You’ll need patience to do Half-Moon Pose, an intermediate level yoga balance pose that challenges and strengthens your core and lower body. Watch the video below to learn how to do it right…

Half-Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana) is a wonderful standing balance pose that helps to strengthen and energize your entire body. This pose helps you work on your balance, and also builds strength in your legs, ankles, feet and hips, while providing a great stretch for your thighs.

As with most balance poses, half-moon is not something that you want to rush. Spend plenty of time preparing for this pose, and try staying in it a few seconds longer every time you do it.

Besides taking your time, you will also want to make sure you are engaging your core muscles – especially the oblique and transverse abdominals (you know, the ones that give you a trimmer waist and a flatter tummy). This will help improve the stability of the pose, and make it easier to do. (Jenny from EkhartYoga.com shares a few more tips for getting more out of Half-Moon pose here.)

Beginners may wish to place the foot of the upper leg against a wall for balance, and/or use a block as shown in the video if you have trouble reaching your hand all the way to the floor.

This video demonstrates how to do this wonderful intermediate-level yoga pose: