Not feeling my serratus being worked in SS

Hi,

I've been trying to do Scapular Shrugs for a few weeks but I don't feel my serratus anterior being worked.

Can you guys please walk me through the important points? I've been told that my shoulders need to be depressed at all times, have straight arms always, hands should be shoulder width apart. 

My Crossfit coach told me that if I don't feel it being worked it might be because of tightness but said he wasn't sure because it could be anything without doing a proper examination.

TobiasM said:

 

- Shoulders stacked over wrists.

- handplacement shoulder width apart.

- Keep tight PPT.

- Depress scapula at the bottom and protract at the top.

- Do the movement slowly.

 

The feedback I usually see around the forum

 

I just tried those and I think the PPT was my main problem, but now I can feel my serratus being worked. Thank you!

Depress at the top too, but yeah, pretty much.  But really, you not feeling your serratus can mean two things:

- You still don't protract enough, so to make sure you do, try to widen your scapula, try to push through the floor and also imagine getting punched in chest. This last one helped a lot to finally get proper protraction.

- The move is just too easy, which is possible. If you're in the early weeks, just try to do more with good form to see if it still doesn't do anything, if you're already at mastery, you can also try more or just film yourself and we can tell you if your protraction is enough.

Another suggestion to feel what Serratus is trying to do:

Start with hands/knees:

1) kneel down next to a weight plate on the floor (~45#)

2) Cup fingers on the outside of the weight plate to anchor hands for stretch.

3) With elbows locked, hands cupped around the weight, gently move upper back towards the ceiling, deeply stretching the shoulders and shoulder blades forward (protraction).

4) Freeze! Do not let the forward shoulders move, keep them locked into deep protraction as you:

    a.  Change the hand position to flat on top of the weight (like you are ready to push).

    b.  Slowly lift the knees into the Mastery position, holding for a period of time to educate Serratus:

Sometimes while the Serratus is getting stronger, it helps to assist into the forward shoulder position to make sure the scapular protraction Range of Motion is being felt.