What Is Forrest Yoga? Inside Ana Forrest's Intense, Healing-Focused Style
Forrest Yoga is a modern, physically intense style of yoga created by American teacher Ana Forrest in 1982. It is built on four pillars — breath, strength, integrity, and spirit — and is best known for long pose holds, demanding abdominal work, deliberate neck and shoulder release, and an explicitly therapeutic intent: Forrest designed the method around working with physical pain and emotional trauma. Classes are usually taught in a mildly warm room and move more slowly than a typical flow class, but make no mistake — it is one of the more challenging styles you can practice.
Where Forrest Yoga comes from
Ana Forrest has been teaching yoga since the mid-1970s, when she was certified as an instructor at 18. She crafted Forrest Yoga in 1982, drawing on hatha-based systems she had studied for years — Sivanada-style practice, the alignment and prop use of Iyengar, and the heat and flow of Ashtanga vinyasa. She has spoken openly about creating the practice as a response to her own history of injury, addiction, and trauma, and the style reflects that origin: it treats the mat as a place to work through what the body is carrying, not just to exercise. Forrest Yoga is a trademarked system, and certified teachers complete Ana Forrest's own foundational teacher training. Since 2014, Ana Forrest has co-taught alongside her husband Jose Calarco, who brings Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ceremonial song and storytelling into the practice.
The four pillars of Forrest Yoga
- Breath. Deep, deliberate ujjayi-style breathing is cued constantly. Forrest teachers often say the breath is the first thing taught and the last thing allowed to collapse.
- Strength. Long holds and extensive core sequences build heat and stamina. Abdominal work near the start of class is a signature of the style.
- Integrity. Poses are modified around each student's injuries and structure. Working honestly at your real edge matters more than achieving a textbook shape.
- Spirit. The practice is framed as a way to reconnect with yourself — Forrest calls it hunting down and clearing what blocks you.
What a Forrest Yoga class looks like
A typical class runs 60 to 90 minutes and follows a recognizable arc:
- Opening breathwork and neck release. Classes usually begin seated, establishing the breath and deliberately relaxing the neck — Forrest teaches that most of us hold chronic tension there, so the neck stays soft even in strong poses.
- Core work. Several minutes of focused abdominal exercises, often done early to build heat and connect students to their center.
- Standing sequences with long holds. Warrior variations, lunges, and standing poses held for many breaths rather than flowed through quickly. The signature standing series works through about 20 poses on each side.
- Deep work for the apex pose. Each class builds toward a peak — often a backbend, hip opener, or inversion — with careful preparation along the way.
- Cool-down and savasana. Slower poses unwind the intensity before final rest.
Rooms are commonly heated to a mild warmth (noticeably warm, but far below hot-yoga temperatures), and certified teachers are trained to offer hands-on assists when students welcome them.
Forrest Yoga vs. vinyasa vs. hatha
| Feature | Forrest | Vinyasa | Hatha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pace | Slow but intense; long holds | Continuous, breath-linked flow | Slow; pose by pose |
| Core emphasis | Very high; signature ab sequences | Moderate | Moderate |
| Heat | Mildly warm room, internal heat from holds | Heat from movement | Low |
| Therapeutic focus | Central to the method | Varies by teacher | Present, gentler |
| Best for | Strength, working with pain or trauma | Fitness, variety, rhythm | Beginners, foundations |
If you want continuous movement, see what vinyasa yoga is; for a gentler foundation, start with hatha yoga. Forrest pairs well with a passive practice like yin yoga on recovery days.
Benefits — and honest limits
Practitioners consistently report stronger core and shoulders, better breath capacity, relief from chronic neck and back tension, and a sense of emotional release from the long, focused holds. Those effects are consistent with what we know generally about progressive strength training, sustained stretching, and slow breathing as physical practices. But Forrest Yoga itself has not been studied as a standalone intervention, and no style of yoga is a substitute for medical or mental-health treatment. The emotional intensity that draws many people to Forrest can also surface difficult material — a good certified teacher will tell you the same thing. For students who want a gentler reset, a restorative yoga practice sits at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Is Forrest Yoga right for you?
- Good fit: students who want a strong, slow, focused practice; people working around old injuries who need intelligent modifications; practitioners bored by fast flows who want depth over choreography.
- Approach with care: complete beginners may find the intensity demanding (it is doable, but tell the teacher you are new); anyone with acute injuries, recent surgery, or unmanaged health conditions should get medical clearance first. New students who want a softer entry point can warm up with a few gentle yoga classes before stepping into Forrest.
- Finding a class: the official Forrest Yoga directory lists certified teachers worldwide, and many teach online. Because the system is trademarked, a class labeled Forrest Yoga should be taught by someone who completed the foundational training.
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The Native American ceremony conversation
Forrest Yoga openly incorporates ceremony and imagery inspired by Native American healing traditions, alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander song and stories brought in by Jose Calarco. Ana Forrest has written and spoken about training with a Cherokee medicine man in the 1980s and about ceremonies such as Sweat Lodge, Pipe Ceremony, Vision Quest, and Sundance informing her work. For some practitioners this is a meaningful part of why the practice lands; for others — particularly Indigenous readers and critics — the borrowing of sacred traditions by a non-Indigenous teacher is a serious concern, and the broader internet discussion of "Forrest Yoga controversy" reflects exactly that tension. If you are new to the method, it is worth knowing this is part of the culture of the room before you attend, and weighing it alongside the physical intensity the method is also known for.
This article is general information, not medical or mental-health advice. If you are working with injury, chronic pain, or trauma, consult a qualified professional before starting an intense yoga practice.
Frequently asked questions
Ana Forrest, an American yoga teacher, created the style in 1982 after years of practicing and teaching hatha-based yoga. It is a trademarked method, and certified teachers train directly through her foundational teacher training program.
Beginners can attend, but should expect a demanding class. The pace is slow, which helps newcomers follow along, yet the long holds and core work are physically intense. Tell the teacher you are new so they can offer modifications, and consider building a base with hatha classes first.
Usually classes are taught in a mildly warm room — noticeably warmer than a normal studio but well below hot-yoga temperatures. Most of the heat in a Forrest class is generated internally through long holds and continuous deep breathing.
Vinyasa links poses in a continuous breath-driven flow, while Forrest holds poses much longer, adds extensive core sequences, and keeps a deliberate therapeutic focus on breath, neck release, and working around injury. Forrest feels slower but often more intense than a typical vinyasa class.
The method was explicitly designed with emotional healing in mind, and many practitioners find the combination of breathwork and long holds powerfully releasing. However, it has not been clinically studied as a trauma treatment and is not a substitute for professional mental-health care — it works best alongside it.
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Last update 2026-09-10. Price and product availability may change.
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