If you’ve ever seen a pair of strength or calf training shoes then you have seen something that looks like it comes straight from outer space. The shoes look totally non-functional and have a higher front platform that goes from the toe to about the middle of the arch of the foot. The shoes are definitely not something you would want to wear for a night out on the town and they really look like they would be the most uncomfortable things in the world to wear. But if you are an athlete, you may find them invaluable.

More and more professional athletes are coming forward and giving their stamp of approval for these high tech wonders. Why? According to these athletes and the makers of the shoes, training in strength building shoes can increase all sorts of aspects of your athletic ability.

Here’s how they work. When you stand you are normally putting up to two thirds of your entire body weight on your heels. With the raised frontal platform of the strength building shoes, this is impossible and you have to rely on your calf muscles and Achilles tendons to bear the extra load. This in turn actually overloads them and when used properly over time the muscles will build and the tendons will stretch.

Here are some of the things that strength building shoes can help you to achieve:

•    Speed: By increasing lower leg strength these shoes can have you running considerably faster. Some athletes report a drop off of up to two tenths of a second in the 40-yard dash. Now to the layman that may not sound like a lot, but to the athlete that can mean the difference of making the team or being cut.

•    Jumping: By properly training with these types of shoes it is not unusual for you to gain up to 10 inches on your vertical jump. Think about that for a second. That’s almost an entire foot. That can mean a great deal to someone who is playing basketball and needs to jump as high as possible.

•    Flexibility: The increase in lower leg flexibility will help you to avoid some of the most common injuries in sports.

Strength training shoes are not just popular among professional athletes anymore and more and more you can see college teams employing the use of these shoes to help improve their teams overall success. These types of shoes can be effective for almost any athlete regardless of their sport and have been seen in training with football teams, soccer teams, baseball teams, and basketball teams.

The price you will pay will depend on the brand but you can expect to pay $125 or more for these training shoes. Are they worth it? They definitely will help you to improve your game, no matter what it is, but you have to be sure that you are using the shoes the right way. Most companies that sell the shoes also provide helpful tips and training DVDs. But if you buy the shoes without any tips or DVDs to go along with them, just be sure to research on your own the proper way to use them and then enjoy your increased athletic abilities.