Also, quick question: Do you think the SafeUSA SST's or Contenders are worth the money?
I notice you use them. I've tried Adistar Olympic weightlifting shoes, chuck taylors, and reebok high tops (like Coan uses), but have always wanted to try the Contenders. The reebok high tops are my favorite to use, but the Contenders/SST's seem more sturdy by the looks of them on the website.
Mike Tuchscherer wrote:
I agree on PTP. Eric Talmant posts on this website and EliteFTS.com and he's a virtual expert on russian/sheiko style programming. He does a lot of Q&A about it on the Elite website, so if you're interested in getting questions answered about that style of programming in particular, I'd direct you to him.
As far as the Safe's Contenders... I love 'em. Here's my shoe story.... When I first started, I got a pair of rebock hi tops (same style, but I think they were Nike... who cares). I loved 'em and they felt a lot better than my tennis shoes. Then I got a pair of chuck taylors and I thought they were SO much more stable than the other shoes. Years went by. I got a pair of olympic shoes for assistance work. All of a sudden, my Chucks didn't feel as stable anymore. I then bought the safe's shoes and now I feel like I'm setting up on concrete blocks. They're awesome. There's a couple of take-aways here: 1) the stability of your shoe is relative to what you've experienced. Until you feel stable, you don't know what stable is. 2) The safe's shoes are fantastic.
That said, if you like squatting with a heel, a lot of guys are going with the AdiStar's. From what I've seen, the material on the upper can be a little flimsy and unsuppportive. Sherman at Quest will be coming out with a new squat shoe that will be totally bad-ass if you like the adistars. He has sold the Do-Win's in the past, but feels that the heel is too tall. The new shoe will be somewhat of a hybrid between the sturdy construction of the Do-Win's and the Just-Right heel of the adistars. It looks to be pretty awesome, but I don't think it will be available until October or so.
I use the Iron Work IIs and I have no problems with the upper part of the shoe at all. I talked to the guy at Dynamic fitness and he said that only high level olympic lifters should notice this problem and that for the purpose of powerlifting, order the ones that are in your budget.
