I am sure you have seen like I do people in the gym doing a lot of pressing exercises like bench presses, dumbbell incline presses, shoulder presses, leg presses, etc.

All of the exercises are fine and good, but they only work muscles on the front (anterior) of the body. 

What I, unfortunately, fail to see is many people working the back ( posterior) muscles.  I am not just talking about lat pulldowns, but also rows, back extensions, hamstring curls, reverse flyes, etc.    And those individuals I see that do incorporate some of these, “pulling” exercises, do so with fewer number of sets and repetitions than their “pushing” exercise counterparts.

In order for a joint to be at it’s optimal stability, barring any injury or orthopaedic complications, the muscles surrounding the joint must be balanced in both strength and endurance.

I know everyone likes to work all those anterior muscle groups as those are the muscles we “present” to others, but failng to address the opposing, posterior muscle groups can lead to muscle imbalances, faulty movement patterns, and sometimes injury.

 If you incorporate a lot of pressing exercises into your fitness program, be sure to balance it out by utilizing the same amount of exercises, sets, and reps of pulling exercises.