Today’s exercise builds off of the last post I shared on the blog (Exercise to Cure Serratus Anterior Amnesia), which got some great feedback from Mike who said:
“I did it and my shoulders feel much looser and
almost gave me like a warmed up looseness…”
Immediate looseness like Mike experienced happens when you activate stabilizer muscles (i.e. the serratus anterior) because your central nervous system sees that the joint is stable and can let go of protective tightness, which guards a joint from injury when no stability is present.
It’s like when you’ve got a powerful urge to do a #2 but there’s no toilet in sight – you clench up your glutes and sphincter and all the muscles down there to protect you from making a poopie in your pants (and the associated shame and embarrassment).
Same thing happens at every joint in your body including the hips, spine, ankles, etc.
I guess your anus isn’t really a joint, but I digress.
Let’s get back on track here.
The Scap Step is a great exercise because it trains the following important elements:
- Straight-arm strength (to counteract all the bent-arm strength training that’s mostly done)
- Unilateral serratus anterior strength and control through the full range of protraction/retraction
- Integrated diagonal core stability (rotational power anyone?)
And more, which you’ll discover in the video:
Do anywhere from 4 reps on each side if you’re going for activation as part of a warmup or multiple sets of up to 10 reps per side if you’re trying to build strength-endurance.
I also recommend you do the sequence from the last post FIRST, as it’ll release the naughty pec minor and get the serratus anterior activated at a low level before jumping into the Scap Step Up, which is a higher intensity drill when done correctly.