Chi Running

It's every runner's dream; to run faster, easier and with no risk of injury. Runner and coach Danny Dreyer has stumbled on the solution.
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There are only three kinds of runners: Those that are injured, those who have been injured and those who are going to be injured. At least that's the conventional view. But it's not one that experienced ultra runner and coach Danny Dreyer signs up to. He believes there's nothing inherently unhealthy about running - it's the way you run that causes the damage and the pain. It is a view that ten years ago set Dreyer on the road to finding a better way of running. The answer he came up with was 'ChiRunning', a mind-body approach to running based on the principles of t'ai chi.

Don't be put off by the 'mind-body' tag - all it means is that mastering ChiRunning entails both a change in your attitude to running and biomechanical tweaks to your technique.

A NEW ATTITUDE
The biggest shift you'll need to make in your mindset - you might like this - is to stop trying so hard. Rather than thinking only about the results or the finish line - and straining to reach it - try to stay in the here and now, which according to the principles of t'ai chi, is the only place you can truly relax. "The ChiRunning mindset teaches you to listen and focus internally rather than concentrating on arbitrary, external goals," explains Dreyer. That doesn't mean you have to give up on smashing those PBs; it simply means you should change your approach to achieving those goals. Focusing on the quality of the process rather than on the outcome at any cost (pain, injury, overtraining, for example), believes Dreyer, will actually have a beneficial effect on your running.

FORWARD FORM
If all this sounds a little too 'new age' for your liking, the second arm of ChiRunning is more tangible, if still difficult to implement: A change in your running form. "Most runners want to run either longer or faster," says Dreyer. "But without good form, added distance will only lengthen the time you are running improperly and increase your odds of hurting yourself. If you try to add speed with improper form, you are magnifying the poor biomechanical habits that could cause injury. The best place to build a good foundation is in making your running motions smooth, relaxed and efficient. Then you can add distance or speed without risking injury."

The single most important thing you can do to bring a little Chi magic to your running is to adopt a slight forward lean. "Lean from your ankles, though, don't bend from the waist," stresses Dreyer. This pointer - in common with the Pose Method of running - makes gravity your friend. "One of the most common problems in runners is that they run with their bodies vertical, if not leaning back slightly, which makes them lead with their legs instead of leading with their upper body," explains Dreyer. "This causes them to heel-strike, which increases impact with the ground and, over time, will damage the knees, hips, IT band or ankles." Yes, you read that correctly. Dreyer doesn't believe runners should land on the heel. "Landing on your heel is essentially like putting on the brakes with every stride," he explains. "By tilting your body forward from the feet, you place your centre of gravity ahead of your foot strike, so you are no longer braking." This is where ChiRunning differs from Dr Nicolas Romonov's Pose Method. While Romonov recommends you don't touch the ground with the heels at all, Dreyer believes the heels and balls of the feet should touch the ground simultaneously. "This allows your legs to extend as your feet leave the ground, radically reducing the amount of impact on your knees and quads." If you watch a child run, there's a strong possibility that you'll see the forward lean in action. "Most of us ran really well as kids," says Dreyer. "We were relaxed in our movement and didn't necessarily depend on leg strength to walk and run. We simply fell forward and kept our balance as best we could. If you watch children run, they are generally all smiles. But what I often see with adults is an expression ranging somewhere between discomfort and terror! We need to return to that same smooth, efficient motion that we all once had naturally."

START WHERE YOU ARE
Years of sitting hunched over steering wheels and computers, slouching in armchairs and doing everything from lifting heavy boxes to swinging a golf club to running a marathon with less-than-optimal technique, makes changing your running technique easier said than done. Which is why the process of learning ChiRunning begins with standing still. If you can't maintain good posture when you're at a standstill, your chances of doing so at five-minute-a-kilometre pace are slim. "When your posture is correct, energy - or chi - can flow through your body unhindered, in the same way that water will flow through a straight pipe more easily than a bent one," believes Dreyer. Good posture starts not with the feet or the shoulders but with the trunk, or the 'core' as it is usually described these days. And while conscious thought will certainly assist you in improving 'core stability', you also need a certain amount of strength (or more correctly, muscular endurance) in order to maintain good posture in the trunk. That means working the deep abdominal muscles, which form an internal corset around the waist below the navel, regularly throughout the day - not just when you are going running. "The emphasis in ChiRunning is on learning how to run from your centre," says Dreyer. "The better you become at that, the less you need your legs to run." If you run with just your legs, without bringing in all the help from the rest of the body, then you're running in an imbalanced state and your legs are overworking. In ChiRunning, each part has to do its proportional share.

AN ARM AND A LEG
In Dreyer's world of effortless running, his advice about your arms won't surprise you - bend your elbows to 90 degrees, keep your hands and shoulders relaxed and don't allow your arms to swing across the body - but his instruction to simply pick up the feet rather than 'toeing off' is more unusual. He offers this exercise to demonstrate his point: Stand up tall with good posture and let yourself fall forward. "As you fell forward, you took a step to keep from falling on your face," he says. "There was no push involved with your other leg. Pushing off with your toes creates too much up-and-down motion and overworks the lower legs." It makes no sense until I couple this advice with a tip on letting your lower legs hang loose between each step. A lot of us run with our ankles flexed, lower legs rigid, ready to withstand the next impact of landing. Allowing my legs to relax completely when in the air enabled me to banish twinges during my 21-K, and visualising my arms and legs as steady, swinging pendulums, emanating from a strong, stable core enabled me to fall into a seemingly effortless rhythm and pace. "It doesn't mean there's no effort - just no unnecessary effort," explains Dreyer. And that's where the Chi comes in. The word 'chi' is Chinese and it refers to the energy or 'life force' that animates all things. According to ancient wisdom, chi passes through a system of meridians, or channels, that distribute this energy to all parts of the body. "The theory behind tai chi is that by practising mental focus and relaxation, you can learn to sense and direct this energy," says Dreyer. "I called my approach to running, ChiRunning because it is a blend of all the inner principles I've learned from 10 years practising t'ai chi and my 35 years of running experience." Thirty-five years, by the way, which includes 20 years of coaching and running 40 ultra-marathons since 1995, finishing in the top three places in almost every race.

RUNNING AWAY FROM INJURY
"My ultra-marathon running career is what prompted me to develop a system of running based on energy efficiency and injury prevention... both for my own preservation and for all the people I met over the years that had to stop running because of injuries. ChiRunning is an approach that builds a healthy body instead of breaking it down from misuse or overuse." Catherina McKiernan agrees. "At the end of my career I had a lot frustrating injuries," she says. "I wanted to be able to run injuryfree, but I knew that unless I changed my running style, that wouldn't be possible. Then a friend bought me Danny's book and, as it made so much sense, I started to try out some of the advice. Over five or six weeks I practised the drills in the house and tried to focus on moving my body in the correct manner. "I began to feel much more relaxed, and the tight calf muscles and tight hips and lower back that I always experienced from running began to feel much looser. Eventually, I decided to go to the United States and learn everything possible about ChiRunning. I am now a certified instructor, teaching in Ireland." Physiologist Joe Dunbar points out that you need to think carefully before trying to change your running technique. "Be careful about changing your technique, whether following the principles of ChiRunning or any other programme, because if it isn't broken then it doesn't need fixing. Unless you're sidelined with persistent injuries or have a lot of time on your hands, you also have to ask whether time committed to technique drills offers the best bang for your buck, or whether a more conventional form of training would be more beneficial to your progress as a runner." Dreyer concedes that it isn't a solution for all your running ills and reiterates that like t'ai chi itself, ChiRunning isn't something that you are meant to master in full within any given timescale. It's more of a lifelong journey than a quick fix. "Every time you are standing you can practise posture and build strong core muscles," adds McKiernan. "Every time you walk, you can pick up your feet rather than push off your toes. The more you practise each day, the quicker you will be able to master it when running."

- By Sam Murphy