ChiRunning: How to Run Better, Faster and Injury-Free
Categories: Happiness, Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert
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Do you think you aren't the running type? Do you believe your physiology simply isn't cut out for moving that way? Or are you operating under the fallacy that running is hard on the body and will damage the knees? If so, you might be right on all fronts, but that's only because you aren't doing it right.Danny Dreyer, running coach and nationally ranked ultra-marathon runner, is here to put your running myths to rest. Specifically, he wants you to know that running and pain do not have to be in a co-dependant relationship. In his book, ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running, Dreyer explains how to adopt a correct running posture and technique that will not only eliminate pain and injuries, but improve both physical and mental health. Basically, he believes, we were born to run and his aim is to get you running exactly like you did as a carefree, feather-light kid in the playground.
That's Fit.ca's Samantha Grice spoke to Danny Dreyer last week.
Q: You say that ChiRunning evolved out of the fact that most people do not run properly. Can you explain the main things they are doing wrong?
A: The biggest problem with running is that most people run upright [without the preferred slight forward lean]. And when you run upright all of your bio mechanics change to become less efficient and people end up getting injured. If you follow physics, when you run upright you have to move your own body, you have to push yourself with your legs and that creates more work for your legs.
The other thing that happens when people run upright is not only that they push off with one leg, but they catch themselves with the other leg and that causes injuries. Most people land with their heel on the ground out in front of them and that's no different than putting the brakes on - pushing with one leg and stopping with the other.
Q: So these are the reasons why running is so closely associated with injury. But you strenuously repeat many times in the book the mantra that running does not hurt your body, running does not hurt your body.
A: It would be great if you could repeat that a few more times in this article. Q: It's hard to get people to believe differently, the myth is so widely perpetuated that running hurts the knees.
A: And that's true if you run incorrectly. I think something like 47-50% of all running injuries are knee injuries according to the studies I've seen.
Q: And that could be avoided?
A: It's absolutely avoided if you're not putting the brakes on; if you're not stopping yourself with every foot strike. So what I'm doing is getting people back into running like when they were kids, which means your feet are landing more underneath you or slightly behind you so that when your foot hits the ground your leg is basically swinging in the same direction as the road is going underneath you. That completely knocks out the impact.
If you lean gently forward and stay ahead of your feet, when your feet hit the ground they can go out the back where they belong.
Q: I'm going out running tonight, what are a few basic pieces of advice I can take with me?
1. Straighten up your posture: Make sure your column is aligned properly from crown to the bottoms of your feet. Imagine a straight line running through your shoulders, hips and ankles.
2. Level your pelvis: When you are nicely aligned, a big key to ChiRunning is levelling your pelvis, which really engages your core. If your core isn't engaged then you start getting ITB syndrome, hip bursitis and lower back problems, all of that comes from not having a strong core. Most runners don't have a strong core. When you level your pelvis, that centers you in the middle of your body and it keeps your posture nice and straight while you lean. To level your pelvis, simply lift up on your pubic bone by contracting your lower abdominal muscles. Don't use your glutes to level your pelvis. This should feel like you're doing a vertical "crunch."
3. Lean from your ankles: Allow your whole column (the straight line of your body from crown to bottom of feet) to fall gently forward in a controlled way so that when you start running you'll work with the pull of gravity. But don't lean at the waist, lean at your ankles. That's how you ran when you were a kid. It is also important to lean only slightly. Too much lean will cause you to tense up your legs and increase impact with the ground.
Q: Correct body technique is not the only important idea behind ChiRunning, it's about your mind-set, too.
A: The nature of what I'm trying to do is convert running from a sport to a practice. A practice is something like tai chi, pilates, yoga or meditation and it's something that every time you do it you try to get better at it or get more from it or learn more about yourself from it. Too many people approach running just for fitness and there is no real focus on the mental aspect of it. And with ChiRunning we give you plenty of things to think about in terms of just watching your body and feeling your body. Many injuries come from not being able to feel your body, feel when muscles are tired or when joints are sore or when an accident is about to happen. It's all about body sensing.
Q: I have a feeling you're not a big fan of listening to an iPod when you run?
A: No, not unless you are playing the ChiRuning audio. (He jokes.)
Q: But I'm not sure I can run without one!
A: What I tell people is this, pick the days you're going to practice your running form and pick the days you are going to run with your iPod. I'm not saying don't run with one, I'm just saying you can't get any really good internal focus work done while you are listening to music.
Q: Do you think it's possible for every average, healthy person to become proficient at running?
A: Oh yeah, if you've got two legs and they are workable, anybody can do it.
Q: Many people believe they physically "aren't runners."
A: We were designed to run. We were a hunter-gatherer society and we were designed to run so we could chase down animals. There was a study done by anthropologists at Dartmouth College that proved that everything about our [human] design is designed to run. Now we have more sedentary work and are often sitting at desks all day, which makes it more difficult to get out and move your body, but that's all the more reason why you should get out and move your body .
Q: How many years have you been a runner?
A: Oh my gosh, let's see, I started in 1971, so that's 38 years.
Q: And you never get tired or bored with it?
A: Oh yeah, I get tired and bored with it, but not very often. I really love to go out and run, it's one of my favourite things to do.
Q: Tell me more about why you love running.
A: For me it's really a place I can center myself and quiet my mind. I can get down into my body and out of my head. I do a lot of writing and lectures and lot of heady kind of stuff and I enjoy both, but I also enjoy not being in my mind every now and then. ChiRunning is a nice way to combine both: I can use my mind to help me run better and I can use my running to help my mind work better.
It's also like a moving meditation. When I'm running I'm not doing a lot of thinking, I'm just watching things. It's no different than sitting on a meditation pillow watching a candle, I just happen to be running through the forest watching and I'm relaxed. I'm intentionally relaxing, I'm intentionally quieting my mind by just watching what's going on in my body and what I'm running past. I would call it my spiritual practice rather than a physical one. It's just a great side effect that I stay in good shape.
Q: Yes, I was going ask, aside from those mental benefits, you must be very strong and healthy.
A: I'll be 60 this year and I feel totally strong. I just ran a 10K race, the national trail championships, two weeks ago, and I won my age group, but I also out-sprinted a 30-year-old guy from a track club in D.C. at the finish. I'm not out there hobbling around like a 60-year-old guy, I'm holding my own.
Q: And you've never had an injury so far, knock on wood.
A: No I haven't (knocking on wood).
Q: Is there anything else we should let people know about ChiRunning or why they should try it.
A: It's based in the movement principles I've taken out of tai chi and so the biggest thing I've brought into running is running from your core not from your legs. It's my job to teach people how to not use their legs when they are running. (laughs) It sounds really counterintuitive.
Q: And hard to do!
A: It's all a balancing act. Tonight when you go out running, try to play with this forward lean. If you lean too far you'll feel your legs working harder and impacting more, if you don't lean enough you'll feel yourself having to work your legs. But there is a window in there, a sweet spot where you can just balance yourself forward. And when you can fall forward at the right speed, where your legs are not working, then you can run for a long, long time without really working.
Q: So when I'm doing it right, I'll know?
A: Exactly, when you're doing it right you'll know because you won't feel it.
Q: Does it look much different? Would I notice someone if someone is ChiRunning?
A: You will notice they are fluid in their running. It does look similar to most other running, but you won't see them leading with their legs. You'll see they are more relaxed. It's the difference from watching the average adult run, and watching a little kid run. They are really free and buoyant. And that's just what ChiRunning feels like.
For more tips and advice on how to adopt the ChiRunning technique check out check out the website.
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