Good Morning
Also works: Abdominals · Glutes · Lower Back
A barbell sits across your rear delts and you hinge until your torso is near parallel to the floor, then drive your hips back through. Because the bar is at shoulder height, the lever arm on your hips and spine is longer than in any other hinge, which is why the working weight is a small fraction of what you squat.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Set the hooks at roughly mid-chest so you dip under the bar rather than reach up for it.
- Rack the bar low, across the shelf of your rear delts, exactly where a low-bar squat sits. On the traps it will slide up your neck as you tip forward.
- Pinch your shoulder blades together hard and pull the bar down into your back with your hands.
- Step back two steps and set your feet hip- to shoulder-width, toes near-straight.
- Unlock the knees to about 15-20 degrees and keep them there — this is a hinge, not a squat.
- Take a big breath into the belly and brace before you begin the first rep.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — One breath per rep: inhale and brace hard at the top, hold through the descent and the drive, exhale only once you are standing. Three seconds down, up with intent but never a lurch.
Before you load it
- Work inside a rack with the safety pins set just below your parallel position. A failed good morning collapses you forward with the bar high on your back, and there is no clean way to bail from it.
- If your lower back rounds under load at any point, stop the set. The long lever arm makes this the least forgiving hinge in the gym for a flexed spine.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start with the empty 20 kg bar for two sessions and learn the torso angle before you add a plate. A working weight of 30-40% of your best squat for sets of 5-8 is normal and appropriate; anyone good-morning-ing near their squat is either cutting the range or rounding. Add 2.5 kg only once every rep holds a fixed knee angle and a neutral spine.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Start at 25-30% of your best squat and add 2.5 kg a week. If you cannot hold your torso angle rigid on rep 5, you are already too heavy regardless of what the number says.
Fix the knee angle before the first rep and film one set from the side. Any change in knee angle means the load has moved to your quads and away from the hamstrings you came for.
Stop your range 5 cm above the point where the curve appears, and cue pushing your ribcage forwards against your brace. Range returns as hamstring length improves; it is never worth borrowing from your spine.
Look at a spot on the floor about two metres ahead so your neck follows your torso angle. Hyperextending the cervical spine under a loaded bar is an easy neck strain.
Re-rack, drop your bar position two inches lower onto the rear delts, and squeeze the shoulder blades tighter. A shelf of contracted muscle holds the bar; a relaxed upper back does not.
Why bother
Load times distance is the whole story here. With the bar on your shoulders and your torso horizontal, the bar sits roughly the length of your torso away from your hips — far further than in a deadlift, where the weight hangs close to your legs. A 60 kg good morning can produce hip torque comparable to a much heavier deadlift, which is why the numbers look modest and feel anything but.
That long lever makes it a specific trainer for the two things that fail in a heavy squat: the spinal erectors holding your torso angle, and the hamstrings and glutes reversing it. Powerlifters use it precisely because it punishes the exact failure mode of a squat where the hips shoot up and the chest drops.
Where it fits
Second or third movement on a squat or deadlift day, once a week, 3-4 sets of 5-8. Do not put it before your main lift and do not run it heavy in the same week as heavy deadlifts — the spinal erectors do not recover fast enough for both, and stubbornly stacking them is a reliable route to a stalled deadlift.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
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When this gets easy
Asked and answered
How much should I be able to good morning?
Roughly 30-40% of your best squat for a set of 5-8 is a normal working range for an intermediate lifter. There is no reason to chase a bigger number: the value is in the hip torque produced by the long lever, and you get that at a weight that looks unimpressive on paper.
Is the good morning dangerous for your back?
It is unforgiving rather than dangerous. Done with a neutral spine and a fixed knee angle at a sensible weight, it is one of the better ways to build erector strength. The danger comes from lifters loading it like a squat and letting the spine round under a very long lever. Use a rack with pins and keep the load honest.
Straight legs or bent knees?
Soft knees, about 15-20 degrees, held constant. Locked knees push the whole load into hamstring length and lumbar position, and most people cannot hold neutral there. Knees that bend and straighten during the set mean you are squatting the weight up.
Should I do good mornings or Romanian deadlifts?
Romanian deadlifts for hamstring size, good mornings for torso rigidity under load. The bar in your hands sits close to your hips in an RDL, so it loads the hamstrings hard without punishing your erectors; the bar on your back moves the demand up your spine. If you squat competitively, the good morning has the more specific carryover.
Where exactly should the bar sit?
Low-bar position, across the shelf formed by your contracted rear delts, not on top of the traps or against the neck. As you tip towards parallel, a high bar slides forward onto the cervical spine, and you will end the set for pain rather than fatigue.