Bike, Hike or Run
less strain = more fun

Supported small group training runs with a focus on vert for mountain races. Comfortable and convenient lodging, camaraderie, recovery and trail education. Let us do the adventure planning while you do the running, biking, or hiking.

As a group of coaches, PTs and strength and conditioning educators we want to share our knowledge and help you better prepare for your next race or adventure.

Pisgah offers both gnarly east coast terrain as well as miles of smooth gravel roads. It is well suited for preparing any athlete for all sorts of east coast or western ultras with long climbs and fast descents.

Spring camp focus: Hellbender 100 with some guided runs on the Hellbender course (when weather allows.)

for more information email rbellkelly4@gmail.com

Services Available:
Run Support: drop off, pick up, rolling aid stations
Prepared Group Meals
Group Lodging at Balanced Retreats, Pisgah Forest NC
Need Specific Recovery & Educational Programming – identify and address your areas for improvement.

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Ready to submit your video? Contact us first!

General Guidelines:

Clothing:
We need to see your body. Wear shorts, tights, clothing with high contrast to your background. Run through even light conditions, avoiding mixed contrast if possible.

Views:  (Please see example videos)
1. One video showing front & rear:  3 passes preferred.
Have your camera person hold a still position, with you coming straight to a fixed camera point and then past it.  Try to hold the subject in the frame as long as possible, then spin quickly as you run past. We like to record 3 passes to get a few good frames.  A total run distance of about 50 feet is usually enough so that you are in normal stride speed as you are nearest the camera.

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2. One video showing both sides: 3 passes preferred

Then repeat the same procedure for the side view.  Have  the camera about 15 feet or so away.  Running past someone on the opposite side of a neighborhood street works well. Having the camera person with their back to the sun is optimal.

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Video Quality:
The more frames per second you can capture, the better. 

Share the files uncompressed
Google Drive share, Dropbox or similar file transfer methods are preferred.  Emailed or text attachments typically compress the data quality and make it harder to see the critical details. Photo sharing apps are also sub optimal, since most do not allow downloading of the data.  For ideal results, I need to download the file and then analyze if using various motion capture apps.

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Starting Wednesday 4/22, Karen will be teaching live via Zoom.

Attendance will be charged against current class passes.

The Zoom class will open at 5:15, and you’ll be in the Waiting Room first (a security measure) then we will admit you to the class. This will allow folks to get in, get set up and have a few minutes of social interactions. The class instruction will start at 5:30.

Start out in “Gallery View” to see everyone, but once class starts we recommend you put the session into “Speaker View” (the link at upper right toggles between Gallery View and Speaker View; on some devices Speaker View is called “Pin Video”).

You can keep your connection with both Audio and Video ON, but we will MUTE everyone during the class so all can hear the narration without distraction. When we’re done, we will unmute everyone so you can give feedback and we can chat before closing the session.

60 minute audio Awareness Through Movement lessons

taught by Karen Dold

These are the lessons that would have been taught during our regular Wednesday evening class.

In an effort to support our teachers and the studio, the recording of this class is available by request.  We will charge the normal class fee for the recording. If you would like to have the recording access, please email us, bbeatty (at) balanced-movement (dot) com

Thank you for your support, we hope you enjoy the lessons.

Lesson 1: Relating Center with Breath
20-03-18
This lesson focuses attention to dantien (body center) and breathing, holding a focal point of connecting breathing to dantien.  A focus on breath is a foundational element for meditation and relaxation. This lesson seeks to create a sense of safety and calm in a chaotic time.

Lesson 2:  Shifting Focus to Improve Posture
20-03-25
A well-known strategy for shifting from feeling anxious and fearful to feeling calm is to orient one’s attention to the present moment environment, to present moment sensations within the self, and to present moment movement of the breath.  This lesson encompasses all three strategies. Experience the journey to calm grounded presence through this guided movement of your attention and your self.

Lesson 3: Finding Ease
20-04-01
Experience how directing your attention and exploring the HOW of what you are doing can shift your experience from effortful toward effortless, from anxiety to calm serenity, from strain to ease.  Awaken a sense of wholeness and resourcefulness within yourself that can ground you even as the world rapidly changes around you.

Lesson 4: Finding the Elasticity in your Lungs
20-04-08
Learn to use your breath coupled with your attention to sense the location, shape, capacity and responsiveness of each of the 5 lobes of your lungs.  This exploration not only will calm you and ground you, but also will help renew the elasticity and breathing capacity of your lungs. If an infection or disease should compromise some portion of your lungs, having developed this skill, you could direct your breath intentionally to the more healthy and still responsive lobes.  

 NOTE: Included is a .pdf file with diagrams of the lobes of the lungs.  During the lesson, given that this is audio, Karen took people on a self-touch journey to find the lobe locations. Viewing the .pdf before doing the lesson may help with the visualizations and awareness. 

Lesson 5: Pliable Ribs Make Breathing Easier
20-04-15
You will learn strategies to improve the pliability of your ribs.  Discover the ribs’ freedom to expand in all directions to invite fuller breathing.  This lesson will calm you, ground you, and improve your posture, and is a fabulous compliment to last week’s lesson in “Finding the Elasticity of your Lungs.

Lesson 6: Paradoxical Breathing
20-04-23
Feeling anxious these days?  Discover how attentive exploration of this pattern of paradoxical breathing (one component of how the body expresses anxiety) will soothe and calm you.  Return yourself to an embodied sense of connection with the air that nourishes you, with the ground that supports you, with the space that surrounds you, and with a felt sense of the calm grounded wholeness of yourself.

Lesson 7: Global Breathing
20-04-29
Discover how attentive, precise, and gentle exploration of the movement of your exhale and of your inhale can invite the possibility of your breathing throughout the whole torso.  Begin to remember the sense of expanding 360 degrees around with each breath, a skill you had as a baby, but have long since forgotten.  As this possibility re-emerges, your posture will change to one of effortless uprightness and a deep sense of calm and well-being will arise.

“Global Breathing” lesson, from Moshe’s Berkeley teachings via Jeff Haller 4/2/20

Lesson 8: Relaxed Eyes
20-05-06
Eyes tired and strained from too much screen time these days?  This lesson will quiet the tension in your eyes and face while stimulating the “rest and relax” aspect of your nervous system to create a profound sense of peacefulness and relaxation throughout your entire body.  

Lesson 9: Rejuvenating the Face
20-05-13
Learn to use the power of your attention to relax and rejuvenate your face.   Discover how the state of your face impacts your breathing, your vocal and facial expressions, your posture, and your emotional state.  You’ll emerge from class calmer and more grounded.   If you look in the mirror before and after, you’ll be surprised by what/who you see.  You’ve had a Feldenkrais Facial!

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[box]A perfect complement to our Monday morning Running Strength & Skills Class – 7am every week at the studio! [/box]

[button link=”https://balanced-movement-online.thinkific.com/bundles/running-strength-skills” bg_color=”#e6e6e6″ text=”dark”]Sign up now![/button]

Just $15/month for access to ALL of our current and future running strength, skills, and educational programs! 

We think you’re going to find this bundle of running goodies very worth your hard-earned money, but we start off by giving you 2 weeks totally free — just to give you a chance to scope it out.

And, of course, you can cancel your subscription at any time!

The post Introducing: Running Strength & Skills Online Workouts! appeared first on Balanced Movement Studio | Carrboro, North Carolina.

[box]WARM UP [/box]

[dropcap]1[/dropcap] Easy pace running
10 minutes

[dropcap]2[/dropcap] Dynamic Warm Up for Plyometric Workout
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[box]CIRCUIT 1: REPEAT 2X [/box]

[dropcap]1[/dropcap] 4 min. timed out and back tempo pace run

[dropcap]2[/dropcap]Double Leg Drop Jumps (off bleacher or step)
10 jumps [toggle title_open=”Hide video” title_closed=”View video” style=”white”]
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[dropcap]3[/dropcap] 2 minute recovery pace run

[box]CIRCUIT 2: REPEAT 2X [/box]

[dropcap]1[/dropcap] 4 min. timed out and back tempo pace run

[dropcap]2[/dropcap]Lateral Bounding into Single Leg Hop
20 jumps (10 each leg)
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[dropcap]3[/dropcap] 2 minute recovery pace run

[box]CIRCUIT 3: REPEAT 2X [/box]

[dropcap]1[/dropcap] 4 min. timed out and back tempo pace run

[dropcap]2[/dropcap]Jumping Lunge / Scissor Lunge
10 jumps
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[dropcap]3[/dropcap] 4 minute recovery pace run

[box]COOL DOWN [/box]

[dropcap]*[/dropcap] Dynamic Cool Down
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[box  type=”info”]Notes and Videos
This workout based upon Smruti Shah, DPT’s article in Endurance Magazine. Read this for more information about incorporating plyometrics into run training.[/box]

MODIFICATIONS

If the drop jump is challenging or painful, you can substitute:

If coordinating the Lateral Bounding to Single Leg Hop is challenging, work on each component as a separate exercise. When each component feels smooth, then work on combining them.

With all of the jumps, maintaining a straight line from the front with the hip, knee and ankle is critical for knee safety.

If the drop landing was difficult or painful in the first exercise, use this as a reference to work on improving your landing form before trying to jump from the landing position.

If you like this, get all of our Running Skills and Workouts

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These can be done anytime by themselves. If you want to use them as part of a recovery or pre-race workout, we suggest this:
Do a short run to shake everything out
Do an post run Neurological Reset cool down
Then flow it into the Finding Running Flow.

Dynamic Cool Down for Endurance Sports

Finding Running Flow – 6 min version

Finding Running Flow – 17 min version

Why do we call it Neurological Reset cool down?
Muscle Tension Setpoint Explanation

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The post Single Leg Squat Cone Touch appeared first on Balanced Movement Studio | Carrboro, North Carolina.

Every running stride is repetition of Single Leg Stance. The objective of this move is theoretically simple, but realistically challenging exercise is to refine your control when on one leg so that your energy expenditure in running goes toward moving you forward, not just holding you upright.

Exercise

• Practicing with a mirror initially can help with feedback. Place an object 8-12” high on the floor directly in front of your foot on the side you will be squatting with.

• Lift the opposite foot a couple of inches off of the ground. Keep it beside the standing leg. Shift so that your foot, knee, hip joint center and ear are in a straight line. Your pelvis and shoulders should remain level with the ground.

• If you can’t find and hold this alignment on one leg, then add enough weight to the other leg to get into desired alignment.

• Maintaining this alignment, slowly squat down. Start the movement by taking your hip back and down. Reach toward the cone/object with the arm opposite from the squatting leg.

• Go as far as you can holding the alignment from the front, keeping the spine long as you bend from the hip and maintaining the knee over, but not in front of your foot.

• Return to standing. Repeat up to 15 times a side, or as many as you can comfortably do without sacrificing the desired alignment. You should feel that the muscles around the hip joint are working the most.

The post Core Corner: Single Leg Squat Cone Touch appeared first on Balanced Movement Studio | Carrboro, North Carolina.

Oatmeal is quick to fix, quick to digest, nutrient dense, provides steady energy, and is easily transportable.

Instant Oatmeal packets are easy, but often fail the nutrient dense and steady energy demands of an active lifestyle.  We’ve been experimenting with a few options that work better than a Quaker Oats package.  All you need is a couple of scoops of mix, add boiling water, stir, let it absorb 2-3 minutes and enjoy.

Here are some combinations that we like.  Please share your own options with us and we will keep the list growing.

4 c thin rolled oats
1 c pecan halves
1 c dried apple slices
10-12 pitted dates
1.5 t salt
2 T ground chia seed
1 T cinnamon
1 t ginger
1/2 c coconut sugar

Preparation Notes: rough chop the apples first. place nuts, fruit in food processor and process till it chunks to desired size for your mix. We then add the other ingredients with the oats on top. This facilitates mixing of all ingredients. Pulse the whole mixture a few times till the oats are down to desired size.  A chunkier mixture gives a more satisfying mouth chew if eating regularly as a sit down meal or mid day snack.  A smoother smaller mixture yields more of an oatmeal slurry in the bowl, but goes down quick and starts absorbing quicker for on the go pre-activity fueling.

Ingredient Notes: we use thin rolled oats (sometimes called cooking oats) bought in bulk, you can use any rolled oats; all fruit should be unsweetened; brown sugar could be substituted and amount reduced; we grind the chia seed into the mix with a hand spice mill to aide absorption and give a smoother consistency to the mix; the salt and spice could be reduced, we go heavy on the salt since we usually use it as a pre or post sweaty workout fuel and the spices have nice anti-inflammatory properties; if your palate and digestion take it, you could bump the chia for even more healthy omega-3 fatty acid intake.

Variations:
1 c walnuts instead of pecans
1 c dried cranberries instead of cherries
+ 1/4 c unsweetened coconut flakes

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