RIO GRANDE, P.R. — Injury rates among recreational runners were significantly reduced after they adopted a running technique called ChiRunning, according to results of a survey of 2,500 runners.
Previous research has suggested that injuries among runners increase with age, but such injuries may be prevented with some simple modifications to running technique that can be self-taught from a book, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella of West Virginia University, Morgantown, said in an interview.
ChiRunning, described in a book of the same name by Danny Dreyer (New York: Fireside, 2004), involves leaning forward while running so that the midfoot, rather than the heel, strikes the ground.
Dr. Cucuzzella and his colleagues, including Mr. Dreyer, conducted an online survey of adult runners who had bought the ChiRunning book or had subscribed to the ChiRunning e-mail newsletter. The survey, conducted online over a 2-month period in the fall of 2007, is the first study to evaluate the impact of changing running technique on injury rates in moderate and recreational runners, said Dr. Cucuzzella, a family physician and experienced runner who has dealt with his share of injuries.
A total of 71% of the runners said that they were able to teach themselves the technique from the book; others learned it from clinics or other resources. Most (80%) of the respondents indicated that they ran fewer then 30 miles per week, and more than 70% were older than 40 years. Approximately 55% of the respondents were men, 45% were women, and about 50% overall had been injured before trying the technique.
More than 90% of the respondents said that they were able to change their running mechanics, and 60% of these reported improvements within a month. Just over half of the respondents said that they had tried ChiRunning to recover from an injury, and 88% of these runners believed that the technique “probably” or “definitely” aided their recovery.
Some individuals reported that they were able to avoid surgery, said Dr. Cucuzzella who presented the results in a poster at the annual meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group.
Overall, injury rates were significantly lower in the 6 months after learning the ChiRunning technique, compared with baseline rates. The number of respondents who reported missing more than 20 days of running because of injury dropped from 25% to 6%, and the number who reported missing 10–20 days of running because of injury dropped from 15% to 5%. More than 90% of the respondents said they thought that the ChiRunning technique had played a role in preventing injuries, and more than 90% of the respondents said that they would recommend ChiRunning to others.
The clinical implications are that physicians can introduce patients, especially those with nagging sports injuries, to an intervention that has been shown to reduce injury rates and keep people active.
Dr. Cucuzzella plans to conduct a prospective study to follow and compare injury rates in runners who have used the ChiRunning technique with control patients who have not.
Dr. Cucuzzella had no financial conflicts to disclose.
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When ChiRunning (left), the ankles, pelvis, and shoulders are in alignment, which is reported to increase efficiency and reduce the risk of injury. Lori Cheung
