Customer Reviews

ChiRunning: A Training Program for Effortless, Injury-Free Running

5 star:		(112)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I have been a barefoot runner since 2005, at which time I re-learned how to correctly run using my awareness and the teachings of numerous sources. I have read Danny Dryer's ChiRunning book and watched his ChiRunning DVD. I have also studied The Pose Running Technique on DVD and the workbook. In addition, I have experience practicing Qi Gong (Chi Kung), meditation, and yoga. I have also studied anatomy, posture, The Alexander Technique, and Rolfing Structural Integration. My partner is also a Chinese Medicine professional and Acupuncturist. So basically, I know a thing or two in this field...

In light of the acclaim that Danny Dryer is receiving for his ChiRunning technique, there are some critical errors and marketing misperceptions that I feel should be addressed. I base these insights on my own personal experience and my extensive research into natural running techniques and chi energy.

1. This book does not at all use the chi (qi) energy for running. Dryer teaches a method of using gravity to encourage the body to move through space. After reading and watching Dryer's published material, it is clear to me that he uses the term "chi" as a marketing strategy. All things eastern - yoga, tai chi, etc - are hot selling points these days. Yes, Dryer states that he has practiced Qi Gong under a teacher. However, nowhere in the DVD or book does he teach about the movement of chi the body, its pathways or its functions. Dryer should have title his technique "Gravity Running" instead.

2. Dryer combines a commonly misunderstood Pilates technique (tightening the core), claming it to be engaging the "hara" or "dan tien / tan tien". While the dan tien is the chi energy center below the navel, never are core muscles used when working with this center. Tightening any muscles will take a person's awareness away from the energy and into the muscular contraction sensation. Contracting muscles may create heat which is often believed to be chi by many beginners, however heat and chi are very different.

In the original Pilates technique, as taught by Joseph Pilates, only the largest, deepest muscles of the core are "engaged" not tightened. This is more akin to placing the awareness in the core while using only the softest tension. Most people misunderstand Pilates and tighten the abdominal muscles which then causes improper posture. Watching the ChiRunning DVD and observing Danny Dryer's posture, it is clear that his posture is far from ideal. Improper core tension and running technique could possibly be the cause of this, however other causes could also exist.

3. Dryer teaches to tighten the core muscle to tilt the pelvis. This lengthens the lower back, thus straightening the spine and removing the natural curve. By straightening the natural curve, the natural spring in the spine is removed leading to possible spine injury. Watching the DVD clearly shows the postural flaw caused by this unnatural movement. I am very suprised to see the noticably poor posture that Dryer and his students showed in this instructional video.

Also, by tightening the core muscles, excess tension is created in the body that will interfere with the body's natural movement. By creating tension in the core, the entire body is adversely affected because the core is the body's center of gravity and the psoas muscles in the deep core extend into the legs and upper back and ribs. Tension in the core will also restrict the rig cage's ability to expand sufficiently to allow proper oxygen in the lungs.

4. Landing on the middle of the foot works against the anatomy of the foot. The arch of the foot acts like a rubber band that allows the foot to spring forward when running on the ball and toes. Running with the middle of the foot first causes the ball and head to hit at the same time, causes jarring sensations in the foot, ankle, and leg.

As seen in the photos in the book and in the DVD video, Dryer wears modern full cushion running shoes that elevate the heal. Ask any expert in anatomy and/or Olympic-level running will teach, these shoes are injuries waiting to happen. A person can only get an accurate anatomical running experience by learning to run barefoot. Barefoot running quickly shows us how to correctly run. We can then return to running in shoes in a safer, more natural and more energy efficient way.

5. Danny Dryer encourages the runner to tilt the body forward, taking the work off of the muscles and letting gravity act as a source of propulsion. Yes, this does work. However this style of running does not make effective use of the muscles and creates a very awkward experience that does not feel natural. Observe the running style of the world's greatest Olympic athletes and you will see all long distance runners stand erect while landing on the ball and toes of the feet.

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If you have read this far into my review, you may be left looking for a solution. My best recommendation is to read the book Running Fast and Injury Free by Gordon Pirie. Pirie has held many world records and Olympic medals. He is one of few runners who, in my opinion, has perfected the art of running. His principles are based upon a lifetime of learning from top Olympic runners and beating nearly all of them or their records. Since age 14, Pirie ran with Olympic record holders. In addition, Dr. Nicholas Romanov's Pose Method of Running contains value insights into the physiology of running.

Above all else, since most of us grew up in shoes, we must re-teach ourselves to walk and run as the body's design intends. We must learn to move barefoot. Even if we choose to run every race in shoes, learning to run while barefoot is a necessary part of the process. So find a soft stretch of dirt, sand, grass, sidewalk or road and get started. Skip 99.9% of the theory and get back to the reality of running. Use your mind to observe your body and make corrections as you go. And above all else - have fun!

What an interesting running book! Buy this book if you:

-would like to be able to run well into your old age
-would like to improve your running form and have fewer injuries
-would like to have a more philosophical approach to your running
-would like to increase your overall health

Here's how the book roughly pans out:

-Chapter 1: compares power running to ChiRunning
-Chapter 2: goes into the 5 principles upon which TaiChi and ChiRunning are based
-Chapter 3: gets into the "inner" skills of ChiRunning

As you can see, the first 3 chapters lay out the philosopical foundation- that's so when you get to the specific techniques, they make sense.

Chaper 4: learn about the ChiRunning "focuses"- which are the specific physical and mental methods used to run more efficiently.

Chapters 5-9: covers program development, peak performance training and diet. Note: Chapter 7 also covers some info on common injuries such as muscle cramps, plantar fasciitis (also rec. The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution for more info on this), heel cord problems.

Chapter 10: how to incorporate the ChiRunning principles into your everyday life

As you can tell, ChiRunning, with its mind-body approach, is far from your typical book on running- and shouldn't be missed by any serious runner. Happy trails.

[...] This book is a brilliant print presentation of Danny's methods which are revolutionary. He deserves the much wider following he will get with this (his CD is great too).
My story: I've been a runner for 45 years. I nearly gave up running at age 57. The pain in my knees and lower back made me seriously think of quitting. I literally saw an ad in the newspaper for Danny's class and took it as a last resort. He was at the time in his 50's and a nationally ranked ultramarathoner. I figured he ought to know something about efficient running.
I learned his initial techniques in two hours. It took about five or six runs to feel comfortable with the changes in my stride, but from the first day, there was no back pain and such minimal knee pain at the end that I couldn't believe it. I've taken his advanced techniques workshops too (all in the book). The "sidewise" stride up steep hills is another brilliant technique that literally makes running hills fun.
I went from struggling to run for 30 minutes at a time to 1.5 hour runs on steep hills without pain. I'm not a ranked runner. I run for fitness, for weight control, and for the sheer joy of it. I did finish third in my age group in a local race a year ago -- first medal I've ever won (I'm 62 now). But I got my running life back, and that's priceless. I plan to be running into my 80's now -- pain free!
And for what it's worth, I have a doctorate and I'm trained in physics. Danny's techniques are scientifically valid. There's a spiritual side to his methods too. If you don't think running has a spiritual side, I feel sorry for you, but don't ignore his methods just because of that.
Jerry L Fletcher

This book has a lot of good information it - probably too much. Unless you are really going to focus on something, it's very hard to remember more than two or three core ideas. I am a casual runner - maybe two or three runs per week of three to five miles - and I really hoped this book would give me a couple areas of focus that would make my running safer, more comfortable and perhaps faster. Instead, I got overload. There is a single 2-page spread in this book that lists about 50 points to focus on in your running. Come again? That doesn't sound very Zen to me (I know it's a different Eastern philosophy, but you get the idea).

Dreyer ackowledges the length of the list and suggests picking out two or three of these ideas to focus on for each run, but you still need to be pretty serious to do that. I don't want to consult a checklist before each run and I want to plug into my iPod and relax a little while I'm running.

In addition, Dreyer gives a pre- and post-run routine that would add about an hour to any run you wanted to do - again, more than I'm able to commit to this portion of my life.

If you are a very serious runner or want to become one, this is a great book (assuming you can handle a few funky mystical references). On the other hand, if you are looking for two or three areas of focus to make you a better casual runner, they're tough to pull from this book.

Recommended for serious runners who are looking to avoid or recover from injuries.

A decent book with some interesting ideas, but little to do with anything "Chi," which was a little disappointing.

The underlying emphasis throughout this book is on competition, even though usually unstated. It's all about technique. He advocates using as little leg muscle as possible. Specifically, one does not push off using the toes or propel the body using the leg muscles like a sprinter might do. Instead, the only muscle action of the legs is to pick themselves up. He uses a good illustration: stand straight and fall forward. Instinctively, one of your legs will swing forward to catch you. I you use ONLY this muscle action, you'll have the basis of this book's technique.

In addition, he advises you engage your core muscles and maintain an erect, proper posture. (That's good advice because it keeps your body from getting sloppy.) His advice for deep, rhythmic breathing and for relaxing the body overall are sound. The arms swing loosely and to the rear which opens up the chest for better breating.

It is important to focus on what our body and our breath are doing as we run (and not be distracted by our normal day-to-day thoughts). This makes running almost like meditating, which in my opinion is a good thing.

I'm trying this technique in my regular runs and so far it seems "interesting," but no final verdict yet.

Some advice sounds a little dubious. For example, he advises pronaters (whose feet strike the ground not parallel to their path) to force their feet parallel to avoid injury. I'm certainly no expert, but seems to me that forcing a natural pronation to an unnatural angle might itself lead to injury. In any case, I'd certainly want to see some clinical studies before adopting this advice.

Now for a few disappointments.

I've run mostly for pleasure for almost 40 years, and while the book's premise sounds appealing, there are some seeming contradictions. It opens with an image of children running in a schoolyard with a description about how we should all seek to run naturally, free, and unfettered, for the sheer joy of running, just like those kids. It them proceeds through 200+ pages to lay out dozens upon dozens upon dozens (seemingly) of detailed rules about how we should run, including how we should hold our thumbs. It advises we carry a metronome so the that we run exactly X paces per second. Well, I doubt those kids studied any such list or carry pacers. Something just does not add up here.

Implicit in this book is that we let our body tell us the style in which we run as well as how far and fast, but there's almost no follow through on this theme. Instead he presents a detailed, one-size-fits-all running style that (at least in my opinion) is not necessarily what our bodies might tell us to do. There's no room for different body types or running styles.

This style may indeed benefit some runners who have certain physical situations. If you are one of those then his techiques are certainly worth a try. Hope they help. But I'm not convinced this style is for everyone.

There's supposed to be a deep connection with Ti Chi, but apart from a few oblique references to the Chi energy, there is precious little actual discussion of this topic.

And there's this Chi energy itself. I personally don't believe in it (although I would not disparage those who do). In any case, it has really nothing to do with what's taught in the book.

Although this is certainly not the author's fault, this is one of those cases where the advice might best be presented in "20 pages or less." But 20-page books don't sell for enough money to make any profit. And so they are padded with redundandent and generally useless information. Again, not his problem, but this makes the book a bit tedious to read.

In summary, the specific technique he advocates is worth a try. Much of the advice is fine: that we run for the sheer joy and fun of it, that we constantly listen to our bodies and let them guide us to a relaxed and stress-free running style, that we angage our core muscles and maintain a nice posture, that we breath deeply and rhythmically, and that we relax everything we can. But in the end this is mostly a running-style book -- not having much to do with anything mystical, like Chi.

this book starts out with a great premise -- that by learning to run more efficiently you can avoid injury and run longer and faster. I am sure danny dreyer is good at teaching people how to do so in his courses but this book didnt get me there.

the main problems with this book are its poor organization and poor presentation of ideas. its organized more like a set of notes than a manual, and despite its short length, contains a lot of long winded passages that don't impart much information. really the book should have been broken into a series of lessons and exercises in chapter format, but halfway through the book he just dumps the entire technique on you. this technique consists mostly of pointers about the alignment of various parts of your body, which isnt that useful unless you plan on video taping yourself.

he also presents a one-size-fits-all explanation that doesn't take into account the fact that different people have very different bodies. for instance, his technique presupposes that you have an anteriorly-tilted pelvis. if, like me and many other people, you have a posteriorly-tilted pelvis (you tuck your tail instead of sticking your butt out), some of the advice in this book is counterproductive.

I'm giving this book a 4 because it's a great start, and there is a major glut of books on running technique (thousands on running, but most are about training regimens and that is something far less important than technique--or at least should come after, and not before). The book loses a star because it is off base on a few things.

I have been running recreationally for over a decade and took up competitive running last year. I get top 10% in local foot races and recently got 9th in a 300+ person triathlon.

I used to be a low-cadence heel striker. I'd tried all the solutions of shoes, muscle imbalance, excess weight, etc. but none solved my chondromalacia (knee cap cartilage wearing). I bought this book because I knew I needed a new technique and I knew that most good runners were either mid strike or forefoot strikers.

I read this book and did my best to apply it but ultimately, things just did not "click". The author promotes a midfoot strike (landing "flat footed", though the lateral part of the foot will hit first). This is a tried-and-true method that a great many accomplished elite runners use. He also promotes a ~90 cadence, which almost all good running coaches agree on. He also promotes a minimalist shoe, which a lot of elites use and it makes perfect sense (have the body absorb impact, don't rely on a shoe, which doesn't even do a good job anyway) These are all spot-on. Something I could never get, though, was his insistance that calf muscles are not used much in midfoot striking. They are and in fact I continued to heel strike, no matter what I did, until I started pointing my toes a bit to flatten the foot, which requires calf pressure. I also found his sand technique (practicing keeping even pressure on front and back of the foot), frankly quite silly. I have watched dozens of videos of elite runners and you will not find a single competitive one who is not launching off the ball of their foot--it being the last point of contact with the ground). This final launch requires calf strength as well.

Another fallacy I see promoted not just by the author, but my other coaches these days, is that the forward lean produces power. Of course it produces none whatsoever. Gravity does not assist with horizontal movement. If a person starts a run on a flat surface and their body never goes down in height, gravity has had no net control of it and therefore none of its force can be translated into a horitzonal force. Gravity does not provide running power, PERIOD. It merely gives the foot the ability to push without breaking from the ground (its coefficient of friction working with gravity's force)...it pushes away from the body (and using Newton's law the body then moves away from the foot). The body has no net vertical movement during a run (it bobs up and down and the lean goes forward and back in a tiny see-saw depending on leg position, but no net vertical movement) and since gravity is a vertical force, it produces no horizontal force. This is basic physics but I see a lot of people not understanding it. Apparently, many people are confused by the fact that when a person is standing up right and then leans forward, they do in fact move forward, but this significant vertical->lean activity is not repeated in a manner than can provide forward movement. With the body ahead of the foot at lift-off, the body will come towards the ground, but to prevent it from smashing into the ground after a few strides, a corrective force has to be applied, which is the foot going out in front of the body.

It's impossible for a runner at constant speed to strike the ground only under or behind their center of gravity. I won't bother getting into why with much detail, but again, nobody here will be able to find an elite athlete (sprinter or long distance runner) at constant speed (excusing the acceleration of a sprinter, when they are able to strike always behind the center of gravity) striking only under or behind the center of gravity. If you don't believe me, find a vid and pause at the exact moment of contact. The foot is ahead of the gcm. Dreyer says as a person speeds up their stride should open behind them and not ahead of them. Impossible. Again, I refer to elite athletes. I've watched 10 second sprinters. All of them have an increased stride and it opens up behind and ahead. If a person applies some basic physics so the matter, it's very easy to understand why. The author also says that as a person increases in speed they should actually feel more relaxed. I again defy anybody to find a 4 minute miler who says they feel more relaxed after that than after their 6 minute miles.

The book IS decent, it's just not entirely accurate or possible. Taking these exceptions above to heart, the rest of it is filled with generally good advice.

I am currently forefoot running (my heel rarely, if ever touches the ground), based upon coaching techniques from other sources. My knee pain has greatly decreased and I recently broke my best mile time. I don't chirun not because I don't think it's valid (it mostly is, but there are a couple of aforementioned problems) but because the exercises recommended simply didn't work for me...I could never "get" it, but the greatest thing I was missing was the calf tension; when I finally started putting more effort in my calves and plantar flexing my foot (pointing my toes), things came and now I can forefoot run and midstrike run with ease, so anybody having problems may benefit from trying that.

The book is a good start. I will not return to heel striking ever. I continue to spend a good bit of time researching running technique from various sources, which is why I take issue with some of the fallacies promoted about running and some of the physical impossiblities that people pretend are possible.

I've always hated running, mostly because every time I tried to cover any significant distance it caused pain in my shins and lower back. This book changed my perspective. Dryer's tips and tricks really do work! I'm able to perform much better with a whole lot less discomfort. The step-by-step approach is easy to follow and quickly apply. Important concepts covered include mental focus, body sensing, breathing, relaxation, posture, and gravity-assisted running. As a martial arts instructor these ideas truly resonate, though most anyone can take advantage of them. Other subjects include the typical cool down, stretching, diet, muscle groupings, and other basics that most folks already know about.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

Still sore from the Hood to Coast, I watched my ChiRunning video last night, skimmed the book, and decided to put the basics into action during my morning run. Wow! ChiRunning seems nothing less than a total paradigm shift - transforming running from a "lower body activity" to an "upper body sport." A couple of analogies, to make sense of it: a tennis serve doesn't get its pace from the arm muscles, nor does a swimmer's power come from the arms.

I switched back and forth on my run - between the old way, tensing my quads with each push off, and the new way, relaxing my legs, lifting my heels, trying to feel my core, and leaning. It is -such- a difference. For my first ChiRun, my time for five miles was on the slow end of normal, my HR was in the normal range, but the difference to my legs was off the charts. I can't say it too strongly: ChiRunning really is worth checking out. (Caveat: some of Danny's philosophies and ideas not directly related to the running mechanics ... I question. E.g. hot tubbing after a run, but not eating.)

Happy trails!

I bought this book because my wife does tai chi, and I'm a runner. For three years I've run 20 miles a week, with lots of knee pain, so that I always had to ice my knees after a run, and wore braces on each knee. I did all of the leg lifts and workouts to increase my strength. This helped, but not much. Then I read Chi Running, and now I have no more knee pain. I read the book in one sitting, and have reread several passages many times. I've changed my form, and presto, no more knee pain. I feel like a kid again.

Getting confortable with the book's method of "leaning" while running takes some time. I still feel a little akward, now 10 days into this method. But believe me, this book has changed my running life. The text is clearly written, and the photographs are helpful.