My new powerlifting shoes are here!

Finally, they arrived in the mail, my new powerlifting shoes.

I have had powerlifting shoes from adidas before, the same modell, but this is the upgraded version from 2017, the "ADIDAS Powerlift 3.1".

I ordered them from a Norwegian shop to avoid extra costs, and they had them in this color only, silver, gray and black, but I think they look good and I will not have to think too much about if they match they rest of my colors in my outfit.
And this is something I must admit I do... even if I don't want to... I have this weird thing with colors...

Anyway - compared to the adidas shoes I had before, these are wider in the toes, and kind of softer but still stable. They seem a bit roomy for my fit, but they provide enough support, and they do fit tight to a degree that they were a bit constricting and uncomfortable the first time.

But I think my feet will get used to them. At least I hope. And I will only use them for squatting, to get the little bit of extra heel lift I think I need.

I still prefer my Vibram Fivefingers for all other kind of training. They are just so soft and comfortable, and the good contact to the ground makes them secure and stable for all kinds of lifts and movements.
Only for the bench I was thinking that I could use a bit of extra lift under my heel too, but we'll see about that.

I tried them, but I am still not sure about my squatting technique. This is mainly due to the intense discussions I had with the guys at the gym. And some stupid uneducated comments from a chick at the gym.
I like to keep an open mind and I will discuss my technique - but I cannot stand people telling me what or how to do a thing (squatting) when they themselves cannot do this thing better ("Do you even squat???").

I filmed my first attempts with the PL shoes, and took a screenshot in the bottom position:

Not very deep, right? It's just parallel, but barely. I tried to find a depth where I could still maintain an upright torso - so that's where it stopped - even with elevated heels from the powerlifting shoes!

So -  what to do?
Yesterday I did box squats - I chose the height of the "box" so that I was just below parallel - chose 50kg (appr 70% of my current 1RM that would be around 70kg).
But it didn't feel quite right.
Then again, I have been unusually sore and tired and exhausted for the last week - all I wanted to do is work on my technique. But even 50kg felt too much yesterday.

But the angles look alright to me - the next will be to film it and try to see if the bar goes down and up again in a straight line.

I also found some older screenshots of technique films I made a year ago or so, when I compared my squatting with Fivefingers to my adidas shoes (the former modell was narrow in the front and I had 2/3 sizes bigger shoes - they were too big so I sold them after six months).

Those are HIGH bar squats - I am much more upright in my torso - even with the flat Fivefingers. But those squats were hard on my lower back and hips, they didn't FEEL strong, but painful. Even the elevated heel didn't help to me feeling that squatting was a lower-back exercise....
In addition, on the left picture I use only 40kg, and I can squat 40kg relatively easily...

I also think that the back/hip angle on the right, 50kg with Fiverfingers, doesn't look too bad - but still, high bar squatting for me feels like a lower back or even "upper hip" exercise - I feel them neither in the thighs nor in the glutes...

Switching to low bar squatting was a lot better.
But I know.. it may not look that pretty.
But it feels so much stronger...