In case you missed it, there was an article in last Sunday’s NY Times about how the “barefoot running” trend is effecting the shoe industry. Actually, it’s not so much a barefoot trend as it is a current upsurge in the questioning of the running shoe company’s ability to produce a shoe that actually has any effect on running injuries. ChiRunning was named as one of the organizations helping to promote good running technique and endorsing more of a minimal shoe approach to running.

The big debate is whether or not building more cushioning and structure into running shoes has the advertised effect or if it’s just another case of corporate marketing looking for an effective way to sell shoes to an uneducated populace. Well, in answer to the first part of the debate, as we’ve seen by the percentage of runners who get injured every year, nothing has changed since running shoes for the general public began being produced in the 1970’s. If anything, the injury rate has gone up. And, in answer to the second part of the big debate, yes, it seems to have been a very good marketing ploy that sold gazillions of shoes to people thinking that they’d be safe in their running by buying the right shoe.

I’m so thankful that articles like this are starting to surface in the national media. More attention needs to be paid by the shoe industry to make shoes that fit the needs of an ever-growing population of runners who are working on changing their running form, to prevent injuries, instead of thinking that the right shoe will do the job. For ten years now ChiRunning and ChiWalking classes have been teaching runners and walkers how to run and walk pain-free, injury-free and faster. Check out our schedule of classes if you’re interested. And, while you’re there, check out the results of a West Virginia University poll done with 2500 ChiRunners which reports remarkable findings on the effectiveness of running technique improvement on injury rates.

There are a number of forward thinking shoe companies out there that are working on producing less of a shoe and that’s good news for those of us who are no longer willing to suffer through the over-built “corrective” shoes that have been the norm since the running boom started in the ’70’s. actually almost all of the running shoe companies sell shoes that are perfectly good for the midfoot striker…but many runners are scared away by the model name “racing flat.” Most racing flats have all the great attributes a midfoot runner craves: lots of flexibility in the sole, great ventilation, very minimal lift in the heel and (until the secret gets discovered by the shoe companies) a cheap price. I wear NB-790’s which cost $45 online (while the supply lasts) and which, in the past few years, have been one of the best selling running shoes NB has ever produced. But, as with all great running shoes…they’ve decided to quit producing what I’ve considered the perfect shoe. Go figure. I’m now looking at FiveFingers, Adizeros, La Sportiva, and yes, even the Nike Free for the next “ideal” shoe.

Viva la revolution!
Danny

p.s. Since the article in the NY Times came out it is the 8th most emailed article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/business/30shoe.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Well, it had to happen. One of the best all-round running shoes has gone the way of the dodo bird. The New Balance 790 is no longer in production. I’ve been touting it’s attributes and urging anyone who would listen, to buy the shoe if they we’re serious about finding a shoe that was truly suited to the midfoot strike. It is without a doubt one of the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn…period. It has a low profile. It’s extremely flexible throughout the length of the shoe. Its light weight makes it feel like little more than an extra layer of skin on my feet, yet there’s just enough cushioning to keep me from feeling the worst that any trail has to offer. What can I say, I love these shoes.

Ironically, it has also been one of NB’s most successful models ever, spanning the range of uses from a colorful, casual/style shoe to an all out trail racing flat. There are lots of other great midfoot strike shoes out there, but for whatever reason, this one hit the nail on the head.

I highly suggest that if we’d like to see NB continue producing this shoe, we should make a lot of noise about its “decommissioning” and email them to express our desire to see it continued. Unfortunately, NB makes it very difficult to give feedback to them directly so I will give you the email address of a friend in their wear test department who is willing to gather your input. Please send your letters to: Ryan.Miller@newbalance.com

I’ll be reviewing other great shoes in future blogs, but I wanted to get the ball rolling on this one first.

BTW, these shoes are still available on most online running shoe sites and they range in price from $49-$79…a great deal.

Danny

Here’s something fun to do to spice up your winter running. I was out running today with my daughter (who was on roller blades) when I came upon a patch of ice on the side of the street that was about 30 feet long and just wide enough to run on. We’ve had a number of windy, single-digit days here in Asheville so the ice was a smooth, solid glassy surface on which to test my running form. As expected I ran across it without a hitch…no slipping or sliding in any direction. In fact if someone had been watching me from a distance, they might not have noticed that I was running on glare ice. The only way I was able to do this was to land with a midfoot strike and only use my feet for momentary support between strides. If I would have been trying to push myself forward with my feet, they would have slipped out from under me as I pushed off with my toes. Had I been landing with a heel strike, I’m sure I would have been running home with a bruised behind.

I’d never tried this before, but I knew it was entirely possible because a reader had written me an enthusiastic email about something that had happened to him on a winter run in Wisconsin. It seems he had been out trying to keep his footing on some refrozen slush in the road, when he spotted a lake full of ice fishermen. The ice looked clear and smooth (and much more appealing than the crap he was trying to negotiate on the road) so he jumped the fence and headed out onto the ice. He had been practicing his ChiRunning focuses that morning and working on not pushing off with his legs, so the first thing he did when he got onto the ice was just pick up his feet and lean forward a little. To his great relief, he began to run across the frozen lake like it was a parking lot… accompanied by a very distinct feeling of what it means to run with a true midfoot strike. The only thing he had to do was pick up his feet as he fell forward. He told me that it was the biggest “aha!” moment of his life and from that day on, whenever he felt that he was overusing his legs, all he had to do was run as if he were running on an icy lake and all of his leg effort would instantly disappear.

I don’t know how many of you ever get the chance to run on ice in your street shoes, but I highly recommend it for learning how to not use your legs for propulsion when you run. If you live in a warm climate and have a local ice rink, you might try bribing the manager to let you give it a shot. When you do it right, it’s all gain and no pain.

Danny

In my previous blog I talked about the simplest and most effective way for walkers to reduce impact to their knees and hips. So, in all fairness to you runners, this post is for you.

Since runners, as a rule, are a bit more injury-prone than walkers, the simplest way to avoid knee pain or knee injury is not as simple as it is with walking. I’ve read that running can increase your body weight upon impact by 6-10 times depending on whether you’re running on flat ground or running downhill. That’s an incredible amount of weight for your knees and hips to bear with every foot strike. So, it behooves us all to do everything we can to lower that multiple. If I weight 145 lbs. that means I’m putting 870 lbs. of pressure on my knees every time my foot hits the ground.

There are two reasons for this increase in impact to your knees. Part of that increase in weight comes from the fact that you’re leaving the ground between strides and as you return to earth, your body is accelerated by the pull of gravity. The other part of that weight increase happens because of the braking effect created if your foot happens to land in front of your center of mass. For most runners I’d have to say that is the biggest culprit of increasing impact.

So what’s the simplest solution?

Don’t step in front of your hips when you run. You heard me right… and you’re also correct if you’re thinking, “That’s easier said than done.” It’s not really that difficult to do, but it does take some patience and practice. It all comes down to learning how to run with a midfoot strike because it’s the best way to prevent your foot from landing out in front of your body. You can further reduce the amount of impact to your knees by landing with your foot even slightly behind your center of mass. This will minimize any chance of braking as your feet hit the ground.

If you’ve read the ChiRunning book you already know about landing with a midfoot strike and how that’s accomplished. If you haven’t read the book, I highly suggest you check it out. Another part of this equation is keeping your hips loose and your pelvis rotating. This will keep you running level across the ground and prevent the impact that comes from excessive bouncing.

If you can change where your foot lands and minimize your bounce you can seriously reduce the impact to your knees. I was recently tested at the gait lab at the University of Virginia and found that my vertical GRF (ground reaction force) was only 2.4 times my body weight. That’s a far cry from 6-10 times mentioned earlier!

My long range goal is, of course, to get that number down to zero… so I can run on water.

Happy trails,
Danny

I was recently asked, for the umpteenth time, a question that deserves a good answer.

“When I concentrate on striking mid-foot and keeping my
lower legs very relaxed, it feels and sounds like my feet are slapping the pavement much harder than before. Is this normal, or does my form still need correcting?”

For many first-timers to ChiRunning, learning to run with a midfoot strike is a very new experience. The new way your feet touch the ground, along with a distinctive full-bodied tilt can take a little time to get used to. What happens for some folks who are working on a midfoot strike, is that they notice their feet tend to slap the pavement more then they used to. If this happens to you it’s a sign that you’re on the right path to getting a midfoot strike, but it’s also a sign that there’s more work to do in other areas of your stride.

Here’s what I mean. Most people are used to swinging their legs forward when they take a stride…whether they’re walking or running. What this does is create a heel strike where your heel then becomes a fulcrum and your foot slaps down onto the pavement with each step. Not only is a heel strike unhealthy for your knees, the slapping can bruise the metatarsal heads and make your feet feel like they’re on fire.

In the ChiRunning and ChiWalking techniques, the foot strikes under your center of mass in a midfoot strike. This eliminates a heel strike and shortens your support time. The legs are always swinging to the rear, which noticeably reduces the amount of impact to the knees. When many people first try the midfoot strike they tend to focus more on the landing than on what the rest of their body is doing. The way to get rid of the slapping is to work on your pelvic rotation, which is mentioned on pages 179-180 of the ChiRunning book, and also mentioned at the top of page 82. In the ChiWalking book it is explained and illustrated on page 87.

As your foot hits the ground under you, your leg begins its rearward swing. Your leg then extends out behind you and when your foot returns to its original support position, it’s underneath you again…not landing out in front of you. As long as your foot never lands in front of your body, the slapping will go away.

Here’s the trick. Every time your leg swings out the back, let your hip swing back with it. This will force your hips and pelvis to rotate in the direction your rear leg is swinging, creating a healthy twisting motion along your spine. Your stride will open up behind you, as it should, and you’ll experience a new sense of smoothness in your gait because your legs will no longer be swinging forward which causes foot slapping.

Happy Trails,
Danny

There seems to be much debate in the running community today on what is the best footstrike for running. Runners of all levels divide themselves into three basic camps: the midfoot strikers, the forefoot strikers and the heel strikers. So, here is my attempt to put forward my best understanding of the three basic types of foot strike and what each one does for a runner.

The Midfoot Strike
The midfoot strike is characterized as having your heel and the ball of your foot touching the ground simultaneously with each foot strike. You can see this very clearly when you watch young children run. They always land with their whole foot on the ground. I would say that at least 95% of all people run this way as kids.

In the ChiRunning technique, we promote the midfoot strike because it is, for most runners, the most injury-preventive way to run. Our emphasis is on preventing the lower legs (including the knees) from over-working, because this area of the body is where, conservatively speaking, 90% of all running injuries occur. Plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, shin splints, calf pulls, knee pain, IT band problems, over-pronation, bunions, metatarsal and tibial stress fractures, and hammer toes lead the list of the most common running injuries. This list is immense compared to everything that can go wrong above the knees.

The propulsion in ChiRunning comes from allowing your body to fall forward with the pull of gravity, not from pushing yourself forward with your feet and legs. For this reason it is more energy-efficient because your legs are not required for propulsion. When your feet come down onto the ground, they land either under or slightly behind your center of mass, in a midfoot strike. The only work required of your legs is to provide momentary support for your body between strides. Landing on your midfoot, in most cases, either reduces or eliminates the work done by A.) the lower leg muscles…especially the shins and calves, and B.) the two tendons that are most commonly injured… the plantar tendon and the achilles tendon.

The ChiRunning technique is primarily focused on energy efficiency and injury-prevention with speed being a secondary focus.

The Forefoot Strike
The forefoot is basically the part of the foot between the forward-most part of the arch and the end of the toes… generally speaking, the balls of the feet. If your heels don’t touch the ground when you run, you’re a forefoot striker.

Sprinters, middle-distance runners, and some triathletes tend to prefer running on the forefoot because of the extra speed obtained by “paw-back” and “toeing off.” This way of running is great if you want lots of speed, but it puts the responsibility for most of the body’s propulsion squarely onto the legs…especially the lower legs. Some of the faster elite middle-distance runners (i.e. Kenyans, Moroccans, Ethiopians, Mexicans) run with a forward lean added in combination with a forefoot strike. This takes some but not all of the burden off the lower legs.

Because forefoot running is primarily used for running at faster speeds, energy efficiency tends to take a distant back seat. As far as being injury-preventive, forefoot striking helps prevent knee injuries because it lowers the impact to the knees. This is a good thing. But the problem with it is that running on the balls of your feet increases the workload on your calves, shins, achilles tendons, and plantar tendons, so you risk either overworking a muscle or pulling a tendon if you go too far or too fast while running on your forefeet.

The Heel Strike
Heel striking is when your heel strikes the ground in front of your body. At least 75% of all runners run with a heel strike. The interesting thing about this fact is that, although it is by far the most common of all the footstrike patterns, it is not done by choice, but by default. The vast majority of all runners are not elite runners or competitors, they’re just regular folks like you and me, who like to run and like to stay fit.

Most recreational runners tend to run with their body in an upright position… with no lean at all. This forces them to have to reach forward with their legs when they run…and when you run upright and reach with your legs, your feet will always land in front of your body and your heels will come down first. When you run this way, you’re basically putting on the brakes with each stride, which sends a lot of impact to your lower legs and knees. For this reason, many heel strikers complain of knee pain at some point in their running career. This is the group that keeps orthopedists and physical therapists in business.

But, just because you might be a heel striker, it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to be a heel striker for the rest of your life. Work on improving your running technique. If you can learn to run safely and efficiently, you’ll be eliminating the causes of running injuries and you won’t have to worry about ending up in a doctor’s office getting fixed.

The midfoot strike works for most runners…the forefoot strike works for some runners…but, the heel strike doesn’t seem to work well for anybody. Try all three and see which one works the best for you.

With the ChiRunning book, DVD or audio CD you can easily learn the midfoot strike. We offer you an alternative way to approach your running so that you can learn the midfoot strike and spend many more years enjoying one of the world’s best and most natural sports.

Happy trails,

Danny

I get lots of questions about whether or not ChiRunning can help sprinters and middle distance runners. I’ve posted a blog on sprinting which I’m sure I’ll add to over time. But, if you’re a competitive runner in the 200m – 5K range, ChiRunning can definitely help your running too. One thing it will take is constant practice. In the ChiRunning book, the training paradigm that I promote is F.D.S. ….practice Form, then train to hold your form for longer Distance, Speed. That’s the order in which the highest level of success is guaranteed. Work on your form first. Then, as you get better at the form, you learn to hold the form at greater distances (or for more time), once your body is acclimated to running with a new technique and has the core-strength conditioning to withstand greater distances, then and only then should you work on adding in speed.

The longer the distance you run, the more amount of time you’ll need to spend landing on your midfoot instead of your forefoot (as sprinters do). If you spend too much time up on your toes, the small muscles of your legs will become overworked and/or over trained and you could end up being a candidate for some form of overuse injury of the lower leg (shin splints, calf pulls, achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, and even metatarsal fractures).

This runs parallel to much of what Arthur Lydiard promoted with his runners…a very deep base of conditioning before adding in speed. When learning the ChiRunning technique, if you add speed in too early on, you risk defaulting back into power running and/or overusing your legs. This is a technique which uses less muscle because you rely much more on your forward lean to reduce your leg muscle usage. Being able to hold a forward lean over a period of time takes additional strengthening of the core muscles of the body. The more you train yourself to rely on your core muscles to run with, the less reliance you’ll have on the small peripheral muscles of the lower legs.

At the same time, looseness in the hips, spine and pelvis are needed in order to get to faster speeds. The idea is to take most of the work off the legs by running with your center of mass, over or slightly ahead of your center of gravity (your point of contact with the ground), while training your body to let go of any extraneous tension which inhibits fluidity in your motion.

For this reason, relaxation is a key component of the ChiRunning technique. You don’t get faster by being tense, or by using more muscle. The Kenyans are not fast because they have the strongest legs. They are fast because they have a great training base, AND they are the most relaxed and most efficient runners in the world. They have relatively low VO2 max numbers compared to athletes they’re competing against and beating. They are also extremely light on their feet and very loose in their pelvic area…something which their competitors have much to learn about.

I’ll be talking about advanced techniques every now and then in this blog. I have been reluctant to talk about speed, because ChiRunning is more about the process than the result and many competitive runners tend to be result oriented. Needless to say, if you work on your technique and then holding your technique for longer distances, the only thing you’ll need to add, in order to pick up speed, is more lean and more relaxation. Speed is a byproduct of having good technique, a relaxed body, and the ability to hold more of a lean (Core muscle strength) for a longer period of time.

Happy trails,
Danny

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.

Happy trails,
Danny