Chi Running

I dislike marketing strategies aimed at seducing potential consumers with bold and unrealistic claims.  For months I refused to purchase Danny Dreyer’s Chi Running: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury Free Running.  Revolutionary?  Effortless?  Is he serious?   

Maybe I’m being too critical.  After all, I often describe one of my most memorable runs as effortless;  I remember settling into the  sweet spot of a running experience wherein my stride became effortless as my senses awakened to a deep and profound joy.   Effortless.  Not literally, but I think you know what I mean.  Running is always a challenge, but there are certainly moments in which my stride, cadence and body chemistry produces a sense of effortlessness, a feeling that the act of running is an automatic motion without conscious intention.  Since I have experienced moments of seeming effortlessness in running, I suspect Dreyer is speaking to an experience grounded in a running technique that prompts hyperbolic language, so I choose to give him a little slack.

Is Chi Running revolutionary as his subtitle claims?   Does Dreyer’s language seduce instead of describe reality, or does he use language as a way to persuade us to an enticing reality of new running techniques?   I’m currently finding out, and so far  his advice to lean forward at my feet paying off:  I no longer heel strike,  and  I engage my leg muscles less because I don’t raise my knees.    

I found Dreyer describing Chi Running on Youtube;  you might find it interesting.  Check it out.