Is there a natural way to run?

Posted In: ChiRunning | Running | Video March 20th, 2012 divider No Comments »

I caught the CBC’s “The Perfect Runner” last week on “The Nature of Things with David Suzuki”. Great documentary on how humans have survived and have evolved to become the perfect long distance runner.

It was very similar to the book “Born to Run”, and a great motivator to say the least. The gist of the doc wasn’t to compare technique really but they did talk about biomechanics and shoes, some of my favourite subjects!

Some people (including the Running Room’s John Stanton) say it’s natural to heel strike. To them I tell them to take their shoes off (like our ancestors) and then tell me how natural it really is to heel strike. And how long people will actually do it if they didn’t have their bulk shoes on.

ChiRunning to me is all about building “natural” running habits. Habits that most of us have forgotten over the years since we’re sitting all day, since our bodies change and since we stop running on a regular basis for the most part. It’s all about building the awareness and the pathways so you can become a more natural runner.

I know it’s about 45 minutes long but I urge you to watch it. It contains some really cool footage and some great eye-opening research.

Follow this link for all the info on the documentary. It will actually play again this week (Thursday, March 22) so you can catch it live if you would like.

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Another great weekend of teaching. I had a great group in Ottawa at the Louis Riel on Saturday and then another wonderful group at LEAP High Performance on Sunday in Pembroke. It’s really fun to see the look on someone’s face when the stuff starts to click!

Stay tuned for my next round of workshops, most likely upon my return in mid-April from a trip to Yellowknife to spread the Chi gospel there some more.