A few questions on SE4 and SE14/15

Today was my first session of FSS. I loved it! I have a few questions, so I can do it right in the future. BTW, I was dreading the calves because everybody in the forums were talking about how sore they got… it was actually not that bad. I had two ballet classes last week, and I was sore for 5 days afterwards from walking on my toes for 30 minutes in a row… These calf raises were like a piece of cake, compared, ha ha… 

Squatted Seiza and Elevated Seiza

The heels are supposed to be together. My ankles seem a bit "bulky", so when I squeezed my heels together, I had to separate my toes a little bit… or also keep me feet slightly apart, so there would be room for my ankles. Slightly I mean just a few inches. What is a better option? Separate my toes, or separate my feet so they remain parallel? It was more obvious in the squatted Seiza, but a little in the elevated too. 

Narrow Hurdler Block

I was actually feeling a bid discomfort in my bent leg, because the rotation is a little too tight on me. I was almost tilting away from that bent leg to feel comfortable. When I leaned forward toward the straight leg, I was really not feeling the stretch as much in my hamstring, because the bent leg was feeling the most… I adjusted and instead of having the leg on the outside of me, I was sitting on it, it was more under me, so the rotation went away, and I was able to bend over the straight leg. Am I compensating the wrong way? Shall I stick to having the leg on the side and with time that tightness will go away, but compromising my hamstring stretch? 

I didn't take a picture of this one, but of the Wide Hurdler stretch, so you can see that I can bend over quite a lot, when the bent leg doesn't bother me. Here, the rotation problem of the bent leg was not an issue. 

Also, showing my final Standing Pike at the end of my first  FSS. I was so impressed how it loosened me up. (Wish my Thoracic Bridge would work this fast for me, ha ha… but needless to say, I used to stretch my hamstrings regularly, but not my spine. So here it is)

Nice pike

Heels together is the aim on the seiza elements. If necessary your toes may be slightly apart as you say; simply do your best to minimize this.

The hurdler is trickier issue. Have you tried performing this stretch with the foot not elevated- equivalent to elevating the butt in this case? Does this mitigate the difficulty? Is the problem in the hip or the knee, on both sides, and of course have you had problems with this area prior? 

Regarding pike, you seem to be starting in a much better position than most people I know ;-)

For the seiza elements I have been using a band to tie my ankles together during the stretch.  By now it is almost unnecessary, I can keep them quite close myself.  I did endure a lot of discomfort in the ankle stretches the first weeks/months of doing FSS (I have been doing them a bit over a year now), but they are actually the ones where I have shown a lot of improvement and the discomfort has lessened over time.

Regarding the hurdler => it is an issue I have seen with myself and with a lot of people in class.  I think it is the internal rotation of the bent leg that is not good enough.  I have always had people adjust their position so that the knee does not hurt.  Mostly this means leaning to the side a bit (away from the bent leg) and/or moving the knees a bit further apart (sometimes with butt elevated).  Just sitting that way gives a lot of people already a good stretch (admittedly, most do not have a pike anywhere near as good as yours :-)).  Over time it does become possible to sit more upright (onto the "sitting bones") and having the knees right next to each other - that is the point I start emphasizing to reach long and forward - then the stretch shifts more to the hamstring of the straight leg.  

I have experienced this evolution myself. In the beginning I had to lean to the side and even support myself on my arm (on the side of the straight leg).  Now, I can easily sit straight without having to lean sideways and stretch forward.  

So in conclusion: for me, all it took was time and patience (recurring theme here) and trying as best as I could to position myself/stretch towards the ideal end goal position + taking care to be "uncomfortable but without pain".

Hope this helps a bit.

19 hours ago, Jon Douglas said:

Nice pike

Heels together is the aim on the seiza elements. If necessary your toes may be slightly apart as you say; simply do your best to minimize this.

The hurdler is trickier issue. Have you tried performing this stretch with the foot not elevated- equivalent to elevating the butt in this case? Does this mitigate the difficulty? Is the problem in the hip or the knee, on both sides, and of course have you had problems with this area prior? 

@Jon Douglas Thanks for your tip. Regarding the narrow hurdler stretch, it does not hurt in the knee or foot or anywhere. It's the internal rotation of the femur that is non-existent (it's been like this what I can remember, and I even actively try to stretch it, sitting in a hurdler/pigeon combo, but it is just not loosening up like my other muscle groups)… so because my hamstring is much more flexible than what this restriction is, I do not feel it at all in my hamstring, because the internal rotation issue is so overwhelming. If I stick the foot (bent leg foot) under me, sort of like sitting on a block, and thus not internally rotating the leg, I can go down into a nice hamstring stretch and really feel it. So my dilemma was 1) to compromise this internal rotation and feel the stretch nicely in the hamstring, or 2) stick with my internal rotation so it would get better with over time, but not feel anything in the hamstring? As I am writing this, it hit me, that maybe I should do both? :-) 

The Seizas, my heels are quite together, but if I really want the bones to touch (even when I force them there with squeezing with my hands), then the pointy ankles act like a lever and my toes have to separate a bit. It happens even standing (I just tried :-)), the ankles are in the way. Unless I supinate a lot, but it's not a good thing. 

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@Koenraad Van Leemput Thank you for your inputs as well! I have been stretching quite regularly for many years (not this GST style though) and I am glad to see that my work is showing now when I am diving into FSS…  Even the ankles were not as bad because I've been working on my foot health for the past few years as well. Only now, it is going to be with even more precision. 

The internal rotation of my thigh has been something horrible for many years, and it is definitely the weakest point. It just doesn't want to loosen up like all the other body parts. Actually, even my external rotation is quite bad—I was taking a few ballet classes last week and my "turn out" of the leg is about 50% than it should be. More work ahead. I just wanted to clarify how to stretch the hamstring without the internal rotation issue… Thanks again!!!!