Muscle Breakdown: Serratus Anterior
Table of Contents
What Is the Serratus Anterior
The Serratus Anterior also known as the boxer’s muscle is one of the most neglected muscles in the human body. Not only does the serratus anterior provide many functions to the shoulders. A developed serratus anterior can create a more athletic appearance. The serratus produces a tapering appearance of the external obliques creating a more “shredded” core. Therefore, if you want to improve your shoulder functionality or merely want to enhance your physique don’t overlook the serratus anterior.
Serratus Anterior Cadaver & Muscle
Serratus Anterior Function
The serratus anterior essentially functions to move the scapula into strong and favourable positions for the humerus. Providing an added range of motion and stability for most pressing exercises.
Scapula
Upward Rotation
Stabilization
Rib Cage
Assist in Breathing
A Look Into The Scapulohumeral Rhythm
Why is the serratus anterior so important for the upper body? It comes down to our anatomy. Our humerus fits within a socket we call the glenoid fossa. The glenoid fossa is a flat protrusion of the scapula where our humerus meets and forms the shoulder joint. We call this the glenohumeral joint. Our scapula attaches then to the back of our rib cage forming the scapulothoracic joint.
These two joints must work together to perform any movement in our shoulders. When lifting over our head, our scapula performs upward rotation. This is characterized as the lowest point of the scapula rotating up and laterally. And when lowering our arm the scapula performs downward rotation. This is characterized as the lowest point of the scapula rotating down and medially.
This synchronized movement is called the scapulohumeral rhythm, for every 2 degrees of abduction. There is one degree of upward rotation. Essentially the scapula performs ⅓ of the movement in our shoulders. If you have weak or dysfunctional serratus anterior, you will likely suffer an impaired shoulder. Strong serratus anterior is necessary if you want healthy shoulders.
More on scapular dysfunctions in the injuries section of this article.
Serratus Anterior Origin and Insertion
Serratus Anterior Origins
Upper/Superior: 1st to 2nd Rib
Middle/Intermedius: 2nd to the 3rd Rib
Lower/Inferior: 4th to 8th or 9th Rib
There are three categories that classify the serratus anterior origins. These categories are based on the locations where the serratus anterior attaches to the rib cage.
Some Serratus anterior can insert on the ninth rib but varies depending on the person.
Serratus Anterior Insertion
Medial Border of the Scapula
The insertion of the Serratus anterior is significant since it attaches to the underside of your shoulder blade and the medial border of the Scapula. This keeps your scapula flat against your rib cage allowing for smooth fluid shoulder motion.
Serratus Anterior Injuries & Pain
One of the most prevalent issues we see in the serratus anterior is the winging of the scapula. Identified by your scapula flaring out exposing its underside. Scapular winging can cause pain and an inability to lift your arms overhead. Chairs or backpacks may also feel uncomfortable rubbing against your protruding scapula. Scapular winging usually occurs due to a dysfunction of muscles that adversely affects the scapula.
If the winging is severe or left untreated, the loss of overhead movement is inevitable. Remember one-third of shoulder movement occurs from the scapula. If there’s severe scapular winging the scapula can’t upwardly rotate. Eliminating up to 33% of our shoulder movement.
Though scapular winging is complicated with many causes. The serratus anterior plays a huge role in fixing scapular winging. Recall that the serratus anterior attaches to the medial border of the scapula. If our serratus anterior isn’t working as intended winging will occur.
Though scapular winging can vary between people. Strengthening the serratus anterior can reduce or fix scapular winging. Because of the insertion of the serratus anterior, it can contract and pull the scapula to become flat against our ribs. Though the process will take time, repeated strengthening of the serratus anterior will improve scapular winging.
Serratus Anterior Strengthening
Mind muscle connection is crucial, especially when trying to recruit an under-active muscle. To start with, we must learn how to properly protract our scapula during any serratus anterior exercises. The protraction of the scapula is characterized as the scapula rotating forward and around the ribs.
A common mistake is too much shrugging which leads to the rounding of the shoulders. This causes an already overactive muscle called the Pec minor to take over. Ultimately defeating the purpose of training your serratus anterior. I like to cue “drop your shoulders to your back pocket” this will help maintain a levelled scapular position. Maximizing your serratus anterior activation, while minimizing the involvement of the pec minor.
If you still struggle to feel your serratus anterior you can use a preactivation exercise. Doing a wall slide is a great way to get your serratus anterior firing by going into protraction and upward rotation.
You can also perform a wall slide on a foam roller or a swiss ball as a progression. This will create much smoother movements and will allow for a greater range of motion. Also, placing a loop band outside your wrist will force you to externally rotate. This will inhibit the subscapularis muscle from performing internal rotation, further isolating the serratus anterior.
Serratus Anterior Exercises
Push Up Plus
The best serratus anterior exercise is the push-up plus. A push-up plus is just a regular push up, but the “plus” part is performing scapular protraction at the top. Most training programs will likely include some form of a push-up. Adding in this simple modification is a time-effective way of training your serratus anterior.
Try performing your push-up plus with a diamond grip. This allows an even greater range of motion for your scapulas. Making this an effective progression for targeting your serratus anterior.
Dip Plus
Dips are another pushing exercise that in tandem can strengthen the serratus anterior. Perform your dips as normal. But add-in scapular protraction at the top of your dip. I recommend having a 45-degree torso lean during your dips. Being too vertical will take the load off the serratus anterior making the “plus” pointless.
Banded Punches
There’s a reason the serratus anterior is known as the boxer muscle. A proper punch requires full protraction to achieve maximum extension. Performing banded punches are an effective way to not only develop power. But can also help build your serratus anterior strength. The mechanics should be the exact same as the push-up plus where you’re focusing on protracting the scapula after full extension.
Prone Core Exercises Plus: Planks, Roll-outs, Mountain climbers, Bird dog
Most of your prone position core exercise can be performed with added scapular protraction. Do any prone core exercises normally while protracting your shoulders. Maintain protraction and constantly push into the floor. Think about lifting your chest away from the ground or flattening out your upper back.
Serratus Anterior Workout (2 Day Workout)
Keep in mind, the Serratus anterior is a small muscle that doesn’t need intense training or high volume to see adaptations. Guidelines will differ when compared to larger muscle groups.
To optimize your Serratus anterior training, you should be training your Serratus anterior 2 or more times throughout the week. The repeated training bouts will stimulate Serratus anterior growth throughout the week. Muscle growth is elevated 48-72 hours post-workouts. If you want to optimize muscle protein synthesis, train your muscle groups more frequently to maximize hypertrophy.
If you’re struggling with feeling your serratus anterior or have stiff shoulders prior to an overhead press. Include the wall slides as a preactivation. Focus on feeling the contractions in your serratus as oppose to fatiguing them. You want to stimulate not annihilate! Go easy and perform high repetitions about 15 reps+.
Add on to your current training, there’s no need to dedicate entire training days or completely isolating your serratus. Try mixing your serratus anterior exercises with exercise you’re already doing. For example, you can do push up plus instead of a regular push up. Or you can add a plus to your planks. This is not only time-efficient but allows similar movement patterns to train together. Allowing for better athletic development and coordination.
If you’re looking for more intense training or looking for a finisher, you can add more direct serratus anterior exercises. Like the banded punches. Here you can focus on burning out the muscles by pushing to failure. Bear in mind this is an optional step! you can get plenty of gains from only doing compound exercises for your serratus.
Add more weight, reps, or sets as the weeks go on, though the serratus does not need much to adapt you still have to challenge it every training session. You never want to perform the exact same workout every time. You have to progressively overload your training if you want to see results and avoid plateaus.
2 Day Sample Serratus Anterior
Day 1
| Exercise | Sets | Repetitions | RPE/1RM | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wall-Slides | 2 | 15 | 5 | 1-2 min |
| Push Up “Plus” | 4 | 10-12 | 8 | 1.5-2 min |
| Pull-Ups | 4 | 6-8 | 8 | 2-3 min |
| Barbell Overhead Press | 5 | 6-8 | 6 | 2-3 min |
| Plank “Plus” | 3 | 30 Seconds | 8 | 2 min |
Day 2
| Exercise | Sets | Repetitions | RPE/1RM | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wall Slide | 2 | 15 | 5 | 1-2 min |
| Dip “Plus” | 4 | 6-8 | 8 | 1-2 min |
| Assisted Pull-Up | 4 | 8 | 8 | 2-3 min |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 4 | 8 | 8 | 2-3 min |
| Dumbbell Row | 4 | 8 | 8 | 1.5-2 min |
Serratus Anterior Stretches
It's physically not possible to stretch. You can get through scapular retraction but even then no one has a tight enough serratus. The Serratus anterior shouldn't be stretched since you don't need mobilization in that muscle.