Gen. George S. Patton believed he was the greatest soldier who ever lived. He made himself believe he would never falter through doubt. This absolute faith in himself as a strategist and master of daring infected his entire army, until the men of the second American corps in Africa, and later the third army in France, believed they could not be defeated under his leadership.

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.  It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

Here is a brief about this running style and the author / founder.

ChiRunning combines the inner focus and flow of T’ai Chi with the power and energy of running to create a revolutionary running form and philosophy that takes the pounding, pain, and potential damage out of the sport of running. The ChiRunning program increases mental clarity and focus, enhances the joy of running, and turns running into a safe and effective lifelong program for health, fitness, and well-being. More information on ChiRunning can be found here.

Danny Dreyer is the creator of ChiRunning® and ChiWalking®, revolutionary forms of moving that blend the subtle inner focuses of T’ai Chi with running and walking. His work is based on his study of T’ai Chi with Master Zhu Xilin and internationally renowned Master George Xu, and his 35 years of experience, running, racing ultra marathons and coaching people in “intelligent movement”. He has taught thousands of people the ChiRunning and ChiWalking techniques with profound results. More information about Danny can be found here. Danny blogs here.

Source: ChiRunning.com

Whether you’re a walker or a runner, there are several factors in choosing a shoe:

Your BMI (Body Mass Index):
Your Body Mass Index is a measure of your body fat based on your height and weight. If you have a high BMI, the additional weight you are carrying may require that you get more support for your feet, until you lower your BMI. Use our new BMI Calculator on this page.

Your ChiRunning or ChiWalking skill level:
As you improve your ChiWalking or ChiRunning technique, you will need more flexibility and less support and structure in your shoe.

Distance you are running or walking:
For longer distance running and walking such as a half-marathon or marathon, you want to make sure your shoe will remain supportive for the entire distance.

In the chart below find the closest description of yourself to the left. To the right you will find a list of recommended New Balance shoes. We’re recommending New Balance shoes due to our partnership with New Balance and our goal to work together with New Balance to create shoes that are just right for ChiRunners and ChiWalkers. We’ll keep you posted as shoes that are designed with ChiWalking and ChiRunning in mind become available.

In my opinion, one of the best shoes currently available for walking or running is the New Balance 790. I will even be so bold as to say that it’s one of the best shoes I’ve ever worn. It’s being sold as a trail racing flat. It’s flexible and lightweight, and the mid-sole is filled in, making it the ideal shoe for mid-foot contact with the ground. The shoe is built low to the ground with little more cushioning in the heel than in the forefoot. If you’re still in the beginning stages of learning your ChiRunning or ChiWalking technique, it might not be enough of a shoe for daily training, but it’s a good, neutral, low-profile shoe to work towards. This is a good example of the shoe you will end up with if you follow Gradual Progress and continue to increase the lightness of your footstep.

Here are some of the general categories of running and walking shoes: Motion Control, Stability, Lightweight, Cushioning, and Trail shoes would all fall under “training shoes”. A motion control shoe is always a stability shoe, but a shoe can be stability but not motion control, meaning that it’s made to stabilize your foot, but not necessarily correct for any structural abnormalities. Basically, motion control shoes are the most extreme version of a “stability” shoe and work to correct for pronation. Those shoes which are lighter weight and more minimal in structure are “racing shoes” or “flats” because they have very little thickness in the heel.

Start with the shoe you currently feel best in, and if you’re practicing ChiWalking or ChiRunning, plan on reducing the amount of structure in your shoe to the next, lesser level of structure, at your next purchase.

If you don’t have a favorite shoe, here are some things to look for in a good pair of shoes (or go to page 185-188 in the ChiRunning book or page 69 in the ChiWalking book).

Comfort and Width – First and foremost your shoes need to feel comfortable. If they don’t feel like a great pair of bedroom slippers, like you could sleep in them, look for another pair. Don’t be afraid to buy a half size larger if your feet feel cramped in any way. Plenty of width and room allow your feet to feel the ground and helps the blood circulation in your feet. As a side note, you should never wear your shoes with tightened laces, as this will restrict the blood flow and flexibility of your feet.

Light Weight and Flexible – In ChiWalking and ChiRunning you’ll also be looking for a lighter weight, very flexible shoe. Again, you don’t want to reduce the structure and support of your shoes too quickly, but you will be progressing toward a more minimal shoe as your technique improves.

Recommended New Balance Shoes:

I was so taken by surprise with her candidness and accuracy that my only response was, “Guilty as charged.” She was talking about the fact that most Western shoes are so over-built and have such thick soles that they prevent us from feeling the ground beneath us. When practicing t’ai chi it is crucially important to maintain a very direct contact with the ground in order to feel “rooted” and stable. So, it is mandatory to have very flexible, thin-soled shoes.

An important aspect to keep in mind when practicing ChiRunning or ChiWalking is that you’re not just trying to build intelligence in your mind, you’re trying to build intelligence into your movement… which to a surprisingly large degree is informed by the intelligence in your feet. We believe in the power of the feet to help you find true balance in your running and walking technique… in all your movement as a matter of fact. Your feet train your body how to have the best postural alignment. As you work to increase intelligence in your mind, you should also be trying to build intelligence in your feet and your body. You’ll enjoy good flexibility and mobility, and maintain healthy feet, legs and posture for a lifetime.

Like the Chinese shopkeeper said, most of us in the Western world have stupid feet. We have lost our sense of what truly good posture feels like…or looks like. Our shoes have dumbed down the intelligence of our feet by trying to do too much for us.

Your Shoes Can Hurt You

For years now, as a response to the high injury rate of runners, shoe manufacturers have been designing shoes with increasingly thicker heels and mid-soles. But, even though they have tried their best to solve the problem by designing better shoes, the annual rate of running injuries has not dropped. There are now studies showing that the higher heels are creating an earlier and more sustained contact with the ground, increasing impact to the legs, knees and joints. If you want to find a pair of shoes without an elevated heel, you have to go for racing flats which are designed for elite runners who generally have better biomechanics than most recreational runners.

Most walking shoes are also overbuilt and are inhibiting the feet’s ability to educate and inform the body of correct movement.

Our goal with ChiRunning and ChiWalking is to educate your feet and your body to move properly again, with a walking or running form that takes the jarring impact out of your movement. As the fluidity in your technique improves you’ll begin to need less of a shoe.

Now, when we talk about needing less of a shoe, we don’t mean that everyone should go out and buy the thinnest shoe they can find. That’s not Gradual Progress and too quick of a transition could create problems in your feet and legs. Here’s a good rule to go by: “Walk or run in a shoe that your current level of ability can safely sustain.”

In ChiRunning and ChiWalking we ask you to relax your entire lower leg and NOT push off with your toes. At the end of landing on your foot you pick up your foot without pushing off. This decreases the muscle usage of your whole lower leg.

In ChiRunning you land on your mid-foot, with your foot directly under your center of mass, instead of reaching with your leg and heel striking. The ChiRunning technique is based on a forward lean from your ankles, allowing gravity to pull you forward. Landing with a midfoot strike eliminates the need for a cushioned heel. As a matter of fact, the overbuilt heels on most shoes are causing more of a heel strike, and hence more injury.

The vast majority of runners today strike with their heels which has now been proven to cause an alarming rate of knee and lower leg injuries. I’m predicting that “mid-foot strike” (MFS) will be the next big buzzword in the running community.

In ChiWalking you land on the front of your heel, gently rolling your foot. We call it the fore-heel roll. Don’t push off with your toes or land on the back of your heel. Find a walking shoe that does not have a built up heel that causes a heel strike.

As you practice ChiRunning and ChiWalking you increase your ability to sense your feet and which shoe is best for you. Practice with your current shoes. As you walk and run, notice how your feet feel in your shoes. How heavy are your shoes? Can your foot flex and move comfortably in them? Next time you buy shoes, take plenty of time walking around in the store and notice how much (or how little) you can feel the ground underneath the shoe.

Over time, watch for any changes in the needs of your feet. Do you need less support? …more flexibility? …more width? …a lighter shoe? As you learn to listen to your feet, they’ll be able to guide you into the shoe that is just right for your current needs.

Once you’ve gotten the basics of ChiRunning – landing with a mid-foot strike or ChiWalking – using the fore-heel roll you’re ready to incrementally reduce the structure of your shoe.

Barefoot Running

There has been a remarkable amount of press about running barefoot. Our good friend, Ken Saxton, has been in the papers frequently for running marathons barefoot. I personally prefer finding a great shoe, but the reason why I support the concept is that running barefoot is the single fastest way to find out how good your form really is. Barefoot runners don’t heel strike, because the foot is “educating” the body about how you should make contact with the ground. For most of us, this can be a harsh reality if you take away our shoes.

Rather than running barefoot I run almost entirely in racing flats. They have the least built up heel, the least amount of structure and cushioning. You too will be running in racing flats when your ChiRunning technique is such that you always have a soft, mid-foot landing, with no heel strike or toe-off and you can clearly Body Sense the difference.

Barefoot Walking

Again, I prefer walking with protection for my feet. However, eventually your walking shoe should also become much more minimal. It’s a good practice to walk barefoot whenever you can. There are few current walking shoes that I like, unless I’m going for a long strenuous hike with a backpack (then I still like a good hiking shoe). With my current walking form, I have found the best shoes for me are also racing flats for runners. However, you need to practice your walking form, and make sure your feet and body get the support they need until your form has evolved enough to reduce your shoe structure.

Source: ChiRunning.com

How can I learn to run faster and enjoy it at the same time? …by learning how to run more efficiently, and by doing everything in my power to let the pull of gravity do most of the work so that my legs don’t have to. I want to run faster because my technique allows me to, not because I have stronger legs than the guy running next to me.

Many people who begin practicing the ChiRunning method experience a natural increase in their speed right away and are shocked because running faster feels easier now than it did before.

Running faster comes up often as a question in our workshops and forums. “I want to achieve a personal best time at my next marathon.” or “I want to qualify for Boston; how can I get faster?” Even runners without high aspirations want to see some continual improvement; we want to move past the inevitable plateaus in our development and see incremental gains. Speed is a measure of improvement that almost everyone can relate to, but we all know that as we try to get faster we run the risk of overworking our legs and getting injured instead.

In ChiRunning classes we de-emphasize speed as a goal. We believe that true mastery lies in the ability to set up the conditions for speed. That means leaning and relaxing more which means letting gravity do more of the work by holding your alignment even better while increasing the level of relaxation in your hips, legs, shoulders and arms. If you want to run faster, you need to get good at cooperating with the pull of gravity. In the ChiRunning method, success is measured in your ability to offer less and less resistance to the force pulling you forward.

Form first…then Distance…then Speed
The first and most important element of a well-thought-out running program is form. Form is the foundation of your ChiRunning program and is not only a means to attain speed, it is also an end unto itself. To run effortlessly with good form, whether fast, slow or in between is a goal we all share. As you apply your form focuses (posture, lean, mid-foot strike, cadence and stride length, etc.) over gradually increasing periods of time, you will develop greater core engagement while becoming looser and more relaxed. These components will allow you to run greater distances. As you become able to hold your form together for longer periods of time over greater distances, you will develop increased speed at a lower exertion rate as a by product of combining biomechanically efficient form with a gradually increasing distance base.

Speed is a product not only of good form over distance; it’s the product of alignment and relaxation. Having a stronger core will allow you to maintain good alignment while maintaining an increased forward lean. The more you lean, the more you need to level your pelvis and relax your hips and legs. Whatever amount of forward lean you run with must be balanced by the amount of relaxation in your hips and legs. This is what the principle of Cotton and Steel is all about: maintaining a forward leaning posture line (to engage the pull of gravity), a mid-foot strike (for a solid support base) and relaxed arms and legs (for fluidity of movement). If you do all the focuses it takes to run faster, you cannot help but run faster.

Gradual Progress

The way to determine when to increase your distance is by observing how long you can hold your form together. As you become able to hold your core engagement and, therefore, your form for longer and longer periods during the run, then it’s time to add a few minutes the next time you run. Anytime you add something to your running program, whether it is distance or time, new terrain such as hills or the number of runs per week is an upgrade. Upgrades are an important way of building your running program because each addition causes the body to adapt to the new load, which increases your level of conditioning. Be careful though. The same stresses that in moderation cause the body to adapt and grow stronger can cause injury if overdone. This can put you into an over-reached or over-trained state, where your body cannot keep up with the adaptations, and you stop improving, get overtired or even injured.

Using the principle of gradual progress you can build your program carefully by adding no more than two upgrades per week. Here are some additional guidelines for upgrading your program:

• Don’t add more than 15-30 seconds to an interval.
• Don’t add more than 15 minutes (or 10% additional mileage, whichever is less) to your long run each week.
• If you increase the number of intervals per session, run the first ones slightly slower.
• If you increase the speed of your intervals, decrease the number of intervals in your session, then gradually build back up to the original number while you maintain your new speed.
• If you happen to have a great day and end up running farther or faster than usual, don’t do anymore upgrades that week. Save them for next week.

Intervals, as defined in the ChiRunning method, are: a series of accelerations based on increased lean and increased relaxation (most importantly pelvic rotation) resulting in a longer stride, while maintaining a steady cadence.

The second title to the ChiRunning book says: “A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-free Running” which is a pretty big statement. But turning your running into a “practice” with the goal of becoming effortless means that every time you go out for a run, you’re working on what you can do to create better results by doing less. That’s the real work!

Next month we’ll discuss how to use intervals within a ChiRunning development program to get more speed out of your form and distance base.

Source: ChiRunning.com

Pronation is the flattening of the arch when the foot lands on the ground.  This flattening aids in balance and provides some shock absorption.  As the foot flattens slightly, the ankle tilts inward toward the midline of the body, and the muscles of the lower leg help keep the ankle from rolling too far inward.  Supination is the opposite motion of pronation.  A foot is supinated when the ankle is slightly tilted outward and more weight is on outside of the foot, away from the arch.  This gives the foot a more rigid, stable platform for the heel to lift off the ground and to roll off the toes.  Excessive supination puts the ankle at increased risk for rollover injury because the stabilizing muscles of the lower leg are not balanced.  We’ll talk about overpronation in this article because that seems to be more common among runners and walkers.

Folks with flatter feet tend to have highly flexible arches which are more likely to flatten too much.  This is known as overpronation.  In this case the foot provides plenty of its own cushioning but does not retain enough of its own structure, so other parts of the leg, such as the medial tibialis (the ’shin splint’ muscle) and the knee try to pick up the job of providing support.  They aren’t designed for this and when they get overworked, they send pain signals indicating they can’t keep doing the extra job.

Conversely, people with high arches often have less flexible feet, which limits the amount of natural motion the foot undergoes as it lands.  These people don’t get much natural shock absorption in the foot, and the ground forces will once again travel farther up the leg looking for a place to be absorbed, often in the shins, the knees, or elsewhere.  Now, both these scenarios are generalities that apply to a large number of people.  However not everyone with flat feet overpronates and some people with high arches may experience some excessive inward ankle rolling as well, due to instability in the muscles of the lower leg.

Poor stride mechanics also contribute to overpronation.  Heel striking (leading with your legs), having a slow lumbering stride, or toe push off – can all cause excessive motion in the foot.  ChiRunning reduces these effects by emphasizing a midfoot landing and a shorter, quicker stride, both of which reduce the amount of time the foot spends on the ground and limit the amount of motion necessary to get the foot into position to lift off the ground at the back end of the stride.

So if you want to give yourself some relief from the effects overpronation, do yourself a favor by introducing some of the following focuses into your workouts:

Maintain a constant cadence of 85-90 strides/min. (counting only one leg) no matter what speed you’re running.

Practice landing with your foot below or even slightly behind your center of gravity, not out in front. This is commonly called a midfoot strike.

Hold your pelvis level with each stride. This works to strengthen all the connective tissue that runs between the arch of your foot and your pelvis. It’s a great way to stabilize your ankles and protect against overpronation.

When you consistently apply these focuses to your running you’ll feel stronger, smoother and more relaxed.  And, eventually your feet will possess just the right amount of strength and motion-control will no longer be an issue.

Source: ChiRunning.com

You may not realize it, but stress and tension hinders your forward movement, whether you’re walking or running. Any tension held in your muscles and tendons will restrict your range of motion causing you to have to work harder to move your body. Tense muscles are a primary cause of injury. When you don’t stay on top of it, tension can get deeper and deeper into your body.

And yet, the idea of relaxing your muscles to go faster or further while walking or running is alien to our idea of how to improve our sport. We’re generally told to work harder to be successful, to push harder to be the winner, to do MORE to reach our goals. To relax we’re asking you to do LESS.

Since in ChiRunning and ChiWalking you are allowing gravity to pull you forward, your main muscle usage (lower abs) is to level your pelvis , which holds your posture in alignment, and allows your structure to support your body weight between strides. All the rest of your body should be as relaxed as possible. To reap the full benefits of that strong core, you need to relax all else, deeply and completely. As a matter of fact, one of my best focuses is to drop all tension into my abdomen, where that energy is put to good use. Whenever I feel tight shoulders or even tension in traffic or about an upcoming presentation, I drop as much of the energy and tension into my core. I use the energy as positive fuel.

People carry tension all over their bodies, from their face, to their neck, shoulders, upper back, chest, lower back, glutes and all down their legs and into their ankles and feet as well. Relaxing your body can help you drop mental tension and visa versa. Dropping ideas of how you should be performing will help your body relax.

Relaxation Exercises

Get into a regular habit of doing Body Scans and train yourself to detect tension in your body. You can’t do anything about tension unless you first feel it and accurately locate it. If you can release the tension, go ahead, but if you can’t, don’t worry. We’re going to give you several good techniques to help you relax.

Here are some techniques for general relaxation:

1. Sit in a chair, comfortably upright. Take a deep breath and then tense every muscle in your body and hold it for 15 seconds… your face and head, neck, shoulders, arms and hands. Tense your belly and all the muscles around your pelvis. Then tighten all the muscles in your upper legs, lower legs and feet.

Then, purse your lips (like you’re trying to blow out a candle) and let go of all the tension you’ve been holding in your body as you blow all of your breath out through your lips. Repeat this cycle three times. The whole thing should take about two minutes, so you can do it at your desk…at a stop light, before or after you go out for your run. Basically anytime you’ve got some relaxation to do and a few minutes to spare.

2. Lie on your back on a rug, yoga mat, or carpeted floor. Do a scan of your body starting at the top of your head and ending at your toes. Take your time and imagine you have a miniature street sweeper cleaning the tension off your body as it moves from your head to your toes. It’s sweeping all of the tension away and leaving your body in a deeply relaxed state. Breathe deeply while you’re doing this.

3. Lie on your back or sit comfortably in a chair with your spine straight. Place your thumb on one side of your nostrils and your middle finger on the other. Close one nostril with your thumb and breathe in through the opposite nostril. When you’ve inhaled completely, close the nostril you just breathed in through, with your middle finger and exhale by letting go of the thumb and letting the air go out through that nostril. Exhale completely by pulling your belly button in towards your spine. When you’ve completely exhaled, let your belly expand and refill your lungs through the same nostril. When you’ve completely filled your lungs, close that nostril with your thumb and exhale through the nostril that your middle finger was holding closed. The cycle of breathing should go… inhale with left nostril, close it, exhale through the right nostril, inhale through the right nostril, close it, exhale through the left nostril, inhale through the left nostril…..etc. Do this for 30 breaths.

This will oxygenate your muscles and calm your brain and leave you in a very relaxed state.

4. The Body Looseners in both the ChiRunning and ChiWalking books and DVD’s are the best way to loosen and relax your body before working out, or anytime at all. You can use the whole set to relax your whole body or just use the loosener that applies to the particular area of your body where you feel tension.

Keeping relaxed is a practice well worth making into a daily habit. Relaxation creates a healthier body, more ease and enjoyment in your walking and running and generally a higher quality of life. When you’re relaxed chi can flow. ChiRunning and ChiWalking are a reminder that good things don’t have to be difficult. As a matter of fact, the more you relax, the easier it gets.

Source: ChiRunning.com

Well, there’s ChiRunning. Chi what? ChiRunning, a technique that combines the smooth, flowing moves of Tai Chi with running. Like other mind/body workouts, ChiRunning engages your brain and goes easier on aging bodies, holding out the promise that Baby Boomers won’t have to swear off running because of bad backs and worn-out knees.

By focusing on posture, form, breathing, and the body’s core for strength, runners can transform their sport into an essentially injury-free, effortless, and truly enjoyable activity, according to Danny Dreyer, 54, the coach and nationally ranked ultra-marathon runner who came up with the method.

During his study of Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese martial art that teaches you to use your mind to harness the body’s energy — otherwise known as chi — Dreyer was struck with the idea that he could apply the same concepts to running. He tried it, and it changed his whole running experience, not to mention his performance.

“I would get up to 20 miles, and my knees would be killing me,” says Dreyer. Now I don’t have any pain when running.”

Excited by his discovery, Dreyer began teaching his technique to other runners. Jerry Fletcher decided to try it to see if it would help the pain that running caused in his knees and back. It did.

“I’m running much longer and can run up and down hills without hurting my knees,” says Fletcher, 62, who had orthoscopic surgery for his knee problems. “And there’s effectively no pain when I finish or while I run.”

Fletcher says it took about a month to get comfortable with his new running style. “You have to unlearn what everyone has taught you to do,” he explained. “The key to it all is that your foot never hits the ground in front of your body, which puts maximum strain on your knees.”

Like Fletcher and Dreyer, many Baby Boomers have endured pain and even surgery from running and running-related injuries. But it doesn’t have to be that way, insists Dreyer. ChiRunning eliminates the most common cause of running injury — poor form.

“Running doesn’t hurt your body. It’s the way you run that is doing the damage and causing pain,” explained Dreyer, who says that more than 65 percent of all runners — 15.5 million people — hurt themselves running each year.

How it Works

People practice Tai Chi for mental and physical health, spiritual growth, and self defense. As a discipline, Tai Chi can improve concentration, coordination, balance, flexibility, and strength.

According to Dreyer, you don’t have to take Tai Chi to master ChiRunning, and you can apply the ChiRunning method to other activities, including walking, hiking, and dancing. Here are some simple principles:

• Draw strength from your body’s center, or core, to run. ChiRunning picks up on a very popular fitness trend — making better use of your spine and body’s core muscles, primarily those in your stomach and back, in physical activity. Rather than build and use leg strength to force the body forward, ChiRunners pull strength and energy — chi — from their core, which drives the entire body. Dreyer calls it “whole-body” running. The legs follow, rather than lead.
• Let gravity pull you forward. Using your legs to push yourself forward takes too much energy. ChiRunning requires that you relax, bend your knees, and lean forward at the ankles, rather than the waist, which can stress the knees and hurt your back. As you lean, gravity pulls you forward. This is how you want to run. As your heels come up, your legs will go back and your feet will come down underneath you, rather than in front of you.
• Maintain excellent posture at all times. Keep your hips, shoulders, and ankles in a straight line. Perfect posture is critical to building strong core muscles and helping the body’s energy move freely.
• Relax your body and focus your mind. Tension restricts the flow of energy your body needs to run, and live. Relaxing your leg muscles, in particular, lessens their resistance to forward momentum as you run. Focusing your mind will keep it from wandering and help it relax. Concentrating especially on your posture and breathing will help you maintain ChiRunning form.
• Breathe. Inefficient breathing will make any exercise harder. That’s because your muscles need plenty of oxygen to work properly and well. Relaxing your mind and body will help you breathe more deeply and efficiently, powering your running.

Feel the Chi

“[ChiRunning] helps you think of running as a discipline for body, mind, and spirit rather than as a competitive sport only,” says Roger Jahnke, doctor of acupuncture and oriental medicine and author of “The Healing Promise of Qi.”

Whenever you purposefully focus your mind, regulate your body’s posture and movement, and carefully manage your breathing when running, you’re ChiRunning, according to Jahnke. “Successful runners are almost always doing these three things when they run.”

But the competitive aspect of running makes runners more prone to injury, according to Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

“People haven’t been unaware that running places a lot of stress on the lower body,” says Bryant. “But it’s a sport that has a competitive aspect to it. The goal isn’t to minimize stress, but to minimize running time.”

The Mind-Body Connection

If ChiRunning lets you run with more ease and less energy, you should be able to go farther and faster, right?

That has been the case for Jim Dunn. “Speed comes after form,” says Dunn. By focusing a lot more on form and less on speed, he has actually improved his 10K running times.

Not only that, but ChiRunning has transformed his running workout into a “kind of meditation” rather than an exhausting undertaking, explained Dunn. “When I come back from a ChiRunning workout, I feel energized rather than worn out,” which is one of the main ideas behind ChiRunning.

With Baby Boomers continuing to look for ways to minimize the damage exercise does to their bodies, the climate is ripe for ChiRunning, as it has been for yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi, according to Bryant.

“ChiRunning connects the mind with the body to enhance overall running form,” says Bryant. “It helps a person have a positive focus on what they’re experiencing and focus on breathing, posture, how they’re landing, and what their body lean is like.”

There are other coaching methods to help runners reduce injuries by improving their form, advises Bryant. They just don’t have a specific name attached to them. And they might not give you the same “Zen experience” of ChiRunning.

Source: “ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Injury-Free Running”

Here are some of the correlations between T’ai Chi and running:

In T’ai Chi, one must learn to move the body seamlessly between one move and the next without holding tension in the muscles and joints.

It is the same with learning to run better. If you want to improve your efficiency, you must first work on correcting your biomechanics… which means moving your entire body while running, not just your legs.

After learning how to move your body correctly, the next step is learning how to relax your muscles so that your body has a more fluid movement. Since your power comes from your center, your shoulders and hips act as conduits of that movement… passing it on to your arms and legs. If you have tight shoulders and hips while performing a martial art, it means that when you throw a punch or a kick you rely more on your arms or legs for power, instead of generating the force from your core, which is much more powerful. Your arms and legs will rapidly fatigue and your movement will become increasingly difficult.

The same holds true for ChiRunning (the name given to the hybrid sport which combines the principles of T’ai Chi with running). Your shoulders and hips must remain loose and relaxed so that your arms and legs can be a conduit for the power coming from your core. If you are stiff or hold tension in your hips or shoulders, your arms and legs will have to do all the hard work that your core muscles could easily do. In ChiRunning, as in T’ai Chi, your arms and legs follow the lead of your core.

One of the basic principles of T’ai Chi is called “Needle in cotton” where the needle represents your body’s centerline or axis of rotation, and cotton represents everything outside of that. In order to run more efficiently runners have to “gather” energy in the center, in the core area (abdominals, obliques, and deeper pelvic muscles). But to do this, it is necessary to let go of holding any tension in the extremities.

When this concept is understood, it drastically changes how you move your body. Arms and legs are simply a conduit through which the power of the core can be transmitted. According to this principle, the faster one runs, the more one needs to relax arms and legs and focus on moving from the core. In fact, according to the laws of physics, if arms and legs are stiff or tense, they create inertia which makes legs have to work harder.

This is a major shift in the “standard” approach to running that most coaches take, which is, if you want to run faster you need to build stronger leg muscles and do tons of cardiovascular training. Contrary to this belief, many physical trainers are beginning to recognize that your core muscles are much more efficient because they work more isometrically and your arms and legs work isotonically. This means that because your core muscles are isometric muscles, they can get stronger without getting bulkier. They also do not burn as much fuel or produce as much lactic acid. An added benefit of running from your core is that since your legs are not your primary source of power, your odds of getting any type of leg injury are significantly lower.

With ChiRunning, your injury rate also goes down because you are using correct biomechanics. You are lighter on your feet, relaxing muscles, using gravity, and (as in T’ai Chi) your movement is highly efficient because it is balanced in all six directions - top to bottom, side to side, and front to back.

Running from your core has some other interesting side effects. Since your legs are basically relaxed the entire time you are running, there is no build-up of lactic acid as is usually the case in power running. So there is no soreness afterwards and therefore no recovery time needed before your next training run. You can start off every run with a fresh set of legs.

Hold your posture line straight, but tilted slightly forward. This necessitates engaging your core muscles while running. Much like the practices of Pilates, power yoga, the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method… it is all about maintaining good body alignment during movement.

Because ChiRunning and T’ai Chi both work to develop an awareness of centeredness and balance, they can be used by those wanting to maintain good balance skills as they progress through their middle age and later years. For women, the gentle impact of this approach will help maintain good bone density and muscle tone without damage to the joints. Running from your core strengthens your abdominals, which means there is less likelihood of lower back strain, a big concern among older athletes.

By drawing on the principles of T’ai you can use running as a gentle path to health and vitality for many years.

Here is an exercise from T’ai Chi that you can apply directly to your running. Every set of movements in T’ai Chi begins with the Grounding Stance, an exercise done to help you feel rooted to the Earth. Likewise, in ChiRunning, every foot strike is an opportunity to be feeling your feet on the ground and your structure supported by the Earth. Do this exercise before every run to get yourself grounded in your body, and feeling the power of the Earth beneath your feet.

Place your feet hip-width apart and parallel. Soften your knees and let your arms hang at your sides. Feel your posture being straight and tall. Put your attention onto your Dantien, the Chinese word for your Center, located three finger-widths below your navel. At the same time, drop your attention to the bottoms of your feet and press your big toes softly into the ground. Now, connect your Dantien to your feet with an imaginary line and let your feet support your Dantien (see left side of the illustration). Hold this for 30 seconds. It will feel like a long time, but remember… it is worth every second if it leaves you feeling grounded.

When you are in the Grounding Stance and your posture is aligned properly, your body weight is supported by your bones, ligaments, and tendons because they are lined up in a vertical line. Running with your posture out of alignment, can create tension, fatigue, discomfort and even pain.

In the Grounding Stance you should strive for straight line that runs between your shoulder, your hip bone and your ankle bone. And when you are running, it is the position your body will be in every time your foot hits the ground (see right side of the illustration). We call this straight line your column. Maintaining a good column while running will ensure that your running is more efficient because your weight will be supported by your structure (bones, ligaments and tendons) instead of your leg muscles.

In the ChiRunning technique, your body is always tilted slightly forward which engages gravity to pull you instead of your legs pushing you. This simple adjustment in your running technique allows your legs to be needed only for momentary support between strides, not for propulsion.

Look at the right side of the illustration. If you take away the left leg, you will notice that the runner is actually doing a tilted version of the Grounding Stance.

When your legs are used only for momentary support, there is very little opportunity for any overuse injuries because your legs will simply be along for the ride.

Can you imagine running without pounding your quads, without your calves cramping, and without needing any recovery time? Can you imagine using your running to stay in great physical shape while also using it as a meditative, mindful practice? With ChiRunning, as with T’ai Chi, you can come away feeling relaxed, centered and with more energy than you started. It is an entirely different way to approach running because it is a low-impact way to keep your body and mind healthy. In ChiRunning, because of the way you will incorporate the ancient wisdom of T’ai Chi, your running will take on a quality of being a practice you can benefit from and enjoy… for the rest of your life.

Credits: Article by Danny Dreyer on Run the Planet.