So What's This ChiRunning?

ChiRunning (CR) is only the best thing for running since gel, fuel belts, body glide and maybe even shoes. CR is the only reason I’m able to run again after a myriad of life and sports (running, volleyball, softball, basketball) injuries. It’s for everyone from beginners to elite athletes. It’s for the 13-minute miler and the 5-minute miler. In fact, the winner of the 2006 Air Force Marathon is a ChiRunner who is an M.D. He took up CR because he’d had surgery on his big toes for severe arthritis and had to find a way to run without pushing off on his toes.

CR is all about postural alignment along with muscle relaxation. It combines running with elements of the martial art T’ai Chi (no, you don’t have to know T’ai Chi to do ChiRunning and no, you won’t look goofy doing it; you’ll just look more fluid than ever before).

We make minor but powerful adjustments to your posture like leveling your pelvis to hold your body in a straight line as you run. Then we have you lean slightly from the ankles and you run from your core. When your body is lined up shoulders over hips over ankles in a straight line (we call this your “column”), your body weight is supported by your structure – bones, ligaments and tendons, not your muscles. When the muscles don’t have to work so much, they don’t fatigue as fast and you can run farther with less effort. Plus, when you lean slightly forward from the ankles, gravity becomes your friend and takes some of the workload.

Efficiency and injury prevention are two mainstays of CR. Leveling the pelvis helps runners with back aches and IT band problems. A mid-foot landing helps eliminate heel strike – stopping those nagging knee pains – as well as pushing off with the toes, helping you heal those pesky shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and a myriad of other issues.

Anyone struggling with an injury – or wanting to run farther with less effort – might want to look into CR. Go to the chirunning.com website. Read other people’s experiences. Check out the community bulletin board where folks post their successes and ask questions.

There’s a book written by the creator, Danny Dreyer. It’s called – surprise, surprise – ChiRunning. You can get it at local bookstores or online at chirunning.com. See if it doesn’t make total sense to you as it did for me. Say goodbye to many of the usual aches and injuries and enjoy every run.

Run relaxed.