Forum
I recently started followin the Chi Running philiosphy and have developed pain under the ball of one foot. I visited my local podiatrist and he was not familiar with Chi running and simply advised me to go back to the heel strike stype of running. Do you have any other options?
See my note under the Answer from DocPod.
Regards,
David.
I am not surpised that the Podiatrists did not know about Chi Running. I have heard of it, but do not know a lot about it, so looked it up. It is a technque that uses a forefoot strike as opposed to the more common heel strike. My understanding of running biomechanics is that it takes energy to change and the most efficient style is usually the natural one. There are a lot of ideas, such as Chi, Pose and Barefoot with them all claiming to be more efficient, but the research does not support that.
If the Chi Running is causing pain in the forefoot, then if you do not have a compelling reason to keep running that way, then maybe reverting to heel stike may be a good idea. Without knowing the specific diagnosis that you have, it is a bit hard to give any more specific advice.
Thanks DocPod for linking to Podiatry Arena!. There is a more recent thread there on Chi Running: https://podiatryarena.com/index.php?threads/chi-running.79295/
and I wrote about my experiences here:
https://podiapaedia.org/wiki/sports-medicine/individual-sports/running/running-technique/chi-running/