So, I just got back in from the gym after a pretty solid leg day. Sad part about it was that I discovered that my olympic lifting shoes were causing me to damage my knees. I originally got these shoes to help activate my quads during squats which served me well until I started getting persistent pain in my right patellar tendon and to some extent my left patellar tendon.

At first, I ignored it because I thought it was nothing but it only got worse over the months. I know, I should have addressed this issue long time ago. I chalk this up to the fact that when I use olympic lifting shoes, it causes me to lean forward too much putting undue stress on the patellar tendon.

This was not an ideal position for me, personally. Some people can get way with it, apparently I cannot so I switched back to squatting in my Chuck Taylor’s and my knees are fine once again. This is only my theory in regards to my body type and my form. Maybe some of you are having the same issues and are wondering what the deal is.

The good news is that I’ve gained some good quad development over the months through use of using these olympic lifting shoes which carried over to my squats without the shoes. I’m guessing that I can maybe use the shoes in some sort of quasi-periodization to bring focus to my quads over the course of a set interval. If you cannot sit back on the heels, keeping the knees behind or at least in direct line with the toes without pain while using olympic lifting shoes, do not wear them.