightlifting shoes typically have heel elevations of 0.5 inches such as the Adidas Powerlifts, Reebok Lifter PR and Nike Savaloes, which are fine for parallel powerlifting depth squats but are not optimal for deep ATG squats unless you have excellent ankle mobility and/or short legs and a long torso. The higher priced shoes such as the Nike Romaloes however if you prefer to go for a more expensive, well known branded option I would recommend the Reebok Legacy Lifters which have a heel elevation of 0.86 inches or 22mm.
Hope this helps and interested to hear any feedback if you experience or have experienced similar.
