Chirunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running by Danny

The Nile on eBay   Chirunning by Danny Dreyer, Katherine Dreyer

Danny Dreyer, an esteemed running coach and a nationally ranked ultra-marathon runner, has over thirty years of running experience and is a student of internationally renowned t'ai chi master George Xu. He has been published in "Runner's World" and "Running Times, " and is the author of his own monthly ChiRunning newsletter. He lives in the Bay Area and has taught the ChiRunning method to thousands of people with profound results.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

The revised edition of the bestselling ChiRunning, a groundbreaking program from ultra-marathoner and nationally-known coach Danny Dreyer, that teaches you how to run faster and farther with less effort, and to prevent and heal injuries for runners of any age or fitness level. In ChiRunning, Danny and Katherine Dreyer, well-known walking and running coaches, provide powerful insight that transforms running from a high-injury sport to a body-friendly, injury-free fitness phenomenon. ChiRunning employs the deep power reserves in the core muscles, an approach found in disciplines such as yoga, Pilates, and T'ai Chi. ChiRunning enables you to develop a personalized exercise program by blending running with the powerful mind-body principles of T'ai Chi: -Get aligned: Develop great posture and reduce your potential for injury while running, and make knee pain and shin splints a thing of the past. -Engage your core: Shift the workload from your leg muscles to your core muscles, for efficiency and speed. -Add relaxation to your running: Learn to focus your mind and relax your body to increase speed and distance. -Make it a Mindful Practice: Maintain high performance and make running a mindful, enjoyable life-long practice. It's easy to learn. Transform your running with the ten-step ChiRunning training program.

Author Biography

Danny Dreyer, an esteemed walking and running coach, is a nationally ranked ultramarathon runner. He conducts workshops nationwide and lectures frequently at races and events. He is the coauthor, with Katherine Dreyer, of ChiRunning. Katherine Dreyer has more than thirty years of experience in the health, personal growth, and fitness fields. She partners with Danny to coordinate the international ChiRunning, ChiWalking, and ChiLiving programs.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction: Running Lessons from a T'ai Chi Master ChiRunning Versus Power Running How to Use This Book Chapter 1. ChiRunning: A Revolution in Running The Benefits of Running Why People Get Injured Power Running: No Pain, No Gain The "Chi" in ChiRunning Chapter 2. The Principles of ChiRunning: Moving with Nature Cotton and Steel: Gather to Your Center Gradual Progress: The Step-by-Step Approach The Pyramid: The Small Is Supported by the Large Balance in Motion: Equal Balance and Complementary Balance Nonidentification: Getting Yourself out of the Way Chapter 3. The Four Chi-Skills Focusing Your Mind Body Sensing: High-speed Access Breathing: Tapping Into Your Chi Relaxation: The Path of Least Resistance Chapter 4. The Basic Components of Technique Posture Lean: Gravity-Assisted Running Legs and Arms Let's Go Running Chapter 5. Transitioning into and out of Running Transitioning into a Run Preparing Your Mind Preparing Your Body Starting Your Run Transitioning out of a Run Ending a Run Cooling Down Stretching The Postrun Mind Chapter 6. Program Development: The Process of Growth Form, Distance, and Speed: The Three Developmental Stages of the ChiRunning Technique Creating a Running Program The Well-Rounded Running Program Intervals LSD Run Fun Run Hill Run Tempo Run Program Upgrades: When, How, How Much Chapter 7. The Beauty of Learning and the Blessing of Challenges The Difference Between Productive and Nonproductive Discomfort Troubleshooting Your ChiRunning Form: Common Hot Spots Special Circumstances: Uphill Running, Downhill Running, Running in New Terrain and Environments, Fatigue, Illness and Running, Buying Shoes, Treadmill Running, Miscellaneous Tips Chapter 8. Peak Performance and Racing Race-Specific Training Great Training Tips Race-day Tips Chapter 9. Getting the Most Chi from Your Food Principles of ChiRunning Applied to Diet Practical Steps for a Healthy Diet Running and Weight Loss Chapter 10. Run as You Live, Live as You Run Guidelines for ChiLiving Opening New Doors Appendix. A Guide to the Muscles Referred to in the Book Index

Review

"ChiRunning is the solution we've all been looking for to maintain high performance and avoid injury." -- Mark Cucuzzella, M.D., masters winner, 2008 Marine Corps Marathon (2:34)"The most exciting and revolutionary book to hit the running community this decade." -- Toby Tanser, author of Train Hard, Win Easy

Review Quote

Toby Tanserauthor ofTrain Hard,Win EasyThe most exciting and revolutionary book to hit the running community this decade.

Excerpt from Book

Introduction: Running Lessons from a T''ai Chi Master Not long ago, I was running past a grade school. It was a warm, late-spring day, and the kids were out on recess. They were busy playing tag and chasing balls and just doing what kids do best -- running around. I stopped to take a swig of water from my bottle, and as I watched the flurry of little legs, I was reminded once again why I love to watch kids run. Every one of them had perfect running form: a nice lean, a great stride opening up behind them, heels high in the air, relaxed arm swing and shoulders. They had it all! One of my biggest desires as a coach is to help adults learn to run like they did as kids. It''s such a natural movement when kids do it. It looks so effortless and joyful. Many books about running tell you to just go out and run like you did as a kid. There''s just one problem with that suggestion: You don''t have the same body today that you did back then. If you do, I''d like you to be my teacher. So why don''t adults run like kids, with that same ease and joyfulness? After running for thirty years and working with thousands of runners, I''d have to say that the two biggest factors are stress and tension. I can speak for myself, and maybe you can relate. Since I left the sixth grade, I have put my body through a wide range of physical and emotional stresses, such as tightening my shoulders when I''m worried, slouching all day at my desk, holding tension in my neck while driving -- the list is endless. Individually, these might not sound like a big deal, but when you add them all up over a lifetime, they have a major cumulative effect on how you move. I''ve also done a few radical things that have taken a bit more of a toll on my body, like skiing off cliffs and doing face plants while skateboarding. As Carolyn Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit, would say, "Your biography becomes your biology." With all of this abuse stored in my body, I''d be hard-pressed to run like I did as a kid. The good news is that for anyone with a little patience and perseverance, it is possible to get back to that state. There are over 24 million runners in the United States alone. But get this. It is estimated that 65% of all runners incur at least one injury a year that interrupts their training. That means that 15.6 million people will get injured this year from running. No wonder people have a love/hate relationship with running. It''s one of the most accessible and inexpensive ways to stay in shape, yet it poses a danger that is cautioned in articles, books, and doctors'' offices everywhere. Most people treat injury as part of the sport and learn to accept that it will happen sooner or later: "I''ll deal with it when it happens." It''s the same line I get when I ask people in the San Francisco Bay area if they worry about earthquakes. The conclusion I''ve come to after teaching countless runners is that running does not hurt your body. Let me repeat that -- and you can read my lips -- running does not hurt your body. It''s the way you run that does the damage and causes pain. When Adriane, 42, came to me, she was caught in a back-and-forth cycle of training hard to get into good condition, then getting injured and having to lay off for a couple of weeks, then starting all over again. She thought it was the right thing to constantly train fast and strength-train to improve her times in the marathon. But she was not making any forward progress because of the nagging injuries and her own internal pressure to keep increasing her weekly race-training schedule. With the ChiRunning technique, she learned how to relax while running and, more important, in the other areas of her life. She realized that she was not only a driven runner, she was a driven person. Without all the tension in her body, she stopped injuring herself while running, and her training took on a new level of consistency. Jerry, a 59-year-old runner, was just about to give up running when he came to his first ChiRunning class. He had been a runner for forty years, and after having knee surgery, he had begun to feel the same old aches and pains creeping into his runs that had prompted the surgery. He was afraid that if he continued running, he would ruin his knees and live in pain for the rest of his life. It has now been two years since his first class, and he is running regularly -- including an hour and a half on steep trails once a week -- and looking forward to many more years of pleasurable running. In fact, he wrote to me recently, thrilled that he had finished first in his age group in a local race, something he had never dreamed of even before his surgery. Carmen, 35, was a beginning runner and insecure about her ability to do anything well physically. After taking a series of three ChiRunning classes, she happened to call as my wife, Katherine, and I were reviewing her class on video. Katherine remarked on how good Carmen looked in the film and asked her how she liked the class. "Oh, it simply changed my life" was the reply. "For the first time in my life, I feel like I can be good at a sport." From beginners to competitors to the forty-plus crowd who are afraid of injuring themselves as they get older, ChiRunning is meeting the needs of runners with an approach that builds a healthy body instead of breaking it down from misuse or overuse. ChiRunning Versus Power Running The current paradigm of running form and injury prevention is founded in muscle strength. It is basically built around three principles: (1) If you want to run faster, you need to build stronger leg muscles. (2) If you want to run longer, you need to build stronger leg muscles. (3) If you want to avoid or recover from injuries, you need to build stronger leg muscles. Do you see a theme developing here? It''s all dependent on muscles to get the job done, and the leg muscles are given the bulk of the responsibility to make it all happen. That''s a lot of responsibility and, according to T''ai Chi principles, a very unbalanced way to move your body. The problem with strength training is that it doesn''t get to the root of the most common cause of injury: poor running form. Most runners want to run either longer or faster at some point in their running career, but without good running form, added distance will only lengthen the time you are running improperly and increase your odds of getting hurt. If you try to add speed with improper running form, you are magnifying the poor biomechanical habits that could cause injury. So, the best place to build a good foundation is in getting your running motion smooth, relaxed, and efficient. Then you can add distance or speed without risking injury. This book presents an alternative to what we call power running. ChiRunning is based on the centuries-old principle from T''ai Chi that states, Less is more. Getting back to that childhood way of running doesn''t come from building bigger muscles, it comes from relaxing muscles, opening tight joints, and using gravity to do the work instead of pushing and forcing your body to move in ways that can do it harm. Most runners, especially those over 35, will tell you that running can keep you in good shape but it''s hard on your body. I developed ChiRunning because I really didn''t believe that pounding and injury should be a part of running. I just didn''t buy it. I''ve never considered myself a great runner. I liked to run as a kid, but I shied away from it in high school because, to tell you the truth, I was intimidated by the caliber of our track-team members, most of whom could run a hundred-yard dash in under 10 seconds and a quarter mile in under a minute. In an inner-city high school with 3,600 students, the coaches could basically pick from the cream of the crop, and I hardly considered myself even potential cream. So I joined the ski club and partied instead. In fact, I signed up to take gymnastics, because every Wednesday the gym classes had to run around a nearby lake, and I couldn''t imagine making myself run for twelve minutes without stopping. Don''t get me wrong. I''ve always loved sports, and I love to learn new things with my body. Whenever I wanted to take on a new sport, I would apply another love of mine -- figuring out how things work. As far back as I can remember, I''ve always had questions running through my mind, like: "Why does a clock tick?" or "What kind of machine wraps a stick of butter?" As a kid, I loved taking things apart to see what made them do what they did, then I''d try to put them back together again. Although I had a lifetime average of about 75% on the reassembly, I always figured out how they worked. This is what I did with skiing, rock climbing, and sailing. I broke each sport down into its elemental parts, which would then give me a physical understanding of how to put it all together into a unified movement. As I found myself improving, I would get more excited and consequentially focus even more. My learning was driven by my passion, so my hours spent practicing would fly by. I loved learning new body skills. In my early twenties, when I took up running, I approached it in much the same way. I began running regularly in 1971, when I got drafted into the army. Running around the army base at an easy pace was very relaxing for my body and helped to settle my mind. This was the first time I had used a sport for more than physical fitness: I wasn''t into being in the army, so I used running to escape the barracks and explore. After doing an eighteen-week stint with Uncle Sam, I was graciously given an honorable discharge, but not before discovering a new favorite pastime. When I was a young adult, my curiosity about how things

Details ISBN1416549447 Author Katherine Dreyer Short Title CHIRUNNING REV/E Language English ISBN-10 1416549447 ISBN-13 9781416549444 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2009 Residence Bay Area, CA, US Subtitle A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running Country of Publication United States NZ Release Date 2009-05-05 US Release Date 2009-05-05 UK Release Date 2009-05-05 Pages 320 Publisher Simon & Schuster Edition Description Revised, Updated ed. Publication Date 2009-05-05 Imprint Simon & Schuster DEWEY 796.42 Illustrations Figures; Illustrations, black and white Audience General AU Release Date 2009-05-31 We've got this

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