An often overlooked and under-trained area is the serratus anterior. The serratus anterior, often called the boxers muscle, is a
DAMMIT ARNOLD!
muscle that stats at the 1st-8th ribs on the side of the chest and goes along the anterior length of the medial border of the scapula. We want to focus on this muscle for two reasons. The first is that it supports overhead lifting along with the traps and as it gets stronger we will better be able to stabilize that area and thus lift heavier weight for more reps creating an overall more chiseled body. The second reason is that the serratus anterior, when it becomes visible, really completes the upper body and gives the look of total fitness.
There is a problem however. The serratus is very difficult to isolate and train. In this post we will talk about the ways that you can maximize the chance of having a visible serratus. Unfortunately, the first and primary way to do this is not to be fat. Simply put, the chances of having a visible serratus with a body fat percentage over 12 is nil and getting it to show between 10-12% is going to require some stellar genetics. So the
Shortest Olympia Winner Ever, Frank Colombu, had an enviable serratus.
first step to getting that serratus visible is to get your diet and cardio down so that you can drop your body fat.
The next step is to look at some lifts that will, while not isolating the serratus, do a
Keep your focus on the serratus.
good job at targeting it. The two primary lifts for this are going to be the dumbbell pullover which we mentioned a few posts ago as well as the overhead press (strict military press please, keep those knees locked out). We are doing something a little backwards here. We are training our serratus partly because they help with these lifts and the way we train them is by doing these lifts. The difference here is that I want you to keep a serious lock on the mind-muscle connection focusing on the serratus.
This will be a good experiment for a few reasons. Go and do a set of 20 Overhead
Standing Military Press. Look it up. Ask questions. Watch Videos. Just please do it correctly.
Presses and a set of 20 Dumbbell Pullovers hitting about 8.5 RPE with each. Then go take your animal walk around the gym (animal walks will be tomorrow’s post) and do them again. The only change I want you to make is that on the second set I want you to really focus on the serratus anterior. Forget the weight. Forget everything. Just keep your mind locked on that muscle. Don’t change the amount of weight you use. Don’t change the amount of reps you do. Just focus hard and never, not for a split second, lose focus on the muscle we are targeting. When you are done, if you really focused out on that muscle, you will be able to tell the difference.
At this point, we are going to do a 3×5 superset of Strict Military Overhead Presses with Dumbbell Pullovers. If you keep that mind-muscle connection tight you should really be feeling it after this. While doing these supersets you want to keep the intensity high. No slow walk from one workout to another. Do this as hard and as intense as you can possibly do it while maintaining form. When you are done, sweat should be jumping out of you and your heart rate should be off the chart. We need this because your fat ass needs to take off some body fat
People often mistake this type of body for fit. Steve O is not fit, he is skinny. There is zero strength there.
if these muscles are going to be visible. Unless your genetics have made you very skinny (which, often leaves people incredibly weak but gives the impression of muscle because of cuts) or you have a massive cocaine habit you are going to need to get that heart rate going like this to achieve this goal.
Tyson at his leanest had visible serratus but nothing like the bodybuilders or the lightweights.
Having done this we can move on to another exercise that will have two different positive results on the serratus. The first positive impact will be that this is an intense cardio workout and will help drop your overall body fat, which is important for visible serratus muscles. The second is that it does actually target the serratus anterior. This workout is going to be weighted shadow boxing. There is a reason that the serratus is called the boxers muscle and it is because many boxers have developed them in a very visible way because the lighter weight classes are very lean and boxing itself requires strong serratus muscles. A heavyweight like Tyson will have incredibly strong serratus, but boxing heavyweight they simply will not show as much. On the other hand, a guy like Floyd Mayweather, arguable the best lightweight boxer in the history of the sport, fights at such low body fat that you can really see how pronounced the serratus is.
For your shadow boxing you should grab two light dumbbells. Try using 5 lbs and if that feels too heavy drop down to 2.5. We aren’t looking to totally annihilate ourselves here, just to get a good workout on that area. Of course, in a perfect world we would then do a workout that looks a lot like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRs5budNvxg however, here on planet earth that is most likely not possible. So what you are going to do is work on a very simple move. Pivot to your right and throw a left jab extending your arm out as far as it will go. After this pivot to the left and throw a right jab extending your arm out as far as it will go. In this case you
Floyd puts in the work for sure, but weighing 149.5 pounds does make the shredded look easier.
can be like certain Irish MMA fighters who tried to box and totally neglect your footwork. If you are well trained and it comes natural all the better, but I want as much of your brain focused on your serratus as possible. Set a timer for three minutes and go back and forth, pivoting on one side and throwing a jab on the other. After three minutes of this take a one-minute break and then go for another three minutes. I would say that starting with three rounds of three minutes is a good start and then add more and more. If you ever get to ten let me know and I will think of some way to make it harder.
With the overhead presses and the dumbbell pullovers, you should have exhausted your serratus fairly well. It is at this point that we want to look at one of, if not the only workout that will totally isolate the boxers muscle – the serratus cable crunch. In order to do a serratus cable crunch you will stand sideways at a high cable with a D-handle. With your left side facing the handle, reach up with your left hand and grab it. While holding your cable put your right hand on your left serratus. This is what is called touch training and it helps targeting a great deal. Now bend in the opposite direction to get a full stretch and crunch the serratus down and forward. Hold the crunched position for a few seconds. As we do with all things lately, bang this out for 20 reps and, since it is on a cable and there is no chance of injury here, look for an RPE in the 9-9.5 range. Do this on both sides three times. (video of the serratus cable crunch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XP8x-kPKmE ).
Now that you know the practical as well as the aesthetic reasons for working the serratus muscle and have some tools to get at it go kill it! Make it a burn out in the gym or save it for a weekend rest day workout. Just keep in mind that the serratus, while looking like it is a continuation of the abs, is NOT an abdominal muscle and should not work into your workout cycle as one. You don’t want to train serratus and chest back to back. Also, if you really want that visible look you are really going to need to keep your diet on point. I am hoping to have visible serratus muscles this July, but honestly don’t know if I will be able to do it. The last time I had them I was 50 pounds lighter, doing massive amounts of cardio and with almost none of the muscle tone or density I currently have. If you are a hard gainer who is underweight, this is a great muscle for you because getting it to be visible will be easier than someone who is 200+ pounds.
Grind on #teambeater. Almost time for suns out guns out.