Seated Good Mornings
Also works: Glutes
A good morning performed sitting on a box inside a rack, bar across the rear delts, folding forward from the hips. Sitting removes the hamstrings and the hip hinge almost entirely, leaving your spinal erectors to hold the arch against a long lever — which is why the loads are far lower than a standing good morning.
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 a box inside the rack at a height that puts your thighs roughly parallel to the floor when seated.
- Set the rack pins at the height your chest reaches when you are folded to about parallel — they are your bail-out.
- Take the bar across the shelf of your rear delts, not on your neck, and squeeze your shoulder blades together hard.
- Rotate your elbows forward and try to bend the bar around your shoulders to lock the upper back in.
- Unrack, step back, sit down on the box with your hips, and set a firm arch in the lower back before the first rep.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Inhale and brace sitting upright, hold through the fold and the return, exhale at the top. Three seconds down, a one-second pause just above the pins, and a controlled drive back up.
Before you load it
- Always set the rack pins just below your bottom position. Erectors fail suddenly under a long lever and there is no way to bail from a seated good morning without them.
- Stop the set at the first rounded rep rather than at the planned rep count. A rounded spine under a bar on your back is the exact loading pattern this movement should be teaching you to resist.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start with an empty 20 kg bar for two sessions to find your range, then build in 2.5 kg steps. Most trained lifters top out around 20-35% of their back squat here. Add weight only when you can hold the same arch through every rep of every set; if the last rep looks rounder than the first, repeat the load.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Start with the empty 20 kg bar and add 2.5 kg a week at most. Working sets around 20-35% of your squat are normal and correct here.
Stop the range at the last centimetre where the arch holds. Depth is not the target; holding a rigid spine against the lever is.
Pull the bar down onto the meat of your rear delts and pin it there with your hands. If it still rolls up, your elbows are behind you — rotate them forward.
Set the pins at parallel every session. They tell you when to stop the rep and they catch you if the erectors give out, which happens abruptly rather than gradually.
Why bother
Standing, a good morning is a hip hinge and your hamstrings do most of the work. Sitting closes the hip angle before you start and takes the hamstrings out of the equation, so the erectors and the muscles down the length of your spine have to resist the torso folding forward on their own. Very little else loads them that directly through a range.
That isolation is also the constraint. With no leg drive available, useful working weights sit around 20-35% of your squat, and the exercise punishes overloading immediately by rounding your back. Anyone who tries to progress this like a squat gets a sore lower back and no strength.
Where it fits
Accessory work at the end of a squat or deadlift day, once a week, 3-4 sets in the 5-8 range. It suits lifters whose torso collapses forward out of the hole in a squat or whose upper back rounds mid-deadlift. Do not put it before your main lift — a fatigued set of erectors ruins everything else in the session.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
How is this different from a standing good morning?
Standing, the movement is a hip hinge and your hamstrings carry most of the load. Seated, the hips are already flexed and locked against the box, so almost all the work falls on the spinal erectors. Expect to use roughly half the weight you would standing, or less.
Can I do these on a flat bench instead of a box?
Yes, and a bench is often better: it is stable, it is already inside most racks, and the height is close to parallel for most lifters. What you cannot do is sit on something soft or narrow. A padded seat lets your pelvis roll backwards as you fold, which quietly turns the arch you are supposed to be holding into lumbar flexion. Sit on the firmest flat surface in the room.
Will this help my squat?
It helps the specific fault where your chest drops and your hips shoot up out of the hole. That is an erector and bracing problem, and seated good mornings load exactly that. It will not add anything if your squat fails because your legs are weak.
Is this bad for my lower back?
Loaded spinal flexion is the risk, and this movement is only dangerous when you let the arch go. Held rigid with light weight and pins set at parallel, it builds the capacity that protects your back on heavier lifts. Held rigid is the whole condition, though — do not negotiate it.