No matter the movement – whether pressing overhead or throwing a punch – having strong serratus anterior muscles are an absolute necessity for movement. Weakness in this muscle may result in “winging,” often caused by overuse or insufficient training.
For maximum stability and reduced shoulder pain, perform these three resistance band exercises to strengthen and activate your serratus anterior before lifting weights.
1. Push Up Plus
One common cause of shoulder and shoulder girdle pain is when their serratus anterior muscle is weak or not working correctly, causing their shoulder blades to move in an unnatural manner over the upper back/ribcage, leading to dysfunctional movement patterns which result in pain, stiffness, and poor posture. Building this muscle is easy – simply perform exercises designed specifically to target it such as push up plus, which dramatically increase serratus anterior activation compared to standard push-ups.
This version of a push-up is more effective due to its inclusion of shoulder blade protraction as part of its final move, helping activate and deactivate serratus anterior muscle more effectively and deactivate subscapularis rotator cuff muscle located on the front side of your shoulder blade that may become overactive when serratus anterior is weak.
Start off with a standard push-up, positioning your hands slightly wider than shoulder width. As you lower down, keep your head and shoulders neutral as you squeeze the serratus anterior muscle. As you rise back up again, bring hands toward each other to form an “Irish Cross” with shoulder blades protracting at the top of the movement before returning back to starting point.
To enhance the effectiveness of this exercise, try using a resistance band. Doing this will create an external rotation torque across your shoulders (an action performed by your rotator cuff muscles) when your serratus anterior contracts; this deactivates pectoral muscles which would otherwise overcompensate for any weakness within their serratus anterior muscle group and potentially overactivate pecs in order to compensate.
This variation of the push up can be done both at home or during Bar Method classes, where many of our exercises target this underused muscle group. Our instructors may ask you to perform rhomboids, plank, arm dancing and oblique punches to strengthen this muscle and engage its serratus anterior fibers.
2. Wall Slide
Serratus anterior muscle is one of the key upper body muscles responsible for protecting against shoulder injuries and pain. Wall slide (also referred to as lower trap wall slide or scapular protraction movement) also plays an essential role in this regard, helping strengthen shoulder blades to move them away from spine (protraction).
An active serratus anterior muscle is essential to overhead motions such as reaching for items on top shelves or carrying groceries. When weak serratus anterior muscles work overtime and become overworked, your rotator cuff muscles become overused and vulnerable to tear damage resulting in shoulder pain or an injury to the rotator cuff itself. Wall slide is an easy yet effective exercise designed to strengthen serratus anterior and prevent injuries due to overexertion or strain of your shoulder cuff muscles.
Start with your back, butt and head resting against a wall, with elbows bent and palms facing the wall. Push into the wall with your arms to spread apart your shoulder blades before slowly sliding your forearms up the wall as close as possible to it until they reach their highest position – this will complete one rep.
Add an extra challenging twist to your wall slide exercise by including a medicine ball – starting out light and progressing up as necessary – into your routine. This allows for increased force application while helping track progress toward building strength in this area.
Bear crawling can be an excellent addition to serratus anterior workouts, working multiple muscle groups simultaneously while increasing core strength, shoulder stability and overall body control. Wall slides may be performed instead if they’re uncomfortable on your legs; otherwise incorporate these exercises with other movements that target serratus anterior muscle as part of your regular regimen – just be wary not overtraining this muscle as engaging it requires considerable energy expenditure; make sure to allow enough recovery time between workouts as this muscle needs restorative rest too.
3. Dumbbell Row
Contrary to what may seem odd, performing both dumbbell rows and bench presses simultaneously is actually an effective exercise for strengthening the serratus anterior muscle. Doing both at once requires working both chest and back muscles while challenging core stabilization as well. Be sure to perform this movement slowly in order to lower risk of injury while providing greater time under tension on muscles.
For this exercise, you will require two dumbbells approximately the weight of your body. Begin by lying on a flat bench with each arm holding one dumbbell, palm facing forwards with elbows bent at 90 degrees. Slowly raise one weight until it nears your chest before slowly lowering them back down to starting position – repeat this motion for a set number of reps before switching arms and repeating on other side.
Seal row exercises provide an advanced variation that isolates back muscles without overstraining the lumbar spine or hips, and are especially helpful for isolating them without straining lumbar spine or hips. While this can be challenging to perform outside of a gym setting, you’ll want to fix a barbell into either a landmine base or wedge it against a wall for stability before placing feet together to form bear crawl stance for stability before moving left arm and right foot forward for specified distance or repetitions; similar movements can also be performed backwards or diagonally so as to target different muscles of serratus anterior.
Serratus anterior muscle acts as both a core and shoulder stabilizer, as well as helping keep the scapula properly aligned against the ribcage. For this reason, this muscle tends to tighten with repeated overhead shoulder movements such as swimming or tennis or those who slouch over. If you find your serratus anterior muscles are tight due to engaging in activities with repetitive overhead shoulder movements or having poor posture (slouching). To strengthen it and enhance scapula movement further, try performing several sets of this exercise along with the seated row and bench press to strengthen it and improve movement of both.
4. Scapular Twist
Research indicates that push-ups can also effectively activate the serratus anterior muscle to an impressive degree, due to increased protraction activity from pushing with closer hands together.
Unfortunately, this can also cause the subscapularis (a rotator cuff muscle that lies on the anterior or front side of your shoulder blade) to over-activate, leading to your shoulders being in an unfavorable “cocked” or “winging” position that can result in instability issues and impingement issues.
To address this problem, the “scapular twist”, also known as the “push-up plus”, has proven itself as an effective exercise to promote shoulder health and function, including overhead presses. To do this, place a small resistance band across your upper arms so as to create external rotation torque when moving your arms up the wall; this creates reciprocal inhibition or turning off of subscapularis so serratus anterior can do its job without becoming overactive.
This exercise is ideal for people who find standard push-ups difficult, and you can incorporate it into bodyweight workouts as part of the warm-up routine. To begin this movement, get into push-up position with hands a bit wider than shoulder width apart and engage your core by breathing in and squeezing your glutes before retracting shoulder blades backwards without using arms or elbows – this process should be repeated three or four times with each set increasing in number of reps or weight.
An alternative variation on this exercise is the unilateral banded chest press, which can be performed using a barbell loaded with plates, an ab roller or exercise ball. By performing each side at once, this exercise provides a long range of motion for serious serratus anterior activation while strengthening your chest and triceps simultaneously. This variation is particularly suitable for people suffering from shoulder or neck conditions as it targets lengthened muscle groups while simultaneously increasing eccentric or decreasing strength while targeting compensatory movements like shrugging.
