The Serratus Anterior is a muscle in the shoulder that helps stabilize the shoulder blade. Meaning it helps keep the shoulder in place.
In a previous blog post, I mentioned that the serratus anterior was what I considered to be an underrated muscle. Check out that post here. I wanted to give more information about the Serratus Anterior because it is an important exercise that can cause many issues.
Actions of the Serratus Anterior
The Serratus muscle assists in bringing the shoulders forward on the body. It also helps keep the shoulder in place when your arms are at rest.
The Serratus Anterior has also shown to help with lifting the rib cage during breathing.
Injuries to the Serratus Anterior
When the muscle is weak, scapular winging can occur, which is when the shoulder blade comes up off of the back. Find our more about scapular winging here.
Also, injuries to the ribs could lead to injuries of the serratus anterior.
Injuries to the Serratus muscle are most commonly seen in boxers. As the punching motion is what the muscle does and it can become overused in boxers.
Exercises for the Serratus Anterior
Push ups
Banded chest press
Serratus punch
Scapular Wall slides
Bear crawl
Ab roll out
With the first 4 exercises and the ab roll outs, I will perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions. You can increase resistance as needed. For the pushups, you can start with the knees rested down then progress to raised as strength improves.
For the bear crawls, I would perform the same number of sets and repetitions, however 10 steps forward and then backward is one set.
The Serratus Anterior is a muscle in the shoulder that helps stabilize the shoulder blade and is important for shoulder motions. Pay attention to this muscle to help reduce other shoulder injuries.