What are some good exercises that I can do at home to pull back my shoulders and get better posture. I have the following tools:
Dumbbells
Bench
Bands
Yoga Ball
Thanks in advance!
yoga
Excellent question. Think the majority of us have internally rotated shoulders from slouching in office jobs. TTT for advice 
My own regime is wall stretches for chest abd shoulder, rowing exercise, face pulls, external rotators with elastic band. Still get shoulder issues though
What weight DBs?
As already recommended, lots of pulling exercises, focusing on pulling back and down with the scapula (shoulder blade). You can do variations of rows, pull ups (if you have a bar), etc. Also, I am also a big fan of face pulls.
I'd also recommend buying a dense foam roller. You can get a short dense foam roller for $10 at EliteFTS here: http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=143&pid=1479
With the foam roller, you can do a lot of soft tissue work for your pecs, lats, thoracic musculature, as well as doing thoracic extension mobs over the foam roller as well.
As for exercises, in addition to everything listed above, you need to not only focus on the shoulder/scapular region. Work on a lot of thoracic mobility, lumbar stability, and hip mobility. It's a whole chain effect that can stem from the base and work up.
Double post
Matt would you reccomend lighter dumbells for shoulder/scap exercises? I noticed my issues in the front of my shoulder seem to occur with pressing motions as oppose to pulling, mainly when I get near my 3 to 5 rep maxes
Dan John has a good article about rhomboid work that may help:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/reawaken_your_rhomboids
Thanks guys! Good Stuff!
my answer to everything. DEADLIFTS.
and neck elongation exercises with your back and shoulder blades against a wall. I learned that one from a physiotherapist
I'd recommend DB weight that is appropriate so you can maintain proper form and scapular rhythm. For shoulder/scap exercises (Y raises, facepulls, YTWL, etc), I generally recommend lighter weights and rep ranges around 10-15.
Back and trap weakness is usually what causes bad posture in m experience.
No one can give you a lst of exercises without seeing where your imbalances are first. If your posterior chain of muscles are dominating your posture then deadlifts would be horrible.
It just depends on where you begin.
Get a postural analysis first and then come back and ask.
Been working on this problem for years.
No exercise or weight regime will fix postural problems. Its tempting to think that, but no specialist I have ever seen has talked about weights.
Only relearning your posture will do it.
Yoga, pilates and stretches - get advice from a physio.
Its a long journey.
Everyones body is so complex and the body spends so much time trying to re-balance.
ubik - Its tempting to think that, but no specialist I have ever seen has talked about weights.fwiw you bring up a good point about yoga stretching and pilates being a strong important first step. However I also saw the sentence I quoted and I think that most of us think we go see a "specialist" for a problem and they are the all-seeing all knowing masters of this area of the body, but more often than not, they have very "specialized knowledge" - therapists know rehab and therapy, nutritionists often have their own very narrow idea of what they believe is the optimal diet, talk to a powerlifter about s&C and he's going to slap you on the back and tell you that "Squats cure cancer."
somewhere along the way we've got to see the forrest thru the trees and find the middle ground with what we need for optimal health in our lives.
^ great post.
or the frat version: - when all you've got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
I have definitely improved my posture by strengthening my back. But I agree it depends on your imbalance.
Bull_in_chinashop -ubik - Its tempting to think that, but no specialist I have ever seen has talked about weights.fwiw you bring up a good point about yoga stretching and pilates being a strong important first step. However I also saw the sentence I quoted and I think that most of us think we go see a "specialist" for a problem and they are the all-seeing all knowing masters of this area of the body, but more often than not, they have very "specialized knowledge" - therapists know rehab and therapy, nutritionists often have their own very narrow idea of what they believe is the optimal diet, talk to a powerlifter about s&C and he's going to slap you on the back and tell you that "Squats cure cancer."
somewhere along the way we've got to see the forrest thru the trees and find the middle ground with what we need for optimal health in our lives.
I have seen specialist that recommend weights for posture problems actually... Following a serious training injury my pture became horribl, my spine twisted ec etc...I was told my spine was 'congenital' i pointed out as frm my pre-injury x rays my spine had changed how could it be and it sounded more like 'we cant do much', rather than nothing can be done.. weight wise working the rhomboids has had the most significant impact on my back, and rolled over shoulders
Best thing that worked for me after seeing 12ish specialists was rolfing, a fascia based therapy, whats interesting is that doing weights with my body out of alignment helped to an extent, but after stopping weights, having rolfing, and starting weights again, my weights went up significantly
You really have to use weights or some intense resistance, because you are trying to even or balance your muscles. So, there is an aspect of strength training and muscle building of your weak areas.