Crescent Lunge vs. Low Lunge

While you may feel the burn most in your quadriceps when doing the crescent lunge and low lunge, these two yoga poses, or asanas, engage your entire body from the tips or your fingers to the tips of your toes.They provide a great whole-body workout, strengthening your back, legs and torso while improving balance and flexibility. In both crescent and low lunge the front leg is bent as close to 90 degrees as possible, the thigh is parallel to the floor, the back leg is straight and the back toes are curled under. In this orientation, both the front and back quadriceps are at work. However, the differences in these poses changes the focus from the lower-body for low lunge to the upper-body in the crescent lunge.

  1. Muscles Worked

    • Both the low and crescent lunges engage the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and gastrocnemius -- calf muscle. In the crescent lunge, the arms are overhead and the torso is perpendicular to the floor, so the upper back muscles as well as the arms -- both biceps and triceps -- are activated to a greater extent than in low lunge. The low lunge, with the torso at a 45-degree angle to the floor, uses the low back muscles, especially the erector spinae, while challenging the quadriceps and abdominals to a greater extent.

    Arms, Palms, and Fingers

    • In crescent lunge,your arms should be in line with the ears. Your palms face in and can either be parallel with your finger engaged and spread or pressing against each other with each finger touching. In low lunge, your arms are down towards the floor with your palms either flat on the floor or resting on an elevated block. For a more challenging low lunge, you can distribute more weight to the quadriceps by resting your fingertips, bearing very little weight, on the floor or block. This places most of the weight on the quadriceps and abdominal muscles.

    Variations

    • One of the most common crescent lunge variations is arms behind your back with your arms straight and your fingers clasped. The arms don't touch the body; instead, they reach towards your calf to lift your sternum towards the ceiling. This opens the front body like a back bend. The most common variation of the low lunge is to lower your back knee. This benefits individuals who have weakness in the quadriceps or trouble balancing.

    Muscles Stretched

    • Both the crescent and low lunge stretch your hip flexors . However, the stretch is greater with the crescent lunge because of the torso being perpendicular. Additionally, reaching the arms overhead in crescent lunge further stretches your lower back as well as the entire front body, including your abdominal muscles, the pectoralis major of your chest and the subscapularis -- a muscle of the scapula located near the armpit that extends into the head of the upper arm bone, or humerus.

    Considerations

    • If you have tight leg muscles, you may find the low lunge too difficult because the angle of the torso shifts more weight to the front leg. The crescent lunge distributes your weight more evenly. To master either of these poses, both the mind and body must be present.