The abbreviated version of our name, C.HILL MOVEMENT, is meant as more than just a cool-sounding shorthand. We are signaling something essential that we believe in and teach.
What do we mean when we talk about “chill movement?”
Sarah has a yoga background, so of course that comes into play here. She talks often about the idea of asana: positions you can exist in and move through with steadiness and ease. We want you to feel fluid and connected, no matter what position you’re in.
If you notice that something feels off in a particular position, the question then becomes: where is the issue and can we fix it through attention and practice?
When we’re training at Chapel Hill Movement Gym, we have particular ideas of what you should be focusing on:
- You should be able to breathe.
- You should be working towards making your movement look effortless.
- You should be enjoying what you’re learning.
But if any of these things are a challenge, that’s okay! The goal is not perfection, but to work towards personal improvement with these ideas in mind.
We are focused first and foremost on longevity, which means training you in the way that maximizes your physical and psychological well-being in both the near and long term. If you’re injured, exhausted, confused, bored, or just plain having a bad time, your training is going to suffer.
When we say chill movement, we mean we want you to pay attention, tune in to where you’re at right now, and train in the way that’s going to maximize your strength and vitality now and in the future.
Further clarification
Moving in a chill way does NOT mean avoiding risks or hiding from fear.
It does NOT mean laziness.
It does NOT mean free from intensity.
It means preparing adequately and consciously. Avoiding stupid or carelss decisions. Being aware. We train in a way that is thoughtful, adaptive, and curious. If the day calls for it, we do indeed go hard.
But we would rather you move some than not at all. Advertising and bro-brained modern gym culture would have you believing that the only options are NAVY SEAL or COUCH POTATO. We reject this idea. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, and we have a lot of variation depending on the day.
We will push you. You will be challenged outside your comfort zone, but intelligently so.
The truth is that there’s already enough “NO PAIN, NO GAIN!” training out there. And while some people enjoy it and can indeed make progress under such conditions, we firmly believe that at least part of why so many people drift away from exercise (or never start in the first place) is because they need something a little more nuanced than MAXIMUM EFFORT, ALL THE TIME.
Most of us need a different approach. We want to do a proper assessment, figure out where you are starting from, and help you understand where we’re going after that.
We focus on training that falls into that coveted “goldilocks zone” — challenging enough to intrigue a person, but not so hard as to seem impossible or discouraging. We don’t want to be degraded or made to feel less than. We don’t want to yell at you or guilt you into training a certain way. We want to train thoughtfully and make you feel respected and welcomed. And we want to have fun doing it.
Intent before intensity. That’s the essence of chill movement.
This stuff ain’t easy. But it’s also not hard just for the sake of difficulty. It’s a training conversation, not a declaration.
Come find out what it means to move chill!