How to pump up the serratus muscles?

In pursuit of mass and strength, many novice bodybuilders forget about pumping up small muscle groups, devoting them, at best, to a couple of sluggish exercises at the end of the workout. Not only does this approach violate aesthetics and symmetry, contrary to the very philosophy of bodybuilding, it can threaten serious injuries, because small muscles often perform the most important functions in our body. Therefore, today we will talk about pumping the serratus muscles. Many beginners have never even heard of these, but they exist!

The serratus anterior muscle, or serratus anterior, is located parallel to the ribs on the side of the chest, facilitating its movement during inspiration. However, its main function is to fix the scapula, which is extremely important for the correct performance of most exercises - from the classic bench press to deadlifts and squats.

In addition to the visual component - the serratus anterior advantageously separates the latissimus from the oblique abdominal and pectoral muscles - they also have a more significant advantage: belonging to the so-called core muscles, the serratus muscles play an important role in the formation of correct posture, and protect the spine during axial loads.

Having understood the purpose and functions performed, let's figure it out: how to pump up the serratus muscles? Due to the anatomy discussed above, it is difficult to “hook” them and isolate them... However, there are exercises in which they receive significant load. At first, good results can be achieved by doing the plank.

1. Planck exercise.
2. Dumbbell pullover.
3. Weekly workload and planning.

Planck exercise.

Execution: take a lying position, leaning on your arms bent at the elbows. Do not stick out your butt or arch your lower back: from head to toe, the body is taut like a string. Don't forget to breathe smoothly and deeply. It is important to catch the moment when the ribs rise as you inhale - this will become the starting point in pumping the dentate zone. Once you can do 5 sets of 1-2 minutes, you can make it more challenging by doing a side plank. Read more about this exercise here.

Having learned to feel the tension in the necessary areas of our body during statics, it’s time to pick up a dumbbell and start doing pullovers - after all, this exercise, with the correct technique, provides an excellent opportunity to pump up not only the chest and back, but also the muscle muscles we are considering here group.

Execution: lie down on a bench, take a dumbbell by one end so that your thumbs cover the bar and your palms rest against the weights on one side of the apparatus. We take a deep breath and lower our arms, slightly bent at the elbows, behind our heads, where we linger for a second, after which we return to the starting position. The exercise is technically demanding, so don’t chase the weight, learn to feel the stretching and contraction of the intercostal muscles. We do 4 sets of 12-15 repetitions. Read more about this exercise here.

Weekly workload and planning.

In terms of placement in a weekly split, I would recommend hitting the serratus twice a week, doing pullovers at the end of your chest workout and planks after all your back exercises.

Now you know that it is important to train not only the main muscle groups, but also the auxiliary ones. After all, our goal is a harmonious appearance! Well, we will definitely tell you how to pump up other secondary zones in our next reviews, don’t switch! There is still a lot of interesting things ahead!