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Serratus Anterior Isolated Activation
Serratus Anterior Isolated Activation is an exercise program designed to strengthen the serratus anterior muscle of the chest and upper back. This unique program emphasizes targeted isolation exercises to ensure maximum activation of the serratus anterior muscle. As an isolated activation program, Serratus Anterior Isolated Activation focuses on this one muscle, with its goal being to improve posture and enhance sporting performance. The exercises involve the use of weights and bodyweight resistance, along with the addition of
Transcript
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This is Brent of the Brookbush
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...blank
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Institute, in this video we're going over
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serratus anterior isolated activation,
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a muscle that has a propensity to
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become long and under active in those
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with upper-body dysfunction. Those with
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upper-body dysfunction have a propensity
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towards anterior tipping and downward
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rotation, or a lack of upward rotation of
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the scapula during shoulder elevation;
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and we know that my serratus anterior
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does posterior tipping and upward
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rotation. I'm going to have my friend
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Melissa come out, she's going to help me
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demonstrate. Now before we get started on
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this exercise we do have to consider
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what are my overactive synergists. My
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overactive synergists are likely my
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pectoralis minor trying to take over for
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protraction and some scapular stability, and
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potentially my subscapularis in some
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weird maybe fascial continuity, or
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humeral scapular mechanical problem. The
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subscapularis does have a
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tendency to get overactive in those with
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serratus anterior inhibition. Now because
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the pectoralis minor is overactive we
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already have a couple exercises that I
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see commonly used for serratus anterior
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activation, that I'm going to go ahead
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and nix. How many of you guys have seen
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the serratus anterior press up, which is
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where you have a patient or client do
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this, maybe you put a dumbbell in their
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hand, or maybe you use a little manual
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resistance and they go ahead and
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protract. I'm willing to bet if a
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pectoralis minor was overactive before
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we started this exercise, it's going to
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be really really overactive by the time
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we finish this exercise. The other
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exercise which I know you guys have all
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seen is the serratus anterior push up, or
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the push up with a plus, which
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essentially is a double press up. All
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right so that exercise has this
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tendency to maybe strengthen the
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serratus anterior, but also reinforce
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that synergistic dominance of the
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pectoralis minor, we want to get that out.
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So how do we get the pectoralis minor
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out of this exercise. Well what we're
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going to do is we're actually going to
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use some posterior tipping and some
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retraction,
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and some upward rotation of course is
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what we're going to work on, to try to
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get my serratus anterior in gear. Now
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you guys have already seen an exercise
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that matches all of those qualities. How
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many of you guys have seen floor angels
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or wall angels which is where you kind
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of do a shoulder press, but pressed into
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the floor or pressed into a wall. Now the
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only problem with this particular
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exercise is it's hard, which normally
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wouldn't be a problem. I like challenging
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exercises, I like kind of beating up on
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my patients and clients. I know it's a
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little sadistic but that's that we are,
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doctor of pain and torture right. So we
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need to find a way to regress this
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exercise because unfortunately with
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these exercises, hard sometimes means
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compensation is looming, they don't do
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things with very good form. Now I still
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want to get the upward rotation, I still
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don't want to get any protraction, I
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still need to focus on retraction. So
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what I'm going to have her do is I'm
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going to have her start with her hands
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on her thighs. She's going to make fists
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with her thumbs pointing out this way.
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We're actually going to go just like this,
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I'm going to have her start retracted
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and depressed, that depression with
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her back flat on the floor is going to
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help me get into a little posterior
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tipping right off the bat. Now if I keep
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her depressed throughout the entirety of
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this exercise in order to make room for
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her humerus to elevate, she's going to
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have to upwardly rotate which is going
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to force her serratus anterior to fire.
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So what this is going to look like is
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her keeping her shoulders down while
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doing scaption
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all the way back to her thumbs. Keep
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those elbows locked. For a lot of people
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this is actually really challenging, what
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they're working against is their
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thoracic mobility. If they don't
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have good thoracic extension posterior
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tipping is very tough. They're also
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working against their latissimus dorsi
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extensibility. Now if this is no
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problem I can increase the range of
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motion by just having her tuck her thumbs
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and trying to get all the way back
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to the tops of her fists there. Now make
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sure you keep the elbows locked. How's
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that? Yeah Melissa's got pretty good
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shoulder mobility. So I'm going to have
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to up the challenge even further. Let's
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have you try to get to the back of your
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hands, keep those elbows locked, shoulders
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down. Notice she's doing a really good
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job here. I don't see a big rib flare,
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Melissa is almost making this look too
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easy. A lot of times we have to cue
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people to keep drawn in, maybe even to
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contract the rectus abdominus a
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little bit so that they don't go into a
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lumbar extension, thoracic extension.
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We don't want to see any of that. I
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think you can do that with your elbows
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locked, you keep bending that right elbow.
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Now if she can get all the
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way back to the back of her hands and I
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see if her forearm lying down on the
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floor, now I know she's ready for floor
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angels. So now once again we
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still have to keep this down. You guys
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see a lot of elevation, levator scapulae,
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upper trap are becoming really really
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active and serratus anterior not so much.
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In fact we can get a weird compensation
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pattern where elevation is actually only
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elevation of the superior angle of the
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scapula, around relatively fixed glenoid
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fossa, and you're actually getting
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downward rotation which is going to
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increase compensation, it's going to
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reinforce our compensation pattern. How
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does that feel? Does that feel tough? Now this
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whole progression right here that I just
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showed you is on the floor, and the
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reason we start on the floor is because
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it makes it easy to easier to stabilize
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the lumbar spine, being that they have to
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work against that thoracic extension.
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You'll see, go ahead and bow up for me,
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this is a very common compensation
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pattern for this exercise, and we don't
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want this. The floor gives us a little
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bit of tactile cueing, makes it a little
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easier to cue here as well, as the floor
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helps us stabilize
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the scapula. Right if the floors there
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pushing her into posterior tipping with
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the majority of her body weight, this
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exercise is not quite as challenging.
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From here we're going to do all those
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same progressions but we're going to
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move to the wall and we're going to go
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ahead and stand up continuing our
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serratus anterior isolated activation
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progression, bringing Melissa out here
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we're going to have her right up against
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this wall. Now the wall still remains a
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great posture check for this exercise. So
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I'm going to have her step her feet out
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which I know you guys can't see, but you
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don't need your heels back against the
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wall, that makes this pretty awkward.
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You end up just having to arch your
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lower back to get around your butt, when we
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don't need that. We want to walk
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the heels out a little bit, soft knees,
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get them into a neutral spine so they're
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drawn in, head back chin tucked and then
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all of the progressions are exactly the
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same. o I can have her start with her
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hands on her thighs, thumbs up, make your
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fists right, keep your shoulder blades
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down and back, let's see if you can get
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all the way to the wall, stay drawn in, no
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excessive lordosis. That looked pretty
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good. Let's go here, keep those elbows
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locked, good drawn in, keep those shoulder
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blades down. All right good, let's
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try back of your hands.
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All right so that's
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actually Melissa's progression right
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there. That was tough for her, she had
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that that last couple of inches she was
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really having to strain to maintain her
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scapula depressed, so she keeps posterior
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tipping, keeps that pectoralis minor out
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of it. You know she was really having to
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engage her core to keep her latissimus
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dorsi from pulling her into an anterior
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pelvic tilt. But just so they can see
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let's see those wall slides a little bit.
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So she'd be trying to keep her entire
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forearm and back of hand against the
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wall, really externally rotate into that
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wall, help inhibit the subscapularis.
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This is not easy, doing wall slides well
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super difficult, doing wall slides crappy
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totally easy, totally easy. If you don't
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watch your form, you let your elbows come
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off, you just try to touch your
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fingertips to the back, and you just kind
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of go up and down not worrying about all
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these form cues, not great serratus
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anterior the activation. Not something
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you're going to convince your clients
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they need or is even hard. You get your
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clients or patients to do this exercise,
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half the time I can sneak it into a
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resistance training workout because they
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think they're getting so much work for
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their shoulders and serratus anterior.
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They swear it's a weight training
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exercise, which is a good thing. It's a
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good thing to help get some extra
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corrective exercise in where maybe we
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have certain clients who are a little
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less compliant. Of course this exercise
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is also great for home exercise programs
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because it takes absolutely no equipment.
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I hope you guys enjoyed this progression.
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I hope to see a lot of serratus anterior
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activation in your routines. Just about
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everybody with any sort of upper body
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dysfunction can definitely benefit from
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this exercise. There's even some research
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to show that those with cervical
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dysfunction could benefit from serratus
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anterior activation. I look forward to
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