Leaning to Engage Gravity

The four main components of the Chi Running form are posture, lean, heel lift and arm swing. This blog entry discusses lean.

Your lean is what engages gravity to pull you forward so that you don’t have to propel yourself by pushing off with your feet and leg muscles, thus allowing them to remain relaxed when you run.

When leaning you engage the maximum pull of gravity if your posture is completely aligned and you are only leaning forward from your ankles with your legs and feet completely relaxed from the knees down.

Try it for yourself … stand up straight and tall … then …

(1) Only bend your neck so your head is leaning forward … leave the rest of the body straight and upright … do you feel gravity pulling you forward? … Nope.
(2) Bend forward at the waist where your belly button is located … leave everything below the belly button straight and upright … do you feel gravity pulling you forward? … Nope.
(3) Bend forward at the hips … leave everything below the hips straight and upright… do you feel gravity pulling you forward? … Nope.

OK now stand up straight and tall and relax your legs, ankles and feet completely … keep your entire posture aligned and let it fall forward slightly with the only bend being at your ankles … do your feel gravity pulling you forward … You bet!

In fact the straighter your posture, the lesser lean that is required to efficiently engage the forward pull of gravity. Whenever I am running to maintain a certain pace and it starts dropping off, the first thing I do is straighten my posture. That alone is usually all that is required to bring my pace back since it increases the pull of gravity for my present angle of lean.

You want to use the component of gravity pulling you forward as much as possible so you don’t want to provide any resistance to it. Resistance comes from holding any tension in your lower legs and ankles which roots your body to the ground and impedes your forward movement. Instead you want to keep your lower legs and ankles loose, relaxed and limp when running.

Your lean is your gas pedal. The more you lean with an aligned posture the greater the component of gravity pulling your forward and the faster you go. The faster you go the more critical it is to relax your lower legs, ankles and feet to minimize resistance to the forward pull of gravity. This is a opposite to most running forms that require more muscle usage to increase speed.

As you increase your angle of lean there is a tendency to want to bend at the waist. Leveling your pelvis stops you from bending at the waist and keeps your posture aligned. The more you lean the more your lower abdominal muscles have to work to keep your pelvis level to prevent you bending at the waist.

Detailed instructions and exercises on how to properly lean are provided within the Chi Running book, video DVDs and audio CDs.