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September 13

Deadlift in socks

I was watching some World's Strongest Man clips on FB and I noticed that during the deadlift competition, the contestants had no shoes on. They were wearing deadlift socks (to protect their shins), but why wouldn't they wear shoes or boots? I'm not a weightlifter, but AFAIK, deadlift socks are just normal (but thick) socks that wouldn't seem to preclude it. Matt Deres (talk) 02:35, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Preclude what? Wearing shoes? There are shoes that are marketed as "deadlift shoes",^[1] but I wonder if they give professional powerlifters a real advantage (although rated here as best for the manoeuvre) over no shoes. That page also has a section "Deadlift Shoes vs Barefoot" that suggests the main advantage is not touching the floor with one's bare skin – which is also avoided by wearing socks. Presumably, the floor of places where official competitions are held are, moreover, kept meticulously clean. --Lambiam 10:47, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I note that the deadlift shoes shown in the link above barely have any heel, and I'm guessing that regular shoes or boots might be considered undesirable because they raise the lifter very slightly higher above the weights they intend to lift, thus meaning they would be reaching further down to grasp them and then lifting them up a greater height. Although this greater reach and height might seem negligible, it could be significant when lifters are competing at the edge of possibility and margins are everything. PaleCloudedWhite (talk) 11:26, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I pasted "deadlift in socks" into Google and the first result was TIP: DEADLIFT BAREFOOT. HERE'S WHY. which says:

"Deadlifting barefoot or in socks:

1. Alleviates an anterior weight shift.

2. Helps to shift your weight back.

3. Better engages the posterior chain (glutes/hamstrings).

4. Gets you closer to the floor, which equates to a shorter distance to lockout".

Alansplodge (talk) 14:14, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The goal, when deadlifting, is for the weight to be over the midfoot, but inevitably this means there's a lot of load through the heels (really most of the weight is over the heel, but you don't want to be just standing on the heels, because you'll roll back onto them, and die). Although the lifter will try to keep the load balanced between the two feet balanced, small asymmetries are inevitable (and no-one has a perfectly symmetrical stance, even if they think they do). If someone were to deadlift in a shoe which had a heel with a curved section (the worst case is a running shoe) or a soft padded heel (again, a running shoe) then that slight asymmetry turns into that side of the heel collapsing, and the lifter rolls onto that heel (and then you die). So, if wearing shoes, the heel has to be unyielding (often it's downright hard), pretty thin, and crucially have a square (right angle) section. So that's what a deadlift shoe is; you have a pretty much the same requirements for other standing lifts (powerclean, clean, OHP, snatch), except the squat (more on that later). There's really no great advantage to special shoes, but people like what they like. I usually deadlift in Converse (because they're cheaper), and there's no great difference between that and deadlifting in socks. My friend deadlifts in Vibrams. Of the things Alansplodge's search found, the shorter-distance-to-lockout is true (but it's only a few mm, so not that much). The rest are mostly about proprioception : it's up to your balance, not your shoes, where you shift your weight - as long as the shoes are stiff and stable. Maybe some people believe they can feel their balance better with bare/socked feet - it's probably mostly what they're used to. Olympic lifters (whose lifts incorporate a deadlift motion) all wear flat lifting shoes (they all have beautiful proprioception).

The exception is for the squat - people with poor dorsiflexion struggle to reach the regulation depth on a squat (without dangerously curving the lumbar spine) when wearing flat shoes and so wear "squat shoes", which have a raised heel. I don't know to what extent those are legal for powerlifting. Olympic lifters (whose lifts include a squat element) don't wear them (they have beautiful hip and ankle mobility too). -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 15:52, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a compilation video of IPF deadlift record lifts - it's a pretty even mix of socks and shoes (and one guy in Converse) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtilmrA9jHA -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 16:02, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically for WSM, those guys are simply so large, and the weights they're moving are so much, they may struggle to find appropriate shoes that are comfortable and don't hurt their feet under the load. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 16:34, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I did Google deadlift in socks before posting, but seemingly got nothing but stuff about deadlift socks themselves. Part of what made me wonder about it was that they only did it for the deadlift and not for any of the other contests. In retrospect, that makes sense: it's one of the few contests that doesn't involve walking in any way (where you'd almost certainly want the additional sold protection of shoes) and also has some of the heaviest weights. Matt Deres (talk) 22:21, 13 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]