Tips for Standing Half Moon: Don't drop the diamonds!

2012-03-16T08:36:00.000-04:00

Rebecca gave us a wonderful--although difficult to practice--tip for Standing Half Moon Pose (Ardha-Chandrasana) in yesterday's morning class. During this pose, we have our arms stretched up over our head sideways; the arms are completely straight with the elbows locked. As Rebecca pointed out yesterday, one of the most important aspects of this posture is that we have a "nice, tight grip" with our hands. There should be no gap anywhere between the palms: Bikram says we should think about holding a handful of diamonds.

Sounds simple enough, right? The problem with these instructions is that they are deceptively difficult. According to Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class, one of the most common problems students have with this posture is that straightening the arms and tightening the grip often occurs at the expense of forcing the chin to crush into the chest. As Bikram says in his book, we often look like one of Tennessee Williams's "no-neck monsters." It's incredibly difficult to keep the arms straight and the "throat visible in the mirror," teachers often encourage.

As Rebecca mentioned yesterday, the reason that keeping the arms straight and the palms together is so important is because the arms and hands are actually supporting the entire spine throughout the pose. The upper arms support the lower back, the forearms support the middle back, and the hands support the neck. When we think about the posture in this light, keeping the arms straight seems more important than ever.

If this posture gives you grief (it certainly does for me!), one of the first ways to improve is to focus on doing it right. As often happens with adjustments, especially when related to alignment, we need to let go of our ego, which wants to focus on depth. Unfortunately, when our ego focuses on depth in this posture, we often end up focusing on side bending, when in fact, this posture is a side stretching pose. To practice the posture correctly, we definitely need to focus on keeping the arms straight and the palms together, as this will help us focus on the stretch rather than the bend. This keeps us from breaking at the waist and disrupting spinal alignment.

If practicing this posture correctly means we need to back off on depth, we should look at this as an opportunity for growth instead of becoming frustrated. As we so often hear in class, if we do 1% of the posture 100% correctly, we receive 100% of the benefits. Although Standing Half Moon pose is a warming up posture, it's incredibly important for correcting poor posture and increasing flexibility and strength of the spine and many of our abdominal and upper body muscles. Trust yourself, and progress will happen quickly.

Bikram Yoga Greensboro

Tips for Standing Half Moon: Don't drop the diamonds!