Hello Friends, welcome back! Something that I like to do around here is demystify yoga asanas. Mostly because I think that just about everyone can benefit from regular practice of the postures. It is absolutely true, though, that we are all built differently and sometimes need options beyond what our favorite yoga instructor gives. So let’s chat options in crescent lunge today.
Crescent Lunge is a massively beneficial asana. The front leg takes the weight of the body which creates a strength challenge. Most of the balance stress in the pose also falls to the front leg. The rear leg, though, gets an incredible stretch as it’s lengthened long behind the body. This stretch is concentrated in the hip flexors, which thanks to how much we sit, can usually benefit from a good stretch.
And that’s just the lower body. Depending on how you choose to position your arms, you can get great stretch for your shoulders (extended over your head) or you can increase your sense of balance (extended out to the sides). And, as always, if you are more advanced in your practice and want to try binds, you absolutely can.
But this post is about making yoga more accessible. Luckily for us, crescent lunge is one of those poses that has so many possibilities that you’d be hard pressed to find a version that won’t work for you.
Balance Concerns
If balance is a concern, you can start by opening your arms out to the side. Much like a tightrope walker’s pole, placing your arms perpendicular helps create a sense of stability. If that doesn’t completely stop the wobble, you can move to place one of your hands on a wall next to you or on the top of a chair, half wall, or railing.
Another simple solution is to take a shorter stance. I feel like I talk about that in every single one of these, but it works. As someone with training in movement science, we are taught that wider bases are more stable. If we are talking about a defensive stance, absolutely. But the wider stance doesn’t always translate to yoga asana. Starting with or moving towards a shorter stance if you feel unstable almost always solves a good bit of the problem.
Strength Concerns
If you feel a lot of tension or pressure in the front leg, lower body strength levels may be the issue. The simplest solution here is to soften the lunge. Crescent lunge is often demonstrated with a relatively deep lunge in the front knee. That’s not a comfortable or sustainable position for a lot of us. So take a softer, shallower lunge. The front leg will still get plenty of strengthening benefits and the rear leg will still get the stretch that you want from crescent lunge.
For bigger strength challenges, slide a support under the front lunged leg. This can be a chair or stool. The idea is to create the appropriate shape while giving the front leg some extra support. If you don’t have a support available or one doesn’t fit your height, you can drop the back knee all the way to the floor. Again, this will maintain the shape of the pose and the hip flexor stretch for the back leg while taking the pressure off the front leg. This method also works for aiding in balance.
Upper Body Options
As mentioned, you can aid in balance by extending your arms out to the side. If balance isn’t an issue and you’d like an extra stretch, you can extend your arms above your head. This will be a two fold bonus. Extending the arms actually deepens the hip flexor stretch by elongating the muscles through the torso as well as the leg. In addition, you get a rear shoulder stretch.
One of my favorite options, is rarely shown, but adds a chest stretch. By clasping the hands behind your back and pressing down, the chest lifts upwards stretching the torso and the front of the shoulders. When you consider that the hip flexors and the front of the shoulders are the most likely spots to have tightness due to sitting too much, this version of crescent lunge is wonderfully effective at working all the kinks out.
Notes on Sidedness
Crescent Lunge in a pose that is done with each leg front, meaning that the right and left sides of the body can need two very different things. While it is important to train both sides of the body as equally as possible, it is also key to approach each side recognizing its own unique needs. Especially as it relates to the hip flexors and the amount of stretch we are able to achieve, hips can be tricky and need to be treated as individual parts of a working whole.
My favorite way to accomplish this is to complete both sides of the pose twice. In other words, four total poses. The first round on each side can be used as a prep pose. If you have a good idea of your body’s abilities and differences, try to pick a version for the first round that sits in the middle of what the right and left sides can do. If you are still working through where your body sits, go ahead and take whatever version works for each side individually and don’t worry about how different they are.
For the second round, try to push the versions closer together. If you are taking a shorter stance on one side, for example, on the second time through maybe you pick a stance that’s between the shorter more comfortable version that side needs and the version you can do on the other side. With time, you’ll notice the two sides of your body are able to move and stretch more symmetrically.
Crescent lunge is one of those underappreciated poses, but don’t confuse underappreciated with ineffective. There is probably a version available to fit your needs.
Until next time, move well friends!
0
