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.