7 Best Women's Cross-training Shoes

How we test training shoes

We are an independent shoe testing lab that aims to provide the most objective and unbiased shoe recommendations.

Here is what we do to minimise bias to include the most comprehensive information:

• Buying cross-trainers with our own money and refusing from sponsorships.
• Gym testing each shoe to get a good feel of its performance in plyometrics and lifting.
• Measuring over 20 different shoe parameters in our lab using callipers, durometers, force gauges, and even heavy machinery. As a result, you get comparable data points that reflect the shoe’s stability, cushioning, and durability, among other characteristics.

What is a cross-training shoe?

A good cross-training shoe allows women to engage in a wide variety of training exercises without needing to change their shoes.

These versatile trainers are ready for Crossfit WODs, HIIT workouts, circuit training, and any type of fitness regimen which includes any or all of the following:

• Plyometrics: all sorts of jumping exercises (rope jumps, box jumps, burpee sets, etc.)
• Strength: be it with bodyweight, dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells up to 300 lbs (135 kg)
• Short runs: warm-up and interval runs up to 2 miles

Is it okay to wear running shoes for cross-training?

We wouldn’t recommend that.

Most running shoes these days maximise cushioning and energy return with the help of high-stack midsoles, extra plush super foams, and springboard-like carbon plates. These features make a running shoe ideal for its intended purpose (repetitive forward motion) but awfully uncomfortable and even dangerous for cross-training. Here is why:

1. Too plush to provide stability: Lifting a loaded barbell or doing one-legged Bulgarian squats, your feet, and body need a grounded and incompressible platform to rely on. You also want a thinner and firmer base when working with the rowing machine or the spin bike. But the marshmallowy soft midsoles of running shoes are the complete opposite of that.

2. They have no lateral support: Cross-training involves considerably more side-to-side movements than running (skater hops, lateral bounds, side lunges, etc.). Women’s cross-trainers have stout reinforcements on the sides to help you perform these exercises safely and efficiently.

3. Their rockered soles are unstable: Running shoes use heel bevels and toe rockers to help you roll to the next toe-off much faster. Conversely, cross-training shoes have very flat and wide midsoles to provide a very grounded experience.

Are cross-training shoes good for walking?

Not really.

Designed to keep you stable above anything else, women’s cross-trainers make for pretty clunky walking companions. They are flat, minimally cushioned, not so flexible, and often have rather bulky heels.

However, these shoes are walkable enough for personal trainers though who spend several hours on their feet inside the gym venue but you may prefer something more comfortable and better cushioned for walking around the city all day.

Are training shoes the same as cross-trainers?

Training shoes is a broad term that refers to many different types of athletic shoes. Running shoes, cross-trainers, and lifting shoes can all be described as “training shoes” because they are used for some sort of fitness training.

Cross-training shoes, on the other hand, are a narrower footwear category that is specifically designed for versatile workout regimens like Crossfit, functional fitness, HIIT, and similar programmes.

Women’s cross-trainers are well-rounded enough to do a little bit of everything at the gym.

Choosing the right women’s cross-trainer for you

Even though all cross-training shoes for women share similar features, there is still a lot of variety in this category.

Some shoes have notably sturdier heels (almost like lifting shoes), making them better suited for strength training and heavier loads. Others are lighter and pack more cushioning for cardio and dynamic high-impact exercises.

Depending on your training focus and personal preferences, you may be more drawn toward one of these types of women’s cross-trainers:

• Versatile cross-trainers for lifting and plyometrics
• Light and cushioned shoes for cardio and high-impact classes
• Minimalist shoes for mobility work and foot strengthening

1. Versatile cross-trainers for lifting and plyometrics

Best for: Crossfit, HIIT, circuit training, functional fitness, boot camp, lifting

Female warriors who want to HIIT it hard and feel confident in whatever exercise their coach throws at them will benefit from a pair of versatile cross-training shoes.

These shoes feel notably sturdier and are packed with technologies that enhance stability and support. Some of them almost feel like lifting shoes because of the heavily built and stiff heels.

On the other hand, they have just enough flexibility and cushioning in the forefoot to provide impact protection for jumps.

Here is a checklist of features that make these women’s cross-trainers stand out from the rest:

• firmer and wider platform
• higher torsional rigidity 
• stiffer heel counter

Cross-training shoes tend to be firmer in the heel and a bit more forgiving in the forefoot to provide a balance of stability and cushioning where they are most needed during the workout.

Firmness is essential for stability because it minimises wobbling, provides better feedback from the ground, and doesn’t compress so easily under heavy load. Some cross-trainers enhance the firmness of the heel with stiff TPU add-ons.

In addition to being firm, cross-trainers also tend to be rather wide. Having extended contact points with the floor helps you feel more planted and surefooted, especially when landing from a jump or when snatching heavy weight over your head.

Firm and wide platforms often go hand-in-hand with stiff sidewalls, raised midsoles, midfoot shanks, and upper overlays to create a very strong side support. The latter makes it hard, if not impossible, to twist the shoe which in turn doesn’t let the foot buckle or spill over the midsole when you move side-to-side.

The amount of lateral support is reflected in the shoe’s torsional rigidity.

We assess torsional rigidity on a 1-5 scale (5 is the stiffest) by twisting the shoe manually.

A stiff and well-padded heel counter often completes this stability ensemble. It wraps around the heel and ankle locking them down firmly in place. As a result, the in-shoe shifting and wobbling are minimised.

We assess heel counter stiffness on a 1-5 scale (5 is the stiffest) by pushing and squeezing it.

If it seems like your workout regimen can benefit from the shoe features mentioned above, here is the overview of the best women’s cross-trainers that meet these criteria:

2. Light and cushioned shoes for cardio and high-impact classes

Best for: aerobics and cardio classes, treadmill, skipping rope, agility drills

Ladies whose training routine gravitates towards high-impact exercises and cardiovascular training will likely prefer cross-trainers with the following characteristics:

• cushier midsoles with balanced softness
• lighter shoes with less bulky heels

Jumping-based exercises tend to be more demanding on the balls of your feet. That’s why we recommend choosing cross-trainers with at least 16 mm of forefoot stack for activities like rope jumps or high-impact step classes.

You might even prefer a higher stack (up to 25 mm) if you are a bigger girl or have joint concerns.

Another shoe characteristic that you may want to look for in your aerobics shoe is lightness. Sweating those calories off is challenging as is and you don’t want to be held back by a clunky-heeled trainer.

To feel light and agile on your feet, we recommend choosing cross-trainers that weigh 10.6 oz (300g) or less.

3. Minimalist training shoes

Best for: mobility work and foot strengthening

If you are at the beginning of your fitness journey, you may want to hold off getting a minimalist shoe until you build a strong foundation and proper technique with regular trainers.

Unless you need a shoe for low-impact routines like mobility work, yoga, pilates, animal flow, barre, stretching, etc. In this case, minimalist trainers are the best choice after being barefoot or training in socks.

Minimalist shoes have virtually no support or cushioning and feel a lot like working out barefoot:

• ultra-thin sole (10-15 mm)
• extra lightweight (barely felt on foot)
• highly flexible (easy to bend and twist)

So why do minimalist cross-trainers even exist?

Because they mimic barefoot experience, these shoes encourage a more natural biomechanics of your feet and legs which promotes better body alignment (aka better posture) as well as better balance and coordination

Female athletes start incorporating these cross-trainers into their rotation to further engage and strengthen their foot and leg muscles as well as improve mobility.

How to find the right size and fit in women’s gym shoes

Size: If you ever owned shoes from different brands, you may have noticed that they don’t fit exactly the same, even in the same size. And sometimes you need to size up or down depending on the brand.

That’s because there is no universal shoe sizing scheme across athletic brands.

To help you find the most suitable cross-training shoe size, it’s best to start by measuring your current foot length. This is especially important during/after pregnancy or gaining weight as both factors can affect your foot size and shape.

Once you know the exact measurement, use the tool below to find out your size. It contains official size charts of 40+ brands:

Fit: Women’s foot shapes vary so much that getting the right size lengthwise does not always guarantee the right fit!

Adding to the complexity is the fact that cross-trainers don’t have the same toebox shape either. Even in the same size!

You don’t really know how much toebox room to expect in a given cross-trainer until you try it on in person. But we are here to change things up and make your online shoe shopping much more fruitful.

We use a proprietary gel to create moulds for each shoe in our lab. Once the mould is rigid, we measure the following dimensions with a digital calliper: the widest part of the mould, the area near the big toe, and the toebox height.

Here is a quick guide on choosing the right fit in a women’s gym shoe:

TIP: Make sure you’re wearing your workout socks when trying a new pair of cross-trainers.

How long do women’s cross-training shoes last?

This is a very rough estimate but this is how long cross-trainers typically last based on anecdotal evidence and personal observations:

• about a year if you train 3 times a week
• 8-10 months if you train 4-5 times a week

A cross-trainer’s lifespan also depends on the following factors:

• your body weight and the weight you normally lift
• your workout surface (concrete is very hard on shoes)
• type and intensity of your exercise (rope climbs burn through shoes easily)

While it’s difficult to predict the exact life of a given women’s cross-trainer, we can check their initial wear resistance with a series of durability tests.

We apply a Dremel with a sandpaper tip to various parts of the shoe (toebox fabric, inner heel lining, outsole rubber). The speed, pressure, and timing remain the same for consistent results.

Here is the overview ofthe  most durable cross-training shoes for women based on the results of our Dremel tests*:

*Toebox and heel padding durability are given a durability score from 1 to 5 based on the severity of damage (the higher, the better). Outsole durability shows the exact depth of the drilled-out dent (the smaller, the better).

Are women’s cross-trainers breathable?

Many of them, yes.

It would be strange if shoe designers did not realise that cross-training is a vigorous type of exercise associated with a tonne of heat and sweat.

However, our lab tests showed that some women’s trainers happen to be more effective at keeping the foot ventilated.

We use a smoke-pumping machine to test the shoe’s toebox ventilation capacity.

At the end of our testing process, each women’s trainer gets a breathability score from 1 to 5, where 5 stands for the best breathability.

How to cut costs on your next pair of cross-trainers

With an average retail price of £130, women’s cross-training shoes are not a low-cost buy. Especially if it’s your first pair of trainers.

Luckily, there is more than one way to cut costs on your next pair:

1. Compare prices with RunRepeat: Our system scours through 200+ online shops 24/7 to let you know where a given cross-trainer is priced the lowest. And if you set up a price alarm, we’ll send you an email the very moment the price drops for your chosen size.

2. Check previous editions: If you go to our catalogue page for women’s cross-training shoes and sort by discount, you will see pretty generous discounts (up to 75%) on all the previous editions. Remember that you don’t have to get the latest edition as newer shoes aren’t necessarily better.

3. Check entry-level shoes: Even the biggest brands like Nike and Adidas have a number of budget-friendly shoes that cater to beginner athletes who aren’t ready to spend a lot of money on footwear just yet. These affordable cross-trainers are normally priced below £100 but tick all the essential boxes of a well-rounded training shoe: