Sugarcane in the moonlight: Ardha Chandrachapasana

Who doesn’t like sugarcane in the moonlight?  De-lish.

Photo courtesy of Yoga Journal

But let’s face it, getting into this variation of Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana) can test your balance, flexibility, and coordination as you reach back and grab your lifted leg.  Never fear, here are some tips that help make this elusive pose more accessible.

Component Parts

First, to approach the pose, we must understand its component parts.  Let’s start with Ardha Chandrasana:

External Rotation of Standing Leg

The key to Half Moon is the strong external rotation of the bottom leg.  (Think about it for a moment: the bottom leg.  Often we get confused and think it’s the lifted leg in rotation, but actually the lifted leg is neutral.)  The strong external rotation of the lower leg is counterbalanced by the drawing in of the lower shin and anchoring of the inner edge of the bottom foot.  Together, these two actions create a diagonal spiral effect that keeps your standing leg stable.   Against the external rotation of the standing thigh, the pelvis can open to the side plane.  If you lose the anchor of external rotation, the standing knee will collapse in, the booty will swing with abandon to the back plane, the the containment of the pose will be lost.

Great poses to teach this external rotation in a non-balancing position: Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II), Triangle (Trikonasana),  Gate (Parighasana), Side Angle (Parsvakonasana).

Hamstrings/ Adductors

The standing leg hamstring must be open, as well as some of the adductors.  Imagine triangle pose on its side, so the back leg is now in the air, and you have Half Moon with a balance added.  Good standing poses for opening the hamstrings: Uttanasana, Triangle (Trikonasana), Wide-legged forward fold (Prasarita Padottanasana), Hanumanasana and Ardha Hanumanasana (splits), Pyramid (Parsvottanasana), and Standing Hand to Foot Pose (Utthita Hasta Padangustasana).

In traditional Half Moon, the torso stays steady in all three plane so that it is like Tadasana, but with the arms wide.  If the neck is comfortable, the gaze anchors to the top hand.

Getting into Ardha Chandrasana

To move into Ardha Chandrasana effectively, you must impress upon your students the imprint of the external rotation of the standing leg so that you can steady the knee appropriately.  Without this rotation, the inner knee will collapse in and the foundation will usually become unsteady.  The knee will torque and the lift that we need out of the standing leg will deflate.  Rooting through the inner edge of the bottom foot while strongly externally rotating the standing leg thigh will create a powerful dual action to steady the lateral lines of the leg.

For this reason, coming to the pose from another externally rotated pose is ideal.  Trikonasana is an obvious choice, but Parsvakonasana (Side Angle) is also effective.  Once you have transferred your weight to the standing leg, pause, and bend the standing leg knee.  With the knee bent, you can clearly discern the efficacy of your external rotation.   Strongly wrap the standing leg buttock under you until the sitting bone actually feels like it’s sliding towards your lifted leg.  When this action is effectively performed, your standing leg knee will again track over the center of your ankle.

Now, maintaining that rotation and lateral engagement, begin to straighten your leg by rooting strongly through the standing leg heel.  Because you’ve entered the pose from Trikonasana or Parsvakonasana, the torso is likely already facing the side.  Maintain the rotation of the bottom leg as you open the pelvis further.  (Rather than turning your chest, first turn your pelvis.)  Where the pelvis leads, the body follows.

In traditional Ardha Chandrasana, the body is essentially in Tadasana with the arms wide, except the bottom leg is strongly externally rotating.

Ardha Chandrachapasana

When we elevate the pose to Ardha Chandrachapasana, we add two elements: the bending of the top leg and a backbend.

Adding a thigh stretch to the upper leg requires balance, coordination, and open hip flexors.  Prepare for the action of this variations in non-balancing poses such as Anjaneyasana (low lunge), Crescent (high lunge), and variations with a thigh stretch.  I recommend doing a low lunge with a thigh stretch where the student reaches back with the ipsilateral hand for the leg, in order to imprint of holding the foot with the same side hand in ACC.  Awkward pigeon with a thigh stretch is also an interesting warm up, as the hip are mimicking some of the actions of ACC: the front leg is externally rotating while the back thigh’s hip flexors are stretching.

Backbending requires thoracic extension, which can be efficiently added to poses like lunges and thigh stretches, and warmed up separately in poses such as Bhujangasana (cobra), sphinx, and Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Dog).

Putting it Together

To enter the pose from Ardha Chandrasana, the obvious transition is to simply bend the top knee and reach for the top of the foot.  However, this is frequently inaccessible to many students.  Another way in is to bend both knees and actually draw your top knee into your chest.  For most, this makes it easier to find the top foot.  From this contracted position, actively hug towards the core of the body until you are stable.  Then, unfurl the pose by pressing your back knee towards the back of the mat.  The back thigh stays parallel to the floor; watch the tendency to float the knee towards the ceiling, which diminishes the stretch of the front of the thigh.

Like Ardha Chandrasana, the external rotation of the bottom leg is essential.  That rotation is the “brake” that allows the body to then uncurl into a backbend.  Without the hip drawing under, there is little leverage for the body to move back.  With the bottom leg still bent, reaffirm the external rotation of the leg by drawing the hip firmly under and lengthening your tailbone towards the lifted knee.  Now keep that strong action as you begin to draw the shoulder heads and the throat back and open the chest.  The foot and the hand form a reinforcing energetic loop; press the foot strongly into the top hand to further open the heart.  When the body is steady, take the gaze to the ceiling.

Releasing the pose

Coming out of the pose is just important an opportunity as coming into the pose.  Bring your gaze to the floor to create a visual anchor.  Re-establish the steadiness of the bottom leg.  Energetically maintain the bend of the top leg as you release it from your hand and bring the spine back to Tadasana.  Re-connect to the external rotation of the bottom leg as you step back to Trikonasana or Parsvakonasana.

Playtime

Experiment with this pose at the wall.  Place your standing foot parallel to the wall and about 18 inches away (everyone’s distance will be a little different, you’ll adjust if you need to.)   Come into Ardha Chandrasana.  Then bend the top leg and place the top of the foot on the wall behind you.  With this third point of contact, the body will have a chance to settle more so that you can work the actions without worrying so much about balance.  Also, you can explore the actions here without actually holding on the foot.

If possible, reach back to hold onto the top foot. Otherwise, wrap your standing leg hip under, press the top foot into the wall, and begin to explore the opening of the backbend with the top arm simply lifted towards the sky. The connection of the foot to the wall will begin to imprint the actions of the pose into the body.

 

The Elegant Wheel

Photo courtesy of YYoga

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow, also known as “Wheel”) is one of the most delicious and expansive of yoga asana, inviting a full opening of the “Eastern,” or front, side of the body.  As in all yoga asana, the stability (sthira) of the back body is essential for supporting the full expansion and sweetness (sukha) of the front body.  Also, Urdhva Dhanurasana calls for a profound opening in the hips and shoulders in order to access the fullest expression of the spine.  Since the body has to put all these parts together effectively, accessing the full expression of this pose can sometimes be elusive.

However, with some preparation and variation, the benefits of this pose can be readily be made available to a wide range of students.

Component Parts

Hips

Finding the full range of motion in the lower body for Urdhva Dhanurasana is more than a matter of spinal flexibility.  For most of us, we can find about 45 degrees of mobility through the spine, and an additional 15 degrees of extension between the hips and the thighs.  What this means is that in order to access the full “bow-ness” of Upward Bow, we must be conscious to open the hips as well as the back.

The muscles to target here are the psoas, iliacus, and rectus femoris (one of the quads).  By effectively opening these muscles, over time the full hip extension of Urdhva Dhanurasana becomes accessible.  While opening the quads can be targeted through thigh stretches (think low lunge, bending the back knee, and drawing the heel towards the buttock), the ilio-psoas needs to be stretched by a differential between the angle of the back thigh and the pelvis.  Crescent and Upright Low lunge are great candidates.  When stretching the psoas, the back leg will often turn out in a clever attempt to avoid the stretch.  Focus on softening the upper inner thigh of the back leg towards the back plane of the body until the thigh is neutral in the socket.  Once space and alignment is created, the anchoring of the tailbone down will create the posterior action needed to begin stretching this important muscle.

Because the psoas attaches all the way up the lumbar spine towards T12, conscious alignment of the hips is one half of the equation.  Note that in the stretch, the lumbar and thoracic spine will want to pull forward in space.  Instead, consciously draw the lower belly and sides of the waist back and up (almost like scooping your belly with an ice cream scoop).  This lifting and scooping action will draw the superior fibers of the psoas away from its insertion on the back thigh.  Like ice cream: delicious.

Shoulders

Urdhva Dhanurasana requires a lot of openness through the shoulders.  Invariable, this is why some of our sturdier male students remain landlocked on the ground.  The arms need the facility to flex fully at the shoulder joint.  External rotation of the upper arm is preferred to help anchor the scapulae firmly on the back.  Prepare the body for this position by focusing on poses that get the arms above the head: crescent, chair.  One of my favorite poses is to do Chair (utkasana) with a block firmly positioned between the hands.  Work on pressing your hands into the block as you externally rotate the upper arms, straighten the arms, and then lift them overhead.  Once you’ve worked in these positions, move the body in weight-bearing positions to open the shoulders in such asana as dolphin and handstand.

Thoracic Spine

Naturally, a backbend ain’t a backbend without the extension of the thoracic spine.  Start small and target the upper back through poses such as cobra and sphinx.  Once the upper back has been educated, then you can move to fully spine extensions such as full cobra and updog.  When working in spinal extension, it is important to maintain the stability of the lower back in order to avoid over-compressing in the lumbar and lower thoracic.  The lower back is the backbendiest place of the spine, and the juncture between the lumbar and thoracic is particularly mobile.  While we do use this mobility when we backbend, we don’t want to overly capitalize on it and neglect the opening that needs to occur in the upper spine.  Create length and stability by maintaining a broadness in the mid and lower back and focus your backbending efforts higher up.  Use the external rotation of the upper arms to facilitate a greater sense of drawing the scapulae into the back.  This will help with your thoracic extension.  (Try it: do a mini standing backbend with your arms externally rotated, then internally rotated – which is easier?)

The pumpkin

The buttocks in backbending can become overly zealous.  My teacher Catherine Munro called this phenomenon the “pumpkin.”  While the glutes work, we want to be careful that they don’t overly engage.  The secondary action of the glutes is to externally rotate the thigh, which can lead to compression through the lower back and inability to lengthen the tailbone.  Use the muscular midline (adductors, internal rotators) to keep the legs neutral even when the glutes engage.

You can teach proper engagement in your backbends, but also in poses such as crescent or 3-legged dog, where the back leg needs to find a slight internal rotation to bring it back to neutral.

Getting up there- Two hand positions

After you warm up your students thoroughly and appropriately, start your students in bridge and confirm the neutral placement of the feet.  The feet – as a distal reflection of the thighs – will attempt to turn out when the glutes engage.  Use midline to keep the legs (and feet) parallel.  As your students lift into bridge, confirm the action of the legs and pelvis in this non-weight bearing position.

From here, they place their hands in position #1: by the ears and close.  The proximity of the hands to the head will give them more muscular access to lifting up.

Once they come onto their heads, widen the hands into hand position #2, which creates a little more space into the shoulder girdle.  While they will have less power to press up, most students appreciate the extra space.  They can also turn their hands out slightly to create even more room.

Now it is time to affirm the lift into the thoracic spine and appropriate action of the shoulders –  before they become weight-bearing through their arms.  Have your students roll towards their hairline to draw their chest forward through their arms as they root the upper arms bones back into their sockets (towards their hips).  This will anchor the scapulae on the back.  From here, they can then press into the hands and feet evenly (watch the feet don’t move – continue to hug the midline) to come up.

There are two variations of Urdhva Dhanurasana. In variation 1, the student works to create an even bow through the whole body, with the pelvis and ribs level.  While this is easier on the shoulders, it’s harder on the wrists as they are at a very acute angle.  In version 2, the student begins to bring their shoulders forward over their wrists (see pic above). Easier on the wrists, but asking for lots of space in the shoulders.  Eventually, you can take version 2, then walk the feet in as is comfortable to tighten the bowstring.  Students should maintain the capacity to feel grounded in the feet (good for standing up eventually from this pose) as well as rooted in the hands (great for shoulder opening).  Here’s a tip from Asthanga teacher Chris Richardson: To keep the lower back long, move everything from the navel through the thighs towards the feet, while the navel through the back spine reaches forward into the hands.  Move both parts of the body away from each other to create spaciousness in the center.

If you have students who are limited through their shoulders, you can have them hold your ankles.  They should place the webbing of their hands into the crease where your leg and foot meet and hold there, rather than wrapping their hands around your lower leg.    (Make sure to keep your feet on the wide side.)  Otherwise their hands will slide down to your feet anyway, giving you a you an unwelcome skin massage.

 

One step at a time

Many times students will forget about the foundation in the excitement of getting up and turn their feet and leg out every which way in an effort to “do the full pose.”   While this may be initially exciting, it is far better to proceed with patience so that the whole body can be integrated in the pose – from the toes to the fingers.  Otherwise, cranky low backs will ensue rather than the adrenal stimulating, expansive awakening that Urdhva Dhanuarasana provides.

The”full expression” of Urdhva Dhanurasana allows you to leverage the action of the arms to open the upper back and chest, your students in bridge are still experiencing the delights of spinal extension.  Over time and patient practice, the body will become more receptive and open to this luxurious expression.  Warm up intelligently, manage your foundation and actions, and allow the pose to unfold from there.