Standing Half Frog

21 KYP

Standing Half Frog  Ardha Bhekasana

​Step by step

• Stand in Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
• Ground warmly, firmly and evenly through your feet.
• Find a point at eye level to focus on ~ this will help with your balance.
• Shift your weight onto your right foot.
• Bend your left knee and draw your raised heel toward your buttock
• With your left hand, grab a hold of the inside (or outside) of the left ankle.
• Draw the bent leg back towards the centre line of the body.
• Engage your right thigh and knee to make the standing leg strong. 
• Keep the torso upright, the chest open and lengthen your tailbone down.
• Square the hips, shoulders and ears towards the side wall, if you can.
• Make your own adjustments to settle and stabilize your pelvis.
• Stay for 5-10 breaths.
• Spike up your curiosity. Connect with the sensations you feel - especially the tug on the groin and the front of the thigh. Try breathing into and out from the sensations you feel, as if you could breathe through your own nerves and blood vessells.
• Option to play your edge by pulsing the foot firmly and softly towards buttock with each exhale.
• To come out of the pose, release the leg as you exhale. Repeat on the other side. 
  
  

Beginners’ tips

• If you feel wobbley and find it reassuring, you can  touching your cupped hand against a wall - in front of you or to the side. Or you can holding onto a doorframe with your free hand.
• It's normal and wobble all over the place, fall out, come back in, fall out, come back in. It's a natural, (funny!) and fruitful part of your learning curve ~ don't knock it. Keep practicing and enjoy your progress towards steadiness and ease over time.

​​Benefits

• Strengthens the feet, ankles, legs, core, back and arms.
• Opens the front of the body, the chest, abdomen, hip flexors and the shoulders.
• Improves balance and concentration.

​Watch out for

• Try not to lock the knee of the standing leg, so you keep it responsive and prevent the knee from hyperextending. Keep a micro-bend in the knee. This is specially important if your have hypermobile joints.
• Scan the body for tensions that aren't serving you -perhaps in the face, the throat, the jaw. See what happens when you let those tensions go.
• Watch your self talk. If you find yourself beating yourself up as you engage with your ballencing challenge, notice this. Ask your self  'is it helping?' and 'would I talk like this to my best friend?' You wouldn't. So reframe your thoughts to make friends with yourself again.
• If you get cramp in the back of the thigh when lifting the leg, try keeping the ankle of the raised foot flexed - drawing the toes toward the shin.

​ Variations

• You can choose to hold the outside of the ankle, instead of the inside. It changes the stretch in the shoulder slightly.