At 7am on Saturday in Baška, Nathalie Limon will guide restorative yoga to a live soundscape built from sounds gathered in nature at Love Trails Croatia. As you settle into long, supported shapes, the place you have come to explore will become part of the practice itself.

Five hours later, The Running Room’s physios will be talking runners through what really matters after a big day on the trails. Elsewhere in the week, there are opportunities to experiment with capoeira-inspired partner work, build strength for the hills or discover how much your body has to negotiate when you lift a single hand from the floor.

That breadth is deliberate. For Neil Frankel, curator of the movement programme, the connections between these experiences are what make the week interesting.

“My hope is that people invest time with a wide range of teachers across different disciplines,” he says.

The programme rests on four pillars: building a resilient body for life on the trails through strength and conditioning (S&C); offering a counterpoint to running through yoga; exploring breathwork, meditation and cold-water sea dips; and expanding curiosity and capability through a more varied movement practice.

Together, they offer plenty of ways into the week. You might arrive looking for practical tools to support your running and find yourself drawn to stillness. You might feel most at home on a yoga mat, then discover the pleasure of a strength session or an unpredictable partner game. Neil’s invitation is to make room for that possibility.

Built for life on the trails

The demands of trail running run through the programme: the force needed to climb, the control required to descend, the balance involved in crossing uneven ground and the strength to keep moving when fatigue arrives.

The Running Room brings those demands into focus through sessions including Trail Strong, Bombproof Knees for Hills and Trails, and Strong for the Long Run. Expect practical movement, technique coaching and strength work you can understand, adapt and take home.

The attention to detail extends to where sessions sit within the week. On Friday morning, Race-Day Ready prepares runners and hikers for Timed Out through mobility, activation, balance and dynamic drills. The intensity is deliberately moderate, leaving energy for the adventure ahead. The Running Room and The Movement Project then come together for the Timed Out warm-up, combining physical preparation with awareness and intention.

Later that day, Trail Reset offers gentle movement and relaxed breathing, while Happy Feet gives tired feet and ankles their own attention. Preparation and recovery have both been considered alongside the miles themselves.

It is Saturday’s Runner’s Recovery Toolkit, at midday, that Neil singles out when asked to choose a highlight.

“Recovery is often surrounded by gadgets, hacks and complicated routines. But the things that help you recover well are usually much simpler. This session is designed to help you understand what really matters after a big run and what’s simply optional.”

The session combines gentle recovery movement with a practical discussion of food, hydration, sleep, training load and post-run soreness. Its value lies in the understanding you can carry into your next long run, race or training week.

“I think we can be so attracted to the bright lights of improvement, gains and split times, it’s easy to overlook the benefit of recovering like a champ,” Neil says.

“Bringing world-class running physios to Love Trails to pass on their experience, expertise and stoke of recovering well alongside their more traditional sessions means that we can get the benefit for years to come wherever our running journey takes us.”

Finding a different pace

Alongside that physical preparation, the programme makes space to slow down, notice how you feel and give your attention to breath and sensation.

Yoga takes several forms here. Jules Michelin’s Yoga for Runners works with the hips, hamstrings, calves and lower back through mobility and supported stretches. Robbie Redway’s Wake Up Slow Yoga Flow offers a mindful Hatha practice. With Ivona Medić, Hatha Yoga: Effort & Ease explores where effort supports movement and where you might be holding more tension than you need.

Even within familiar disciplines, the invitation changes from teacher to teacher.

Sound is part of that variety. Nathalie Limon’s Dawn Chorus pairs slow movement and breath with an original soundscape of birdsong and found sound. Her Saturday Breathe Into Restorative session brings the sounds of the festival’s natural surroundings into a live score. Balance’s meditation, movement and breathwork session uses sound alongside stillness and slow, deliberate movement.

Neil describes this part of the programme as “a voyage into downregulation”: an opportunity to settle, soften and find a quieter rhythm.

For Rachel from Clapham Yoga Club, mornings by the Adriatic begin with guided breathwork and finish with an optional sea dip. The Movement Project’s Morning Form draws on yoga, tai chi, qigong and martial arts forms before heading into the water.

There is also space to explore stillness itself. In Ivona’s Somatics: Stillness & Movement, simple tasks draw attention to the small movements already happening within the body. There is no sequence to learn or particular shape to achieve. The practice begins with noticing.

Across these sessions, recovery, attention and rest become things you can explore with the same curiosity you bring to a new trail.

Room for play

Some of Neil’s most enthusiastic recommendations concern sessions that may be harder to picture from their titles alone.

Take Four Points with Nathalie Limon from Waking Dreams, on Thursday at midday.

“When people hear ‘balance’ they picture handstands. This isn’t that. Four Points is about the quieter kind: the stability you build close to the floor, and what your body actually does to hold it.”

The starting point is tabletop: four points of contact with the ground. From there, you begin to change the equation. Lift a hand, lift a foot, shift your weight, crawl or turn into reverse tabletop, and notice how the rest of your body responds.

A simple starting position becomes a surprisingly rich physical puzzle.

“If you’re a little stuck with your movement practice, this one’s for you!” Neil says.

His other recommendation, The Balanced Body with Tom Colville from Balance, takes place on Wednesday at 9:45am. It moves from meditation and breathwork into intuitive improvisation, then builds towards explosive jumping movements, partner games and bodyweight strength.

“This isn’t about mastering one system — it’s about curiosity, intuition, and play as the lens through which we build a balanced body.”

That willingness to move between disciplines also shapes Errin Briscoe’s Language of Movement, presented by Vivobarefoot, on Friday at 4pm. Inspired by capoeira, contact improvisation and social play, the session explores what changes when movement becomes a conversation with someone else.

“On the other end of the spectrum, I love to see how my mind and body react to seeing what’s possible,” Neil says.

Through partner work, rhythm and spontaneous adaptation, participants explore balance, timing and intention in response to another person. There is an element of unpredictability: paying attention, reading physical cues and responding as the situation changes.

Neil describes it as “asking us to stay present in unpredictability and chaos”, before offering a succinct verdict: “Utterly magical!”

Elsewhere, Ivona’s Sharing Movement introduces contact improvisation through individual, partner and group explorations, with no previous dance experience needed. Saturday’s A Movement Playground, powered by Vivobarefoot, offers physical puzzles, groundwork and new movement patterns to investigate.

Curiosity has a practical role throughout. Trying something unfamiliar gives you a chance to discover habits, strengths and possibilities that your usual routine might leave unexplored.

“Don’t disqualify yourself from trying”

A varied programme can be exciting and a little daunting. You might recognise the names of the practices you already enjoy, then hesitate over everything else. Perhaps you don’t feel flexible enough. Perhaps you have never tried breathwork, calisthenics or contact improvisation. Perhaps joining a class feels like stepping into a room where everyone else will know what to do.

Neil’s first piece of advice is simple: “Don’t disqualify yourself from trying.”

“As humans, we have a tendency to be creatures of habit, seeking comfort and familiarity,” he says. “With a more open mindset, anything is possible — and you might just surprise yourself!”

He is equally clear about the atmosphere he wants people to encounter.

“There are no points on offer to be the best and no one wins — our movement programme is designed to help you discover and explore.”

His second reminder is about the standards we apply to ourselves.

“We can be our own harshest critic but wouldn’t dream of saying similar words to anyone else.”

That generosity leaves room to choose a session for the experience of being a beginner, or to venture towards the part of the programme you would usually overlook.

“If you’re deeply into downregulating — go to an S&C session. If you’re coming from a gym background, try something softer. We’ve all got so much to learn.”

The hope is that you leave feeling refreshed, invigorated and inspired, “with the echo of the week resonating long into the future”. That echo might be a recovery habit, a new approach to strength, a teacher whose ideas stay with you or the memory of trying something you had already decided you couldn’t do.

Neil borrows a phrase from surfing to capture the spirit of it: “The best surfer in the water is the one with the biggest smile on their face.”

“Dive in with us… We got you!”

You don’t need to book any of the movement sessions: just show up. Some yoga mats will be available, but bring your own if you can so you don’t miss out on using one. Explore the full movement guide for session descriptions, times and locations, pick a few that spark your curiosity, and leave room to surprise yourself in Baška.