I searched through some of the old threads and it seems most discussion gets off topic and don’t address the question. Does chi running work? My wife read the book and it seems to have really made a difference with her. I just started reading it myself and wanted to get opinions from those who have tried it. I’m mainly interested in it because I’m a big guy and want to avoid injuries which the first part of the book claims it will help do.
IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK AND TRIED THIS PLEASE DON’T REPLY.
SportsScientists.com has a 6 part series on running technique that includes discussion of chi running and pose running and some review of the the scientific literature on the techniques
It’s got some good stuff on basic running form that can be useful to new runners. In particular, keeping a higher cadence to avoid overstriding, keeping good posture, and trying to relax everything that isn’t absolutely necessary to keep you upright and moving. I don’t believe that it offers anything especially revolutionary, but the specific focuses on running form might be very useful to some people. That’s all a pretty individual thing.
Many people here believe that the book mostly just states the obvious. This opinion depends upon your running background, I believe. Sure, it’s obvious to those who have a background in running competitively. If, on the other hand, you look at the cringe-inducing form demonstrated by so many adult recreational runners, you could make a case that it’s not all that intuitive, really.
Disclaimer: I’m not really qualified to give anything that resembles coaching advice.
go for it. I have been Chirunning since 2005. Before then continually had ITB issues. Since - not a issue and I have doubled , even tripled my average weekly mileage at times
I read Chi Running and have been incorporating some of the ideas. I think my main thing was that since my knees hyperextend very easily, and I saw a photo of myself running like this, that I needed to maybe change this.
In the running photo I’m talking about, my leg is out in front of me, knee hyperextended, toe pointed to the sky and heel ready to land on the ground.
I was also getting severe crippling knee pain at mile 20 in a marathon. I feel that with the Chi Running I’m running more like I would do naturally, how I did before a fellow runner in high school told me to heel strike.
Additionally, I have started going to a sports med place and they are working with me on my muscle imbalances (abductors much stronger than adductors, pulling knee out to the side when running).
You could look into that in addition to the Chi Running. Just my 0.02.
I’ve read the book. I think its great. I don’t really follow the method to a T err Chi, but I incorporate a lot of the ideas into my running - Good posture, staying relaxed, landing on your center of gravity ect.
The book describes running naturally… instead of strictly adhering to a gait, it describes how you should be constantly sensing your body and slightly adjusting your form/stride to find what works best.
I don’t get the knee pain I used to get back in HS cc.
I am reading the book right now and trying to apply some critical thinking skills to it… I’m a kinesiology / phys ed major, and whether or not it “works” is a question that you should be able to answer based on kines and biomechanical principles, no? So I’m trying to read and think critically. I’m not that far into it, but, initial impression is that I disagree with his premise that “the current thinking of running faster is to build stronger muscles.” He mentions several times that a lot of runners lift, hoping that’ll make them faster. I disagree with the stronger = faster concept.
I’m trying it now, seemed to help yesterday. His ideas about running smoothly make sense, form makes sense too, but gravity cannot pull you forward! There have been some good threads about the force involved in running recently.
Does anyone have experience with Chi Running and foot pain?
I switched to this form of running a year ago. So far I have had no problem with any injuries. I had an achilles issue, and since I switched, the problems have went away.
Very good that it worked for you. But this is no proof that someone else should run like you do, because the other athletes have different bodies. My running style did change a bit over the years, but not very dramatically and I was never trying to change it. I run easier now and have less injuries. But this is no proof you should try to copy me. I rather advice you not to copy my bad run style, although I know it is more or less the best that I can do for myself. I would never copy someone else, but just run as you do and try to get a faster runner.
My style of running does not work, I am the only athlete running with it. Luckily I am also the only person that has to run with it. Stick to your style and optimize training for you instead of buying yourself into some style of an expert.
Yes, each of us different, but that doesn’t mean we’re doing it “right.” Maybe if we spent the recommended hours just running we’d spontaneously develop that perfect gait that the pure runners have. Since we all devote significant time to other pursuits like swimming, biking, work, or sleep we might benefit from examining our form/skills.
“Maybe if you spent the recommended hours just running we’d spontaneously develop that perfect gait that pure runners have.”
Maybe…but for me it didn’t happen. For over three years my online coach would periodically post a run workout for me in which one of the goals was to “run pretty”. With effort, sometimes this happened, but most times it didn’t - or at least that’s how I felt. So not only didn’t it happen spontaneously (and I have a lot of running hours and miles), but I couldn’t reliably make it happen, short of a concentrated effort at Extreme Makeover, to wit:
About 14 months ago I began focusing on more of a forefoot strike, and after much trial and error -and a few injuries - I got it down quite fine. Now, I feel as if more often than not I “run pretty”. I definitely think I run more efficiently, and I suppose that’s far more important than running pretty or approaching a perfect gait.
For those who are not perfect, or who have serious or semi-serious flaws in their running form, I believe that all of the recommended hours will just reinforce poor habits; after all, isn’t running just another example of muscle-memory in action?
“A forced new style of running is the best way to get injured.”
My sports doc - a former national-class runner who now accompanies Canadian national teams to various international competitions - would agree with you 100%. So would the folks at Newton, who are clear on their website that people changing to a forefoot or midfoot emphasis should get adequate training and instruction. In my own case, trying to go from midfoot to forefoot resulting in calf and p.f. problems, which were exacerbated by my age - the final two months of being 58, at the time I began transformation. It was a long, slow, difficult process that eventually bore fruit, even though it was not “natural” for me.
This leads me back to your other statement, to which my sports doc would also whole-heartedly agree:
“So you should not force yourself to run a certain way.”
He definitely feels this pertains at my age, and he would pretty much ascribe it to just about any runner especially the “force yourself” part. He feels that in most cases we run the way our bodies tell us to, we’ve run that way for a long, long time, and how we run is in a way that does not compromise our bodies any more than is absolutely necessary. When we try to re-train or readjust our running tachnique, we likely put pressures on our skeletal-muscular system to which it hasn’t been previously exposed. And that brings it back to your statement, at the top of this post.
(Would I “force myself” to alter my running form, if I had it all to do over again? I don’t think I would…)
just like with anything ‘new’ it takes time, chi tells you to only think of a couple of things at a time. and really… if it feels good, faster, easier, than you are doing it right.
the technique makes sense for us ‘triathlete’s’, we run on tried legs period. so if nothing else, a higher cadence,a lean forward, shorter stride, arms moving forward, bent/soft knees, are all good ‘basic’ things to do. if you do those things, it makes it really hard to be a heel striker. just look at your wear patterns on your shoes, if the outside heel is worn, like dragging it on skateboard, you heel strike, but if it’s smoothly worn, that is pretty much a mid foot strike, like a tire rolling. (i know from my early days, as one of the first shoe review specialists at RRS, were i saw thousands of shoes)
as in tennis… all good players hit the ball out in front, period… don’t care how they take their racket back or follow throw. all good long distance runners/marathones have a quick cadence, and lean forward.
triathlete runners to watch, Greg Bennett, Emma Snowsil, Chrissie Wellington, Belinda Granger, Chris McDonald, Jozeph M(IM AZ april winner), Bella Bayliss(Comford).
The gifted runners say just run a lot. This is exactly what the fishes say–well…swim alot. For them this works, but for the less gifted repeating the same faults over and over is of no value. there are lots of incorrect ways to run and I see the same people doing this injurious types of running over and over. I think there a relatively few ‘correct’ ways or a narrow range of correct.
Danny Dreyer just focuses on the basics–posture, slight forward lean, high cadence, footfall under the hips, hands back by the near the chest without cross-over. The other things, it seems to me are simply run thoughts that promote these same things. Clearly, if one is not falling, a slight forward lean doesn’t, in and of itself, propel, but that thought, with just enough down force to keep from falling over, while landing under the hips promote a better form than most runners exhibit. I find it a helpful thought in long runs to keep from plodding. Devashish Paul’s post on trying to put the recovering foot onto the planted foot, while trying to have NO shoulder rotation, is another ‘run thought’ that I find helpful, too.