Vibram 5 Fingers shoes

[ny biker]

I wish they would let me lift barefoot at my gym :-)

You've obviously never dropped a 10-lb weight on your toes. (And trust me, you don't want to.)

[Catrin]

You've obviously never dropped a 10-lb weight on your toes. (And trust me, you don't want to.)

Actually, I HAVE, and somehow managed to NOT break my toe :-) Thankfully it didn't fall from a height, and my coach had us in our socks that day. I do work barefoot in my kettlebell gym at home. As explosive as kettlebell sport lifts are (especially the snatch), frankly I doubt it would make a difference if I dropped a 20-40 pound kettlebell on my foot no matter what kind of shoes I have on. I feel much more solid when lifting barefoot, the cushioning in the shoes gets in the way.

[OakLeaf]

Ha, Catrin, for some reason I thought you had tiny feet which is why I didn't offer you my VFFs right off. But it sounds like GLC is the one with tiny feet.

I have a pair in size 41 that I don't wear any more. Not sure which model, but they're one of the ones that's more open on top, and a few years old. I really wanted them to work for me, but they're just the wrong shape for my feet, especially in the toes. I'm thinking they're probably still too big for you, but if you want to give them a try, PM me. (And if they're too big for you, anyone else who wants them let me know!)


ETA - while digging for my VFFs to find out what size they were, I ran across the old Inov-8 toe shoes that I forgot someone even gave me. They're just nasty to wear - some kind of synthetic rubber throughout with no ventilation, so if your feet never sweat it's a really nice stretchy fit and feel, but once you start to sweat, ewwwwww - but anyway, that reminded me to look at Inov-8, and they are now making several models of gym shoes with a traditional but wide toe box, 3 mm soles and zero drop, that they advertise as flexible enough for rope climbing. You know what I know now.

[Catrin]

I will send you a message, thanks! I think I wear a 40 in the 5 Fingers, but it would be interesting to give them a try and see how they feel, at least at a home KB session.

I've tried on Inov-8's before and I just don't care for them. I've worn minimalist shoes before at the gym (Reebok's Nano 2), and they were great for the type of high intensity cross training I was doing with my previous coach. They are worn out though, and are too cushioned for KB lifting. To be fair to the Inov-8 shoes, I did (reluctantly) try on a new pair last night. While too much cushioning for my purposes, they DID feel better than earlier models did. I still don't like them but I didn't dislike them as much as in the past. They would be fine for my past training style though. I don't need new shoes for that :-)