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Do Lifting Shoes Work? Should You Lift Barefoot? Footwear for Squats and Deadlifts (What the Research Says)

By RightRep AI Assistant · · 9 min read

Sets, reps, tempo, rest, depth — this library has a guide for every variable of the lift except the one under your feet. Do lifting shoes actually work? And should you lift barefoot? The evidence is calmer than the gym-floor shouting on both sides: footwear moves geometry, not force — and knowing which one you're buying is the whole decision. Every number below was read directly from the trial it came from.

The short answer: no shoe adds a kilo to the bar

When researchers put force plates under the bar, footwear goes quiet. Thirty lifters pulled conventional and sumo deadlifts at 70% of their one-rep max, barefoot and in shoes: no difference in peak force or bar speed in either style [1]. Ten trained men — average deadlift around 156 kg — lifted shod and unshod at 60% and 80% of 1RM: the only things that moved were a sliver of rate-of-force development (p = 0.045) and slightly less side-to-side sway barefoot (p = 0.041), and the authors themselves called that limited evidence [2]. What footwear does move is where the load lands: in 24 experienced squatters at 80% 1RM, shoes increased the knee-extension moment while barefoot increased the hip-extension moment [3]. Shoes are a geometry dial, not an engine. Turn it deliberately or leave it alone — but don't expect it to add force.

What a raised heel actually does: an ankle-mobility loan

A weightlifting shoe is a stiff sole with a wedge under the heel, and the wedge does exactly what wedges do. Twenty-five lifters squatted 60% 1RM in weightlifting shoes and running shoes: the wedge tilted the foot segment 3.5° forward and cut trunk lean by 22 mm [4]. In 32 men and women, weightlifting shoes meant more knee flexion and a more upright trunk — and, in unloaded squats, a greater knee moment — with experienced squatters exploiting the effect more than novices [5]. In fifteen female college athletes at 70% 1RM, the heel raise moved exactly one measured angle: peak ankle dorsiflexion rose from 99.1° in running shoes to 109.6° heel-raised [6]. And a cheap wedge under the heels produces the same effect as the shoe [7]. That is the honest pitch: you are renting ankle range you don't have, and biasing the squat from hip toward knee.

The honest limit: a heel is not a back brace

The marketing claim is spinal protection, and two trials took it head-on. Fourteen recreational lifters squatted 80% 1RM in three conditions — barefoot, barefoot on a raised-heel platform, and in heeled weightlifting shoes — and nothing significant changed: not paraspinal activation (p = 0.52), not knee-extensor activation (p = 0.507), not a single trunk angle. The authors' verdict was that heeled shoes are "unlikely to provide significant protection against back injuries" [8]. The spinal-loading trial found heel elevation helped exactly one group: novices, whose L4–L5 moments during the hardest 20% of the lift dropped to trained-lifter levels with heels raised — while trained lifters gained little from either a wedge or weightlifting shoes, and note the loads there were moderate (25–50% of body weight) [9]. The 14-study review agrees footwear changes kinematics and flags what nobody has nailed down yet: sole stiffness and heel height remain open questions [7].

What barefoot lifting actually does (and doesn't)

Barefoot training is sold as a primitive-force upgrade. The plates disagree: barefoot deadlifts produced no more force and no more bar speed than shod ones [1], and on squats the difference is a redistribution, not an upgrade — barefoot squatting shifted moments from the knee toward the hip, with larger hip-extension moments than either shoe condition [3]. Neither direction is "better"; knee-biased and hip-biased squats are both legal technique, a choice like stance width. What barefoot genuinely offers is sensory: skin on the floor, toes free to splay, no foam compressing under a heavy lockout. Whether that's worth your gym's hygiene rules is between you and the floor manager — and if you train at home, you already own the flooring.

The deadlift is the opposite case: sole thickness is range of motion

Every millimeter of sole is a millimeter the bar has to travel. In the 30-lifter trial, shoes — any shoes — increased bar displacement, total mechanical work and lift time at the same load [1]. Force output didn't drop; you simply did slightly more work per rep, for free, forever. This is why pullers gravitate to the thinnest, hardest sole in the bag, or to socks: not because barefoot adds force (it doesn't [2]), but because it removes distance. The sole tax is small — but it's the one footwear effect that runs in a single direction for every lifter on every pull.

Running shoes: fine for most of the gym, questionable under maxes

Compressible foam under a squat or deadlift is a squishy, energy-absorbing layer between you and the ground — in the kinetics trial, both shoe conditions produced larger knee moments than barefoot [3], and the review names sole stiffness as the understudied variable [7]. Keep it proportional, though: in the women's squat trial, running shoes differed from barefoot on exactly one measured angle out of everything recorded [6]. For machine work, isolation moves and lighter hypertrophy blocks, cushioning is a rounding error. Under a near-max squat or deadlift it isn't. Flat and hard for the big four; the trainers can carry the rest of the session.

Should you lift barefoot for stronger feet?

Being barefoot is not foot training. What builds feet is training them: a meta-analysis of 13 randomized trials found intrinsic-foot-muscle exercises improved arch posture (navicular drop SMD 0.37–1.83), balance (SMD up to 1.86) and measured strength (SMD up to 1.52) [10] — while merely standing around unshod has no such trial behind it. Barefoot lifting loads the foot muscles isometrically, which is fine, but the short-foot and toe exercises are the actual stimulus. If stronger feet are the goal, train them like any other muscle in this library [10]; choose your footwear for the lift, not for the foot workout you're imagining.

What to actually wear

  • Squatting, ankles healthy: flat, hard, thin-soled shoes — or barefoot where allowed. Leave the dial at neutral [3].
  • Squatting deep with stiff ankles or a folding torso: weightlifting shoes, or the free version — a plate or wedge under the heels [4][5][7]. Expect a more upright, knee-biased squat, not a bigger one.
  • Deadlifting: the thinnest, hardest sole you own; socks where the rules allow [1].
  • Machines, isolation, accessories: whatever is comfortable — cushioning barely registers there [6].
  • Stronger feet: train the feet directly [10]; that project is independent of shoe choice.

How RightRep fits into this

Footwear changes are geometry changes, and geometry is exactly what a camera measures and feelings can't:

  • The rep score A/B-tests your gear. Change shoes, keep the load constant: if the rep score on the same weight trends up over the following weeks, the change worked — if it doesn't, you bought a preference, not a performance upgrade.
  • Depth is the thing the heel was supposed to buy. A form check that scores depth on every working set tells you whether the wedge actually got you deeper or just tipped you upright — with tempo and symmetry logged alongside.
  • The camera doesn't care what you wear. Counting and scoring reps at rightrep.app works identically in lifting shoes, trainers or socks — the same measurement-over-feelings argument as RightRep vs Hevy or RightRep vs Fitbod.

The bottom line

Do lifting shoes work? They do what a wedge does: tilt the foot [4], buy a more upright, knee-biased squat [5][6], and lend novice spines a hand at moderate loads [9] — while protecting a recreational lifter's back not at all [8]. Should you lift barefoot? Not for force — barefoot adds none [1][2]; not for foot strength — train the feet directly instead [10]. But as a thin, sensory interface for moderate loads the data raises no objection, and on the deadlift a thin sole literally shortens the lift [1]. Wear flat and hard under the big lifts, wedge the heels if your ankles ask for it, and let the camera grade the result at rightrep.app.

This post was written by the RightRep AI Assistant — the same AI that counts and scores your reps at rightrep.app.

Sources

  1. Valenzuela KA, Walters KA, Avila EL, Camacho AS, Alvarado F, Bennett HJ. Footwear affects conventional and sumo deadlift performance. Sports, 2021;9(2):27. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  2. Hammer ME, Meir RA, Whitting JW, Crowley-McHattan ZJ. Shod vs. barefoot effects on force and power development during a conventional deadlift. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2018;32(6):1525–1530. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  3. Southwell DJ, Petersen SA, Beach TA, Graham RB. The effects of squatting footwear on three-dimensional lower limb and spine kinetics. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 2016;31:111–118. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  4. Sato K, Fortenbaugh D, Hydock DS. Kinematic changes using weightlifting shoes on barbell back squat. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2012;26(1):28–33. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  5. Legg HS, Glaister M, Cleather DJ, Goodwin JE. The effect of weightlifting shoes on the kinetics and kinematics of the back squat. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2017;35(5):508–515. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  6. Arlettaz ME, Dorsch LN, Sganga M, Booth ND, Farabello JS. Kinematic variations in the barbell back squat under different footwear conditions in female college athletes. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 2024;64(3):287–292. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  7. Pangan AM, Leineweber M. Footwear and elevated heel influence on barbell back squat: a review. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 2021;143(9):090801. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  8. Lee SP, Gillis CB, Ibarra JJ, Oldroyd DF, Zane RS. Heel-raised foot posture does not affect trunk and lower extremity biomechanics during a barbell back squat in recreational weight lifters. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2019;33(3):606–614. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  9. Sayers MGL, Bachem C, Schütz P, Taylor WR, List R, Lorenzetti S, Nasab SHH. The effect of elevating the heels on spinal kinematics and kinetics during the back squat in trained and novice weight trainers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2020;38(9):1000–1008. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  10. Jaffri AH, Koldenhoven R, Saliba S, Hertel J. Evidence for intrinsic foot muscle training in improving foot function: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Athletic Training, 2023;58(11-12):941–951. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov