I Wondered—Might ChiRunning Improve My Form?
My running technique consists of putting one foot in front of the other until my iPod runs out of Britney Spears songs or someone hangs a medal around my neck, whichever comes first. Some people put a lot more thought into it than that: If you wanted to, you could spend more time reading and learning about how to run than actually doing it.
One of the methods getting buzz over the past few years is ChiRunning, a way to run developed by West Coast ultramarathoner Danny Dreyer. As you might guess from his method's name, ChiRunning (its offshoot is ChiWalking) is built on the principles of tai chi, the martial art that emphasizes integrating mind and body to achieve health. Fundamentally, ChiRunning is about making running easier by relaxing your legs and relying instead on your core ab and trunk muscles to do the work of propelling you forward. Dreyer, the author of the book ChiRunning (Fireside, $14), compares it to swimming downstream as opposed to struggling to swim against a current. The method promises to cut the chances of getting injured as well as make your stride more efficient.
Sounded good to me! So I found a ChiRunning instructor in New York, Joel Matalon, and met him in Central Park dressed and jazzed to run.
As it turned out, only a small part of our 90-minute session included running. We started with posture. Joel helped me align my feet properly straight ahead—it turns out I have a tendency to tweak my left foot outward, which can make my legs hit the ground unevenly. He also taught me how to straighten my spine and open up my chest by pressing one hand against my chest and the other on my lower abs. Given that I spend most of my day hunched over a computer or clutching a phone between my ear and shoulder, even this simple exercise made me feel better. I should think of keeping my shoulder, hip, and ankle in a straight line, he said—a quick check is to look down and see if my shoelaces are visible. If they are, I'm properly aligned.
Step 2 in ChiRunning is the lean: You tilt that shoulder-hip-ankle axis forward, which provides momentum. Next, Joel told me to pick up my feet, keep my lower legs and glute muscles relaxed, and activate my ab muscles. I had to work to keep my elbows close to my waist—not splayed out in the way that made a friend call me "Chicken Wings" until I refused to answer to it—and to focus on relaxing my shoulders and swinging my elbows to the rear.
Finally, we put it all together. I got my posture right, leaned, and let myself go, trying to picture my feet churning in a circle beneath me as my trunk led the way. I'll admit, it wasn't easy; I've been running the same way, more or less, for 13 years, and at this point, my old method (dragging left foot and all) feels natural. Joel says he has to work on it every time he runs and that he looks forward to marathons so he can spend 1 mile focusing on posture, another on his head alignment, and so on. He says he loves the underlying philosophy of ChiRunning, too, which requires striving to give off positive energy rather than focusing on race times or outdoing the jogger next to you.
After our session, I called two triathletes I know and asked them about the ChiRunning workshops they took a few years ago (the workshops, held around the country, now cost $225 for a daylong session; Dreyer's website at www.chirunning.com has a schedule). After showing little improvement and becoming such a running grump that his wife told him to find a new hobby, Frank Lee says he's enjoying the sport again, thanks both to the technical tips and the chi philosophy. "It made me focus more on the mechanics and purity of the running," he tells me. Fellow Houstonite Mark Seale, who says his running form could never have been described as efficient, says the eastern philosophy angle left him cold but that the technical tips were invaluable. "For the same effort, I'm not necessarily a lot faster, but at the end of the run, I'm not nearly as tired," he says.
I find on my recent runs that I'm breathing more steadily, relaxing my shoulders, legs, and glutes, and focusing on keeping my elbows in and back. But the deeper philosophy behind ChiRunning hasn't yet grabbed me. And I'm still running to the beat of Britney.