We found that serratus anterior muscle activity was not significantly different between each of the 3 movements at 90° of humeral elevation.
As the angle of humeral elevation increased, serratus anterior activation during the wall slide exercise and the scapular plane shoulder elevation movement increased.
These data support our hypothesis that the wall slide exercise activates the serratus anterior as effectively as the plus phase push-up–plus exercise performed against the wall, and perhaps more imporantly, can achieve this activation in positions above 90° of humeral elevation.
For patients with shoulder impingement syndromes with presumed weakness of the serratus anterior, activation of the serratus anterior muscle above 90° may be important because this is where the altered scapular kinematics have been described by some investigators,9,12 and where painful symptoms are frequently experienced.