Well, I'm a cheapskate. I have been putting off and putting off buying any weightlifting shoes, but I've been wanting to try doing some pressing in a shoe that had a solid heel. So, after much thought I stumbled across my old Dexter's that I've had for probably twelve or more years. After a quick examination of the heel I said "that'll do" and threw them in my gym bag to give it a try. I figured "what the heck", I'm on the comeback trail, and today was going to be relatively light and so if it was catastrophic mistake I would likely be none the worse for the wear.
I wore some good thick black socks and began working my way up through warmups in the log press. It really was a different feeling, I could tell that the squish I get from my Asics sneakers was completely gone and I cold actually feel my heels transferring force into the ground. I also felt super preppy.
I think it's good to be a little old fashioned every now and then. I think about the shoes lifters wore back in the day sixty or seventy years ago. Leather uppers, hard rubber or leather heel. No foam, or nylon, or toe pockets. Nothing fancy, just what they had. In a way I think a throwback is a nice tribute. I should have played with the axle and pretended to be John Davis for an hour or so. Don't know who John Henry Davis is? Well, I'll have to tell you about him sometime.
After all, there's no school like the Old School...
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| John Henry Davis cleans and jerks the original Apollon's Axle (1949) |
1 comment:
Weights & wingtips - classic. Now you'll have to start wearing a fedora when you squat.
I've also seen a few old photos of Steve Justa lifting in leather soled dress shoes with the heels cut off for a better pulling setup.
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