I’ve been focusing lately on relaxing my quads so that I can get them to work even less than they already do. (It’s a regular practice of mine to use efficiency as my mantra.) Here’s what I’ve been working on. As my leg swings out behind me I allow my spine to twist which in turn allows my hip to go rearward along with my leg. (This is covered on pages 179-180 in the ChiRunning book.)
But, here’s an important aspect of allowing your leg to swing to the rear instead of thinking of swinging it forward. If I think of my leg as swinging to the rear instead of forward, my leading leg (opposite) is much more likely to come down in a mid-foot strike. Whereas, if I lift my leg forward it is more likely to swing too far forward, creating a heel strike. In order to avoid lifting my leg forward, I found that as soon as my rear foot leaves the ground, I need to relax my quads so that I do not engage them to lift my leg forward. The reason why I want to avoid using my quads is because they are the largest muscles in my body; they require lots of fuel and oxygen; and they take time to recover.
What I discovered today was this; in order to keep my quads from engaging I need to keep my knees as low as possible as my feet return to the midfoot strike position. The job of returning my leg to the support phase is left to the recoil action of the tendons in my psoas and hip flexors, which are stretched like elastic bands with each rearward leg swing. The recoiling action of the large tendons in the core muscles takes the place of the quads having to do the work of returning the leg to the support phase.
BUT, keeping my knees low does not imply that I’m keeping my feet low. Quite the opposite. I make sure that my feet are coming up behind me and that my knees bend more as my speed increases.
I know this probably sounds a bit technical, but just take your time digesting it. And when you think you grok what I’m talking about, go out and try it. I will say that this gets into some of the advanced material. I would not expect (or even require) a beginning ChiRunner to be able to apply this to their running in the early stages of learning the ChiRunning form, simply because the basic focuses are more important to think of when you’re first learning this technique.
Here is a great interview I recently found, with Jordan Rich of WBZ Boston back in 2006. He asks me some great simple questions about ChiWalking for beginners.
If you have painful calves here are some things to watch for:
Check to see if you are holding any tension in your ankles when you run. Go to your nearest track (or beach if you live near one) and run in the sand (long jump pit). Look to see if your toes make a small dish as you run over the sand. If there’s a divot at the toe of your footprint, it means that you’re either still pushing off with your toes, or you’re holding tension in your ankles. Run across the sand until you can leave absolutely clean, undisturbed footprints with both feet.You can see this exercise in the DVD.
Check to see if your stride is too long. If it is, it will make you use more of your calf muscles as your foot leaves the ground.
Check to see if your shoes are too stiff. They should be very flexible in the forefoot. If they’re not, it will cause you to engage your calf muscles needlessly.
Look at the bottoms of your shoes to see the wear patterns. If your shoes are worn at the toe, you’re pushing off. If they’re worn at the heal, you’re heel striking, which means that your stride is too long and that you’re reaching with your forward leg.
Have someone videotape you to see if you can spot any form discrepancies. Compare what you see to images on the ChiRunning DVD. A good camera shot of your running will reveal tons of great information.
Practice relaxing your calves at all times. Not just when you run, but whenever you’re walking around.
ChiRunning can be adapted to sprinting very easily, but first you need to learn the technique at slower speeds and then integrate the focuses into your faster running over time. If you start learning the ChiRunning technique and begin to do too much speed before truly learning the technique you could end up with some sort of hybrid version of your old form and the ChiRunning form. It’s best to learn the ChiRunning technique on your base building runs to keep your learning pure. If you read the book and/or follow the instructional DVD to learn to run, you’ll notice that not much attention is put onto short distance speedwork. This is because sprinters make up such a small subgroup of runners, that there was little need for the information. The ChiRunning technique is geared toward long distance running. Because if this, you’ll have to do some adjustments for faster running that are not in the book. With sprinting, there is much more emphasis on use of the upper body (arm swing and lean) during running. Any time you are running faster than is normally required from most human beings, there is a need for more muscle usage, which is opposite to all you’ll read about in the book. But if you can learn to make your running highly efficient at all times, then when you need to run at sprinting speeds you’ll become a very efficient short distance runner…which equates to speed.
Sprinting, as with running hills, involves an increase in upper body work so that the legs don’t have to carry the total load of running at higher speeds. Your arms should be swinging forward…not to the rear as with the slower paces. Your hands should swing upwards as you lean forward. At sprinting speeds it is most important to be even more relaxed in order for your body to function as a total unit. I suggest also working on strengthening your core muscles, especially your abs. This will allow you to hold your upper body more forward as you take off. If you watch high level sprinters take off, they keep their heads down as long as possible in order to maintain their increased lean for a longer period. You should practice imagining your body as a balloon that is expanding in all directions as you take off…your legs are straightening to the rear as your arms are reaching forward. This creates a balance in your movement. Learn to drive with your pelvis, not your legs and you’ll be able to sustain a higher rate of speed for a longer period of time. This will engage your obliques and all of your core muscles to power the motion of your legs, instead of just using your quads to do the job.
If you’re experiencing achilles tendon pain, I suggest you look at how you’re using that tendon. It usually means you’re toeing off or somehow supporting your body weight with your forefoot. If you’re experiencing any sort of pain, you should not be doing interval or hard workouts. So, if you start a workout with any pain at all, the pain will increase in the course of the workout unless you change the biomechanics of what you are doing.
Adding speed to a workout while there is Achilles pain is going to cause more problems. You need to solve the problem at slower speeds first. Any acceleration in speed needs to come from an increase in lean amount and an increased rotation of the pelvis, not an increase in the push of the leg or foot. Another cause of Achilles tendonitis is having too long of a stride length, which also places too much burden onto the forefoot. As you increase in mileage, be careful that your stride doesn’t get longer as you become tired. During your leg swing, you should only see your legs as swinging to the rear. Never think of lifting your legs forward as you run or you’ll engage that Achilles tendon.
If you’re feeling any soreness in your quads it can be due to several issues:
It is often due to bending at the waist when you’re running. (see pages 161 & 162 in the book) This will put undue stress onto your quads because they have to “catch” you with each foot strike. When you bend at the waist your feet naturally swing out in front of your body which then creates a heel strike, which is always a direct cause of tired quads. The best thing you can do for your quads is to always run with your center of gravity in front of where your feet are touching the ground so that your stride opens up behind you as soon as your foot hits the ground. If your foot lands anywhere in front of your body, you’re “braking” with each step and you’ll feel it in your quads.
You might also have too long of a stride which will cause the same result. Running with a shorter stride allows you to keep your foot strike under your body instead of in front of it.
You are also probably not rotating your pelvis with each stride. (see pages 179 & 180 in the book) Allowing your pelvis to rotate as you run is a great way to cushion the shock to your quads because much of the impact of your foot strike is taken by your pelvis, not by your quads.
