What is Forrest Yoga?
Forrest Yoga is a style of yoga as exercise created by and named for Ana T. Forrest in 1982. It is known for its long holding of positions, emphasis on abdominal core work, and standing series that can go on for 20 poses on each side. Reputed for its intensity, the style emphasizes connecting to one’s feelings in order to work through physical and emotional trauma. Unlike many contemporary yoga styles that prioritize transcendence or flow, Forrest Yoga asks practitioners to inhabit the body fully, using breath and sustained muscular engagement to access and release stored pain.
The style claims to be founded on four principles, or “pillars”: Breath, to help connect in feeling with one’s body and ignite passion for living; Strength, via intense core sequences and long holds of poses that generate heat and heighten the senses; Integrity, in working with the edges of one’s practice, particularly around physical and emotional injuries, developing tools to deal with fear and struggle; Spirit, to create a sense of freedom and “courage to walk as your Spirit dictates.”
Origins & Lineage
Ana took her first yoga class at age 14 and became a certified instructor in 1975. Forrest Yoga’s asana stems from the lineages that shaped Western yoga—Sivananda, Iyengar, Ashtanga—all of which Ana studied deeply around the world with their originators or primary disciples. She applied these systems to her own life challenges—alcoholism, anorexia, bulimia, sexual abuse, and epilepsy—and found them lacking. In her years living off the grid on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State, Ana trained in traditions that honestly confronted the root of her horrific challenges: disconnection from her spirit.
In turn, Forrest Yoga emerged in 1989 as a blend of efficient asana and First Peoples’ wise spirit medicine. Ana Forrest is trained in Native American medicine, reiki, and regression therapy. She has studied alternative healing techniques including homeopathy, naturopathy, reflexology, shiatsu, and chiropractic, all of which, she states, inform her work. Forrest Yoga’s vision and mission, inspired by the life of Black Elk, a healer and Medicine Man of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, is “to mend the rainbow hoop of the people.” The practice is now co-led with Ana’s husband Jose Calarco, a musician and ceremonial leader.
It’s an evolving system, with a living founder and 14 senior teachers, called the Guardians, whom Ana has chosen to carry on Forrest Yoga’s tradition long after she’s gone. This is the only school of yoga where the original founders have personally trained every single new teacher.
How It’s Practiced
Forrest Yoga classes are conducted in a warm room (85 °F, 29 °C) and begin with pranayama, then move through seated poses and abdominal muscle exercises before arriving at the “hot part” of the class that might involve sun salutations, standing poses, inversions, backbends and other asanas that build up to the more challenging “apex” poses. The poses are sustained, intensively and contemplatively, sometimes for 10 deep breaths, sometimes for several minutes.
Breathwork is the heart of Forrest Yoga. Practitioners use Ujjayi Breath (a deep, controlled breath) to create a strong connection between mind and body. Healing is meant to extend to the emotional body, directing the breath into affected parts of the body to release emotions. The core work is notoriously rigorous: abdominal sequences designed to strengthen internal organs, stabilize the spine, and generate somatic heat.
Relaxing the neck is another unique element to Forrest Yoga. As Ana Forrest says, the neck is the bridge between the intelligence of the mind and the wisdom of the body, so relaxing the neck opens the communication between the two. As the style evolved, she created a number of additional poses and sequences adapted to modern society, such as wrist stretches to prevent and relieve carpal tunnel syndrome. She also created shoulder shrugs to relieve tension and loosen the upper back, abdominal exercises to tone internal organs and strengthen the lower back, and some poses using a folded over and rolled up yoga mat.
Ana and Jose like to start their sessions with a ritual such as a smoke cleansing, some music, and a heartfelt invocation to honor the Ancestors. There is no fixed sequence; classes vary by intent and the physical/emotional needs of practitioners.
Forrest Yoga Today
Ana has now taught and toured in over 33 countries. Forrest Yoga is practiced in studios worldwide and accessible through teacher-led classes, online platforms, workshops, and multi-day trainings. Join Ana & Jose online and on demand for their signature powerful series of classes and workshops, as well as vintage Ana Forrest content. The Forrest Yoga Guardian network ensures lineage continuity.
Seekers encounter Forrest Yoga through Foundation Teacher Training (200 hours), Advanced Teacher Training, and ongoing intensives. The style has particular resonance among those recovering from addiction, sexual trauma, chronic pain, or modern sedentary ailments (carpal tunnel, neck tension, back pain). It is also practiced by those drawn to ceremonial yoga blended with Indigenous wisdom traditions.
Common Misconceptions
It is not practiced in the woods. The name honors Ana T. Forrest, not the natural environment. While practitioners may value nature, Forrest Yoga is an indoor practice typically conducted in heated rooms.
It is not gentle. Reputed for its intensity, the style emphasizes connecting to one’s feelings in order to work through physical and emotional trauma. Classes are physically demanding, with extended holds and strenuous core work. Beginners are welcome, but the practice is not restorative in the conventional sense.
It is not culturally appropriative ceremony. Ana spent 7 years living on a Native American reservation and Jose has been involved with the aboriginal peoples of Australia for 30 years as the director of the company ‘Descendance Aboriginal.’ Both have been trained and authorized in specific ceremonial lineages. Critics and practitioners continue to debate the ethics of blending Indigenous protocols with modern postural yoga.
It does not require spiritual belief. While deeply influenced by Native American ceremony and spirit medicine, Forrest Yoga is accessible to atheists, agnostics, and practitioners of any faith tradition. The “Spirit” pillar refers to authentic selfhood, not theological doctrine.
How to Begin
Read Fierce Medicine: Breakthrough Practices to Heal the Body and Ignite the Spirit (HarperOne, 2011) by Ana Forrest. Locate a Forrest Yoga certified teacher through the official directory at forrest.yoga. Attend a drop-in class at a local studio offering Forrest Yoga, or access online sessions through the Forrest Yoga Online Channel. If possible, attend a weekend workshop with Ana Forrest and Jose Calarco or a Guardian teacher to experience the ceremonial dimension. Come willing to feel, to sweat, and to be uncomfortable—Forrest Yoga rewards honesty over performance.