Good Morning

The Good Morning is a bilateral strength exercise built around the hinge pattern. It trains your hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, and core by asking you to fold forward at the hips while keeping your back neutral. Done correctly, it builds back strength that carries over to pulls like the deadlift.

Set up with your feet about shoulder-width apart and a barbell resting across your upper back, not your neck. Grip the bar just outside shoulder width, pull your shoulder blades together, and brace your trunk. Keep a slight bend in your knees and your eyes looking forward.

Push your hips back as if you are trying to touch a wall behind you. Hinge until your torso is roughly parallel to the floor, keeping your spine locked and neutral the whole time. Drive through your hips and hamstrings to stand tall. Repeat for reps.

Breathe in and brace before you hinge, hold that brace on the way down, and exhale once you are back at the top. To make it easier, use a light resistance band behind your neck or do it bodyweight with your hands behind your head. To make it harder, add a barbell, but keep the load light to moderate and your form strict. Skip this movement entirely if you have active lower-back pain.

Fault: Rounding your back as you hinge forward. Fix: Keep your spine neutral and locked from your neck to your tailbone; imagine showing your chest to the floor rather than collapsing toward it.

Fault: Letting your knees bend too much and turning the good morning into a squat. Fix: Keep only a soft bend in your knees and focus on hinging at the hips; the movement should come from your hips moving back, not your knees moving down.

Fault: Loading the bar too heavy and losing position on the way down. Fix: Use a conservative, submaximal load and stop the set as soon as your back rounds; this exercise only builds back strength for the pull when it stays strict.