Of all the topics that I've written about in these newsletter articles, this subject matter is the most important theme that underlies ChiRunning. It is such a vast subject, in fact, that there could be an entire book written just on Body Sensing alone. That being said, here's the first installment.

I'm assuming that if you're reading this, that you are presently occupying a body. Almost everyone I know has one. In fact, it's one of the prerequisites to existing on this planet or this plane of existence. It's a requirement for participating in life. If you didn't have one, you wouldn't be here. And, since it's our main vehicle for experiencing life, one would think that it would have a pretty high priority when it comes to taking good care of it. Amazingly, there are people who take better care of their car than they do of their body. I don't think that it's because they like their car so much. I think that they are either uneducated or insensitive to how huge a responsibility it is to possess this thing we call a body. We read every day about people doing incredible things with their bodies, from climbing Mt. Everest without oxygen, to running a marathon at a 4:55 minute/mile pace to having a baby. We unfortunately also read about the incredible amount of abuse that people put themselves through, from eating poorly to working a 60 hour week. What I'm getting at here is that we all need to learn the importance of taking good care of ourselves. And where you start is learning how to sense the effects that life has on your body and whether or not what you're doing is healthy or unhealthy in both the long term and the short term.

For example, a stomach ache could be telling you any one of the following things:
What you ate wasn't good for you,
or that you didn't chew your food well enough,
or that you're worrying too much,
or that you're hungry,
or that your belt is too tight,
or that you're exercising too soon after eating.

So, where do we begin? Well, that's where Body Sensing comes in.
There's got to be a law somewhere that says: "Before you can know what to do, you must first know what's going on." You've got to be able to sense what's going on in your body before you can make any corrections or adjustments. It all starts with simple observation watching yourself. ChiRunning teaches you how to sense things like what great posture feels like, what a lean feels like or what a brisk tempo feels like. All of those little focuses that I'm teaching you are to help you to become aware of what your body is doing, right or wrong. They're also there to help you to learn to direct your body to move in a way that is smoother and more energy efficient.

The first step in Body Sensing is to learn to observe yourself: your movement patterns, your posture, where you hold your tension, your ability or inability to relax, your muscle usage in various circumstances and what various sensations are caused by. You're just learning to watch, not with the idea of changing anything, just simply observing yourself.

It's incredible how little we listen to our bodies, but the focuses in ChiRunning provide a great way to consciously practice listening. Your body has a lot to say and the less you listen to it now, the louder it will scream later through injury, illness or dysfunction. Personally, I'm getting tired of being bombarded with ads for products who's purpose is to dull the body to discomfort and prevent people from feeling what it is that they're doing to themselves. I recently read an ad in "Runner's World" for Advil that went something like, "When my body is talking pain I try to keep the conversation short." If something is going on with my body, it seems to me that I owe it to myself to figure out what I'm doing wrong and make the necessary adjustments.

Here's an exercise you can do while you're running to help you practice Body Sensing. I call it the "Body Scan." Remember, this is only the first step and just an exercise in learning how to observe your body. It's not necessary to make adjustments -- just watch.

The next time you go out for a run do this: Once you're warmed up and well into your run, begin with your focus at the top of your head and slowly scan yourself from head to toe observing any sensations that you meet along the way. Move from area to area making mental notes of what you find along the way. Move from your head to your neck, shoulders, arms, chest, abdomen, lower back, pelvis, hips, upper legs, knees, lower legs, ankles, and finally feet and toes. It helps to do this "Body Scan" at least once per run and best if you can do it more often than that.

Here are some questions you might ask yourself:
Do I feel tension here? Relaxed here? Heavy, light, soft, open? Get the idea? Just watch and observe and see which descriptions come to mind. Here's a tip: the more you watch, the more you'll see. All of this observation will eventually give you a great base from which to respond with the correct action.

You can never know your body too well. It is a great and wonderfully mysterious thing and by making the effort to sense what it's telling you, you can use it as your guide to learn how to move through your life in a healthy and vibrant way.

A good place to begin is to look at the place in your running that gives you the most problems. Is there a part of your body where you consistently feel some discomfort? Let's say there is. The first thing to do is to identify exactly where that is and, if possible, what the nature of the injury is. Is it muscle, ligament, tendon or bone? Is it a specific spot or a general area? Can you manipulate the area to recreate the sensation? If you can, then try to move that particular area in away that doesn't cause more discomfort. Is there an adjustment in your running form that will help the sensation to disappear? Experiment with it. If you don't try, you won't really learn how to become your own best doctor.

©2004 ChiLiving, Inc.