Shoes or No Shoes for Strength Training? Here’s What You Should Know

Recently I started my upper body workout and realized I never put on my shoes. No big deal for yoga or Pilates, but it got me thinking about strength training. Do we really need sneakers for every workout?

I looked into it, and here’s what I found.

Wearing Shoes can provide support, stability, and protection, especially during heavier lifts or exercises that involve jumping. But they can also limit your ability to engage the floor, reduce foot strength over time, and change alignment without you even realizing it.

Going Barefoot can improve balance, activate more muscles in the feet and core, and help you feel more grounded during lifts. But it may not be the best option on gym floors or when lifting heavy weights that could land on your foot.

So what’s best?
It depends. Some women feel stronger and more confident in sneakers. Others swear they feel more connected and balanced without them. A lot of us land somewhere in the middle—barefoot for core or upper body work, shoes for squats or lunges.

My advice? Try both. Pay attention to how your body feels and choose what supports your strength and stability.

Supersets with Tempo and a Booty Challenge

Today was our first strength training day following the new programming for July: Supersets with Tempo. We are going to be focusing on doing two exercises at a time back-to-back. One will be straight reps and the second we will vary the speed to increase the time under tension, aka max out the muscles!

I was really liking the mixed pyramid sets we were doing in June, but I know that in order to see change, we have to mix things up. That is why I love being in FASTer Way VIP. I get the perks of a personal trainer without the price!

This month we are also doing a Booty Challenge. So a couple of days a week we get bonus content to build our lower body strength. Today was day 2 and let me just say that things were on fire!

After my workout I did a cool down walk. It was a stunning day here in Hawaii with great trade winds, so I took advantage and headed toward the Lanikai Monument. This monument marks the entrance to the Lanikai neighborhood. 

The monument is my turn around spot, but I like to walk down the hill to the lava rocks and take in the view first. If you follow my Instagram stories you will see that I am here a lot! mrC and I love to sit and enjoy the breeze while looking for turtles. We came here almost everyday when the beach was closed at the beginning of the COVID quarantine.

I just love looking at the amazing view of Kailua Beach and the Kailua blue water from here. We truly are blessed to have this as our playground.

One reason I love this walk, is because it is all sidewalks and walking paths from our apartment (unless we take a side street which has very little traffic). The walking/bike path goes right through Kailua Beach park.

I spent the rest of my day working a little, chatting with my Functional Medicine Practitioner and eating! BreakFAST was one of my favorites: egg, tuna, avocado and hummus on gluten free, dairy free toast. The bread is made locally here on Oahu and is the best GF bread I've ever had.

While I was working, I had a 3 pound turkey breast cooking in the crockpot, so dinner was turkey breast, steamed broccoli and sweet potato chips. Turkey is my new chicken!

I got a bit of a game plan from the FMP today to help with my gut health and cortisol spikes. More on that in my next post.

Do you mix up your strength training workout programming or does someone do it for you?