The most effective way to strengthen the serratus anterior is through exercises that involve pushing your shoulder blades forward (protraction) and rotating them upward, particularly with your arms elevated. This muscle runs along your ribcage and attaches to your shoulder blade, and when it’s weak, your shoulder mechanics suffer. Strengthening it protects against shoulder impingement, improves overhead reach, and keeps your shoulder blade tracking properly against your ribcage.
What the Serratus Anterior Actually Does
The serratus anterior wraps around the side of your ribcage and connects to the inner border of your shoulder blade. It performs two critical jobs: pulling your shoulder blade forward around your ribcage (protraction) and rotating the bottom of your shoulder blade outward and upward so your arm can reach overhead. Without these two movements working smoothly, your shoulder joint compensates in ways that lead to pain and injury.
When this muscle is weak or inhibited, the rotator cuff muscles get pulled out of their ideal alignment. This altered pull increases the risk of subacromial impingement, a condition where soft tissues get pinched inside the shoulder joint during overhead movements. It also limits how far you can comfortably raise your arm, reduces overall shoulder stability, and increases the chance of rotator cuff injury. If you’ve ever noticed one shoulder blade poking out more than the other, especially when pushing against a wall, that’s scapular winging, and serratus anterior weakness is one of the primary causes.
The Best Exercise: Push-Up Plus
The push-up plus is the most widely recommended serratus anterior exercise, and for good reason. You start at the top of a push-up position with your arms fully extended. Instead of lowering yourself to the floor, you push your shoulder blades apart by pressing your upper back toward the ceiling. This extra push at the top, the “plus,” is where the serratus anterior does its work. You should feel the area along the sides of your ribcage engage as your shoulder blades spread wide.
If a full push-up plus position is too challenging, you can do the same movement from your knees or standing against a wall. The key is that final protraction at the top. Hold it for two to three seconds per rep, aiming for three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. A common mistake is simply shrugging your shoulders up toward your ears rather than spreading your shoulder blades apart. Think about pushing the floor (or wall) as far away from you as possible while keeping your shoulders down.
Overhead Protraction for Peak Activation
EMG research from the University of North Dakota found that the highest serratus anterior activation occurred during a specific overhead movement: standing with the arm raised to about 120 degrees of flexion (roughly the angle of reaching for a high shelf), then pushing the arm forward into protraction against resistance. This position produced more electrical activity in the serratus anterior than the push-up plus in every subject tested.
You can replicate this without a partner applying resistance. Stand facing a wall with your arm raised at roughly that 120-degree angle and press your fist into the wall, driving your shoulder blade forward. Hold for five seconds, then release. You can also do this with a light resistance band anchored behind you, punching forward and slightly upward. The combination of arm elevation and protraction is what makes this position so effective, because it forces the serratus anterior to perform both of its primary functions simultaneously.
Bear Crawls for Dynamic Strength
If you want to train the serratus anterior in a more functional, whole-body context, the bear crawl is a strong choice. Research comparing bear crawls to push-up plus exercises found that bear crawls produced significantly greater serratus anterior activation. The serratus anterior averaged about 39% of maximum voluntary contraction during bear crawls on a flat surface, compared to lower activation during push-up plus variations.
To perform a bear crawl, start on all fours with your hands directly under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Tuck your toes and lift your knees just a few inches off the ground so they hover at a 90-degree angle. Crawl forward by moving opposite hand and foot together, keeping your back flat and your knees low. Ten meters is a good starting distance. The exercise works because your serratus anterior has to stabilize your shoulder blade dynamically as your body weight shifts from one arm to the other, training the kind of real-world stability that isolated exercises miss.
Interestingly, doing bear crawls on a flat, stable surface produced the highest serratus anterior activation. You don’t need an unstable surface or a balance pad to get the benefit.
Other Exercises Worth Adding
A well-rounded serratus anterior program should include variety. Here are additional movements that target the muscle effectively:
- Serratus punches (supine): Lie on your back holding a light dumbbell or no weight at all with your arm pointing straight at the ceiling. Without bending your elbow, push the weight toward the ceiling by lifting your shoulder blade off the surface. Lower slowly. This isolates the protraction movement with gravity as resistance.
- Wall slides: Stand with your back against a wall, arms bent at 90 degrees like a goalpost. Slowly slide your arms upward while keeping your forearms and the backs of your hands pressed against the wall. This trains upward rotation under control.
- Landmine press: Using a barbell anchored at one end, press the free end forward and upward with one arm. The angled pressing path naturally encourages scapular protraction at the top of the movement, loading the serratus anterior with meaningful resistance.
Programming and Progression
The serratus anterior responds well to moderate repetitions and controlled tempos. Start with bodyweight exercises like the push-up plus and supine serratus punches for three sets of 10 to 15 reps, focusing on feeling the muscle work along your ribcage. As the movement becomes easy, add light resistance through dumbbells or bands. Bear crawls can be progressed by increasing distance or slowing down the pace, which increases the time your serratus anterior spends under tension.
Training the serratus anterior two to three times per week is enough for most people. You can work these exercises into a warm-up before upper body training or dedicate a few minutes at the end of a session. The muscle fatigues quickly if it’s been underactive, so don’t be surprised if you struggle with exercises that look simple on paper. That difficulty is a sign the muscle needs the work.
Signs Your Serratus Anterior Is Weak
The most visible sign is scapular winging, where one shoulder blade juts out from your back instead of lying flat against your ribcage. You can test this yourself with a wall push-up: press your palms flat against a wall and push off with both hands. Watch (or have someone watch) whether either shoulder blade tips outward during the movement.
Other signs are subtler. You might feel shoulder pain or stiffness when reaching overhead, notice grinding or snapping in your shoulder during arm movements, or feel your neck straining on one side when you raise your arm. Reduced overhead range of motion, where you simply can’t reach as high or as smoothly as you used to, often traces back to poor serratus anterior function.
One important distinction: serratus anterior weakness can be caused by the muscle itself being deconditioned, or by damage to the long thoracic nerve that controls it. If strengthening exercises don’t improve your symptoms after several weeks, or if you notice sudden onset of winging after an injury or illness, the issue may be neurological rather than muscular. Nerve-related weakness requires a different evaluation, typically involving electromyography to assess nerve function.