Ardha Chandrasana

I feel it's time to devote a little more love to my final pose, Ardha Chandrasana - Half Moon Pose. It's the hand that fate dealt me, and I'm now responsible for instructing the pose to a class of 35.

The pose is known to strengthen legs and ankles, and as with most balance poses, cultivates physical and non-physical balance and a sense of general equanimity. For that reason, it's one of my favorites - despite my early inability to teach it! It's also one of the asanas where it's easy to become a little too confident of your abilities, especially when you learn to balance without your leading hand on the floor. Of course, that's when your ego gets checked and you fall over.

It's common to instruct into the pose from Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) because in this pose you're essentially doing Ardha Chandrasana in a different plane. Trikonasana teaches the extension in the front leg that is missing if you lead from Virabhadrasana 2 (Warrior 2). More balance comes from the lifted leg than you might expect - you will feel it when you flex more energy through the heel and work to achieve levity in the back leg. And contrary to what I've read in some other sources...the last thing you should do is straighten your standing leg! Even though it is the platform of the pose, and you will want to straighten it right away, you need the extra leverage of a bent leg to get extension in the torso and lifted leg. You can also focus on maintaining even extension on both the inner and outer ankle more effectively.

The extension of the spine out of the torso is important to realizing full length, too. You achieve this by both rotating your torso with your grounded hand (which, by the way, is barely bearing any weight). I actually find this extension by keeping my torso slightly higher - parallel to the floor - and lifting my bottom hand. This way, you can fully engage your wingspan, and open your upper spine and neck. It's a tricky modification, but it has worked really well for me.

Somehow, this whole jumble is going to turn into coherent instruction, promise.