Forrest is a newly created yoga discipline, developed by a teacher who teaches yoga on the west coast of the USA. Ana Forrester, a trainer in the West, known for her acrobatic movements, has incorporated these movements into a complete discipline that led us to know what is The Forrest yoga.
Yoga Forrest has been developed after great thought and practice. Ana turned to yoga after a long history of alcoholism, abuse, bulimia, and epilepsy.
Yoga brought her inner peace and quiet, and she says it helped her deal with her own problems. She created an intensely physical yoga style, incorporating the principles of ashtanga yoga, vinyasa style yoga.
The yoga practice founded by its goal is to strengthen the body so that it can fight against its own urges, along with improving emotional health so that the emotional wound can be healed.
This is a part of Yoga that not many had considered before. Although yoga was always known to be able to relieve stress and improve focus and concentration, this is the first time that someone has used it to cure emotional disorders and popularized this use of yoga.
Forrest Yoga contains acrobatic movements that flow into each other with rhythmic breaths. Since Ana uses the Vinyasa style to strengthen the practice of yoga, the movements are strong, but agile.
Forrest yoga also has a spiritual side in a place where Ana encourages students to delve within themselves and use yoga as therapy. With this, Forrest also uses the natural elements of Native American healing therapies to enhance the benefits of yoga.
In Forrest yoga, there is no special emphasis on abdominal work as well as breathing. The movements are vigorous and therefore there is a lot of sweat. Sweat aims to flush toxins from the body.
Most of the new forms of yoga have been criticized for their close association with charismatic leaders.
The newer forms of yoga, such as Kripalu Yoga and Bikram Yoga have already received their fair share of controversy due to the actions of their respective leaders.
Although not criticized, Forrest Yoga is also perceived as closely linked to the personality of Ana de Forrester. This means that unlike Vinyasa yoga, where there is great flexibility in the choice of poses and movements, Forrest yoga does not allow much leeway.
Practicing Forrest yoga practice requires strong physical and emotional discipline. This yoga emphasizes healing and therefore those who enjoy rigorous movements will be able to enjoy this style of yoga.
Reasons To Get Rid Off Forrest Yoga
Because it has been changing the lives of thousands of people for more than 45 years
Ana Forrest has developed her practice throughout all these years to improve the lives of all kinds of people. It works to improve disorders caused by post-traumatic stress and trauma, achieving in each case improving their well-being and health as well as deepening aspects such as decision-making in adverse situations.
Because they are exercises that help to find strength and balance
Forrest Yoga is based on maintaining a series of yoga postures over a long period of time so that you can progress and deepen each posture more easily. The goal is to create strength, release toxins, expand oxygenation, and rejuvenate the body.
They are mainly focused on the core area (abdominals and back) to solve discomfort caused by bad postures, such as shoulder, back or neck pain.
Because she is considered one of the most important yoga teachers in the world
The contribution that Ana Forrest has made to the yogi community with a healing technique and her entire journey over 4 decades, has achieved that she is considered today as one of the most influential yoga teachers worldwide.
Ana Forrest has participated in the most important macro yoga events in the world, such as the Asia Yoga Conference, different editions of the Wanderlust or the International Yoga Festival held in India. It also fills up workshops in South Africa, Australia, the United States or anywhere on the planet.
One of the reasons that year after year attracts thousands of people to the practice of yoga are the numerous physical benefits that this ancient discipline provides.
Many of these benefits that yoga gives us are endorsed by scientific studies and, consequently, doctors and therapists from various disciplines recommend a habitual and progressive practice, adapted to each person and to each moment of their life .
Obviously, yoga is not a magic potion or the solution to all our health problems, but there is a general consensus about its positive effects on the human organism, which contribute to achieving greater quality and life expectancy. Below we summarize some of the most important.
An unsuitable teacher
Taking all of the above into account, it is also necessary to choose a suitable teacher. If this guide does not take into account the level of the students or only wants them to do what he does without worrying, this could result in injury.
Also, a good yoga teacher should always be attentive to how students perform postures. If they are unable to carry them out, you have to tell them to start as beginners and then move on .
In the case of not finding the right teacher, it is recommended to change your yoga class. Health and well-being are more important , so it is not worth it to put them at risk without any need.
What Is The Forrest Yoga Doing For Your Health?
Strengthens muscles and bones
Yoga helps strengthen muscles but prevents lactic acid from building up in the body and does not reduce flexibility. Having a defined musculature protects the bones, prevents injuries and prevents diseases such as arthritis.
As for the bones, yoga has been shown to help strengthen them and stop bone loss. Furthermore, it is essential to prevent injuries and fractures. Yoga also improves body posture, something that directly affects the health of the spine.
Increase flexibility
Beyond advancing postures, flexibility helps us greatly to avoid injury. When starting yoga, the lack of flexibility is one of the aspects that causes most headaches in the practitioner, especially among men.
But with constancy and progressively increasing the presence in the postures, we will improve in a very remarkable way. As flexibility increases, many of the muscle aches caused by tension and poor posture disappear.
Alleviate the pain
With a well-adapted practice, yoga is very effective in relieving most chronic pain such as neck pain, rheumatoid arthritis, knee pain, low back pain, chronic back pain, sciatica or fibromyalgia, among others.
Keeps You young
There are recent studies suggesting that yoga and meditation can affect DNA, protecting it from damage and also avoiding and reversing negative changes that affect the body’s aging process, since it has a direct impact on the activity of the enzyme telomerase, key to protecting telomeres in every cell division.
These benefits could also prevent age-related cognitive decline, especially when combined with meditation.
Burn calories
This is probably one of the benefits of yoga that most attracts the general public. But beyond aesthetics, what interests us most is that in a healthy lifestyle it is important to maintain a body free of overweight. Some research has agreed that the practice of Vinyasa Yoga involves an average caloric expenditure of 7 kcal / min, which is equivalent to burning about 507 calories per hour.
Improves breathing
One of the fundamental points of yoga is that it teaches us to breathe, more than correctly, consciously. Without counting the various techniques that pranayama presents, only practicing asanas already implies permanent control of breathing and, consequently, a substantial improvement in the oxygenation of the entire organism.
The breathing known as abdominal or diaphragmatic, which on inspiration begins in the abdomen to continue in the intercostal area and end in the clavicle, and on expiration follows the route in reverse, increasing the oxygenation of the cells. Also, breathing deeply and at a slow pace slows your heart rate and relaxes your muscles.
Strengthens the immune system and balances the nervous system
Yoga helps reduce the level of cortisol, the hormone related to stress, which as we know is closely linked to health problems of all kinds. By directly influencing this hormone, practicing yoga increases our resistance to diseases and infections.
One of the secrets of yoga documented in numerous studies is that, when combining dynamic postures with relaxation, it is much more effective as a tool to combat stress than any relaxation exercise that is not accompanied by any other dynamic practice.
In this way, in addition, it is possible to maintain a balance in the nervous system.
Promotes cardiovascular health
Various studies maintain that yoga fights hypertension and reduces blood cholesterol levels, which in the long run lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. It also lowers the accumulation of fat in the arteries and reduces the blood concentration of interleukin-6, a molecule linked to the body’s inflammatory response and which seems to be involved in heart attacks, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and other pathologies.
Improves mood in cancer patients
Although there are not enough studies showing a decisive impact of yoga in cancer patients, there is evidence that yoga can improve mood and reduce anxiety, depression or emotional stress, as well as relieve nervousness in people with cancer. Additionally, it can help reduce fatigue in breast cancer patients and survivors.
Reminder
Is there a downside to practicing yoga?
To start, something very important should be highlighted. The following disadvantages of yoga have a technical point of view, since as such the practice of it has more benefits in general .
A study carried out in 2019 prayed that Forrest yoga acts on each individual in order to achieve growth , physical, mental, emotional and spiritual advancement. Next, the possible inconveniences that it may have will be known.
High risk of injury
One of the disadvantages of yoga is that it has a high risk of injury . The positions that are carried out, sometimes, are not easy at all.
Therefore, it is essential that you start with the right positions for beginners . Keep in mind the following tips to avoid hurting your muscles when practicing yoga:
- Do not force the body: Being a beginner, some postures may not be done properly. Yoga allows you to see how you progress gradually.
- Perform postures with help: It is important that the teacher helps to perform a posture that is complicated and in which there is a high risk of harm.
- Quality material: If you do not have a quality mat and it slips, the risk of suffering an accident increases. Therefore, it is better to invest in quality materials that provide security.
- Focus on yourself: By visualizing how well the poses are performed by the other members of the class, this may lead to deconcentration, loss of balance and people ending up injured.
Practicing yoga has disadvantages if people venture to run and do not respect the rhythms of the body. If, for example, you try to do the pine pose without any help or support, it is very likely that this will lead to a fall. This can not only lead to injury, but also to a fracture.
We actually recommend you to take all the care you must to avoid things that you wouldn’t want to go through. Now you know What Is the Forrest Yoga, let’s move forward and stay healthy.