00:00 - 00:03This is Brent coming at you with our serratus anterior activation
00:03 - 00:07progressions video. I'm excited about this video because it's one of our first
00:07 - 00:08collaborative videos.
00:08 - 00:12I have to get my friend Rob Fluegel a shout out. He's one of the faculty for
00:12 - 00:17the Maitland Manual Therapy courses that I had gone through a few months ago and
00:17 - 00:20he came through one of my workshops, which was awesome. One of the
00:20 - 00:23advancements and exercise selection courses. We started talking about how to
00:23 - 00:28progress this particular exercise, being serratus anterior activation, and here's
00:28 - 00:32what we kind of came up with. It started with some stuff he knew. We took some of
00:32 - 00:36the overactive synergist stuff that I've talked about in previous videos, and what
00:36 - 00:39we came up with I think is an exercise you guys are going to love, especially
00:39 - 00:42for some of your more advanced individuals with a history of upper body
00:42 - 00:47dysfunction. All of my athletic trainers with overhead athletes. All of my
00:47 - 00:52physical therapists looking to progress their individuals outside of that rehab,
00:52 - 00:56kind of acute rehab program, and of course all of my personal trainers who
00:56 - 00:59are working on postural dysfunction with their clients.
00:59 - 01:03I'm going to have my friend Yvette come out. She's going to show the Sahrmann technique
01:03 - 01:05that this kind of all started from
01:05 - 01:08first. I'm gonna have you go ahead and put your forearms against the wall,
01:08 - 01:10parallel, just wider than shoulder width.
01:10 - 01:13All right now what we're going to do is we're going to use the friction from the
01:13 - 01:19wall to resist upward rotation of the scapula, to start activating the serratus
01:19 - 01:24anterior. Now the hard part is of course, keeping tucked under, and drawn in.
01:24 - 01:28So let's go ahead and see that she's going to slide her arms against the
01:28 - 01:32wall. It's actually her body weight against the wall that's creating some
01:32 - 01:32friction.
01:32 - 01:35Good, let's see that again.
01:38 - 01:43Alright so this is not a bad exercise. I do have my little issues with it. I think
01:43 - 01:47it kind of limits how much flexion we can get. Of course, if we limit flexion,
01:47 - 01:52we're not getting all the upward rotation we can. From my math, from my
01:52 - 01:55refinements of the upper body dysfunction model,
01:55 - 01:59I think the subscapularis has a propensity to get overactive for
01:59 - 02:02serratus anterior, the way levator scapulae has a propensity to get overactive
02:02 - 02:07to stabilize the scapula. Of course, we have pec minor as well, so I
02:07 - 02:11would like to find methods of reciprocally inhibiting those muscles and I think we
02:11 - 02:15can do that fairly effectively on this exercise. As well as the friction against
02:15 - 02:18the wall, to me, is kind of bothersome.
02:18 - 02:23It usually doesn't end up being very even. You'll find people kind of get stuck
02:23 - 02:27at different points in the wall as you kind of go up the wall, higher and higher.
02:28 - 02:31Some people's arms will come away from the wall and there will be less friction.
02:31 - 02:36It's just not very even resistance throughout. So first things first, let's
02:36 - 02:39figure out how to fix the friction thing, because I think that we can work on the
02:39 - 02:43reciprocal inhibition thing, and get this completely straightened out, and we can
02:43 - 02:45show you guys some really hard progressions.
02:45 - 02:50So all we're going to do is we're going to have Yvette put a foam roll against
02:50 - 02:53the wall, and then she's going to start with her hands against that.
02:53 - 02:56Now this alone is a progression, guys, it takes a lot more to stabilize this foam roll
02:56 - 02:59against the wall than it does to have the forearms against the wall, but as I
02:59 - 03:02mentioned before this is progressions from our other video. If you guys want to
03:02 - 03:06go back to serratus anterior activation you guys will see some of the beginning
03:06 - 03:11exercises I use. I'm going to Yvette to draw in glutes tight, tuck under.
03:11 - 03:14All right the biggest cue you're going to have to give here is people want to
03:14 - 03:17start with the foam roll in the middle of their forearm. You need to make
03:17 - 03:20sure they start with the form roll on their hands, and probably their hands a
03:20 - 03:23little higher than they normally would to start, otherwise you will run out of
03:23 - 03:27foam roll. Drawing in, now go ahead and push up.
03:27 - 03:30You guys can see we have nice,
03:30 - 03:34smooth flexion. We have all the upward rotation we can get because of that Yvette
03:34 - 03:38can actually lean forward. Her face doesn't get in the way of the wall.
03:38 - 03:41All right, back down.
03:42 - 03:45Go ahead and this time I want you to really concentrate as you're lifting your
03:45 - 03:46arms.
03:46 - 03:49I want you to depress your scapula.
03:51 - 03:55So depressing her scapula reciprocally inhibits her levator scapulae. It
03:55 - 03:59happens a lot easier when we have a foam roll, because it's nice and smooth start,
03:59 - 04:03we don't get that initial elevation. Let's go ahead and come back down.
04:03 - 04:12There's also not as much resistance on the way back down, which I appreciate,
04:12 - 04:16because the pec minor is definitely one of those muscles that has a propensity to
04:16 - 04:21get really overactive for an inhibited serratus anterior. The way we
04:21 - 04:24had it done before, there was a lot of friction pulling the arms back down.
04:25 - 04:29Remember, downward rotation and depression is what the pec minor does
04:29 - 04:33and we're already protracting to get more serratus anterior activity. So that
04:33 - 04:38just pulling the arms down might reinforce that overactivity of the pec
04:38 - 04:38minor.
04:38 - 04:45Let's see one more before I make this even tougher. Now the kind of
04:45 - 04:50paradoxical, weird muscle, that comes into play a lot with serratus anterior
04:50 - 04:55inhibition is the subscapularis will often try to take over to stabilize the
04:55 - 05:02the shoulder and the scapulothoracic shoulder girdle stability. It doesn't
05:02 - 05:05work out very well obviously for the human body, and creates a lot of postural
05:05 - 05:09dysfunction so we need to find a way to inhibit that muscle as well. All
05:09 - 05:13we have to do is external rotation, so what we're going to have Yvette do is she's
05:13 - 05:17actually going to take a very weak,
05:17 - 05:22this is a light, light, light, fit loop. She's going to put it around her
05:22 - 05:23forearms.
05:23 - 05:28This is a little tricky to get set up on your own, just so you know guys.
05:28 - 05:29It'll take a little bit of practice.
05:29 - 05:33Now, what I've done is if she
05:33 - 05:39has a fit loop around her forearms, and I cue her to make sure that she stays
05:39 - 05:46parallel here, as in elbows don't flare out, and hands can't collapse inward. She
05:46 - 05:52has to then work to keep an external rotation of the shoulders which is going
05:52 - 05:56to reciprocally inhibit subscapularis, and ensures that this stays totally
05:56 - 06:00serratus anterior. We don't have subscapularis coming in to try to
06:00 - 06:01stabilize the shoulder.
06:01 - 06:07So let's go ahead and try this. How does that feel?
06:07 - 06:14All right this time, I want to try to not elevate. All the way out.
06:14 - 06:19This is actually a pretty good progression right here. This is very
06:19 - 06:21challenging for Yvette.
06:21 - 06:26I can see her having a real hard time maintaining external rotation, so I would
06:26 - 06:27probably let her work on this.
06:27 - 06:32I'm going to go ahead take this a little further, just so you guys see the other
06:32 - 06:33option.
06:33 - 06:41So if I take this foam roll from her, I can go a little further. I can go a little
06:41 - 06:43further by using a stability ball.
06:43 - 06:48Guys, this is tough. This is super, super, tough. Right, so she's got to now keep
06:48 - 06:55parallel here, and so keep those wrists pressing outward, elbows stay tucked in.
06:55 - 06:57Draw in,
06:57 - 07:00now try to press up, keeping the scapulae depressed.
07:02 - 07:07Keep your wrists straight. Like I said, this might be a step beyond where I would
07:07 - 07:10have Yvette go if she was training with me, but I wanted to show you guys this
07:10 - 07:11progression.
07:11 - 07:17You can make this incredibly tough, just by backing somebody's feet up.
07:17 - 07:22Go ahead and back your feet up a little bit. That creates more resistance under the
07:22 - 07:28ball. Go ahead and push up. It makes it harder and harder to maintain that
07:28 - 07:33scapular stability, that scapular depression, maintain tucked under, and
07:33 - 07:35maintained external rotation.
07:35 - 07:38How are you feeling? Starting to feel it in your serratus anterior? I remember the
07:38 - 07:43first time I did this particular variation, I got to 8, which maybe not
07:43 - 07:47all that impressive. It took me a little while to get to 3 sets of 20 within
07:47 - 07:49a warm-up circuit.
07:49 - 07:51I think you guys are going to find this incredibly challenging. I think you guys
07:51 - 07:53are going to get some great results.
07:53 - 07:58Pay very, very, careful attention to your cues on this exercise, guys. Make sure
07:58 - 08:02that people aren't dragging down their arms, recruiting a lot of pec minor. You're
08:02 - 08:07keeping scapulae depressed and of course, forearms parallel, pressing out with
08:07 - 08:10their wrists to keep external rotators activated.
08:10 - 08:14Make sure you keep them drawn in and tucked under. If somebody can do all of
08:14 - 08:18this, I think you guys will find that the strengthening that you get, the
08:18 - 08:21reinforcement of the mobility you guys have been working on, will stick around
08:21 - 08:23a lot longer.
08:23 - 08:25I hope you guys have a lot of fun with this technique. I will talk with you soon.