Hot Yoga Pose Forums > Chapter: Ardha Chandrasana
when i started a year ago at riverflow i loved 1/2 moon. i felt like i could go right into the pose and that was it. as i have gotten stronger i feel like this pose is harder for me because im listening to the script and not just crunching down to the right or the left. i was def collapsing over and not keeping the armpits hips square. the most important thing for me in this pose is remembering to breathe... listening to the script and moving the breath in and out. i have been going to other studios that dont always remind you to breathe and that is when i struggle the most.
danielle bumber
Ah half moon... I love the back bend in this.... I've really been focusing on bring my fingers back and pointing the in the direction that I want to go (down and back) but lifting the chest up and feeling that stretch is also so amazing! And the opposite forward bend feels good too. It feels completely different when you let the shoulders relax and have the biceps do their job.
Becky
Gosh you reminded me Becky that I used to dread this pose! Then I learned some simple nuances that got me into alignment with it - energetically and physically!- with the ABS rule: always be stretching; lean back into the heels in due bends and ABS the chest; ABS from he pointer fingers and chest; and in forward bend ABS on the way down. Even just before the pose ends Into Savasana, ABS through the ceiling. Now it's not a stretch to say this three part pose is one of my favorites.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I love to lift my chest in the backbend. Raising my breastbone towards the sky feels like pure joy - like the Michael Jackson bow - gratitude!
Marguerite
Nice image, Marguerite. I always feel like I am being lifted into the sky by the heart.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reading through this thread, I feel that my initial struggles were similar to others. When I first started classes, I dreaded this pose. I felt like my arms were going to fall off. I always thought: "How is this possible? I am fit, and I think I am pretty strong" (as I work on the farm daily and ride 1000+ lb horses). After doing pranayama followed by Ardha Chandrasana, I felt like I wanted to cry. How could two warm up poses be so hard? How could I make it through a class if I wanted to chop my arms off after the first two poses? This I learned was only partially a strength issue; it really was more of a mental hindrance (as I find most of my obstacles tend to be).
The tip of locking the arms out helped me tremenously. It truly became all about the set up. I liked how Raiz stresses that breathing is the most important thing. Next is alignment. Last is depth. I know I struggled because (like most new students) I kept looking at how everyone else was doing it. "I have to go deeper. I know I can." Great, but not really. I couldn't stay in the pose, and I hated it. Once I learned to set up properly and focus on stretching up, this pose became enjoyable. In fact, I love the way it makes my spine feel. Every morning I stretch up and pull my spine apart rather than doing a twist and crack. This gives me so much relief. Like Marguerite said, "feels like pure joy."
Brittany Yard
Brittany, this is a great story ...and it would serve you EVEN BETTER if you told only the positive aspects. I know, in these forums we encourage talking...but remember THIS forum asked for AHA moments - and once you edit out all the things that are NOT AHA moments (AHA Moments - the lightbulb goes on and you feel PURE SATISFACTION/JOY/AWE), you will get everything you want without the obstacles of the negative story (that's what they are: each negative self observation is another rock on to climb over on your path of pure joy)
So - here is what your AHA story might sound like:
"The tip of locking the arms out helped me tremenously. It truly became all about the set up. I liked how Raiz stresses that breathing is the most important thing. Next is alignment. Last is depth. Once I learned to set up properly and focus on stretching up, this pose became enjoyable. In fact, I love the way it makes my spine feel. Every morning I stretch up and pull my spine apart rather than doing a twist and crack. This gives me so much relief. Like Marguerite said, "feels like pure joy."
Sure reads like it to me...
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I like this pose. We have a similar movement in dance called "Lateral Pull" which is hard for most, who will almost immediately bend forward when reaching to the side (hunched). The technical teaching of Arda Chandrasana has helped me better explain 'lateral pull' for my students and myself, and in hot yoga, really help me expand my spine...bonus...all 4'11" of me feels about 5'2 when I complete this pose! WOO HOO!!!
Dani
Last week, I had a huge AHA! moment in this pose. It was all about the breathing for me. Thinking about my breathing in this pose helped me when breathing in other poses. Breath, alignment, depth. This idea I had realized in a different way when I focused just on the breath. On the inhale, set up, on the exhale, go deeper. It's something to use in other poses, but this pose was the one that helped me realize it, through the script, and because of how great it felt when I did things that way.
Chrissy Graziano
Chrissy, coincidentally this pose is the one where I truly "got" the power behind the inhale/set up and exhale/move deeper - not just for asana, but as a metaphor for life:
Inhale/Set up: gather in your energy by visioning what you want, taking in all the good feelings that fill you when you align with the ideas of all that you want; fill yourself with the life force of those feelings
Exhale/ move deeper: As you RELAX, you will be inspired to the actions that will take you where you want to go. No need to ever force, push, or MOTIVATE yourself to act...and if you dont want to act there is always REST, Savasana...when you are fully aligned with the energy of your desires, the impetus to MOVE will come naturally, at the right time, at the perfect depth for right now
No one can breathe for you...just as no one can ALIGN for you. And, as hard as others may try to PUSH you to act, to MOTIVATE you even GUILT you into taking action, stand your ground and BREATHE until YOU are aligned.
To understand asana is to understand alignment with life
...and you thought you were just learning a little yoga lol!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I am just beginning to like this pose in the last month. I have been locking my arms more and more and pulling and reaching like never before. I am experiencing the lightness in the arms with full locking of the arms and pressing of the palms. I didn't think that I would ever feel lightness in the arms like I heard when I first started coming to Riverflow, but I am experiencing it now. I like that when this pose is over, the rush of energy and blood that flows through the body especially the arms. I also am loving how deep I can go now is forward bend. I am straitening my legs and pulling and my back legs are feeling great!
Lisa O'Rourke
Alfia, that last comment was beautiful! And I can relate too. I am very connected with the moon as well. Which is why I so want to enjoy this pose more than I do. I am still learning my “ah-ha” moments in the left to right series but I noticed no one expanded on the part where we back bend. Back bending has given me many “ah-ha” moments I’d love to share so maybe they I’ll help others. Backbending was not my favorite thing... at all... haha. It requires faith and trust in yourself. Honestly fear is the number one killer of back bending.
Once I could trust my body to keep me up. It did. I found to develop this trust within myself, pushing my hips forward counters a lot of the weight your pushing back. It acts as a balancing scale. So the further i would push forward the deeper I could drop back.
Gabi briefly meantioned keeping the weight in your heels is key. Yes a thousand times yes. But I want to go into what I’ve found of WHY. I’ve found the weight in my
Heels grounds me down on to a firm foundation and let’s the hips pushing forward be a counter weight. I think of my feet as the middle base of a balancing scale. Just to give this visual life look on page 75 and pace your hand blade of pink fingers down on the woman in the diagram so they are on her feet( so you are bisecting her body vertically with your hand) You’ll see exactly half of each side of her body is on either side of your hand (her feet). Her Hips and legs on the one side and her arms and head on the other side. So I like to visualize this before I enter the pose and as I reach a comfortable extension to help me “go back, drop back” to my max.
My last “ah-ha” moment has come with my eyes. When I saw myself in the back mirror I used to just look at my self (odd I know haha) when I began looking at the bottom of the mirror soon I realized I could start to see the floor, once I could see the floor I could see the back of my yoga mat. Also while walking your eyes back we tend to hunch our shoulders in our of fear of falling back (see here’s that trust part again) if I relax them back and pull my collar bones it helps me raise my chest up and a more pronounced curve which feels awesome by the way. I’m excited what depth I can explore as I can pull my collar bones wider as I learn more and more.
Hopefully my “ah-ha” moments help everyone all of yours really helped me. I’m taking with me a lot of tips you all shared and applying them next time I’m in the room!
Stephanie
Starting to love this pose. it feels like my body, my limbs are elongating,, stretching. Always wanted longer limbs. Stephanie you mentioned trusting yourself. Agree, so key. When I was 8 or 9 my sister and I took gymnastics. Felt like a Gumby?, Could do full backbends,, walkovers, the whole bit. This pose brings me back. Fun to test my body, match my breathing, see what I can still do at 61. Believe there is so much I can do.
amy
Stephanie - your AHA moments are all anatomically correct! And this is the reason for the Yoganatomy part of Teacher Training: not just to study anatomy mechanics, not even just to recite the cues in our pose scripts, but to EXPERIENCE your anatomy and how it support you...to know this experience is to develop a deep trust in your body and your well-being. And as for the Ardha Chandrasana portion of the pose - focus on those same things you mentioned for backbend: hips forward, weight in the heels, chest lifted. Your extreme flexibiiity (lucky gal!) makes it easy for you to hyper curve your spine in this pose which will always feel stunted; try these cues and focus on the stretch of it all...as Amy says! Yes, yes to the amazing feeling of stretch, elongation in this pose! And if this pose brings you back to a fun childhood memory, that can only help you to relax and enjoy it more...UNLESS you replace that fun memory for wistfulness and regret for what you dont have now! Its a bit tricky to recall the past in a way that is totally pleasing and without reproach or regret - the best way is to remember the FEELING - freedom, exhilaration, empowerment - rather than the result (Gumby). Feelings tend to be all-in!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I really love this pose. It is such a great way to start practice. The stretching and pulling traction of your spine really does make you feel like you have grown taller. I can just picture the increased space between my vertebra. I have found that strongly squeezing my palms together increases my lift and strength to get as tall and long as possible.
Concentrating on pushing my hips hard really creates that beautiful stretch all along the side body.
I have concentrated this week on really making sure I look way back in this pose and all my back bends. It does remove all fear.
Jeanne
In ardha Chandrasana the set up is key to this pose as mark mentioned. Definitely locking the arms, pressing the palms and squeezing the arms behind my ears help me to square my armpits and hips as Tina also suggested, because it does allow my hips, thighs and chest to naturally follow forward.
Initially I was afraid to just "let go" in the backward bend. Now I use my inhalation to lift my chest up to set up again, engaging my core to just drop back trusting myself to see my own eyes in the back mirror.
Again engaging my muscles during my inhalation I get that awesome feeling of oxygenated blood rush through my upper body, as margaruite has also felt in her aha moment, as I come back to center to begin my forward bend into a familiar runners stretch. The heat and humidity is so wonderful for this part of Pada Hastasana.
maria
Jeanne and Maria, you are not only doing, but you are truly FEELING the cues in this pose and how much they truly mean to the alignment and the pleasure of this pose - pressing the palms, locking the arms, squeezing the arms behind the ears, pulling from the fingertips, lifting the chest in the backbend, and one that you mentioned Jeanne that most people are reluctant to do, believe it or not because it is soooo easy - pushing the hips! Now you can see - and more importantly, FEEL - why the scripts are SO important: they are the treasure maps into the pleasures of each pose. The treasures are hidden in plain sight - in the alignments of the body - lust like in life: our treasures are all our desires and the secret way to happiness lies in your alignment with your Inner Being.
Could alignment in Ardha Chandrasana = alignment in life? Yes indeed.
Yoga is a metaphor for life...and yoga IS life giving, and this pose particularly for me as well.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
After reading the chapter on this pose it seems that you could spend a lifetime getting it right. But I actually do like this pose--particularly the first 2 parts when you are stretching to the left and right--because it gives me a long and lean feeling. I do experience a little fear with the backbend, but this is dissipating as I do it more often. On a different note, I am leading a project at work with about 20 team members and a couple of people are trying to rush to meet an arbitrary deadline. I used the "Measure twice, cut once" analogy to explain why we need to take our time. Yoga in everyday life:)
irenem
Love Irene's example of yoga in everyday life! :)
Helpful to have these poses broken down in such detail. I particularly like the sections on most common mistakes and how to fix them, and will want to become very familiar with these if I ever teach. This really reinforced the whole no space between chest and thighs in forward bend, too! I read these pages after I read through the scripts a few times and I found that to be helpful approach, because when I was reading these pages I could hear parts of the script in my mind. Good reinforcement (and hopefully helping with memorization!).
Pamela
Irene - I also love your application of "measure twice, cut once? ( my mother was a childrens clothing patternmaker so I heard this analogy a lot) and yes indeed SO much of hot yoga and especially Teacher Training will begin to resonate in your life in fabulous ways! And Pam, it is sort of beautiful to break down the poses into their infinite parts - not to make you feel like you will never get it right, but to realilze how rich and complex and yet complete each pose is unto itself. I often say I could spend the entire class just talking about one pose (and my classes would run way over even more than they do if I gave into that urge - and thats yet ANOTHER reason why the scripts are memorized word for word: to keep you from straying into other beautiful pose areas!) When we have our Hot YOga Workshops, we do just that - like we did recently with Zach: spent 2 hours in just 5 poses. There are sooooo many places to explore in our poses! Asana is only ONE part of yoga...are you beginning to see what a rich and life-giving practice this is?
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
There are things that I love about this pose and things that I don't like as much. I love the stretching from side to side while leaning back--it makes me feel very flexible. The backbend is still a little tough for me--I have a little bit of fear related to going back too far; this chapter helped alleviate that to a point, and I felt better when I did the pose in yesterday's class. My breathing is definitely improving--I no longer have to inhale during Kapalbhati breathing, and I feel that this is helping with this pose in particular.
irenem
For the longest time Arda Chandrassana was one of the most difficult poses for me. I felt like I had to really work to stay in the pose. It was uncomfortable and energy consuming. I beleive, SOmething shifted for me lately. I think the pose became more enjoyable once I started pulling y shoulders down thus releasing the tension in the neck and shoulders. I can actually breath in the pose.
There were a few eye opening things for me in the chapter about A.C.
I did love the reference to grounding myself during the set up. Also, the importance of set up for the warm up was a discovery. I think I never thought about the form while I was doing"stretch up and over".
What I really want to focus on is keeping the weight in the hills. I think I still often find myself in my toes.
Irina
Irina, I agree - more than any other asana for me too, Arda Chandrasana with Pada Hastasana has more little nuances that can shift my entire pose into full freedom! The shoulders down! The locked arms? The biceps behind the ears! The lifted ribcage! The locked thighs! And the PUSH PUSH PUSH of the opposite hlp! And yes - once you lean WAY BACK INTO THE HEELS, you will feel another epiphany...do it next class!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Guru Sessions have totally changed this pose for me. have totally pulled back from any kind of deoth to work on form and alignment I was really aggravated by this at first but then I remembered that this was the entire point of me signing up for GURU sessions. I wanted to work on form and I cant just work on the poses I think I am "good" at. i know that eventually I'll find that sweet spot of keeping everything forward and go from there.
Paula
Padahastasana has been kind of tricky for me. However, I figured it out by holding my chest tight to my thighs and breath in. This way the muscles get a bit open, once the back the chest is with no space between the thighs and chest, the back is open. In my first set I focus on that, in my second set it is different, the chest is almost glued and there is no issue to go into the full extension. I remember when it happened the first time I was ready to jump up to the ceiling screaming "Did anyone see this? I did it!" It was awesome. However, the body is different every time. Therefore, it makes interesting every time. However, I have noticed that my flexibility has improved significantly the last two weeks. Yoga is magic :).