Best workout shoes for maximum fitness and performance | Aqua Shoes?

What type of workout shoes should you wear for different fitness activities?

There are many activities for which you should wear different workout or training shoes. This article is about gym wear, home training, power lifting, and general activity. But, you can even wear these to the beach and pool! 😉

Whether you have flat feet, plantar fasciitis, overpronation, wide feet, or even if you have bunions aqua shoes are great for it all.

The reason why so many individuals have issues with their entire body is the lack of mind to muscle connection between their brain and feet. Your feet are as important if not more important than your hands. You need to be able to move and separate your toes. You need to be able to arch, flex, crunch, rotate internally and externally your feet. It’s a very similar situation to wearing compression belts. If you rely on them they actually make your core weaker and cause further injuries. Strengthen your feet don’t weaken them by using shoes with too much cushion.

Check out my how to improve range of motion article using a foam roller and stretch using a calf stretcher. Again, eliminate the problem don’t look for bandages.

Avoid cushions and feel the floor!

Follow most olympic athletes and powerlifters and you’ll notice that they train with virtually flat shoes or barefoot. Only main stream humans today train with enormous soles looking for comfort and style. The raising of the heel on shoes is absolutely detrimental to developing good squatting, waking, and postural habits. If you can’t squat correctly then you’ll struggle in your overall fitness performance. If you can’t walk or posture correctly you’ll suffer from knee pain, back pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, and many other pains.

The only place where heels are useful is in Olympic Lifting.

For the past few years most of my workouts are done with either relative flat shoes or barefoot. Watch all 130 plus of my Gymming at Home YouTube workouts and every single one is done barefoot. If you suffer from knee pain, back, and even shoulder pain it may stem from lack of mobility and feel on your ankles and fee respectively.

Stop using cushioned shoes to train! This has led to a pandemic of people who do not know how to walk or move. Lack of plantar and dorsiflexion leads to a host of muscular imbalances that then lead to a host of indirect problems such as headaches, shoulder problems, and bad knees. Most likely you have plantarfasciitis and overpronation due to weakness, limited range of motion, and lack of sensibility in your feet.

What’s the solution? Aqua shoes? Yes!

As a personal trainer, Certified for Corrective Exercise, Performance Enhancement through NASM and significant experience working under a Physical Therapist I’ve committed myself to avoid wearing shoes with too much cushion. Over many years I’ve tried all sort of shoes from vibrams to Brookes to Altras and now I train barefoot for the most part. If I run a Spartan race however for now I’ll be using my RSM Altras.

Recently I came across a pair of intriguing shoes labeled Aqua Shoes that called my attention:

The first thing I noticed about them was how flat they are. They are made of stretchable fabric and it hit me. I could use these shoes for all of my weight training and maybe my HIIT workouts. I had to try them. My worry was that they wouldn’t be strong enough to handle a run and would break apart easily. I had to put them to the test.

The first day they arrived I took them for a 6.5 mile walk. Mind you I am used to these 6.5 mile walks as they are my extra cardio 3-5 times per week. I also have wide feet so I was hoping they’d solve that issue with the stretchable fabric.

What was my experience like wearing the aqua shoes?

I’ll tell you right now. They are fantastic for the purpose of training your feet. Because the soft mesh does not really provide stability all around your foot you are forced to pick up your feet and step a little slower and more carefully. You have to make a connection to your feet. The sole is very thin but enough to be able to walk as if you were wearing a pair of sandals. At the end of my 6.5 mile walk my toes were on fire. They felt like they had an intense workout and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to move my feet the next day. The next day I was perfectly fine.

Should you buy a pair of aqua shoes?

That depends. From a Certified Personal Trainer’s point of view the answer is yes. If you want to start training your feet to feel the floor start by using them to walk around the house, maybe to go to work, but don’t necessarily for a long run or walk with them immediately. You can potentially develop tendinitis because they will have to work hard for a long time which is one of the reasons people develop tendinitis in other body parts. You need to TRAIN your feet first and develop the muscular endurance on those tiny muscles and joints.

I’d definitely use them for squatting and deadlifting making sure you are crunching your toes and forcing your feet to arch and stabilize.

By the way! You can wear these to the beach, pool, and to pretty much ANYWHERE!!

If this article helped you please buy your aqua shoes from the Fitness Adaptation’s store and give them a 5 star rating. Remember, by purchasing from the store and optin to the our newsletter you get instant enrollment into the 5 day Fitness For Life Program. You’ll get one email per day with actions to take step by step so that in 5 days you are ready to achieve any goal! Make sure you check out the Perfect Body Shape Formula to compliment your fitness journey. Thank you for reading.

Frequently Asked Questions regarding Aqua Shoes:

Are they good quality?

Honestly they are of great quality for the price. The soft stretchable fabric does not lock your foot in place but I see that as a plus to force your feet to work.

Can you use them for HIIT workouts?

Yes, my clients use them for my YouTube workouts and I will be using them as well from this point forward.

Can you walk/run long distance with them?

You can definitely walk and run long distance. However, because they have such thing soles I’d be weary to ensure that my feet can handle the required endurance. I’d leave this to moderate to advanced athletes. If you are a beginner training your feet I’d hold off adding time and distance on a week to week basis.

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