 Next question is from Pete on the gram. What are the best workout shoes? Yeah, you know what this reminds me of this question So first off, it's depends on who I'm talking to and this is this reminds me of something so years ago there was a book that was written about how Running barefoot was the best way to run and it was this author that went and observed People who had run their whole lives barefoot and saw how the foot struck the ground And it was different than when you have running shoes on and the foot and the ankle are this great shock absorbers And these people are running into their 70s and they have no back pain and he's like We've really screwed ourselves up by wearing running shoes that encourage us to hit to run I think there you go Yeah, and you know they encourage us to hit heel first and that causes all these problems Whereas when you run barefoot or with these people run barefoot it was four foot first and all this other stuff Well, then you had all these people are like, oh my god Groundbreaking taking my shoes off and I'm gonna run and then you had all these injuries The reason why I had all these injuries is because it's you got to develop the muscles of the foot and the coordination It's years and years of work. You can't just take your shoes off Expect to run and have all these amazing benefits So depends what I'm talking to if you have Stability issues and ankle mobility issues like am I gonna tell you to go barefoot? No, you're gonna hurt yourself you go barefoot your feet are so weak and your ankles can't support you Whatever weight you use the squat and lunge and overhead press and whatever it's gonna cause problems So ideally if you've got great control great mobility Everything's connected your feet are healthy and strong barefoot is the best. How many people are like that very little So the shoes you choose they have to match who you are and your issues And then you can if you want to progress to less supportive shoes you can but it's a it's a methodical slow and Controlled process in if you are at that point barefoot or shoes that have minimal support But if I throw the average person in minimal support shoes or flat-footed I mean you're gonna cause problems because they just are our feet are so underdeveloped and our ankles have such poor mobility Because of the way we've treated ourselves for so long that just not a good idea It's kind of funny that in the fitness industry. We really didn't put any consideration around foot strength or zero Yes support and that shoes were a big contributor to that And I remember like distinctly when I was training in a facility with like independent trainers Which was a whole nother sort of breed of trainer versus like what I had a 24-hour fitness and everywhere else and and everybody in there had the the finger shoes the toes and but also the Chucks and and and I remember that being like they're cool shoes in all but like I'm like How do you guys train in these things? That's crazy to me like I just thought it was crazy I was all about the Nike shoes that had you know all the support and You know we're very much more athletic Driven like for running and all this kind of stuff But you know honestly the the worst shoe to to bring into the weight room Because of you know the the lateral stability. It was dog shit You know, it was elevating my heels the whole time And so for me to transition even from that kind of a shoe to Chucks was quite a quite a big step and I remember feeling that difference right away With how my my ankles were starting to talk to me like worked up the kinetic chain So it's a very much of a something that you need to gradually approach if you are to transition to something with less support But you want to work your way towards something where you do you are able to Have some flexibility in your shoes So, you know your your foot can figure out how to stabilize you a little more effectively. Well, what are we gonna hear? We're gonna hear Chucks Metcons vans Vivo barefoot whatever shoes like Minimus these are yeah minimus right these are all gonna be the top shoes that are gonna make this list right here And the truth is what makes them the top shoes is they're the closest to barefoot exactly So the the ultimate goal is to be able to get to a place where you can work out barefoot I think that's the answer to this like and whatever shoe is close to remember get to right get to that's why I'm saying It's very similar the way we talk about squatting aster grass That it should be a good goal So if you're if you're not squatting aster grass right now doesn't mean I'm telling you tomorrow You can't break 90 right now and then you hear on the show I say Yeah, don't go don't go get down there just if just because we say to do that But work towards that work work on the hip mobility and ankle mobility to be able to get into a deep squat the same thing goes with barefoot training and what does that look like what looks like first walking around barefoot like if You don't take your shoes right now If the only place you ever take your shoes off is like before you go to bed like you ought to practice that first like Any time I'm at a place where it doesn't like require have shoes like obviously I'm not some weirdo when I go into you know the grocery store and shit I'm walking in there barefoot and stuff like that or walking around out here in public downtown like that But you bet when I get home one of the first things that comes off are my shoes my shoes come off And I'm barefoot and any time See what I mean in the backyard with max and we're playing in the sand and the tambark and the dirt like 100% were barefoot like so and and that's how it started for me was and by the way like It was just not that long ago where my my feet were completely asleep And I had no connection to them and I couldn't squat astagrass and then my feet both Pronated so I was a mess here So it's not like this is gonna take you forever to do this but it just starts with those practices first it starts With you first doing those little things by taking the shoes off and walking around barefoot Then you can start doing some body weight type of movements work on stability, right? So this is where a place where before I go and throw 400 pounds in my back and squat barefoot I'm gonna do some, you know lunges to a balance barefoot, you know I'm gonna do some things that are single legs So I have to work on that ankle stability and strength and foot strength at the same time But build build those muscles up get strong on your feet I have specific shoes that wear for specific lifts and that's just because I don't take the time necessarily to go and Really develop my feet and my ankles Just you know full disclosure. So when I deadlift I like very flat shoes I wear chucks when I deadlift if I overhead press I'll also like to wear chucks If I'm barbell squatting I wear squat shoes because the heel is elevated and it compensates for my lack of ankle mobility If I'm doing anything on a bench I don't care because my feet really don't matter if I'm sitting or laying on a bench So that's the way you got to think about it like what are you willing to do? What are you willing to work towards but don't go barefoot for the sake of going barefoot if you don't have the The right stability and strength in your feet and you just go and take off your shoes or go super flat You're setting yourself up for potential injury and pain even walking barefoot I've even had people say oh, I took all my shoes off and just walk barefoot And then they get you know They get issues with the bottom of their feet and they're like why am I why am I getting fascia issues and say well You always walk around heels So it's a slow gradual process our bodies have totally adapted to wearing shoes and if you've ever looked at a picture of A hunter-gatherers foot next to a modern person's foot It is interesting forget the bottom gnarly looking forget the bottom of the foot with the thick skin All that stuff just look at the top of the foot like toes are spread out and open and it's like this nice Muscular wide strong foot and then you got the modern feet where the toes are all brought together and at weird angle Crushed and it's like we really did a number ourselves and by the way some of this damage can be reversed not all of it If you have children do this when they start walking This is how you prevent these issues because once you go past a certain point You can fix some of it like Adam's fixed a lot of it But will he ever have the kind of feet that he would have like my son when he was I won't have feet like my son I'm doing the same thing with my with my baby son, right? So some of the damage and you ever look at pictures of like pro basketball players to their feet Oh, it's terrible because they had such big feet. They probably couldn't get shoes that fit properly They got these weird you imagine if you imagine if a pro basketball player is like, oh, I heard barefoot was good I'm gonna go play pro, you know, I'm gonna go play basketball with no shoes on it would hurt themselves like crazy It's just war to caution. That's all Hey, if you enjoyed that clip You can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe