Wall Slides

A Comparison of Serratus Anterior Muscle Activation During a Wall Slide Exercise and Other Traditional Exercises- JOSPT, December '06.

This article documented EMG studies showing serratus anterior activity in the traditional wall slide exercise was not that much different than the traditional push up plus exercise.

The top photo is similar to the exercise version the article spoke of.

The bottom one is my version.

The athlete is a freestyle swimmer of ours with R shoulder MDI. As I alluded to in an earlier post, the worst thing to do with these athletes is put an exercise band or dumbbell in their hand in the early stages of rehab. Think of the arm as a back hoe, with the scapula being the cab. If the cab of the back hoe is not stable, the whole machine becomes unstable, and loses stability.

But, wall slides are boring, and not very functional. In the bottom picture I'm using the opposite arm & hips to create a load/explode to the scapula in the directions I want. The mini band on the ankles enhances the hip load. Meanwhile, the R hand is gliding from the 1 o'clock to 8 o'clock position while it goes from neutral to pronation. I probably have about a hundred versions of this exercise depending on the dysfunction I see. Someday when I have time I should write it down and organize it. Right now I barely have time to take a dump.