Category: Balancing
Level: intermediate
Hold: 5 breaths per side
Type: Asana
Breath: Steady, quiet breathing — sudden breaths tip the pose.

Half Moon Pose

Ardha Chandrasana — "half moon posture"

Balance on one leg and one hand with the other leg floating parallel to the floor, hips stacked open to the side. Half Moon is Triangle set free of the ground — and a block under the hand makes it honest instead of heroic.

Step by step

1From Triangle Pose on the right side, bend your right knee and step your left foot halfway in.
2Place your right fingertips on the floor or a block about a foot in front of your right toes.
3Shift your weight into your right leg and float your left leg up until it is roughly parallel to the floor, foot flexed.
4Stack your left hip over your right and open your chest to the left.
5Reach your left arm toward the ceiling, making one line from hand to hand.
6Gaze at the floor, straight ahead, or up at your top hand — whichever keeps you steady.
7Bend the standing knee to come down with control, and repeat on the other side.

Benefits

✓ Strengthens the standing leg, ankle, and outer hip
✓ Opens the hips and chest toward the side
✓ Stretches the hamstrings and inner thighs
✓ Trains balance with a wide, moving shape — genuinely different from upright balances

Make it yours

· Put a block under the bottom hand at its tallest setting — this is the standard version, not a lesser one.
· Practice with your back and lifted foot against a wall to learn the open-hip shape safely.
· Keep the top hand on your hip instead of reaching it up.

Take care

If you have balance issues, practice with your back near a wall so the wall catches the pose.
Take care with ankle or knee injuries on the standing side — keep a generous bend in the knee or work at the wall.
If turning the head up strains your neck, keep your gaze down at the floor.

This is general practice guidance, not medical advice. If something hurts, ease out of it.

Practiced in

Props that help here

Manduka PRO — The buy-it-once option — dense, stable, famously durable. Heavy, so it lives at home, which is where practice happens anyway. find one
Cork blocks (set of 2) — Bring the floor closer in lunges, folds, and triangle — and a block between the shoulder blades turns a backbend into something you can hold. find one

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