Intro to Ardha Chandrasana

Ardha Chandrasana can be translated into Half-Moon Posture; Ardha meaning half, Chandra meaning moon, and Asana meaning posture or pose. Ardha Chandrasana is usually performed within a standing pose series, usually after Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose.) However, there are a lot of other poses you could start with (such as Baddha Konasana, Supta Padangusthasana, and Virasana,) but for our purposes I'm going to use Utthita Trikonasana as the starting pose. You can also follow up Ardha Chandrasana with a lot of other standing balancing postures as well.

How to Get Into Ardha Chandrasana

To get into this posture, first start in Utthita Trikonasana on the right side (here shown.) Then, bend your right knee and slide your left foot about six to twelve inches farther apart from your right foot. Right after doing that, place your hand around twelve inches FARTHER from your left foot. As you exhale, push your right foot and right hand into the floor, observing the techniques that we learned first from Tadasana; most importantly, make sure your toe and finger mounds are pushing into the floor and connecting so that you have a strong, sturdy base to balance on. As you are doing that, lift your left leg parallel (or a little above parallel) to the floor. When you do this, make sure that you extend BOTH legs actively (done by tightening your quads,) so that the lifted leg (the left leg) will stay strong and stay up and the right leg will make a good base. Rotate your upper torso and hips to the left, so that you look like a plank on the side with your hips facing the front. If that's confusing, think of it this way; you have a headlight on each of your hips, and both those headlights should be facing the front. In the full posture, you would then extend your left hand up towards the ceiling and then look at it, however if you're a beginner you would usually just keep your left hand on your hip and keep your head at a neutural position.

Now that you're in the posture, you need to learn how to sustain it, because you would usually hold this posture anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. Once again, keep in mind the things we learned from Tadasana; one of the main things is your alignment. If I wanted to, I should be able to stick a straight rod through the top of your head all the way through to the end of your left foot. Also, your torso should be facing the front completely and your hips should be down and your feet parallel to the ground (not turned in or turned out.) Another thing you should make sure you do throughout this entire posture is keeping your balance through using the floor as an energy source. Be sure to press your toe and finger mounds into the floor to create a sturdy base, and keep your legs taught and strong so that it's easier to balance. A final thing you should do to sustain this posture is tighten all of your bandhas so that your core and center is strong.

After you're done sustaining the posture, with an exhelation lower the raised (left) leg slowly to the floor and return to Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose.) With an inhilation, reach your arm up towards the ceiling to get out of Utthita Trikonasana and turn to do the other side for the same amount of time.

Benefits/Effects

Some of the benefits of Ardha Chandrasana is the fact that it strengthens a lot of muscles, most specifically the abdomen, ankles, thighs, butt, and it also strengthens your spine. It also stretches your hamstrings, calves, shoulders, chest, groin, and it helps lengthen your spine. Since this is a balancing posture, it helps your sense of balance and it improves your coordination. It also helps relieve stress (through breath) and it improves your digestion system. It also helps with menstural pain, fatigue, anxiety, backache, and osteoperosis.

Awareness in Ardha Chandrasana

While I'm in Ardha Chandrasana, I mainly focus on tightening all of my muscles (mostly my legs and my core) so that I can balance in the position. I would say that, for a beginner, I'm pretty good at this posture (seeing as I'm away from the wall but I'm using a prop to help me stay straight.) The thing that I'm most aware of is how tight by body is (as stated above.) By that, I mean that if I'm even a little off-balance or swaying a little, I can definitely feel it and I try my best to change that by tightening my core, planting my foot and hand more firmly into the floor, and engaging my thighs so that I can hold the posture.

Bibliography

"Ardha Chandrasana :: Yoga.com." Yoga . com. Web. 14 Nov. 2009. .

"Yoga Journal - Half Moon Pose." Yoga Journal: Yoga Poses, Classes, Meditation, and Life - On and Off the Mat - Namaste. Web. 14 Nov. 2009. .