Is there an upside to weight training barefoot?

Scrolling through social media platforms such as TikTok, where the hashtag #barefoottraining has been viewed about 1.8 million times, people show off barefoot dead lifts, curls and squats, while making a number of claims about the benefits.

Barefoot weightlifting, according to its proponents, can strengthen your feet, improve your balance and help you lift more weight. But, as with so many other fitness claims, the benefits come with a number of risks, including injury, if done incorrectly.

Barefoot weightlifting may have benefits.

Going barefoot — whether running, strength training or simply walking around — requires the muscles of the feet to work harder. Some argue that this is especially true for smaller muscles that aren’t used as much when wearing shoes, such as the abductor hallucis, which spans the arch of your foot and controls the big toe, or the posterior tibialis, which supports the arch.

“When you go without a shoe, these muscles start working more, which ultimately give you a stronger and more adaptable foot,” said Dr. Bruce Moseley, an orthopedic surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine.

Spending more time barefoot can also increase the ability to sense where your feet are in space, as well as how they move. This greater body awareness, known as proprioception, can contribute to better balance by improving the feedback between the brain and the nerves in your ankles and feet. Research focused on barefoot weight training is limited, but it is possible that proprioception can help you maintain stability while lifting, Moseley said.

It won’t necessarily help you lift more.

There’s no clear evidence barefoot weight training can drastically enhance your performance or help you lift more. “It’s all anecdotal,” said Kevin Valenzuela, an assistant professor of biomechanics at California State University Long Beach, who was an author of a recent study exploring the effect of footwear on dead-lifting performance.

In the study, published in the journal Sports, Valenzuela and his colleagues looked at the dead-lifting performance among barefoot lifters and those wearing shoes. They found no significant difference in performance between the two, although dead lifting with shoes required a little bit more work.

“When you wear any sort of a shoe, you are about an inch higher than you would be if you were barefoot,” said Anna Swisher, a USA Weightlifting coach. “You’ve got an inch more to move the bar.” This extra inch may not make much of a difference for a single lift but can add up over the course of a training cycle.

Heavy lifts require dedicated lifting shoes.

Lifting a percentage of your body weight won’t place too much of a strain on your foot, but when lifting significantly more than you weigh, proper shoes become essential, as this puts a greater load on the foot than it is capable of handling, said Dr. Emily Splichal, a podiatrist and author of the book “Barefoot Strong: Unlock the Secrets to Movement Longevity.” As Splichal notes, many lifters will do warmups and lighter lifts barefoot, and then, as they push higher, put on weightlifting shoes.

Most dedicated weightlifting shoes have hard, dense, incompressible soles. “It’s easier to balance and it’s much more stable,” said Mark Rippetoe, a weightlifting coach and author of the book “Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training.”

Lifting shoes also feature wedged heels that tilt the foot forward, and, in Swisher’s experience, the stability they provide can you help maintain good form, which is especially critical during weighted squats.

Even during lighter lifts, there are risks.

Although barefoot weightlifting can offer benefits, all of the experts warned there are risks, including the potential for injury, if not done properly.

One major problem with barefoot weightlifting is that “some people don’t have the ankle stability to do it well,” Valenzuela said. If a person with weak ankles starts weightlifting barefoot, this can lead to the ankles wobbling.

This ankle wobbling can cause the arches of the feet to collapse inward, which gradually leads to the knees and hips collapsing inward as well.

If you are thinking about taking up barefoot weightlifting, be extra mindful about the stability of your ankles, which might mean doing ankle-strengthening exercises before you begin. Until then, it’s best to wear lifting shoes, as they will provide more support.

Barefoot lifting also comes with a few additional warnings. The first concern is that going barefoot in a gym can spread infectious diseases, such as athlete’s foot or warts.

The other risk is foot injuries. Although shoes won’t do much if you drop a 45-pound weight, they can offer some protection against a lighter weight or a stubbed toe.