How many times while first learning the Chi Running technique have you tried to sense a certain part of your body (for example) to “ensure your lower legs are relaxed” or “ensure your center is in front of your ankles” and you thought to yourself “I can’t sense that”? This can be quite frustrating at first but rest assured this is quite normal if you are new to Chi Running and it gets easier with practice.
Chi Running is not based on muscle usage, instead its based on mental focus and technique. You use your mind to setup your body in a certain way and forward movement happens. You run totally from within both monitoring and controlling what your body is doing based on technique and positioning. For example, one of the biggest mental focuses is on relaxing all the parts of the body except for the lower abdominals to align your pelvis and engage your core.
When you Chi Run you are an associative runner. Your thoughts are totally focused on your running rather than dissociative, where you use techniques to distract your thoughts from running like listening to music on a portable MP3 player. Think of your mind as the microcomputer in a car engine that constantly monitors and controls the operation of the engine to ensure maximum performance and efficiency.
Does this sound scary to you? Don’t worry, a focused mind is actually more relaxed than an unfocused mind. Also keeping your mind busy thinking about your technique is a way to control it from fixating on destructive negative thoughts like how much farther you still have to go, how tired you may be or how hard the run is. The mind is a tool – if controlled and used properly it is an asset – If uncontrolled and allowed to think what it wants it can be a liability.
Body sensing is an essential skill for Chi Running. Body sensing is the ability for you to sense what is happening in different parts of your body. You use your mind to listen to a specific part of your body, determine how it is behaving, you make a change (if required) and then you listen again to see if the change was properly incorporated. You repeat this process repeatably when you Chi Run for the essential parts of your body.
An example of the use of body sensing is trying to relax the muscles in your lower legs. First you use your mind to sense the muscles in your lower legs separate from the rest of your body. If you sense any tension, you use your mind to send a message to the muscles in your lower legs to relax more. After you send the message you use your mind to listen again to see if the tension was properly released.
Learning how to body sense is new for most of us and takes time. But the more you practice it, the quicker you learn it. The best time to practice it is while you are not running. When sitting at your desk or on the couch or standing in line somewhere try sensing a certain part of your body and what is happening. For instance, sense if your calves are relaxed. To know what it feels like to do it right – know what it feels like to do it wrong. For example, completely tense your calves and sense what that feels like. Then try to completely relax them and feel the difference.
When you do develop the ability to body sense you are now your own best coach. You can sense if something is working or not in your body and you can affect changes in that area until you sense they resulted in positive change.
Practice body sensing whenever you can. Its a fantastic tool for all sports and other aspects of your life, not just Chi Running!
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