Maintaining muscle balance and posture should be at the forefront of your exercise routine. Including the following five exercises in your routine will help combat common postural and muscular balance issues.

1. Push-Ups: Most individuals performing the majority of their pressing movements with their backs pinned to a bench.  This restricts protraction of the scapula and may result in underdevelopment of the serratus anterior.  Including push-ups in your routine will promote a better balance of the muscles that act on the scapula.

2. Prone Cobra: This is a great postural exercise that helps knock out several common postural faults, including excessive internal rotation of the humerus, forward head posture, and thoracic kyphosis.

3. Face Pull: A functional external rotation exercise that helps correct muscle imbalance between the internal and external rotators of the humerus.

4. Wall Angel: This is another exercise that is helpful in maintaining the integrity of scapular muscular and posture.

5. Dumbbell External Rotations from Knee: This is a great exercise to help isolate and strengthen the external rotators of the humerus.  It is particularly useful for those who spend a lot of time doing bench presses and its variations.

face pulls, muscle balance, posture, prone cobra, push-ups