Without getting into the history or meaning behind Half Moon Pose or Ardha Chandrasana, I wanted to provide a quick tutorial on coming into this pose, alignment, and its benefits.
This is one of my favourite standing poses as it incorporates (like most yoga poses) strength, flexibility, balance, and of course, CORE ACTIVATION.
Some other benefits of this pose includes:
- creating stability in your standing leg, hip, shoulder blades and tailbone
- it helps with some kinds of lower back pain
- strengthens the back, legs, hips, and abdomen
- increases flexibility of the spinal muscles.
It’s not always easy to break it down in a large group class setting unless you turn it into a workshop moment. But I found these tips helpful with my students. We went from straining, struggling, holding our breaths and falling everywhere, to gorgeous, effortless looking postures. We just had to slow it down, take a step back, break down the sequence, use props, and be patient!
All these things are also necessary to execute the pose safely and properly, so make use of props, such as the block and the wall, to help you along the way.
Below is a quick slide show video tutorial. I recommended practicing this pose daily and holding it on each side for 5-8 breaths. You will notice a significant improvement in your balance, flexibility, and body control!
- Bottom leg: perpendicular to the floor and eternally rotated
- Bottom leg: weight on all 4 corners of the foot
- Top leg: press thigh back and flex foot. Reach through the big toe
- Stable and firm hip and scapula
- Open chest, turn the trunk towards the ceiling
- ENGAGE THE CORE: pull the ribs in, reach tailbone towards the top heel
I hope this was helpful!
Namaste <3
