serratus anterior strengthing

[Vinneyuk]

Hey everyone, been a little while since i was on here...

Cut a long story short, i contracted a virus over the xmas period, which attacked my long thoracic never, paralyzing my serratus anterior on my right side, resulting in sever winging of my scapula

Am waiting for a re-assesment in may before the surgeon will operate - as he wants to see if my body will heel on its own.

In the mean-time am back in the gym taking it easy on my shoulder...

Can any recommend some serratus anterior exercises to aid getting a bit of strength back ?

Any else on here suffered from a similar problem ?

Cheers

Ant.

[NBThing]

Hey. Feel sorry about the problem. The most annoying thing is when you want to work out, but can't.

On the topic, I'm not the one to advise because I'm no doc, although I do like to strengthen my serratus anterior just for the sake of good punch. These are the things I do, which do work this muscle:

- Squeeze it really hard on the end of DB bench press
- DB pull overs
- Incline Shoulder press (http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...lderRaise.html)
- Heavy work with boxing bag

Definitely seeing results. Although I'm not sure which one of these you can use considering your condition.

[jamezgt]

Holy! I've never heard of that happening.

Is the innervation to the long thoracic nerve completely shut off? If not, try doing some protraction exercises for the scapula (bilateral of course!).

[D4rkhorse]

Wow that's pretty crazy. Were you working out your serratus before this happened? If so, I would do the same exercises. But if not, my personal fav's are dumbbell pullovers, or parallel grip pullups (I found a video of these here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B12ZyVYTzyk but you should emphasize bringing your head to the left of the bar and the right of the bar alternatively, almost like a crooked pullup).