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Title: Chi Walking: The Five Mindful Steps for Lifelong Health and Energy
ISBN: 0743267206
Author:
Danny Dreyer
Katherine Dreyer
Publicate Date: 2006-03-21
Publish: 2006-03-21
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.44
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.50
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.17
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Danger of knee injury
Chi Running is one of my favorite running books because it taught me to run in a way that is effortless and natural. In Chi Walking, running coach Danny Dreyer applies the same principles to walking, but in my experience this does not work. The basic method in both books is to let the body tilt forward slightly so gravity pulls you along. In running this works fine because your feet land more on the toes thus absorbing the weight of the body with no shock. In walking however you land more on the heels or midfoot, so if you are tilted forward falling towards gravity, the full weight of the body slams the knees with each step.
After trying this method of walking for half an hour I was feeling this slamming and tension in my knees, and figured I might be doing it wrong. I carefully reread the instructions and made the forward tilt very slight, tried to land on the midfoot rather than heel, etc., yet still the knees were slammed with each step, and all my back muscles became tense from holding the slight tilt position. After three miles, I stopped because it was quite clear I was forcing my body into an unnatural motion and damaging it.
I looked on Mr. Dreyers blog where he notes that "umpteen" reader have complained that their feet were "slapping the pavement much harder" with this approach. He acknowledges that landing on the heels in this way is indeed "unhealthy for your knees, the slapping can bruise the metatarsal heads." He suggests that a change of technique--landing on the midfoot directly under the body, and twisting the pelvis--will completely eliminate this hazard. In my experience this is simply not true. These corrections slightly soften the bow, but there is still a noticeable shock to the knees on each step (the full weight of the body hits the knees at once instead of rocking onto them).
Mr. Dreyer as pictured in the book is a very light, small-framed person, so he can probably get way with walking like this. A heavier person using this approach regularly will in my opinion almost certainly damage their knees over the long term (or more likely they will stop using it because it feels so jarring and unnatural). The corrections Mr. Dreyer suggests are complex, subtle and insufficient to fully eliminate the increased shock of this method.
In my opinion this is a very risky technique, virtually impossible to use without shocking the legs and knees, hence the one star.
Addendum: The day after my three-mile trial of Chi Walking my knees are aching like I jumped off a ledge. Looking through my racewalking books, all advise upright posture, warning that a forward tilt puts strain on the neck muscles and knees. Ron Laird, who won more national championships than any other racewalker, writes in Fast Walking, "Keep an upright posture with your hips directly underneath you... leaning too far forward from your ankles or waist puts extra pressure on the knee joint."
I think Mr. Dreyer is unwise to assume the many readers who complained are all doing it wrong. They are alerting him that his emphasis on forward leaning is imbalanced and potentially injurious.
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2: Over-long, wordy, verbose
When it takes the author(s) 72 pages to offer the first real bit of practical advice, you know that something is amiss. They are aware of the potential criticism that we all "know" how to walk, but they do themselves no favours by having so many preliminary chapters which are full of nothing other than platitudes and truisms, combined with a hard-sell of they method they are promoting.
When we get to the actual advice, there are plenty of photographs promoting one idea or another about perfect posture, but for the life of me, some of the points just escape me. For example, we are told to level the pelvis (imagining a basin of water which we must not allow to tilt, thus spilling the liquid) and we see the before and after photographs, emphasing the straight waistline, yet in a following paragraph we are told to lean forward (to use gravity) and the accompanying photo clearly has a tilted pelvis. Go figure.
This book could have been edited down to a fraction of its current length.
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3: chi walking
excellent book. well written, and instructive without being stiff. It will definitly become a part of my reference library.
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4: Chi Walking
Very good book Chi Walking: The Five Mindful Steps for Lifelong Health and Energy
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5: Chi Running/Walking
Both Chi Walking & Chi Running have helped me immensely. I no longer have knee pain when I run and walking has felt almost effortless. The body sensing and relaxation techniques have helped so much even if I feel little twinges since the twinges go away. I highly recommend both books for anyone struggling with walking and running hang-ups.
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