Serratus anterior exercises

As promised, here are some exercises to strengthen your serratus anterior.

1. Ball roll out Avoid shrugging and let your shoulder blades slide down your back during the exercise.
2. High to Low Woodchoppers Contract your abdominals by pulling your navel towards your spine, bend the knees slightly, and rotate at the waist.
3. Wall Slide Press the arms into the wall during the movement, and avoid shrugging as you bring the arms upward.
4. Serratus Pushups The goal is to pushup using the area just under the arm pit, NOT to simply round your back so don't do it.
5. Pushups with one arm elevated or staggard. Use a phone book or medicine ball to elevate one arm. Do them on your knees if you're just starting out.

Pushup power!

If you've trained with me or have been in any of my Boot Camps you must know by now that I L-O-V-E the pushup.

Why, you might ask?

Because in terms of functional training and "bang for your buck," few exercises accomplish as much in as short a period time as this old-school gym favorite. Moreover, anyone can perform pushups anytime and anywhere. Areas trained by this compound exercise include the chest, shoulders, back, arms, the trunk (includes the abdomen), and the thighs (when done from the toes).

Do it right: use your serratus anterior!



Serratus, what? While the serratus anterior isn't often pointed out as being a major player during pushups, it HIGHLY important for maintaining proper form. In fact, one of the most common performance flaws is due to poor scapular (shoulder blade) stability. People just can't control those blades!

Tell tale signs include shrugging of the shoulders, cramping at the neck, and a hollowed area between the shoulder blades. In a nut shell, the weak serratus anterior muscles can't keep the shoulder blades down and against the rib cage properly as the strong and highly reactive trapezius (the neck muscles most people think of massaging) fires.

More on how to identify and strengthen this muscle next time!