Giselle Toner guides you through Ardha Chandrasana, starting from Warrior II and building from beginner to advanced versions. She emphasizes keeping your knee over your ankle, engaging your legs, and breathing steadily as you progress from both palms down to holding your lifted foot.
Chapters
Namaste. And hi, everybody. My name is Giselle. I'm going to be showing you something called half moon pose today, Ardha Chandrasana. And I'm going to be taking you through the beginner levels up into a little bit more of an advanced version. So just follow along as best you can. So what we're going to be doing is we're going to be starting out in just a basic Warrior 2 seat. So let's make sure that we're low and we covered Warrior 2s in a previous video, but we're going to make sure we have our stuff lined up here. So the knee is over the ankle, and we want to stay low so that we really feel the lower body work. And then extend the arms. We're going to focus the eyes over the right fingers and stay low, keeping your breathing deep and steady. Now, from this pose, all we're going to do is basically take the right palm to the floor. And if you're a beginner, take both palms to the floor. You're going to walk your back foot towards the front and then start to lift your toes to the sky. Keeping both palms on the floor is okay. If you can go a little further, that starts to slowly take the left arm around the back, maybe even hooking onto the hip or thigh if you're a little bit more advanced. And keep the left toes lifted. Now you can stay here and just work on the balance and work on your position. If you can go further, take your left fingers to the sky and try to look up. Now, this is really going to challenge your balance. Keep the legs as strong as possible. Keep your breathing deep and steady. And now there's an even further level. If you want to bend your knee, grab the inside of the arch of your foot and lift. Release it slowly step it right back into Warrior 2. And then straighten your right leg and release and relax. Walk the feet together and let's bring the palms to the sky, taking a really deep breath up and exhale as the palms come to the heart. Now let's do the same thing on the other side. Stepping into a Warrior two. Remember your alignment. Keeping your knee over your ankle, extend your arms into a nice long stretch, reaching your fingers. And now we're going to start to slowly bring both palms to the floor. If you're starting out. If you're just starting out as a beginner, keep your hands on the floor. Back foot can come towards the front and then take the toe, toes to the sky. Now, if you can go a little further, reach the fingers around the hip or thigh, keeping your right toes lifted. If you want to make this a little more challenging, start to reach the right fingers up to the sky and look up. The legs are straight, if possible, and if you want to go even further, further, bending that knee, grab the inside of your arch and lift. Release gently and then step it right back into a warrior 2. Straighten the leg and let's start to walk the feet together, bringing your palms to the heart and inhaling up to the sky and exhale as the palms come to the heart. Namaste.
