Use Olympic Shoes to Squat Big Weight

When I was in California working at the University of California at Riverside one of the strength coaches, Gary Heron passed down a pair of his old Olympic shoes.

The first time I used those bad boys my squat went up by a good 30 pounds, but why?

My main limitation in the back squat is that as the weight gets heavier I begin to lean forward more, essentially turning the lift into a good morning. My stiff ankles and long femurs don’t tend to help my cause. Check out my post here on how stiff ankles can cause medial knee displacement.

Anyways, when I squat I don’t have much forward travel of the knees because of my dorsiflexion restrictions. I downloaded an ubersense app which can help me draw angles, here’s my squat without Olympic shoes on.

 

I know the measurements aren’t precise but let’s compare it to my squat with Olympic shoes on. The tibia angle became more acute and my torso angle increased. With a more upright torso the likelihood of a forward lean decreases, hence why I can lift more weight with Olympic shoes on. It makes my limiting factor less of my limiting factor.

Looking at the picture one can come to the conclusion that decreased tibia angle leads to an increased torso angle and ergo, squatting bigger weights.

Justin Kompf