If you want to know who the best runners are in a race, don’t just look at who won. Of the top 10% of finishers, you also want to know whose posture and form during the last mile is a mirror image of their first mile.
I remember distinctly the day I came across the ChiRunning book in Barnes and Noble in Providence, RI. I was a high school teacher, and running several days a week to keep my sanity, and to also suck less at 5Ks. I’m sure the promise of “injury-free” was the appeal of the cover: I was in a cycle of running decently for about two weeks, and then getting a pull in my calf that would keep me from running for another two weeks. After a couple of months of this, I decided to see what I could find in the bookstore, and I came across Danny’s book.
The next day, I was on a school bus with my 10th graders to the beach, and I started reading. What I knew immediately was that Danny’s stuff made a ton of sense. What I didn’t know was where to start. So I signed up for a workshop.
My girlfriend of the time and I spend three days at Kripalu, a yoga retreat center in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, learning ChiRunning from Danny and a couple of his assistant instructors. I left not only running better, but knowing that I wanted to teach it to others. Later that year I went through ChiRunning’s instructor training, and taught with them for several years.
What do proficient runners do?
It comes down to a few simple-but-not-easy concepts:
- Maintain Postural alignment
- Lean into gravity
- Keep the hands high and elbows back
- Quick feet, high cadence
- Adjust pace by changing lean angle
Oh, I can do that. Easy. Right?
Probably not. While these are the key concepts of ChiRunning (and Pose, and CrossFit Endurance, and Good Form Running, and the graphic on the inside of the box my Altras came in), how to make them work for you is an individual thing, and that’s where a coach, or at least some direct instruction, will prove invaluable.
That’s why I went to that workshop: to get a deeper understanding, from people who knew it well, so I could apply it myself.
The amazing this is that learning run well is learning to swim well, and squat well, and walk well, and move well.
This is the one-pattern rule: in all movement, certain things are true. Spinal stabilization comes first, and all the joints need to be moved through a range of motion appropriate for their function. It if looks good it likely is good. And core endurance is the make-or-break attribute of runners; it’s absolutely essential (though not sufficient on its own).
And this is what we do in the gym: we learn to recognize patterns, build the strength and endurance to execute those patterns, and then practice them.
So, how do I learn this stuff?
We’ve got a running workshop coming up on Saturday, October 28th. More details to follow: sign up here for more information and we’ll keep you in the loop.
About the Instructor:
Michael Krushinsky is the owner and head coach at Wasatch Fitness Academy. Michael has been certified as an instructor with ChiRunning and CrossFit Endurance, in addition to CrossFit Level 1 and Movement & Mobility, 200-hour yoga teacher training, and Functional Movement Systems Levels 1 & 2. He uses his experience and training across all these movement systems to help athletes of all stripes, abilities, and goals to achieve their best performance ever.