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