Richard Rosen's Asana Breakdown: Crescent Lunge

CRESCENT LUNGE 

The Crescent Pose is a variation of Virabhadrasana 1. It could be though, since many modern asanas, of which Virabhadra is one, are based on Western exercises, it’s the other way around. The chicken and the egg. The main difference between these two poses is in the positioning of the feet, specifically the back foot. In Crescent the arrangement of the legs is similar to that of a lunge–inner feet are parallel and the heel of the back foot heel is off the floor. In Virabhadra, the back heel is on the floor and the foot is angled sharply forward. With these positionings, each pose has an advantage and a disadvantage. In Crescent with the back heel raised, it’s much easier to square the pelvis with the front edge of your mat, which then allows us to lengthen the spine equally from side to side for a more balanced stretch. The disadvantage is that with the raised heel, the pose has no anchor, which is always the role of the back foot’s heel. As a result it’s difficult to maintain the firmness of the back leg, which may lead to instability. In Virabhadra, the back heel on floor anchors the pose, thereby strengthening the back leg and stabilizing the position. At the same time, with the back heel grounded, it’s more difficult for many students to square the pelvis, which impedes the full lengthening of the spine. In yoga this is known as six of one, half dozen of another. 

By the way, do you want to know how to say “crescent” in Sanskrit? I looked the word up in my English-Sanskrit dictionary and found it translates to ardha candra, which also names the Half Moon pose.

PREPARATION

Let’s start with a lunge as a lead-in to Crescent. Have two blocks handy, just in case your hands don’t rest comfortably on the floor. Kneel down near the front of your mat, step your right foot forward and slide your left knee back until you feel a comfortable stretch across the front thigh and groin. In a lunge, always position the front knee over the heel, shin perpendicular to the floor. Now open the right leg slightly to the side so the weight is on the outer edge of the foot, firmly press your right thumb into the hip crease, and imagine the head of thigh bone (femur) descending toward the floor. As you press, grip your thigh and turn it outwardly (laterally). Apply this pressure and rotation for a minute or so, or until you’re confident you can re-create the release and turn without the help of the thumb and hand. Then press your right hand to the floor outside your right foot. 

Hug the thigh to your torso, turn your left toes under and get ready to lift the left knee. Just before you do, get a sense of where your tail bone is relative to the floor and “pin” it in place. Inhale, and as you lift and straighten the left leg by pressing the thigh away from the floor, imagine that the lift being opposed by the dropping femur head and the “pinned” tail bone; in other words, when you straighten the back knee, keep your pelvis as close to floor as possible. 

Now “glue” your front torso to the right thigh and begin to straighten the right knee. To do this, push back on the left thigh and allow your right leg to “stream away” from that movement. Try to keep your torso glued to the thigh for as long as you can and press the base of right big toe firmly to the floor. When the right knee is straight (or almost so), imagine there’s a string attached from the right femur head to the left heel. As you actively press that heel toward the floor, imagine that it’s pulling the head of the right femur back into the pelvis, deepening the right groin. From this depth, lengthen your lower belly along the right thigh. 

Now you’re ready to move back to the lunge. Exhale and slowly re-bend the right knee over the heel, imagining as you do that the right femur head is sinking toward the floor. As the right knee bends, actively resist the left thigh away from the floor. To finish, press your hands down and back on the floor. Use this downward-backward pressure to lift the top of your sternum, the manubrium, straight forward through your arms and at the same time, reach farther back with the left heel. Imagine these two points moving farther and farther apart. If you’re having trouble keeping the left leg firm, try setting yourself up so that when the left knee is straightened the left heel presses against a wall. 

Hold the lunge from one to two minutes. To exit, simply bend your left knee to the floor, swing your right knee back beside it, step your left foot forward, and repeat on the second side. 

CRESCENT LUNGE

Depending on your stability, you may or may not be able to lift straight from lunge to Crescent. If you are unable, try starting with your hands pressing the right thigh, and use that pressure to help lift the torso. The following instructions will assume you’re lifting up directly from lunge. 

It’s not uncommon for students to lift their torso from the lunge thigh by arching up from their lower (lumbar) back, overly compressing the five vertebrae there. This is to be avoided as much as possible. Ideally, the lift of your torso is initiated from your tail bone. If you’re not familiar with this method, try this exercise. First imagine your spine from the atlas, the first cervical vertebra that supports your skull, to the tail bone at the end of the sacrum is a lever, its fulcrum the heads of the femurs. The Greek mathematician Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” 

To move your “world,” stand with your feet a few inches apart, inner feet parallel, manubrium lifting and release about three-quarters of the way into a forward bend. Remember in any forward fold, tip from the femur heads, don’t round forward from the belly. The long arm of your lever includes all 24 moveable vertebrae, from C1 to L5, the short arm is made from the sacrum and tail bone. Touch your fingertips to your tail bone and, to initiate the torso’s lift, press straight down on the tail bone. Be careful not to tuck your tail as your torso rises, but rather imagine it lengthening straight down to your heels, then growing out along the floor behind you like a tail from Jurassic Park. As the tail bone descends, lift the back ribs away from the pelvis, keeping the front ribs tucked into the torso. Try this several times, first using your fingers, then without. This is how it’s best to lift the torso not only in this exercise, but in every forward bend.

Back to the lunge, getting ready to lift the torso to upright by pressing down on the short arm of the lever. When doing this, I strongly recommend you not have your arms reached forward. This will double the length of your long lever arm and can put enormous strain on your lower back. When both rising and descending, it’s best to sweep your arms to the sides like a swan dive (or a swan dive in reverse). 

Once your torso is upright and your arms stretched toward the ceiling, continue to do what you learned in the lunge. Release your right femur head toward the floor, press your left thigh away from the floor, and reach actively through your left heel. With your arms raised overhead it’s sometimes tempting to further open your chest by pushing the lower ribs forward, taking the arms back slightly, and lifting the bottom of your sternum bone. This may feel like a chest opener but it’s more like a lumbar cruncher. Again, as the tail bone descends, lift the back ribs away from the pelvis, think of lifting the top of your sternum straight up to the ceiling. The image of tail descending and sternum lifting creates a long, happy spine. 

With the arms raised overhead, we’re often asked to draw the shoulder blades down the back. There’s nothing wrong with this instruction, it helps to open the space around the shoulders and neck. But there’s a subtle detail that can be added to help lengthen your arms upward. Imagine your shoulder blades are like a pair of circles on your back, the right one rotating counter-clockwise, the left clockwise. Now draw the inner borders of the blades down your back and feed that descent into the tail bone. At the same time, release the outer borders of the blades upward, feeding that action into the outer arms, encouraging their skyward reach. In this way the shoulder blades are held in creative tension, helping both to ground and lift your body simultaneously. 

Judging by this picture I have of Crescent, the raised arms are kept parallel to each other. In Virabhadra, we have the option of pressing the palms together. To do this, touch the bases of the palms first, then the palms themselves, finally the fingers. There’s a hand mudra very popular with my students called Kamala Mudra. Press the bases of the palms and the tips of the little fingers and thumbs together, and spread the other six fingers out to the sides so the joined hands appear to be a Lotus, the meaning of the Sanskrit kamala.

If you’re just learning this pose I strongly advise you to keep your head neutral, that is, looking straight ahead. To bring your head back safely requires acquaintance with the imaginary “root” of the neck, a blog for another time.

THE BACK FOOT IN VIRABHADRASANA 1

How does the different positioning of the back foot affect the Crescent-like Virabhadra? Let’s say the back foot is the left. Start with a wide stance facing a long edge of your mat. Pivot on the right heel and turn the foot forward, that is, toes point straight to the short front edge of the mat. Then pivot on the left heel and turn the foot sharply forward, keeping the heel firmly pressing the floor. Now try to square the front pelvis with the mat. Unless you’re fairly flexible, one of two things will happen. One, you can square the pelvis only by lifting the left heel, or two, in order to keep the heel grounded you’re unable to square the pelvis. 

First of all, it’s acceptable to do this pose with the back heel lifted, if you’re able to maintain a strong extension through that heel. In a prop-friendly yoga class, the short term solution is to support the left heel on a thickly-folded blanket or sandbag. The long-term solution is to practice  lengthening your front groins and deep hip flexors, so that when the back leg hip swings forward, the head of the femur can be pressed back to keep the heel on the floor. 

Richard Rosen's Asana Breakdown: PINCHA MAYURASANA

PINCHA MAYURASANA

Pincha  = wing | Mayūra = peacock | āsana = seat

NOTE ABOUT THE NAME: The Iyengar student’s “bible,” Light on Yoga, defines “pincha” as “feather” or “chin.” As far as I can discover both of these definitions are incorrect. My English-Sanskrit dictionary translates “chin” as cibukam, and pincha  as “wing.” The Sanskrit word for “feather” is piccham, so if we want this pose to be called “peacock feather” in Sanskrit, it should be piccha mayurasana, I’ve kept the original name to avoid confusion.

Pincha mayūrāsana (hereafter PM) is a relatively recent addition to the stock of asanas. The single name “peacock” for a pose goes back to at least the 17th century and the Precious Lines of Hatha [Yoga] (Hatha Ratnavali), which includes six variations of the basic pose. PM is popularly called “forearm balance.” Just to be clear at the outset: PM is NOT a headstand. If your head is on the floor while in the pose and you can’t lift it off, you should immediately come down. I’m assuming that you are new to this pose and will need a wall to support the inversion. 

PREPARATION

One excellent prep for PM is a modified Downward Facing Dog (urdhva mukha svanasana). Kneel down, lay your block an inch or so away from your yoga wall with its longest side parallel to the wall. Press your forearms against the floor, parallel to each other, palms up, pinkies against the ends of the block. Position your shoulders over your elbows and rotate your upper arms outwardly (laterally) to widen your shoulder blades. Spread your palms and touch or almost touch your thumbs to the floor. 

Then, keeping your shoulders over your elbows, lift your knees half way to straight and stop. You may find your shoulder blades slightly narrowing and your thumbs lifting slightly off the floor. Re-affirm the width of the former and downward reach of the latter by again rotating the upper arms. Maintaining the width and reach, straighten your knees, push back on your thighs and draw your torso straight off your arms. This should not only stretch your shoulders, but also lengthen your armpits, which will help lift your shoulder off your arms and keep your head off the floor. Stay for 30 seconds to a minute, then release. You can repeat the exercise once or twice. If you want more of a challenge, repeat with the block turned first to its middle width, then its narrowest. 

Next repeat the exercise, but this time with your palms pressed against the ends of the block (widest width), fingers curled around the back side and knuckles pressing the wall. Start in the same way you did in the previous exercise. If you’re new to the pose, I recommend that you practice the full pose (when we get to it) for awhile with your hands placed in this way, before going on to press your palms to the floor. What’s important here is that you recreate the shoulder width from the previous exercise, but DON’T open the palms away from the block. At the same time, imagine pressing the outer arms inward against the widened shoulder blades. In every asana, the inner body expands (Shakti), the outer body contains (Shiva). As you firm the outer arms, press your wrists (which are now perpendicular to the floor) and your inner elbows actively into  the floor, the mounds of the index fingers firm against the ends of the block. 

Finally, for future practice, you might try with your palms flat on the floor. As before kneel down and brace your block against the wall. Press your thumbs against the front side and your fingers along the ends. Look at your inner wrists, just below your thumbs. These are equivalent to, say, the mounds of your big toes when standing. Ideally, you want to press these inner wrists firmly down, but it may be difficult with the upper arms rotating outwardly. So try this. Bring your forearms and hands into position, then lift your palms off the floor to face the wall and actively press down on the inner wrists. Essentially, what you’re doing is rotating the upper arms out for space, the forearms in for stability (sthira sukham). Maintaining this pressure on the inner wrists, return your palms to the floor. Then as you’ve been doing, lift and straighten your knees, pressing your thumbs firmly to the block.

PRACTICE

If you’re new to this pose you might find as you kick up your elbows will slide away from each other and your face will scrunch into the floor. Oftentimes it’s recommended to snug a looped belt  around your upper arms just above the elbows. I’m not a fan of belts. Instead I recommend you roll up half your sticky mat into a thick roll and put your elbows on the roll, shoulder width apart. The roll will help prevent your elbows from sliding and provide an extra bit of lift by compensating for tight armpits. Be sure you’re block is still braced against wall.

Now for the kick. If you’ve never done this pose before, you’ll want to make a few practice kicks before trying to raise all the way up. Come into the start position, forearms on the floor, palms on the ends of the block, legs straight. Essentially you’re in Downward Dog with your forearms on the floor. Bend one knee and step the foot toward the same-side elbow. Re-create the widened shoulder blades and the firm outer arms you worked on in the preliminary exercises.  

Your legs must coordinate in the following way to get you into the inversion. You’ll have to determine which leg is the swing leg, which the kick leg. For me it’s left swing, right kick, but it may be vice versa for you. In any case, move the foot of the kick leg as close as you can to the same-side foot.  

With a powerful exhale, swing the straight leg up and toward the wall. As much as possible, keep your shoulders over your elbows, imagine there’s a block wedged between your upper back and the wall. There’s a common tendency to bend the swinging leg as it rises, but this will work against the lift. Try to keep the swinging leg as straight as possible. Then simultaneously with the swing, and another powerful exhale, kick the bent knee foot off the floor and straighten the knee. Unless you have some experience with this coordinated kicking, you’ll probably feel pretty awkward at first and not get anywhere near the wall. This is to be expected. Don’t even try to finish the pose until you are comfortable with the swing and kick.

Then the first few times you try the full pose, don’t be surprised if your heels come crashing into the wall, scaring everyone in the house into thinking it’s an earthquake. Try to bring the swing leg heel lightly to the wall. 

Once in the full pose, there’s another common tendency to sag in the lower back. This will make your back very unhappy. In response, strengthen your legs as much as is possible, press up actively through your heels, and try to lift your tail bone toward your heels. To get a feel for this, cross your ankles and squeeze. You may feel the tail lengthen upward slightly. At the same time, with your palms against the ends of the block, press your wrists and inner elbows actively into the floor. Remember, this IS NOT A HEADSTAND. If you’re just beginning, let your head just hang just off the floor  With more experience you can try to lift your head and look at the wall. 

Hold for 15-20 seconds and very carefully step one foot down at a time. 

LEARNING TO FLY (AND YOU WON’T NEED WINGS)

If, when the pose feels comfortably stable, you want to learn to balance, try this. Sit with your soles pressed to the wall, torso upright. Press your thumbs against the mat to make indentations just to the sides of your knees. Then come into the starting position with you elbows placed at the indents, block between your palms. This will bring you a shin’s length away from the wall. When you kick up now you’ll need to have to immediately bend your knees so you’re feet can press the wall. Ideally, your torso and thighs will be perpendicular to the floor and your knees at right angles. Now take one foot off the wall and reach through the heel to the ceiling. At the same time press your inner wrists and elbows firmly down, distributing your weight evenly along the forearms. Alternate the raised leg. 

Then, when you feel relatively confident, begin to lighten your feet’s pressure against the wall, and touch only with your tippy toes. As you do this, try to “lengthen” your tail bone upward to prevent lower back sag. As you work on balance, you might also work on kicking up without your heels coming to the wall. Then someday in the not too distant future, with daily practice of course, you’ll say goodbye to the wall and balance freely without support. The feeling is beyond exhilarating. 

Nest Member Feature - Bonnie Steinbock

Bonnie on a walk in Ragusa, Sicily. June 2024.

Tell us about yourself, Bonnie.

I am a retired philosophy professor from the University at Albany/SUNY, specializing in bioethics, especially in reproduction, genetics, and end of life issues. My most recent book, co-authored with my husband, Paul Menzel is Bioethics: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2023). In February 2025, I'll be giving an endowed lecture at the Bioethics Centre of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

At the age of 77, I'm one of the older yoga practitioners. I love the teachers at Nest and the camaraderie. Nest is my community.

What is your all-time favorite movie, book, song or artist/artwork?

The Godfather, parts 1 and 2

What do you love most about practicing yoga?

It makes me feel so good!

What is your favorite yoga pose?

Triangle

What is your least favorite yoga pose?

Third warrior

Bonnie, her son-in-law, Eric, and granddaughters. Taken in 2022 at a family reunion to celebrate Bonnie’s 75th birthday. She now has a grandson as well, who was born in 2023.

What is your favorite place to visit?

Italy

What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

Between us, my husband and I have 11 grandchildren.

Also, I started yoga at the age of 50.

What is your favorite quote, or your favorite piece of advice?

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.

What else would you like our community to know about you?

I think we live in Paradise.

Nest Member Feature - Brett Breitenbucher

Tell us a little about yourself, Brett.

I am a 42 year old nurse, father of two boys, I enjoy driving cars. I am a pediatric ICU nurse and I have been working in nursing for about 10 years.

What is your all-time favorite book, movie, song, artist, or piece of artwork?

Allison Hueman (artist). I discovered the artist Hueman on the wall of a cannabis dispensary. She is a local artist from Oakland who has a risen to become an international star, I love her use bright colors and interpose images often of human beings.

What do you love the most about practicing yoga?

The creativity to build a custom practice, to exert as much or as little effort as you wish each day

What is your favorite yoga pose?

Ragdoll

What is your least favorite yoga pose?

Triangle pose

What is your favorite place to visit OR a place you'd like to go someday?

Frequently visit Kaanapali, Maui HI

What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

I am a cannabis enthusiast

What is your favorite quote, or your favorite piece of advice?

Memento Mori. I like this because it reminds us that each day is precious and our lives hold meaning because we never know when we could die. I find a lot of overlap of that in yoga.

Richard Rosen's Asana Breakdown: REVOLVED TRIANGLE (parivrtta trikonasana) and REVOLVED HALF MOON (parivrtta ardha chandrasana) POSES

REVOLVED TRIANGLE (parivrtta trikonasana) and REVOLVED HALF MOON (parivrtta ardha chandrasana) POSES

In Sanskrit, tri means “three” and kona “angle,” so if we join these two words we get “three angles,” or in everyday parlance, “triangle.” The familiar standing pose we know with that name isn’t “traditional”; rather, it dates from the early twentieth century and is a product, like so many modern poses, of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya’s inventive imagination. There are, however, three traditional poses with that name. As you may know if you’re a regular reader of this blog, it’s quite common for different poses through the centuries to be given the same name (nor is it unusual for the same pose to be tagged with different names). Two of these older Triangles are seated, one a squat. It goes without saying–but I’ll say it anyway–that revolved Triangle is also a modern pose, no doubt a logical extension of Triangle. 

Our Half Moon and revolved Half Moon poses both come again from Mr. Krishnamacharya. And just as with Triangle, Half Moon is the name of two traditional poses, one a standing pose very much like Tree Pose (vrksasana), with the raised foot across the standing leg’s front groin, and a squat with one ankle crossed between the torso and other thigh. 

Parivrtta is rooted in the verb vrt, which has a very long entry in the printed dictionary, it being used in combination with many other words. For our purpose, all we need to know is that it basically means “to turn, turn round, revolve.” Vrt is one of those Sanskrit roots that show up in a  number of common English words: vault, volt, volume, involve, evolve, and of course, revolve. 

While vrt is loaded down with definitions, ardha is pretty simple, it means “half.”

PREPARATION

There’s one very important thing to remember about revolved Triangle, or any twist for that matter. There was once, maybe 40 years ago or so, a controversy over what we should do with our pelvis in a twist. One camp insisted the pelvis stay neutral while the other side insisted that the pelvis should turn with the rest of the torso. I don’t recall how that turned out in back then, but I do know that I’ve been a member of the second camp ever since. When we twist then, the movement is initiated in the sacrum, NOT the lower back. How does that work?

Lie down on your back, knees bent, feet on the floor, block at the ready. Inhale, lift your pelvis

and slide the block at its lowest height under your sacrum, be sure the tail bone (coccyx) is fully supported. Then touch your soles together and slowly release your knees to the sides in what’s called the reclining bound hero pose (supta baddha virasana). Be sure NOT to push down on the knees. Allow the groins to “soften” past the block and the knees will follow. 

Now rock slowly side to side on the block. When you rock to the right, the block will naturally press more firmly against the right side of the sacrum. But notice that your upper torso turns slightly to the left. Then rock left and notice the reverse, as the left half of the sacrum now seems to deepen into the pelvis, the upper torso turns right. Imagine the two sides of the os sacrum, the “holy bone,” as a pair of pedals. Which ever one you press, the torso, including the pelvis, turns oppositely, the twist spiraling up the spine–of which the sacrum is the base–each vertebra (rooted in vrt) participating equally in the twist. 

One frequent issue with revolved triangle concerns the outer hip of the forward leg. When doing any twist, it’s necessary to elongate the spine a much as possible to make space between the vertebrae to fully realize the twist. But a very common response to this twist is that the hip of the forward leg moves off to the side and up towards the shoulder, which causes the spine to curve, a death knell for the twist. So go to your yoga wall, right foot forward, left back, and press your right hip firmly against the wall. Position a yoga block at its tallest height at the inside of your right foot. With the torso upright, rotate to the wall, allowing the left hip to come slightly forward. As it does, press the head of the thigh bone (femur) back and dig the left heel into the floor.

You might find this hip movement causes your back heel, the anchor for every standing pose, to lift slightly off the floor, or at least lose some its firmness against the floor. This isn’t necessarily a problem IF you can keep the heel pressing actively down toward the floor. You want to avoid letting your weight shift onto the ball of the forward foot, which will destabilize the position. If you do lose the firmness of the back heel on the floor, and if the left hip lags behind the right, so it’s slightly rotated left, it’s highly recommended that you press the heel against some firm support, a sand bag is ideal. 

Now slide your left hand down the wall, aiming to rest it on the high end of the block. At the same time, slide your right hand up the wall, pressing it with the tips of your claw-shaped fingers. It isn’t necessary at this point to arrange the arms parallel to each other and perpendicular to the floor. Just make sure that your right hip stays firmly pressed against the wall and, if possible, slides slightly back, keeping the base of the right big toe pressed actively on the floor. Try to align your crown with your tail bone. To make this exercise even more effective have a yoga friend, a spouse, or partner lean against your left hip, which will press the right even more firmly against the wall. Stay for at least a minute, getting a sense of how the wall prevents the outward swing and upward lift of the hip. 

REVOLVED TRIANGLE

Now as always, the moment of Truth has arrived. Stand on your mat facing one of its long edges and separate your feet about a yard apart, slightly more for a greater challenge. Have the block on the floor inside your right foot. Turn the left foot well in and the right to point directly at the mat’s shorter side. Rotate your pelvis to the right, and as much as is possible for you, square the front of your pelvis with the short edge of the mat. As the left hip rotates forward, press actively back on the head of the left thigh bone. As a reminder, if in making this rotation you can’t fully square the front pelvis, or you lose the back heel, support the heel.

Exhale, and lower your torso parallel to the floor. Burrow your right thumb into your right hip crease with your hand splayed across the outer hip. Press your thumb firmly into the crease and imagine the head of the femur is releasing toward the left heel; simultaneously, imagine that the pressure of the left heel against the floor/support is drawing the head of that bone to it. 

As the right hip crease deepens draw the belly out and lengthen through the top of the sternum. Please take the time to do this, don’t rush to get into the pose. Remember that every pose is a process, with a beginning, middle, and end. Once you’ve created all the length you feel is possible along the front torso, imagine you’re still pressing your right hip to the wall. Soften your belly and  contact the left side of your sacrum. As described earlier, initiate the pose from there, as if you were still reclining on the block and tilting left. Allow the left hip to dip slightly closer to the floor than the right, and turn your torso to the right. Press your left palm on the block, but for now keep your right thumb pressed into the hip crease. Scan the pose. Check that the back heel firm is pressing firmly to the floor/support, the outer hip of the front is held in and back and the hip of the back leg tipping toward the floor, the two sides of the torso equally long (or almost so), the belly is soft, the crown and tail are aligned. Make any minor adjustments you think are needed and then, if you care to, reach the right arm straight up. Press into the “resistance” of the        imaginary wall. 

Stay in the pose for 30 seconds to a minute. To exit, be sure to de-rotate the torso before returning it to upright. Be sure too, if needing to switch a support from the left heel to the right,   not to shift forward onto the front foot. Always turn both feet to parallel and step or hop the feet together. If you’re a relative beginner, look straight ahead, don’t turn your head to gaze at the top hand. That comes later. Repeat on the other side for the same length of time.

REVOLVED HALF MOON 

If you thought revolved Triangle was fun, you’re going to have even more fun with this pose. If you’ve never tried this pose before, you might want to practice at the wall before going solo.

The key to this pose is keeping the head of the standing leg’s femur head pressing back. This will help to ground the standing heel and prevent the body’s weight from shifting onto the ball of the standing foot, which often spells disaster. Now return to revolved Triangle with the block again inside the front foot. 

Now this is important. Bend the front knee and with the block in your left hand, reach it as far as possible away from the inside of the foot. This will widen your base of support. Performing the well-known and widely used “fingers crossed and hope for the best” mudra, inhale, push back on the head of the front leg’s femur head and slowly straighten the front leg. As you do this, slowly raise the back leg parallel to the floor (or nearly so) maintaining a strong push through the raised heel. If successful, hold for 20 to 30 seconds and exit. If you want to exit as I learned many years ago, return gracefully to revolved Triangle and come up from that twist as described earlier. Alternatively, you can simply de-rotate and lower the left to the floor beside the right. You’ll then have to widen your feet once more for revolved triangle. Repeat for the same length of time on the other side.