0:00 This is Brent coming at you with our serratus anterior activation 0:03 progressions video. I'm excited about this video because it's one of our first 0:07 collaborative videos. 0:08 I have to get my friend Rob Fluegel a shout out. He's one of the faculty for 0:12 the Maitland Manual Therapy courses that I had gone through a few months ago and 0:17 he came through one of my workshops, which was awesome. One of the 0:20 advancements and exercise selection courses. We started talking about how to 0:23 progress this particular exercise, being serratus anterior activation, and here's 0:28 what we kind of came up with. It started with some stuff he knew. We took some of 0:32 the overactive synergist stuff that I've talked about in previous videos, and what 0:36 we came up with I think is an exercise you guys are going to love, especially 0:39 for some of your more advanced individuals with a history of upper body 0:42 dysfunction. All of my athletic trainers with overhead athletes. All of my 0:47 physical therapists looking to progress their individuals outside of that rehab, 0:52 kind of acute rehab program, and of course all of my personal trainers who 0:56 are working on postural dysfunction with their clients. 0:59 I'm going to have my friend Yvette come out. She's going to show the Sahrmann technique 1:03 that this kind of all started from 1:05 first. I'm gonna have you go ahead and put your forearms against the wall, 1:08 parallel, just wider than shoulder width. 1:10 All right now what we're going to do is we're going to use the friction from the 1:13 wall to resist upward rotation of the scapula, to start activating the serratus 1:19 anterior. Now the hard part is of course, keeping tucked under, and drawn in. 1:24 So let's go ahead and see that she's going to slide her arms against the 1:28 wall. It's actually her body weight against the wall that's creating some 1:32 friction. 1:32 Good, let's see that again. 1:38 Alright so this is not a bad exercise. I do have my little issues with it. I think 1:43 it kind of limits how much flexion we can get. Of course, if we limit flexion, 1:47 we're not getting all the upward rotation we can. From my math, from my 1:52 refinements of the upper body dysfunction model, 1:55 I think the subscapularis has a propensity to get overactive for 1:59 serratus anterior, the way levator scapulae has a propensity to get overactive 2:02 to stabilize the scapula. Of course, we have pec minor as well, so I 2:07 would like to find methods of reciprocally inhibiting those muscles and I think we 2:11 can do that fairly effectively on this exercise. As well as the friction against 2:15 the wall, to me, is kind of bothersome. 2:18 It usually doesn't end up being very even. You'll find people kind of get stuck 2:23 at different points in the wall as you kind of go up the wall, higher and higher. 2:28 Some people's arms will come away from the wall and there will be less friction. 2:31 It's just not very even resistance throughout. So first things first, let's 2:36 figure out how to fix the friction thing, because I think that we can work on the 2:39 reciprocal inhibition thing, and get this completely straightened out, and we can 2:43 show you guys some really hard progressions. 2:45 So all we're going to do is we're going to have Yvette put a foam roll against 2:50 the wall, and then she's going to start with her hands against that. 2:53 Now this alone is a progression, guys, it takes a lot more to stabilize this foam roll 2:56 against the wall than it does to have the forearms against the wall, but as I 2:59 mentioned before this is progressions from our other video. If you guys want to 3:02 go back to serratus anterior activation you guys will see some of the beginning 3:06 exercises I use. I'm going to Yvette to draw in glutes tight, tuck under. 3:11 All right the biggest cue you're going to have to give here is people want to 3:14 start with the foam roll in the middle of their forearm. You need to make 3:17 sure they start with the form roll on their hands, and probably their hands a 3:20 little higher than they normally would to start, otherwise you will run out of 3:23 foam roll. Drawing in, now go ahead and push up. 3:27 You guys can see we have nice, 3:30 smooth flexion. We have all the upward rotation we can get because of that Yvette 3:34 can actually lean forward. Her face doesn't get in the way of the wall. 3:38 All right, back down. 3:42 Go ahead and this time I want you to really concentrate as you're lifting your 3:45 arms. 3:46 I want you to depress your scapula. 3:51 So depressing her scapula reciprocally inhibits her levator scapulae. It 3:55 happens a lot easier when we have a foam roll, because it's nice and smooth start, 3:59 we don't get that initial elevation. Let's go ahead and come back down. 4:03 There's also not as much resistance on the way back down, which I appreciate, 4:12 because the pec minor is definitely one of those muscles that has a propensity to 4:16 get really overactive for an inhibited serratus anterior. The way we 4:21 had it done before, there was a lot of friction pulling the arms back down. 4:25 Remember, downward rotation and depression is what the pec minor does 4:29 and we're already protracting to get more serratus anterior activity. So that 4:33 just pulling the arms down might reinforce that overactivity of the pec 4:38 minor. 4:38 Let's see one more before I make this even tougher. Now the kind of 4:45 paradoxical, weird muscle, that comes into play a lot with serratus anterior 4:50 inhibition is the subscapularis will often try to take over to stabilize the 4:55 the shoulder and the scapulothoracic shoulder girdle stability. It doesn't 5:02 work out very well obviously for the human body, and creates a lot of postural 5:05 dysfunction so we need to find a way to inhibit that muscle as well. All 5:09 we have to do is external rotation, so what we're going to have Yvette do is she's 5:13 actually going to take a very weak, 5:17 this is a light, light, light, fit loop. She's going to put it around her 5:22 forearms. 5:23 This is a little tricky to get set up on your own, just so you know guys. 5:28 It'll take a little bit of practice. 5:29 Now, what I've done is if she 5:33 has a fit loop around her forearms, and I cue her to make sure that she stays 5:39 parallel here, as in elbows don't flare out, and hands can't collapse inward. She 5:46 has to then work to keep an external rotation of the shoulders which is going 5:52 to reciprocally inhibit subscapularis, and ensures that this stays totally 5:56 serratus anterior. We don't have subscapularis coming in to try to 6:00 stabilize the shoulder. 6:01 So let's go ahead and try this. How does that feel? 6:07 All right this time, I want to try to not elevate. All the way out. 6:14 This is actually a pretty good progression right here. This is very 6:19 challenging for Yvette. 6:21 I can see her having a real hard time maintaining external rotation, so I would 6:26 probably let her work on this. 6:27 I'm going to go ahead take this a little further, just so you guys see the other 6:32 option. 6:33 So if I take this foam roll from her, I can go a little further. I can go a little 6:41 further by using a stability ball. 6:43 Guys, this is tough. This is super, super, tough. Right, so she's got to now keep 6:48 parallel here, and so keep those wrists pressing outward, elbows stay tucked in. 6:55 Draw in, 6:57 now try to press up, keeping the scapulae depressed. 7:02 Keep your wrists straight. Like I said, this might be a step beyond where I would 7:07 have Yvette go if she was training with me, but I wanted to show you guys this 7:10 progression. 7:11 You can make this incredibly tough, just by backing somebody's feet up. 7:17 Go ahead and back your feet up a little bit. That creates more resistance under the 7:22 ball. Go ahead and push up. It makes it harder and harder to maintain that 7:28 scapular stability, that scapular depression, maintain tucked under, and 7:33 maintained external rotation. 7:35 How are you feeling? Starting to feel it in your serratus anterior? I remember the 7:38 first time I did this particular variation, I got to 8, which maybe not 7:43 all that impressive. It took me a little while to get to 3 sets of 20 within 7:47 a warm-up circuit. 7:49 I think you guys are going to find this incredibly challenging. I think you guys 7:51 are going to get some great results. 7:53 Pay very, very, careful attention to your cues on this exercise, guys. Make sure 7:58 that people aren't dragging down their arms, recruiting a lot of pec minor. You're 8:02 keeping scapulae depressed and of course, forearms parallel, pressing out with 8:07 their wrists to keep external rotators activated. 8:10 Make sure you keep them drawn in and tucked under. If somebody can do all of 8:14 this, I think you guys will find that the strengthening that you get, the 8:18 reinforcement of the mobility you guys have been working on, will stick around 8:21 a lot longer. 8:23 I hope you guys have a lot of fun with this technique. I will talk with you soon.
