Heel height - what the right heel size is incredibly important

Would Superman give up another superpower?  Well, lifting in a heel that is too low will do just that. 

The other day I was training in an undisclosed location on the West Coast.  To my amazement, someone actually referred to the Risto's I was wearing as "high heeled shoes".    About 3 years ago, people would ask me why the Risto heel was "so low"; now, I'm asked why is it "so high".  This is laughable -- the heel hasnt changed! What has changed is marketing to strength athletes.

The Great Heel Dupe- 
It seems over the past few years the industry, in an effort to broaden their customer base, began to bastardize the weightlifting shoe design.   We now see "sneaker like" shoes with low soft heels-- as if shoe manufacture's are coaxing the weary out of their crosstrainers into quasi lifting shoes.

The problem is a classic one of poor, suboptimal design.  Whenever you take a specialized tool and try to dumb it down, you make it far less effective at its purpose.   Further, the newer shoes show increasingly inferior materials. 

What is more interesting are the social dynamics at play of adoption. Unfortunately, there is an entire population of lifters who are now giving away kilos off their lifts, pounds off their squats by wearing a shoe which is too supple and too low a heel height. 

Wood heel is superior
A wood heel is just the right mix of hardness, yet, flexibility in the right positions.  Further, a wood heel is a better match to the frequency response of wooden platforms which most people lift on. 

 In contrast, newer shoes use cork, injection mold plastic, and EVA --these are inferior to the woods still used in the Risto's. For specifics, just look up the tensile properties of EVA (the latest cheep heel filler) and cork. Both are much softer than hardwoods.  Even the wikipedia entry on  EVA describes it as a soft material. In lifting soft=bad, because soft heel compress and act as dampers, damper suck the energy out of your lift!

The opposite problem are injection mold plastics. These are way to heavy and inflexible.  They are less ductile than wood alond the bending axis in the jerk.

Here's a little youtbe video I made just for you (I'll have to redo the audio, but here it is for now):

The right heel size and construction-
Most people need over an inch heel to get into the power position.  About a 1.25 inch heel proportionate to foot length is optimal for squats, snatches, and clean and jerks.  The heel allows the lifter to maintain leverage. It permits solid contact of the foot to the floor as the lifter pushes out of a squat or against the floor in a pull.  Further, in a deep squat the higher heel prevents the lifter from caving forward onto their knees or curling their back. 

A flat heel will cause most lifters to have too wide a stance in their start position as well as in the catch of their snatch or clean. This puts excessive stress on the joints and knees with such oblique angles in the hips to make up for the lack of heel. Ever see someone squat with their heels come up?

What about bodybuilders and powerlifters? -
I have seen professional bodybuilders move to a shoe with a heel when they squat such that they wil hit their hammies in the squat. Further, it prevents excesisve strain on the back and other injuries.

Powerlifters typically use shoes, like the Risto, to squat.  For powerlifters who deadlift with a wide stance, they will use a second pair of flat shoes to deadlift.  Again, you got to use the right tools for the job--using a sort of flat "lifting shoe" with a plastic heel is not going to help your deadlift or your squat.  The only deadlifters I've seen use "low heel" "lifting" shoes are a very niche group that follow starting strength.