Strength & Spirit

Ana Forrest
Year Released: 2001

Categories: Yoga


Strength and Spirit is a wonderfully unique yoga video which provides the kind of detailed instruction that you'd find in an actual live yoga class. Led by Ana Forrest, it features a class of six students of all ages and abilities; Ana alternates between displaying the movements with amazing grace and flexibility and moving amongst her students offering form guidelines and corrections. At the start of the class, she encourages the students to identify an area of focus in their bodies, and throughout the practice, she places a strong emphasize on breathing, reminding students to breathe into their focus areas in particular.

The practice starts in a seated position with uddiyana, the abdominal lock; Ana follows this with a seated forward bend and twist. Then it's on to hands and knees for dophin prelude and dolphin to open up the shoulders. Back in a seated position, you will do a side bend with a neck release and then lie flat on the mat for abs work. This is the most challenging segment of the practice, as Ana has you move very slowly while taking looong, deep breaths, first doing a bicycle movement and then pelvic raises with a second mat rolled up between your legs (I use my Pilates circle for this move).

The second half of the practice centers around standing poses interspersed with gentle backbending movements. The first standing series includes down dog, warrior 1, easy twisting warrior, lunge, and lunge twist (similar to prayer twist, but with a change in arms position). The floor work which follows is an easy half boat pose, and then it's back to down dog. The next standing series consists of a lunge with forearms to the floor, first with the back knee down and then lifting the knee; you then return to the floor for full boat. Coming back into down dog, you move into warrior 2 for some particularly nice shoulder work, first combining a shoulder roll/pinch with breathing and then opening the shoulders further using eagle arms. The final back work is cobra pose performed twice.

After a last down dog, you move into pyramid and then pigeon with a forward bend. Following this, you return to a seated position for one final neck stretch before going back to the floor for savasana. Although the relaxation portion lasts only about 3 minutes, Ana encourages you to remain in savasana for as much time as you have; without an extended savasana, the entire practice clocks in at just under 55 minutes. I've found that every time I do this video, I learn new things from Ana, as she provides an amazing amount of detail. The pace of the whole practice is quite leisurely, yet the time goes by surprisingly quickly, and I am always left feeling relaxed and refreshed. I would recommend this video to all levels of yoga practitioners, although those brand new to yoga will probably want to learn the poses elsewhere. Overall, this is a very enjoyable practice with a skilled and competent instructor.

Instructor Comments:
Ana is calm and competent throughout. She is serious in her manner yet very supportive and encouraging of her students. Her form information is detailed and often unique, and she is continuing cueing deep ujjayi breathing.

Beth C (aka toaster)

02/05/2005