To be honest, you can probably relate to the difficulties of getting back into shape after a long period – but this can be reduced significantly through the choice of shoes that you decide to use. If you want to get into the habit of going out running on a regular basis and enhance an active lifestyle, or you feel particularly ambitious and want to enhance your fitness levels (such as most Cross Fitters you might notice), there are a number of questions you might have regarding the most appropriate shoes to use depending on the specific physical activity.
One of the most common questions is about using CrossFit shoes in your running activities. Both of them will involve taking part in very strenuous physical activities, and they will place different requirements on the body because they require different movements. Read on to find out whether they will fit this purpose.
What do CrossFit shoes need?
CrossFit is quite unique in its approach to fitness because it focuses on building intensity levels – so even if you do it for ten to fifteen minutes, it already means you have had a very good workout. It features a workout of the day (WOD) that maintains an interesting approach to things because it varies different workouts. It also has a number of activities that can benefit runners as well – including squats, push-ups, planks, and pull-ups, as well as many others.
All these will give benefits to running because they work on increasing your heart rate, as well as strengthening your bones and muscles. This eventually changes your speed and balance, as the activities will focus on particular muscles, as well as encouraging your body to take better form as you run.
In general, CrossFit shoes tend to be heavier (at least slightly) compared to a typical running shoe, and this is because they must provide the best levels of support for your squats and heavy lifting. Running shoes are lighter, so they will not have as much support – their main priority is enhancing shock absorption as your feet hit the ground.
As a general rule, it is best to go with CrossFit shoes which are specialized for running purposes. This is because their w2eight is actually great at giving your feet some extra support to protect them from injuries. In fact, CrossFit is quite well-known by many for this, since numerous people out there fail to do the lifts correctly, or their gear is incorrect.
With that in mind, there are actually several shoes that you can use as a bridge between a typical running shoe and a CrossFit shoe, as they give your feet plenty of protection and support without hindering your running abilities.
What are the advantages?
If you are a professional runner or looking forward to becoming one, choosing a good pair of running shoes should not be a major problem for you. However, you might not be one – so it is important to focus on getting a lightweight CrossFit pair that is good enough to offer support, then use that for your running purposes. This makes it great to find the best pairs that are good for running in particular, as opposed to just getting any pair of CrossFit shoes.
There are a number of things you need to consider – and you will notice that most of these factors will match with those of the best running shoes. CrossFit shoes tend to also increase your levels of endurance over time, which makes them quite beneficial for long-distance running.
Because of the high-intensity designs of these shoes, you are eventually pushing the body more than it can handle in short periods, and you are building your endurance and stamina. This will transfer very easily to running as you are better able to make it to the end of a race.
These shoes, in addition, can help your muscles make the necessary adjustments that you need when you train in non-standard environments such as hiking trails – they will help you target various muscle groups that help your body be in better shape, which you will use when you run.
Are there disadvantages of using these shoes?
There is no simple answer to this, but when you mainly consider the levels of activity in both CrossFit training and running, you need to choose a shoe that is lightweight enough to give you flexibility while training.
It is still a good thing to incorporate CrossFit shoes into your schedule, but you need to be careful with selecting the ideal ones and not just go for anything that seems promising. The best approach would be to know the fitness details that are the most important to you, and then keep this in mind when you are selecting the shoes.
Final thoughts
If you are a runner, think of CrossFit shoes as the icing on your cake. The main foundation of your training should remain as running, but you can also incorporate these shoes to give you better support throughout the process and avoid injuries. The ideal shoe needs to save you time and effort as you fulfill both needs simultaneously.