I heard about the Chi Running methodology when I first started running from my training partner, Meagan. She had been running for three to four years at that point and had suffered a few injuries (knee and hip) from her last few races. Because Chi Running’s main sell was a way to run injury free and the highest efficiency, she bought the book to hopefully prevent further or recurring damage. Although I had meant to borrow the book from her, I ended up taking the lazy way out and would make her recite everything she was reading during our training runs from memory.

Chi Running is a methodology developed by ultra runner and tai chi practitioner Danny Dreyer. Although the primary focus in the teaching of this running form is the flow of chi and not speed some very basic running techniques seem to be reiterated through eastern methodology… Namely: Keeping a strong core, posture, proper breathing, mid-foot strike and listening to what your body is telling you.

Whenever I start struggling or hit a training slump I start hyper focusing on my running form and start asking myself if I’ve been keeping all of these things in check. It usually turns out that I’m not, which is likely one of the main reasons I was in a slump in the first place. I also like how Chi Running gets you to mental focus on things like relaxation – which is the primary reason that I run (that and fitting into my skinny jeans). One of my favorite mental exercises with running form that I had actually come up with on my own before I knew it was also a Chi Running technique is: imagining your movement as you run (the posture of your back and the movement of your arms, etc) as a puppet on a string that is being pulled through your head and extremities. This is supposed to help with the flow of “chi” through the body. For me at the time, it was merely a way for me to imagine outside help from the universe in keeping me moving when I thought I was going to collapse from exhaustion.

After Meagan had moved out of state she told me she got a lot of success from training with one of her local Chi Running groups. If you’re interested in checking out Los Angeles Chi Running groups, workshops are listed here.