These exercises can help you to do it.

I'm Dr. Jared.

This common shoulder condition we refer to as a scapular winging.

And basically this happens when the muscles that control your shoulder blade aren't strong enough or aren't firing correctly to hold it tight against your rib cage.

And so that shoulder blade kind of tilts away from your rib cage.

That's what causes this winging in your back.

Now by itself, it's typically not an issue.

Yeah, it's a little bit aesthetic.

People don't love the way it looks, but oftentimes apart from maybe some shoulder blade pain and some mid-back pain, it's not really that big of an issue.

Where it becomes an issue is any dysfunction in the movement of the shoulder blade can translate out into the shoulder joint itself and cause pain in that area.

So it is definitely something that we want to be aware of and address if we can.

These exercises in this video are going to help you to do it.

Now the muscle that we're trying to strengthen in this video is called your serratus anterior.

And I want to take a minute and just teach you how to properly activate it so that you can use proper form with the rest of the exercises in this video.

And so this muscle protracts your shoulder blades.

Basically that means it pulls your shoulder blades apart.

Here's how we're going to practice it.

I want you to stand right here with your arms out in front of you.

First step is to pinch your shoulder blades together.

Now what I want you to do is pretend like you've got someone in front of you or maybe a heavy door.

And I want you to try to push that door open just like this.

And so to do that, my shoulder blades actually pulled apart in the back.

And so right here from the contracted position, and now push in front of you, lengthen out, pull those shoulder blades apart to get into this position.

The issue or the problem that I see most people do is they get into this position right here and then they lean forward and they round their spine into this position.

You'll notice that I should be able to maintain a nice good spine as I pinch.

And then as I push, there's no movement in my head right there. 100% of that motion is coming right from my shoulder blades.

And so typically what I like to do is teach people how to activate and feel that muscle by performing this motion.

We call this a scapular push.

We're going to do this for about 10 repetitions, and then you're ready for the first exercise.

The first exercise is a pushup plus progression.

This one actually has three phases to it.

And this is how I typically teach it in my clinic.

Phase one is we're going to get down on all fours and basically just practice that same motion that I had you do.

So from here, I'm going to pinch my shoulder blades together.

That brings my chest down closer to the floor and then pull my shoulder blades apart.

Try to push down into the ground.

You should feel that activating right in here, kind of underneath that shoulder blade.

Hold one, two, and then right back down to that starting position again.

And usually most people can tolerate this.

This is again, just to try to kind of get the feel for that motion.

I usually perform that about 10 repetitions and then we go straight into the pushup.

And so we're going to add more weight into our hands by taking the feet out into the full pushup position.

So now we're right here and everything just looks the exact same.

I'm going to pinch the shoulder blades together and then I'm going to pull the shoulder blades apart, push my palms down into the ground, up into this really tall position, hold one, two, and then come back down to that starting position again.

And this takes obviously a little bit more strength.

If that's where you're at, I would do 10 repetitions and then repeat that about three times.

But here's the thing, that serratus anterior, it not only protracts our shoulder blades, pushes them forward, but it also upwardly rotates them as well.

And so we can go into phase three as strength and pain allow by adding an elevation component to our arms.

And so to do that, we're going to get down into that pushup position again, pinch the shoulder blades together.

That's the retraction motion.

And then we're going to pull those shoulder blades apart to push up.

And now what I want to do is push up into this dolphin pushup position right here.

But I'm not just bending at my hips.

I'm using my hands to push the floor kind of up and away from me.

And so one more time, I'm here, I'm down in this low position.

I'm going to protract my shoulder blades, and then I'm going to push using my palms, trying to push my hands in that direction to raise up into this spot.

Hold one, two, and then let's get back into that original starting position.

And that's what your reps look like.

And again, that's phase three.

I want you to progress into that as strength allows.

Three sets of 10 is a great number to shoot for.

These next three exercises, I typically have patients perform as one series in the clinic.

These are punches, pull parts, and Y raises.

You are going to need some resistance band.

You can also do these on a cable machine.

If you don't have any resistance band or access to it, go ahead and check the link in the description.

I've got my set linked down there.

And so let's get into this.

The first one is going to be serratus punches.

I'm going to anchor this around something just below my shoulder level.

I don't want it too high.

I want it just below shoulder level.

From here, I'm going to grab it with my hand.

We're going to get into this position.

And now I'm going to take a big step forward just so that there's some resistance on that band.

From here, this should look really familiar to you.

You're going to let the band pull that shoulder blade back behind you, but I'm not bending my elbow.

So I'm like pinching my shoulder blade up here.

And then from there, I'm going to do a serratus punch in this position.

So I'm protracting that shoulder forward.

And then I also want it to come up slightly.

And so in real time, we're going to pull that shoulder blade back.

I'm going to push forward and elevate, hold one, two, and then come right back down to that starting position.

This is a great way that we can take everything that we've learned and just add a little bit of resistance to it from that band.

Then three sets of about 10 to 15 repetitions is typically what I recommend.

Exercise two in the series is going to be a band pull apart.

And so to do this one, what I want you to do is we're going to grab the band in this position right here with my shoulder blades extended.

I bet you can guess what we're probably going to do first.

From here, I want you to protract those shoulder blades.

So reach forward.

Again, please keep in mind that I'm not rounding my back.

I'm not getting into this position right here.

Posture is still really good.

Head is still upright.

And then I pull forward.

And so now from this position, I'm going to keep those shoulder blades protracted.

And then I'm going to try to pull that band apart just as far as I can until my shoulder blades start to move together.

Now I've shown you some pull parts in the past where I've had you come all the way together and really try to squeeze your shoulder blades.

That's not necessarily what we're after here.

With these, I'm concerned that you keep the protracted position and then pull apart as far as you can while maintaining those shoulder blades forward.

Not rounded at your back, just protracted with your shoulder blades.

You should feel this right in this serratus anterior muscle right here, right below your armpit.

And so from here, 10 to 15 reps, repeat that three times.

And then the last one in this series is the banded Y-raise.

The setup looks really similar to what we just did.

Most people, I'll have them grab both ends of a loop here on this one.

And so we're starting right here.

First step is to protract the shoulder blades.

In this position, I want you to hold that while we pull that apart just a little bit.

Now hold this position as you raise that band up and over your head into this position and then slowly return right back down.

Maintaining that protracted position that whole time.

What I really like about this one is we're training that serratus anterior to kick on with middle and lower traps as well.

Just teaching the shoulder blade how to properly let the arm rotate into this overhead position.

This is a great exercise. 10 to 15 reps, repeat it three times.

Okay, have you tried the exercises so far?

What do you think?

Have they helped?

I always love to hear from you.

Leave me a comment down below and be sure to hit the thumbs up button if you have gotten some benefit from this video.

Obviously, I hope that you have.

Our last exercise is going to be a serratus wall slide.

And all you're going to need for this is a hand towel.

You're going to come up to a blank wall and pinch the towel with your forearms just like this.

Take a step back.

The further you step back, the more pressure you're going to have through your arms and the more activation in that serratus anterior muscle.

From here, I bet you can guess the first exercise or the first motion that we're going to do is protract those shoulder blades.

And so right here, this is me pinching my shoulder blades together.

What I want you to do is protract those shoulder blades.

Try to push your elbows forward into the wall.

From here, I want you to hold that protraction as you slide that towel all the way up just as high as you can, hold one, two, and then we're going to pull back down into this starting position.

Keep in mind that I want that protraction to be there the whole time.

So you should be able to pull those shoulder blades apart, feel that activation in that serratus anterior muscle while you're performing the reps on these wall slides.

And usually on this one, 10 to 15 reps repeated three times is what we go for.

I hope these really help your shoulder.

Thank you so much for watching.