Body 07 Sep 2006 07:44 pm
Ardha Chandrasana
I’ve been letting my yoga home practice slide pretty egregiously, and I thought a new challenge might help me breathe some new life into it. So today I’ve been working on Ardha Chandrasana, Half Moon Pose. When I tried, several months ago, to do it unsupported, I crumpled in place without even getting into the pose, let alone holding it. It was humbling. I do not enjoy being humbled.
I’m fairly well used to doing Half Moon fully supported with my back against a wall, but now I’m trying to move out into the center of the room. (Hello, atrophied muscles. It’s my old friend the glute medius that’s going first.) As an intermediate step, I’ve been bracing my free foot against a wall while I work to put more and more weight on my standing leg without locking the knee. It’s a minor milestone: I can now hold the pose for about 1.5 seconds before it falls apart. That’s if I start with my upper foot semi-pointed with toes at the wall, and then flex the foot so the wall no longer supports me; I haven’t yet lifted straight up and held the pose successfully.
It seems to help me a lot to strongly imagine lifting from the hip and inner thigh of the raised leg.
As for the home practice, I’m going to do half an hour of yoga a day or more for the next week and see how that feels.