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Serratus Anterior Activation Progressions

This video provides step-by-step guidance on how to challenge the serratus anterior muscles with activation progressions. Learn exercises, drills and stretches to strengthen this deeper muscle and reduce pain in the shoulders and upper back.

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Transcript

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.

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