Why Lunge should come before Half Moon

Lunge

Often, the Half Moon Series is practiced at the beginning of a class. This series usually includes side bends, a backbend and either a forward bend of the spine or a hamstring stretch.

However, there is a posture that is quite useful to do before this series and that is Lunge. 

Lunge doesn't affect the side bends or forward bend directly, but Lunge does warm the body due to its use of big muscles. More importantly though, and the point here, is that Lunge has a big effect on the backbend.

When we backbend, we typically are extending both the spine and the hips at the same time. This is challenging because it demands coordination between our spine, pelvis and hips, all in relation to gravity.

A Standing Backbend requires we navigate a complicated relationship with gravity. Due to the technique required to execute this position, the result is usually the abdomen contracting and the spinal extensors relaxing: the opposite of what we want. For the hips, this requires the hip flexors to get very long and relaxed. This is quite difficult to accomplish while standing, even more difficult to accomplish early in class.

In the Standing Backbend, it is also significant that we require both hips (and the abdomen) to lengthen at the same time. Due to the fact our hips are typically flexed throughout the day--any time we are sitting, our hips are flexed--our hip flexors are short and likely tight. 

​Lunge is very useful to remedy this.

​Lunge extends the hip, one side of the body at a time. This is a gentler way to approach hip extension and backward bending. This is simpler to do with precision, and prepares the body for a Standing Backbend. 

​Lunge also requires a forward (anterior) tilted pelvis. This causes the back muscles to contract to be upright in the position. Even if we are not doing a deep backbend in Lunge, the spinal extensors are still contracting to hold the spine upright. This is very useful for preparing to purposefully backbend the spine. 

In summary, Lunge is a useful posture to practice before Half Moon series. It will warm the body a bit, but more importantly, it will allow the spine, pelvis and hips to move with more ease and precision. In a posture as challenging as the Standing Backbend, we should take any help we can get. 

Standing Backbend