Anusara

Anusara is a style of hatha yoga that blends detailed attention to physical alignment with a warm, philosophical approach to practice. A class typically follows a theme, often drawn from yoga philosophy, which the teacher weaves through the postures, the cues, and the closing meditation. Students are guided to move with the same set of alignment principles in every pose, so that the body feels stable and open while the effort stays sustainable. Teachers describe the style as one that may promote balance and strength, which fits what is known about yoga in general.

Classes are taught in studios and online, usually in groups, with hands-on adjustments offered only with consent. The pace is moderate, props such as blocks and straps are common, and poses are modified for different bodies and levels. Many people are drawn to the style because it frames alignment as something to understand and feel, not only to copy, and because the tone of class is encouraging and non-competitive.

There are no clinical trials of Anusara itself, so claims about it should be read as claims about yoga practice in general. Research on yoga as a broad category suggests modest benefits for chronic low back pain, depressive symptoms, and anxiety, alongside a low rate of serious harm. Anusara is a complementary, movement-based practice. It is not a medical treatment, and it works best alongside, not in place of, care from a qualified clinician when you have a health condition.

Anusara was founded in 1997 by the American yoga teacher John Friend, who had trained in the Iyengar tradition before developing his own system. He combined Iyengar-influenced attention to physical alignment with ideas from Shiva-Shakti Tantra, and organized his teaching around Universal Principles of Alignment. The style became known for heart-opening postures and for a theme woven through each class. Anusara, Inc. grew quickly, and sources report that it trained about 1,000 teachers in some 70 countries.

In 2012, public allegations about Friend's conduct led him to step down as an officer and director of the company, and most of its prominent teachers left. The organization was restructured, and a teacher-led body, the Anusara School of Hatha Yoga, was incorporated later that year to continue the method. Friend went on to teach independently, later under other names. Today the style is carried on by independent teachers and a teacher-led school, and its alignment principles and themed classes are taught in studios and online. Anusara belongs to modern postural yoga, which developed in the twentieth century, and the research discussed on this page concerns yoga in general, because no studies of Anusara itself were found.