Be Yoga | Austin, TX

First yoga class in Austin! I hadn't been feeling very good all day—something I ate. So I thought I'd try sweating it out. Whew, it worked. Check out my first experience with Forrest Yoga.

LOCATION: There is a lot construction going on in downtown Austin—so I'm guessing driving to here may not be as easy, and on top of that a lot of parking spots are missing for the construction. I, luckily, walked and had no problem. Plus, on my walk I discovered all of Rainey St and how cool it is.  

STUDIO: What a refreshing space. It's the first floor of a corporate/city building.  The front is clear from the street, name and all. The inside is sparse and calm. All in one room, you walk straight in to the check-in desk. This is where you pay (donation-based of $10-20, cash or charge). Behind check-in is a water fountain and bathroom, the rest is all practice space. One wall is all mirror, which I'm not a fan of, but I took off my glasses and once we started practicing I wasn't aware it was even there. There was high ceilings with exposed beams—slightly industrial, with beautiful lighting.    

CLASS DESCRIPTION:  Forrest Yoga, designed by Ana Forrest, uses dynamic pose sequencing, taught with compassion, to deeply engage the breath into every cell while building strength, intelligent body awareness, and flexibility. In a warm setting, we infuse the benefits of sweating out toxins with teaching students to deepen their relationship with their authentic selves. The classes are a series of carefully constructed postures designed to strip numbness from your core, help you breathe and move in ways that release emotional shielding, and prevent and heal injury.

INSTRUCTOR: Rebecca Bachman: I came to yoga six years ago as an intensity junky with with sport ADD and anxiety. Fueled by coffee, I haphazardly pin-balled from one minor injury to the next, practicing asanas as a mere cool-down/physical therapy, where I could challenge my brain to be a little more still, with only a vague awareness of the connection between the two. And then, one fateful morning last fall, I found myself deep in my first Forrest Yoga sequence and thought, "Aha!" Finally, it found me: the intersection between athleticism and relaxation; intensity and safety; inward exploration and bold expression that I always craved. With the balance between these extremes in mind, I set out to learn the tools to heal, strengthen, and thrive inside and out. I completed a 200 hour teacher training with Ana Forrest in May, 2013. Now fueled by heat and energy harvested from deep within, I am itching to share the tools for exploring this exciting new balance.

CONTACT: Be Yoga

My first class in Forrest yoga and my first class alone—I ended up being the only student. I've been one of two before, but never the only one. And I always thought it would be amazing, but once confronted with the scenario, I was pretty intimidated. The instructor would only be watching me, eeks! But Rebecca was wonderful and calming—the attention to detail was amazing and nurturing. Short of my fear of tooting + knowing I couldn't pretend it was someone else, it was great! :) 

I do have to say this—Forrest yoga, pretty similar to Hatha only Rebecca did really have me focus on stretching and tailbone positioning to protect the spine. Not that Hatha wouldn't do that, but because Forrest was created by a woman, it takes into consideration the female body and how to adjust to it more (which again, I'm guessing most of my female instructors are too by default of their own bodies). But I believe the way Rebecca focused in on locations was a little different. Most obvious was the instruction  to let the head go. Triangle, reversed triangle, even coming up from a a laying position—let it go. It was a real nice release to let gravity open up the neck while I'm working on a balance pose. It also was an interesting way to change up the balance and activate the core more. 

Speaking of core, holy cow. The other part of Forrest is it activated a lot in me, I can't believe how much sweat poured out while holding these poses. I felt bad when I was adjusted—I was disgusting! But, thank goodness, I felt like I had completely detoxed by the end of class, and was grateful for the extra push Rebecca provided through each pose—through how long we held, through increasing the breath more, through the release of certain parts for a nice stretch, and through activating the core through pelvis/tail bone positioning. 

I don't feel like I know enough about Forrest yoga to really say what worked or not—or how it worked, but I'd like to take a couple more classes to see if I react the same way and know if it's really for me. It may intimidate someone as a very first class, because it asks a lot out of the body. But the beauty of it is you're in the pose longer to understand it more—which is priceless for a newbie.

Thank you for a wonderful experience, Rebecca, namaste.