Scaling calf raises/seiza at beginning of routine

Almost every time I do the front splits video, I end up with a deep pain on the outside of at least one my calves. It's not just sore - it's really painful to flex my foot/put my heel down on the ground, so I end up limping around with one toe pointed for several days. This gets in the way of other training, and it's happened several times now. 

I already scale the calf raises to 30 instead of 60, and I sometimes pause a bit in the middle of the seiza exercises if I think I need to. I feel ok during the video, so it's not obvious to me that I'm doing too much?

But since it keeps happening, I'm getting nervous about doing the video and doing this to myself again. Do you have any advice about how to modify the sequence? Should I do even fewer calf raises? Is it one of the variations (heels in or heels out) that's likely to be causing this particular problem? Bad form, or just being weak and needing to build strength?

Hey Zoe, can you please show me the seiza exercise from behind?

Sure thing:

Looking at these, I'm guessing it's the heels in the squatted seiza?

Hi Zoe,

you are right about the heels, you want to keep them as close as you can. For the squatted seiza you may keep your knees supported on a yoga block if you are struggling keeping the position. If you are feeling any pain during these I recommend to ease of the intensity for a bit.

2 hours ago, Pauline Taube said:

Hi Zoe,

you are right about the heels, you want to keep them as close as you can. For the squatted seiza you may keep your knees supported on a yoga block if you are struggling keeping the position. If you are feeling any pain during these I recommend to ease of the intensity for a bit.

 

Thanks! Part of the problem was that I wasn't feeling any pain during these, so I didn't even realize the seiza was the problem. I thought it was the calf raises since the pain was in my calf. 

I'll give the yoga block modification a try and see how it goes!

Please keep us posted, Zoe  

I did a front split session on Wednesday, and it seems like modifying squatted seiza worked to help prevent that calf pain.  

Awesome to hear, Zoe. Keep up with your training and feel free to reach out again at any time