The Most Underrated Muscle for Shoulder Health You’re Probably Ignoring

Shoulder pain sucks, I know this because I have had on and off pain since high school. It was in the last 5 years that I haven’t had any issues with my shoulder. Before I continue, I know I am only a personal trainer, and this is my case with shoulder pain. With that said, no one was talking about this muscle, which makes it the most underrated muscle for shoulder health.

The goal for me drafting this article is to bring awareness to the serratus anterior muscle and how it effects the shoulder complex. Before I dive into the serratus anterior, little backstory on my experience with shoulder pain.

How my Shoulder Pain Started

It started back in high school, and as any teenage boy was doing in the weight room, I was bench pressing. Not only was I bench pressing, but I was also lifting heavy, going to failure, with no spotter or safety.

It’s okay, I told myself, I know how to get out of the bar if I can’t lift it. Unfortunately, I was lifting this heavy because my coaches at the time taught us to lift heavy and to failure. What happened next, I was not prepared for.

I was going for 5 reps with a weight of 205lbs, on the last rep, I got the right side up and locked in, but my left side was stuck. I pushed for a solid 5 seconds before fatigued hit me. That’s when it happened.

My right arm was in the top position, and it gave out and started to go behind me with the bar.

There was an immediate pop in the shoulder and a blast of pain. Fortunately, the bar missed my head and went down to the floor, but my shoulder was not so lucky.

What I did immediately after is what I believe to be one of the main reasons it took so long for me to heal and why I had on/off pain for years.

Me, being a teenage boy, was very stubborn and said I didn’t finish my workout, so I did overhead presses with dumbbells and push through the pain.

Over the next few weeks, I didn’t tell anyone that I hurt my shoulder and I kept working and pushing through pain or around it.

I am sure you can guess, but it got significantly worse, to the point it hurt to raise my arm. Finally, I told my parents and got an MRI.

I don’t remember the exact verbiage, but remember that nothing was torn, just inflamed. The doctors told me to not lift anything and for me to rest so it can heal.

This was another mistake that I made, I did not listen. Remember, I was a teenage boy, I thought I had to lift weights, build muscle so that girls would talk to me and like me (it didn’t work hahaha).

The healing process took a long time and caused lasting damage to the area, while creating a lot of dysfunctions in the joint that lasted for years.

How I Found the Most Underrated Muscle For Shoulder Health

Ever since I had this shoulder injury, I would have on/off pain. I would go a while without pain and be able to push myself in the gym. Eventually the pain always came back and limited what I could do for the upper body.

With shoulder pain you hear about the rotator cuff muscles, there are 4 of them: These are the subscapularis, the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus, and the teres minor muscles. Because the rotator cuff muscles get all the attention when dealing with shoulder pain, I focused on these muscles.

I did a lot of external rotations and stretching for these muscles. It helped, but something was missing which kept bringing the pain back.

When I started getting into the fitness industry as a career, my eyes were open to so many things that I was missing. I went down the rabbit hole, specifically in shoulders. That is when I learned about Eric Cressey. This is when I learned that there is more to the shoulder than external rotation.

Going down this rabbit hole, I learned about thoracic rotation, mobility of the t-spine, and more, including the serratus anterior.

After years of troubleshooting the pain in my shoulder, this was the holy grail for me. I applied all the mobility that I learned from Eric Cressey, and stability exercises. I got to work with the serratus anterior, which I have never done before.

The relief that I got was immediate!

Now, doing it one time did not fix the issue, but I immediately felt the difference. Training the serratus anterior in an isolated manner was the piece that I was missing, and it fixed my form when I went back to compound lifts.

So, what is the serratus anterior?

What is the Serratus Anterior Muscle?

The serratus anterior is a broad thin muscle covering the lateral rib cage, your 10 upper ribs to the medial side of the scapula. The muscle actions involve flattening your scapula against the ribs .

Another responsibility is assisting the upward rotation of the scapula when you reach overhead.  With the attachment to the scapula, the serratus anterior also helps stabilize the scapula with assistance from the middle traps.

When the serratus anterior muscle is weak or not functioning as it should, you can expect a disruption with the scapulohumeral rhythm, causing impingement or injury.

The scapulohumeral rhythm, is a fancy way of saying the relationship between the humerus (arm) and the scapula (shoulder blade) when it moves. As the arm moves overhead, the scapula should be moving with the arm in a upward rotation.

The lack of this rhythm and weakness of the serratus anterior can limit your overhead range of motion, decrease stability, and increase risk of injury to the rotator cuff muscles.

I believe this is what happened to me over the years. I neglected strengthening this muscle, and was unaware that my shoulder blade should be moving with my arm.

It has been 6 years and I haven’t had pain in my shoulder since. I been careful to not neglect this muscle, or mobility required to keep my shoulders healthy.

There are many exercises to choose from, but would like to share a few with you to get you started.

How to Strengthen the Serratus Anterior

Once I learned about the serratus anterior, I immediately started playing around with exercises that target that muscle.

In the beginning, I did these exercises almost daily till I consistently felt no pain each day. Afterwards, I keep them in my warmup or on my recovery days to maintain strength in the area. I also make it a point to incorporate the muscle with the compound exercises, push ups for an example.

This will be a brief list of exercises, but these are the ones that I did consistently and liked to do. There are many exercises you can choose from and play with to find the one you like as well.

1.     Hardstyle Elbow Planks

First exercise I want to talk about is the planks. Now, you might be wondering how will this help my serratus anterior, isn’t it a core exercise?

Yes, it is a core exercise, but it is so much more than that with the right intent. Most people don’t think about what the shoulders should be doing in a plank.

When you are holding a plank, you should be driving your shoulder blades flat against your ribcage, the serratus anterior job.

Here is how you do it:

• While in a plank, instead of just holding yourself up on your shoulders, push your elbows/shoulders into the ground. You will feel like you are rounding your upper back, that’s okay.
• Next, drive your elbows to your feet without moving your elbows. This is while pushing into the ground.
• Hold this position with your shoulders/upper back during your planks.

2.     Push Ups

Next exercise is a great progression from planks. If you think about it, push ups is just a moving plank.

Same intentions from the plank with the shoulders during the push up. You want to drive your shoulder bladed to the ground and back to the feet at the top part of the push up. On the way down, you still want the shoulder blades moving, but with the intent of them being flat against your ribs.

A fantastic way to practice is to only stay in the top position and you will actively push your shoulder blades up and down. This is a Plus push up.

3.     Pullovers

This last exercise that I will mention is the pullover and will also mention the single arm pullover. The pullover felt like it made the biggest difference for rehabbing my shoulder and getting my serratus anterior stronger.

The reason it made the biggest difference is because the exercise puts the muscles through a full range of motion. Remember what I said earlier on the role of the serratus anterior, one of its actions is to upward rotate the shoulder blade (scapula).

Performing the pullover eccentrically loads the serratus anterior when you have the right intent. You go online and the pullover will mention the lats and pecs, but no one talks about what it can do for your serratus anterior.

Here is how you can incorporate the serratus anterior:

• When you hold the weight, actively push the shoulder blades up towards the weight.
• As you lower the weight behind you, actively keep pushing the shoulder blades towards the weight.
• You will feel a deep stretch at the end range of motion, try and use your shoulders blades to pull the weight back to your starting position.

You can also target one side at a time with the single arm pullover, which is great if you have an imbalance between shoulders.

Serratus Anterior, Underrated Muscle to Target

As I mentioned before, this blog was about my experience. There are several reasons why you might have a shoulder issue. What I can promise you though is that by strengthening your serratus anterior, you will experience better movement, less tightness in the shoulders, and stronger numbers in the gym.

Having a better connection to the serratus anterior is going to help you with a variety of exercise, pull ups/chin ups being one of them. It really is one of the most underrated muscles for shoulder health, function, and overall strength.

I hope this has helped you understand its importance, and how you can start incorporating exercises to help strengthen this movement. It will help your posture, how you move, how you feel, and a variety of exercises.

Don’t neglect the most underrated muscle for your shoulder health.

If you want more shoulder health related topics, check out my other article, 4 Better Movements for Shoulder Health. If you have any questions, you can reach me at cory@caruthersfitness.com.