Find your Feet
Your feet provide your connection to the ground and allow you to exert force through your legs, hips, etc into the barbell in the squat and deadlift (and many other movements). For powerlifting, weightlifting and crossfit this is obviously quite important.
Much like tyres on a powerful car (or in my preference, motorcycle) – if you have shitty tyres, you’ll never put all that power down to the ground. The more I delve into things, the more I believe in the power and impact of the flippers attached to your legs. If they do not provide a solid, stable base from which to push then you will be leaving kilos off the bar.
One of our members, Shahan, has struggled for a while now with his ankle collapsing/pronating in the bottom of a squat. We have worked on glute strength and activation, as well as his squat technique. This has improved things, but nothing has ever quite done the trick.
The videos linked below show Shahan doing two sets of squats. These were done on the same day, in the same session, with the same weight, at the same level of social anxiety. The only difference is in one he is wearing the narrower Adipowers (white shoe) and in the other he is wearing the wider Romaleos (black shoe).
See a difference?
If you have wider feet, I encourage you to try the following:
Try a wider lifting shoe, or no shoe at all
Use a golf ball to massage the bottom of the foot
Put pressure through the big toe/ball of foot, pinky toe/outside of foot and heel – if you can’t, track down why
#byliftersforlifters