Stiff Leg Barbell Good Morning
Also works: Glutes · Hamstrings
A hip hinge performed with a bar on your upper back and the knees held almost straight. Because the load sits at your shoulders rather than in your hands, the lever arm on your lower back is longer than in any deadlift variation, which makes it a spinal-erector and hamstring builder that punishes light weights hard.
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 rack hooks at mid-chest so you unrack by standing up, not by tiptoeing under the bar.
- Carry the bar low on the rear delts, not on the neck bones. High-bar placement here presses straight into vertebrae once you fold.
- Take two steps back, feet hip to shoulder width, toes pointing forward.
- Straighten the knees to just short of locked and hold that angle for the whole set — no rebending mid-rep.
- Big breath into the belly, brace hard, and squeeze the bar into your traps before the first rep.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — One breath per rep: inhale and brace standing tall, hold it through the fold and the return, exhale at the top. Three seconds down, no pause at the bottom, a controlled second up.
Before you load it
- Do this inside a rack with the pins set just below your lowest torso position. If a rep fails you cannot dump a bar off your back safely from a hinged position.
- Stop the set at the first rounded rep rather than the first missed rep. Lumbar flexion under a shoulder-loaded bar is the injury mechanism here, not fatigue.
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 find the depth where your back stays neutral. From there, 30-40% of your back squat is a realistic working weight, and most lifters never need more than 50%. Add load only once you can hold the same torso depth on the last rep as the first; otherwise add a rep.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Film one set from the side and mark the exact frame where your lumbar spine first flexes. Train two or three centimetres above that depth for a month, and let the range extend as the hamstrings lengthen.
Set the knee angle before rep one and cue 'long legs' on every descent. If you cannot hold it past rep six, the load is too heavy for the stiff-leg version — run seated good mornings instead.
Start at 20-30% of your squat and add 2.5 kg a week. The shoulder-height load makes this the most deceptive lever in the gym.
Cue hips forward into the bar, not chest up. The bar rises because your pelvis returned under it.
Why bother
The bar on your traps sits roughly 50 cm above your hips. Fold to horizontal and every one of those centimetres becomes leverage against your spinal erectors and hamstrings. That is why 40 kg here feels heavier than 100 kg on a deadlift — you are not lifting less, you are lifting it from a far worse position.
Stiff legs are the whole point of this variation. Bending the knees turns it into a squat-morning hybrid and lets the quads share the work. Locking the knees near straight forces the hamstrings to control the descent under stretch, which is the specific quality that carries over to holding a back angle in a heavy deadlift or a squat.
Where it fits
Second or third movement on a lower-body or posterior-chain day, after squats or deadlifts, in the 6-10 range. Once or twice a week is plenty. Do not put it before a heavy pull — a fatigued erector is exactly what you need intact under a deadlift, and this drill will leave yours cooked.
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 Romanian deadlift?
Same hinge, different load position. An RDL holds the bar in your hands, so the weight hangs close to your centre of mass and the limit is usually grip or hamstring stretch. Here the bar sits at shoulder height, so the spinal erectors carry a far longer lever. Expect to use roughly a third of your RDL weight.
Should my knees be fully locked?
No. Locked-out knees hyperextend the joint and jam the stretch entirely into the hamstring tendons behind the knee. Hold them at about five degrees of bend — straight enough that the quads take nothing, soft enough that the joint is not being levered open.
Why does my lower back fatigue before my hamstrings?
Usually because you are folding by rounding rather than hinging, so the erectors work isometrically at end range instead of the hamstrings controlling the hips. Cut the range to where your back stays flat and push the hips back harder. If the erectors still cap you, that is honest — they are the primary mover in this variation.
Can beginners do this?
Yes, with the empty bar and a shallow range. The pattern teaches a hinge under load better than most drills, and the shoulder-loaded bar gives instant feedback when your back position slips. The mistake beginners make is not doing it, it is loading it like a squat.