Train your serratus anterior, or your neck will volunteer for the job

Dear reader,

If there’s one muscle I wish more modern humans trained (properly), it’s serratus anterior.

Not because it’s trendy.

Because it decides whether your shoulder feels light and organised… or heavy, tight, and slightly chaotic.

Most people try to “fix posture” by stretching, cracking, pulling shoulders back, or hammering rows at the gym.

And yet the same pattern returns.

Why?

Because you can release the brakes all day — but if the engine is asleep, the system goes back to the default.

Serratus anterior is often that engine.

What serratus anterior actually does

Serratus sits on the side of your ribcage and controls how your shoulder blade moves on your ribs.

If that sentence sounds boring, here’s the real-life version:

• it helps your shoulder blade stay hugged to the ribcage

• it guides the smooth upward rotation needed for reaching and overhead work

• it reduces the need for your upper traps and neck to overwork

• it gives the shoulder a feeling of stability without stiffness

When serratus is active, your shoulder feels like it belongs to your body.

When it’s weak or “offline”, the shoulder blade floats, tips, wings, or jams — and your neck starts acting like a backup stabiliser.

Why training serratus is essential (especially in modern life)

Modern living is basically a serratus deactivation programme.

Phone posture, laptop posture, driving posture, sofa posture — all of it encourages a shoulder blade that drifts forward and a ribcage that stops moving properly.

So serratus doesn’t just “get weak”.

It becomes irrelevant in the nervous system’s hierarchy.

Then you go to the gym and train hard… but the body still uses the same compensation strategy:

upper traps, pecs, lats, neck.

Training serratus is how you teach the system a new rule:

“The scapula belongs on the ribcage. The neck is not the manager of the shoulder.”

How to train serratus properly (without turning it into neck training)

Serratus training isn’t about doing more reps. It’s about doing clean reps.

The most common mistakes I see:

• shrugging during reaching

• rib flare and lower back arching

• jaw tension and breath holding

• “effort” replacing control

The goal is simple:

a smooth reach where the shoulder blade glides forward and wraps around the ribs — without the neck climbing up to your ears.

Wall-based activation drills are a great starting point because they reduce chaos and give feedback. They’re not magic — but they’re honest.

JANMI Premium: where serratus training meets hands-on chain reset

This is where my JANMI Premium work becomes different.

In a standard session, you might get a great release — tight pecs soften, traps settle, shoulders drop.

In JANMI Premium, I combine:

• Integrated soft tissue therapy (release of brakes)

  with

• reactivation work (waking sleeper muscles)

…in a very specific sequence.

Because if I release the brakes and you stand up with the same sleeping serratus, your body will rebuild the tension to create stability.

So Premium is built around one question:

Which muscles are overworking to compensate, and which muscles have stopped showing up?

Serratus anterior is one of the most common answers.

What it feels like: “full chain reset”

When this is done well, it doesn’t feel like you’ve been “fixed”.

It feels like your body becomes coherent.

• scapula sits better without forcing posture

• overhead movement becomes quieter

• neck relaxes because it no longer has to stabilise the shoulder

• the whole upper chain feels more connected to the trunk

That’s what I mean by full chain reset experience: not a local release, but a system that rebalances its roles.

The 4-week plan: keeping serratus online

Premium clients also receive a tailored 4-week programme designed to maintain the reset:

• keeping the brakes calm (tissues that tend to tighten)

• keeping the sleepers active (especially serratus, when it’s part of the pattern)

• progressing the work gradually so it becomes your new default

Because the point isn’t to feel good for a day.

It’s to teach the body a new habit — one it can keep while you live your normal life.

And in that story, serratus anterior is not a small detail.

It’s often the missing link.

Until next time,

Paulius