Seiza question

With the three seiza positions I find that I cannot keep my knees, ankles, and heels all together. If I keep my knees and ankles together, my heels separate, and vice versa. Is this a big deal? If it is, is it better to have heels and ankles together and work on pushing the knees together? Or is it better to keep knees and ankles together and try to push the heels together? Thanks.

Hello Jason,

my preference is for you to keep your heels and ankles together, and work on pushing your knees together during the stretch.

Let me know if this makes sense to you.

THanks for that Luke. Good question Jason.

Another question about Seiza. For those who are really stiff. Is it ok to not elevated the toes up on a block? By that i mean just keep feets flat on the floor and sit down on them. For (stiff) me, i feel the stretch better this way. 

Hi Jonas,

Have you tried to lean a bit forward with your feet elevated in order to ease a bit out of the stretch? As your flexibility improves you will gradually be able to sit more upright. I also struggle with the seiza stretches as my feet are very tight, I find this very helpful

Thanks Luke and Pauline. I will put your suggestions in place.

Thank you Jason,

This was the exact question that I was going to ask today.

On 2017-08-13 at 9:07 PM, Pauline Taube said:

Hi Jonas,

Have you tried to lean a bit forward with your feet elevated in order to ease a bit out of the stretch? As your flexibility improves you will gradually be able to sit more upright. I also struggle with the seiza stretches as my feet are very tight, I find this very helpful

Thanks Pauline, I have tryed leaning forward. It make things better but i still feel it even better without the block. Any specific reason for using the block?

For me, personally, I've noticed that using the block forces the muscles in the bottom of my feet to compress more, and stretches the front of the ankle and into the top of the foot better than if I just use the floor.

The foot stretches crushed me for the longest time, I used to sweat hard everytime I worked on the seiza.

 After months and months of consistency, now its a breeze!  

So I just reread this thread and realized I never asked my similar question!

When I do a Seiza, I can keep my toes and knees together, but as soon as I sit back at all, my heels roll out so my feet are a V-shape. If I focus on keeping heels and toes together, I can't sit back enough to get any stretch at all. Could it be another part of my body that needs some mobility or strength work first? Or are my ankles just that tight?

It might not be related, but I can't get my butt on my heels for a kneeling tuck either. I feel like my hammies are resting on my calves, but if I push back with my hands I can get a little closer.

As I'm typing this, I'm thinking the answer is a form check, but since I tend to forget to take pictures when I"m working out, I'll post the question anyway in hopes of some ideas until I remember to get a picture.

Thanks!

Hey there,

I had a similar issue with my heels and as Jeffrey recommended I started using a belt to tighten my heels.

I do seiza very often and alternate between using and not using a belt since both versions would be beneficial.

I am able to keep heels together more easily now.

feli

@Jennifer Marie I had/have a similar issue in the Seiza's and kneeling tuck.  I used a strap to secure my heels together for several months, I can do it now without the strap.  

In my opinion part of my issues in the tuck and seiza problems as well as some squatting issues comes from really rock hard calves (not in a good way).  The tissue isn't pliable enough to flatten and squish out of the way of the hamstrings.  Especially after doing the second set of calf raises I feel an intense pressure in my calves during the second seiza variation.  One technique I've seen is to: while kneeling put a dowel or bar between the calves and hamstrings to squish and massage the tissue.  

I love both ideas @Ryan Reynolds! No doubt, my calves are definitely tight, so the dowel intrigues me more than the strap, but the strap is an easy experiment to try as well. 

Thank you for the suggestions!