The Emperor's New Crosstrainers

In my opinion the absolute best footwear for resistance training is, well, no footwear at all.

Thing is, for optimal performance you need optimal proprioception, which is basically personal trainer geekspeak for body awareness. Shoes, even good ones that fit correctly, can interfere with your ability to perceive subtle shifts in balance and centering of your bodyweight--and shifts that go unnoticed inevitably go uncorrected, resulting in compensations elsewhere in your body. If, for instance, you can't see your feet rolling inward because of your shoes, you won't think to pull up your arches, and voila! your ankles will likely wobble and your knees may bow inward when you squat or lunge.

But what about corrective shoes and orthotics? Won't they solve the problem by forcing your feet into good alignment? I would argue no ... but if by some chance a podiatrist happens upon this blog post I would totally welcome a dissenting view. My feeling is that orthotics can encourage the feet to get lazy. It's like wearing a belt or using straps: I believe it's better to develop a strong core and grip than rely on props. I do see where reasonable minds can differ on this issue, but I think it's better to strengthen one's arches than to use arch supports. Likewise I feel that, rather than running out and buying the latest "motion control" shoe from New Balance or Saucony, it's better to address the muscle imbalances that may be causing one to overpronate.

I also feel that it's just about impossible to use the pronoun "one" without sounding unbearably pretentious, but there you have it.

Of course, if you like to exercise outside or your gym prohibits barefoot exercising, some sort of footwear obviously is de rigueur. My preference is for something flat and minimally supportive, that will replicate the feeling of exercising barefoot as much as possible. My own personal choice is Chuck Converse All-Stars, but I have also heard very good things about Vibram Five Fingers, which are sort of a sinister hybrid of Aqua Socks and toe socks from the 70s. Problem is, I'm not sure they come in bubble-gum pink. Converse All-Stars do.

So, those are your good footwear choices for resistance training: barefoot, or something that replicates the feeling of being barefoot as much as possible:

Preferably something pink :)

Some bad choices are depicted below:

The shoes on the far left are motion control running shoes from Saucony, with orthotic inserts. Not only do these promote lazy feet, but they do not allow for proper grounding through the heel. Also, they are ugly and not pink.

The shoes in the center are my Suffolk Pointes. They're actually pretty great for ballet because I can totally tell whether I'm on the tip of my big toe when I'm wearing those babies. But since they do not allow for grounding through anything other than the big toe, they obviously are not a good choice for resistance training, and really I only included them for fun, and also because they are pink.

Ditto for the shoes on the right, which are pretty much useless you're doing the Zsa Zsa Gabor workout. (Look for it on eBay. It's a hoot.) Every woman should own a pair of pink marabou mules, and every woman should lift weights. But she should not wear the mules when she's lifting the weights. There's multitasking that works, and multitasking that doesn't, and this would be an example of the latter.

Strength Workout A(gain)

I gotta say, I'm glad I'm on week 4 and won't be doing this particular workout again. This was only my 4th time doing it, but even so, I'm bored. I have workout ADD and it's a problem, truly, because certain of my physical goals (kettlebell mastery, stronger feet, improved balance and flexibility) cannot be achieved except by doing the same thing over and over until it sinks in.

Anyhoo, as you may recall but probably don't, Strength Workout A is the one that starts with deadlifts. My plan for this week was not to try to break any new ground in terms of weight, but rather to increase the number of reps performed at the weights used last week.

Here's how it went:

Deadlifts: 2x6x115 (warmup); 1x6x145; 1x6x155; 1x6x165

I felt okay about my performance all things considered. My grip gave out on rep 5 of the last set so I needed to take a second or two to regroup before performing my last rep. Still, not bad. I don't see many guys deadlifting close to 150% of their bodyweight. Heck, I don't see many guys deadlifting 150% of MY bodyweight :)

Next up was barbell forward lunges: 3x8x95. Again, same weight as last week but more reps.

Then, dumbbell incline press supersetted with dumbbell bentover rows:

Presses: 3x8x40's
Rows: 3x6x45's

Finally, stability ball crunches supersetted with incline curls, 3 sets of 10 each exercise. I completed the first set of curls using 20's for all reps, but hit failure midway through on the second 2 sets and had to finish with 15's. I pretty much knew I that would happen but I opted to start with the 20's anyway because I think using the 15's for all 10 reps would've been a bit too easy. The other option would have been to do more than 10 reps with the 15's, but given that I despise doing biceps curls I preferred to get it over with in as few reps as possible.

I think Phase 3 of the Infamous TRX program is an upper/lower split, though I couldn't swear to it. I've been trying not to look ahead at what's coming, because I don't want to get ahead of myself. I did, however, take a peak at the TRX conditioning workouts for Phases 3 and 4 and they look truly terrifying. Not only are the rest periods shorter, but the work periods are longer--up to 45 seconds from 30. The exercises are getting more challenging as well. I think there's even some plyometric action coming.

(Note: If you have a suspension trainer you owe it to yourself to attempt pistol jump squats. Do them once, acknowledge their greatness, and vow never to speak their name again.)

In other vaguely workout-related news, I am now the proud owner of a pair of Converse All Stars. Lifting barefoot at my gym is not allowed, which basically I consider to be a sensible rule given that there are any number of overenthusiastic teens who consider it to be good lifting form to fling their weights at the floor at the end of each set. But the obvious downside is that most athletic shoes are too cushy to be appropriate for, well, any exercise that you would do standing up. Converses, however, are low-tech, not particularly cushy, and a respectable choice when going barefoot is not an option.

Mine are bubblegum pink. They are adorable. I tend to go in for pink and adorable. I like to think it makes me even scarier somehow.