Serratus Anterior Exercises: Anatomy, Scapular Upward Rotation and the Boxer's Muscle

The best serratus anterior exercises are the push-up plus and overhead movements that make your shoulder blade rotate upward, like raising your arm in the scapular plane above about 120 degrees. The serratus is the “boxer’s muscle” along the side of your ribs, and it matters more for shoulder health than for looks. Our complete chest training guide covers the pecs in depth.

Most chest training ignores the serratus completely. This article covers the muscle that moves and stabilises the shoulder blade underneath the pecs, so that your pressing has a stable base.

What does the serratus anterior actually do?

The serratus anterior starts on the outer surface of the upper eight or nine ribs and wraps around your ribcage to attach on the inner edge of the shoulder blade. Think of it as the muscle that glues the blade to your ribs while still letting it glide.

A 2009 review in Sports Medicine describes three jobs. It contributes to scapular upward rotation, posterior tilt and external rotation when the arm goes overhead. It also helps stabilise the medial border and lower tip of the scapula, preventing the internal rotation and forward tilt known as winging (Escamilla et al., 2009). The same review notes that if normal scapular movement is disrupted by weakness, fatigue or injury, the shoulder works less efficiently and injury risk goes up.

Scapular upward rotation in plain gym language

When you raise your arm overhead, your arm bone cannot do it alone. The shoulder blade has to rotate so the socket tilts upward and creates room. The 2003 Ekstrom study notes that the trapezius and serratus anterior are considered the only upward rotators of the scapula (Ekstrom et al., 2003).

If that rotation is poor, overhead presses feel pinchy and lateral raises get stuck around shoulder height. It is one reason the serratus shows up in any shoulder impingement solutions for lifters discussion.

What are the best serratus anterior exercises?

The best-supported exercise is the push-up plus. You do a normal push-up, then at the top keep pushing the floor away until your upper back rounds slightly and your shoulder blades spread apart.

A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies (356 participants) concluded that the standard push-up plus elicits high serratus activity. Serratus activity was higher, and upper trapezius activity lower, on a stable surface with full elbow extension, hands shoulder-width apart, shoulder flexion of 110 or 120 degrees and the same-side leg lifted. An unstable surface increased upper trapezius activity by about 2.7% (Kang et al., 2019).

Overhead movements also work. In 30 healthy people, the serratus was maximally activated by exercises with a lot of scapular upward rotation: shoulder abduction in the plane of the scapula above 120 degrees, and a diagonal pattern combining flexion, horizontal flexion and external rotation (Ekstrom et al., 2003).

Exercise	What the research says	Best for
Wall push-up plus	Lowest serratus activity of three push-up plus variations in a 2014 study	Beginners, rehab (with clinician approval)
Knee push-up plus	Middle of the three	Building control
Standard push-up plus	Highest serratus activity of the three	Most healthy lifters
Scaption above 120 degrees	Among maximal serratus activation in a 30-person study	Overhead strength and control
Forward punch, scapular “hug”	Listed with high scapular muscle activity in a 2009 review	Accessory work

How hard is each push-up plus?

In a 2014 study of 28 men, serratus activity fell in this order across push-up plus variations: standard (about 77% of reference voluntary contraction), knee (about 39%) and wall (about 28%) (Park et al., 2014). That is a small sample of young men, and the values depend on the electrode caveat above.

How do you do serratus punches and overhead cable work?

A forward scapular punch appears alongside the push-up and the “dynamic hug” in the 2009 review as an exercise with high to very high activity from the rotator cuff, deltoids and scapular muscles (Escamilla et al., 2009). That supports cable or band serratus punches as a reasonable accessory. I could not find a trial that directly compares them with push-up plus for serratus growth, so do not expect them to beat it.

How to set one up:

1. Stand side-on or facing away from a low-to-mid cable, handle in the hand nearest the stack.
2. Brace your ribs down so your lower back does not arch.
3. Punch forward and slightly up, and finish by reaching a little further with the shoulder blade, not by leaning.
4. Return slowly until the blade is back, then repeat for 10-15 controlled reps.

The common mistake is turning it into a torso lean. If your hips or ribs are moving, the weight is too heavy.

Where do pullovers fit in?

A dumbbell or cable pullover finishes with the arms overhead, which in theory asks for scapular upward rotation. I could not confirm serratus activation for pullovers from EMG research, so treat that as a plausible bonus, not a proven benefit. Use them for what they are good at, covered in our dumbbell pullover tension curve analysis, and rely on push-up plus for deliberate serratus work.

Does the serratus matter for shoulder health?

It probably does, though the evidence is more about mechanisms than long-term injury prevention. A 2021 lab study of 30 participants fatigued the serratus and found reduced posterior scapular tilt during arm elevation, plus more internal rotation of the scapula at higher angles. These patterns are consistent with those seen in shoulder pain, and the authors suggest that serratus endurance may help delay these changes (Harrison et al., 2021). That was a short, immediate-effect study in a lab, not a trial of injury rates.

Here is a conflicting finding worth knowing. A randomized trial of 64 people with chronic shoulder pain compared scapular movement training with standard exercises for 8 weeks. Both groups improved pain and disability, and the scapular approach was not superior (Kamonseki et al., 2023). The authors concluded that clinicians should consider factors other than scapular movement.

Why might the studies differ? One shows that fatigue changes how the blade moves, the other shows that fixing blade movement is not the only route to feeling better. A cautious takeaway: train the serratus as one part of a balanced shoulder plan, alongside the rotator cuff and shoulder health work, not as a cure for shoulder pain.

Why do I have a winged scapula?

Winging means the inner edge of the shoulder blade lifts off the ribcage. A weak or poorly timed serratus is one possible cause. In a 2014 study, men with scapular winging had lower serratus activity and higher pectoralis major activity than controls (about 40% versus 56% for the serratus, and about 79% versus 40% for the pec) during push-up plus exercises (Park et al., 2014). In that group, the standard push-up plus gave the best serratus-to-pec balance.

That is a small study of 13 men with winging, and it does not tell us how to fix it. Winging can also come from injury to the long thoracic nerve, which supplies the serratus and needs medical assessment rather than more exercise.

Can I get visible serratus muscles?

Partly. Training makes the muscle bigger and more active, but whether you can see “fingers” along your ribs depends mostly on body fat and genetics. You cannot burn fat from your ribs by training them.

If your goal is aesthetics, build the muscle with 2-3 sessions a week of the exercises above, eat enough protein (dal, paneer, curd, eggs, soya or chicken all work), and get lean with a steady, modest deficit. Our body fat calculator gives a rough estimate to track against. For the full picture of how leanness changes the look of the torso, see our guide to optimal body fat ranges.

A simple serratus routine you can add to push day

Add it at the end of a pressing session or on a pull day when your shoulders are warm. A basic template:

• Push-up plus: 2-3 sets of 8-12 slow reps (use knees or a wall if you cannot keep the blades moving).
• Scaption or cable overhead reach: 2 sets of 10-12 with a light load, going only as high as you can without shrugging.
• Serratus punch (cable or band): 2 sets of 10-15 per side.

These rep ranges are practical suggestions rather than values from a serratus trial. Run it twice a week, and slot it into your push day as a finisher. If you already train push-ups, our push-up progression guide shows how to make them harder without losing form.

The bottom line

The serratus anterior is a small muscle with a big job: it moves your shoulder blade and keeps it steady. The push-up plus is the best-supported way to train it, and overhead movements that demand upward rotation add to the picture.

The research here is mostly short lab EMG studies in healthy, fairly young participants, and surface EMG can underestimate this particular muscle. So hold the details lightly, train the basics consistently, and let leanness do the work of making it visible. Two weekly sessions of push-up plus is a sensible place to start.