Elevated Saiza and other ankle stretches

Hi, I've been leaning as far forward as I need to to keep my ankles together during these first three stretches of front splits.

I don't feel any stretch in my ankles. What I feel is the muscles on the outsides of my lower legs getting worked in a sort of isometric hold as I struggle to keep my heels together.

I've included a picture of my legs straight down knees locked. My knees are touching and I cannot move my feet any closer while my knees are locked out.

My Sports Medicine doctor tells me I do not have knock-knees.

My question is, even with this bone structure should my heels still be touching in Saiza? Or would an inch apart be correct?

Or should I be focusing on the external rotation of my ankles to keep my big toes and heels together while not receiving any ankle stretch?

Would it be beneficial to wrap my ankles together with a strap and just sit into that in order to open up my ankles external rotation as well as working on the strength to hold them in position without a strap?

Thank you!

Hey Joseph,

I'm interested in this too. My legs are not like yours but I have the same feelings when I put my heels together in the elevated seiza. I think that it is somehow related with the rotation of the hips, because if the ankles are not rotated then the rotation should come from the hips (the knees can't rotate enough). I read in the forums that you should keep your heels together no matter what, and maybe I'm wrong but I remember a post from the coaches that said that using straps doesn't help you to develop the mobility required to do it without straps.

I want to chime in here and say that when I started the front split series 7 months ago I was unable to get very deep into these stretches with my heels together and didn't really feel much of a "stretch"--on the first 2 stretches it was more like the muscles attached to my shinbone were getting a workout.  But I did limit my ROM as much as needed to keep my heels together and now, 7 months down the line, I can almost sit back fully with heels together.

I'll create a separate thread for this but on the 3rd stretch (squatted seiza) I am completely unable to keep heels together with curled toes and I believe it's due to a bunion in my left foot which changes the angle of things quite a bit.  I've stuck with this one too but I've seen no progress with expanding my ROM.

Alright well that is good to hear. I'll just keep working on that then. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting my time.