Good Morning
With a barbell resting across your upper back, much like a squat, you bend forward at the hips while keeping your knees only slightly bent, lowering your torso until you feel a stretch through your hamstrings, then standing back up. It's a hip-hinge exercise, closer in pattern to a Romanian deadlift than a squat, that builds real strength through the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.
Why it works
The hip hinge, folding forward from the hips while keeping the spine in a neutral position, is one of the most useful movement patterns your body has, showing up any time you pick something up off the ground or bend to tie a shoe. The good morning trains that exact pattern under a loaded bar, with your hamstrings and glutes working to control the descent and drive the hip back to standing. Because the bar sits high on your back rather than in your hands, the mechanical demand on your lower back is significant, which is exactly why this exercise builds real posterior chain strength, and also why it demands respect and a conservative starting weight.
Set up
- Set the bar in a rack at about shoulder height and position it across your upper back, similar to a squat setup.
- Unrack the bar and step back to a shoulder-width stance with a soft bend in your knees.
- Brace your core firmly and pull your shoulder blades back before the first rep.
How to do it
- Push your hips back as you begin to fold forward at the hips, keeping your knee bend roughly constant.
- Lower your torso until you feel a firm stretch through your hamstrings, usually around parallel to the floor or slightly above.
- Keep your back flat and your core braced throughout the descent.
- Reverse the motion by driving your hips forward, squeezing your glutes to return to standing.
- Stand fully upright before starting the next rep.
Form cues
- Hips push back first, not the knees bending.
- Back stays flat, never rounds.
- Stop where the hamstring stretch is firm, not painful.
- Drive up by pushing the hips forward, not by yanking the torso up.
Breathing: Take a full breath and brace before you begin the hinge, hold it through the descent and drive, and exhale once you're standing fully upright.
Common mistakes
The lower back rounds as the torso lowers, especially near the bottom of the range.
Fix: Stop the descent the moment you feel your back start to round, even if that means a much shorter range than you expected; a flat back through a smaller range beats a rounded back through a bigger one.
The knees bend significantly during the hinge, turning the movement into a squat.
Fix: Set your knee bend once at the top and hold that same angle through the whole rep; the movement should come from the hips folding, not the knees bending further.
Using too much weight before the hip-hinge pattern is well learned.
Fix: Start with just the empty bar or a light weight and spend real time grooving the pattern before adding load; this is not an exercise to rush.
How to program it
- This is a genuinely loaded compound lift that puts real strain on the lower back, so once a week is a sensible default unless it's your only posterior chain work that week.
- Three or four sets of six to eight reps at a conservative weight builds strength safely; this is not an exercise where chasing heavy singles makes sense.
- Spend extra time at a light load when you're new to it; the hip-hinge pattern itself takes longer to groove than most people expect.
- Pairs well on a lower-body day alongside a squat pattern, since the two movements load the posterior and anterior chains differently.
Safety notes
- Keep the weight conservative relative to your squat or deadlift; the strain on the lower back is greater here than in most other lifts.
- Stop the set immediately if you feel your lower back rounding or straining, rather than pushing through to finish the planned reps.
- Warm up the hip hinge pattern with lighter sets or a bodyweight version before adding the bar.
Exercise profile
- Force
- Push
- Mechanics
- Compound
- Category
- powerlifting
Frequently asked questions
How much weight should I use for good mornings?
Start light, often just the empty bar, and add weight gradually once your hip-hinge pattern and back position feel solid. This lift punishes excess weight more than most, so conservative loading matters.
How many sets and reps for good mornings?
Three or four sets of six to eight reps at a controlled, moderate weight builds strength without overreaching. This isn't a lift to chase low-rep max attempts on.
Good morning vs Romanian deadlift, what's the difference?
Both train the same hip-hinge, hamstring-dominant pattern. The good morning carries the bar on your back like a squat, while the Romanian deadlift holds it in your hands, which changes how the weight pulls on your body and the grip demand.
Why does my lower back round during good mornings?
This usually means the weight is too heavy or the range of motion is too deep for your current hip mobility. Reduce the weight and stop the descent earlier, right at the point where your back can still stay flat.