Running: is it best to Chi, Pose or Evolve?

A colleague of mine asked if I knew anything about 'Chi Running' or 'Evolution Running' as one of her patients had been excitedly telling her about this great, new, 'latest trend in improving running efficiency...' he'd been told about. I had to admit I had not heard of it. So, intrigued, I set about researching this latest development...

A quick Google search threw up the websites for these two running methods (www.chirunning.com and www.evolutionrunning.com) but there was also mention of a further Pose Method® (www.posetech.com). In summary, this is my take on what I found:

Pose Running was actually the first to be developed and is billed as a 'better way to run'. It was developed in the 1970's by Dr. Nicholas Romanov, a sports scientist, in the former Soviet Union. The Pose Method® is essentially a way of coaching/teaching effective movement patterns by breaking down the movements of an activity into 'poses' or body positions. It uses coached drills to improve the 'poses' and technique which, over time with repetition, will increase efficiency and skill.

Chi Running was developed by Danny Dreyer who studied Chi with Master Zin Xilin and Master George Xu and has spent 35 years of his life running everything from 10 km races to 100 mile ultra-marathons. This again is a coaching method with a holistic 'Chi twist'.

Evolution Running is the 'newest' in that it has been developed in the 00's! But some of the earliest publications on it can be dated back to 2005. This was developed in the US by Ken Meirke and claims to help you 'run faster and further with fewer injuries'. Again, this is essentially a coaching method that uses drills to improve technique and therefore efficiency. So these 'new' trends are maybe not as new as we are first led to believe.

So... back to my original question, is it best to Chi, Pose or Evolve? In all honesty, they are essentially all talking about the same things - just packaged in a slightly different way. In order to increase running efficiency then, there are some basics that you need to follow and any good coach worth his salt should be coaching these principles. After all, that's his job! I am not knocking any of the three methods and when it comes down to it we are all different individuals who respond to different ideas and ways of learning and thinking about ourselves and our bodies. The Pose and Evolution methods are going to appeal much more to a scientifically-minded individual, whereas the Chi method will appeal to a more spiritually-minded individual. For me, as long a people are getting the right information and it allows them to get out and achieve their running goals then it has to be good. At the end of the day how important is it all anyway?....

I leave you with a short video courtesy of Mark Arnold at Hark Events in the US that I came across in my research which highlights this. Nature or Nurture? That's a whole other argument...

Paul King, Physiotherapist, Chancery Lane