How to Do the Good Morning Exercise

The good morning is a weightlifting exercise that activates muscle groups across your whole body. Perform good morning exercises by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart. Unrack a weighted barbell and rest it on your upper back using a similar bar position as a back squat. Take a deep breath, engage your core, and hinge your hips backward. After lowering your upper body, hinge forward and return to a standing position.

For the good morning, begin by using a weight that you can control for 2–3 sets of 8–12 repetitions. Choose a weight that allows you to maintain good technique throughout all sets and repetitions.

1. 1. Set up a barbell to the appropriate height in the squat rack according to your height. The barbell should be slightly lower than your shoulders.
2. 2. While facing the barbell, step underneath the barbell and place your hands on both sides of it. The barbell should rest on the muscles of your upper back.
3. 3. Un-rack the barbell and take a couple of steps backward.
4. 4. Keep your posture tall with your feet hip-width apart and a slight bend in your knees. Your shoulders should be directly over your hips with a neutral head and neck position. Your chin should remain tucked throughout the movement as if you were holding an egg under your chin.
5. 5. Grip the floor with your feet to create a stable foot position. The weight on your feet should be evenly distributed along each entire foot.
6. 6. Rotate your shoulders outward to engage your lats and upper back.
7. 7. Pre-tension your shoulders and hips and engage your core. Your ribs should be down, and your pelvis should be slightly tucked.
8. 8. While maintaining a neutral spine, begin the backward movement by hinging your hips to push your hips backward.
9. 9. Continue to push your hips backward and allow your upper body to travel forward until your upper body is 30–45 degrees away from the floor.
10. 10. Your knees should be slightly bent while your shins remain vertical. You should feel a stretch in your glutes and hamstrings.
11. 11. Pause for a second at the end of the backward movement.
12. 12. While maintaining a neutral spine, begin your upward movement by pushing your feet through the floor. As you start to stand, squeeze your glutes and allow your hips to travel forward.
13. 13. As your hips move forward, keep your core engaged, and finish the movement by squeezing your glutes.
14. 14. At the end of each repetition, your shoulders should finish directly over your hips. Imagine that your pelvis is a bucket filled with water, and you’re attempting not to spill water out of the front, back, or sides of the bucket.

Including good morning exercises into your strength training program can have several benefits:

1. 1. Good morning exercises activate your posterior chain. The good morning exercise works muscle groups along the backside of your body, including your hamstrings, gluteus maximus, erector spinae, and lower back muscles. With proper form, good morning exercises can increase your leg and back strength.
2. 2. Good morning exercises can enhance your hip-hinging form. The good morning exercise can increase your hip extension and flexion strength, improving your performance during other hip-hinging exercises like the Romanian deadlift and the kettlebell swing.
3. 3. Good morning exercises can improve your posture. With regular practice, the good morning exercise can increase muscle hypertrophy along your back and improve your posture during everyday activities.

Once you’ve learned how to do good morning exercises, consider trying one of these five variations:

1. 1. Bodyweight good mornings: If you want to practice your hip-hinging form without weight, practice this variation by placing your hands behind your head as you lower your upper body in the good morning movement pattern.
2. 2. Resistance band good mornings: Perform this variation by wrapping a resistance band around your neck and feet as you hinge your hips forward and backward.
3. 3. Dumbbell good mornings: For a slightly easier variation on the traditional barbell good morning, practice dumbbell good mornings by holding a pair of lightweight dumbbells.
4. 4. Single-leg good mornings: If you want to activate your stabilizer muscles, practice this challenging variation by balancing one leg while going through the full range of motion of a good morning exercise.
5. 5. Seated good mornings: This seated variation isolates the muscles along your lower back as you take pressure off your hamstrings and core.

If you have a previous or pre-existing health condition, consult your physician before beginning an exercise program. Proper exercise technique is essential to ensure the safety and effectiveness of an exercise program, but you may need to modify each exercise to attain optimal results based on your individual needs. Always select a weight that allows you to have full control of your body throughout the movement. When performing any exercise, pay close attention to your body, and stop immediately if you note pain or discomfort.

In order to see continual progress and build body strength, incorporate proper warm-ups, rest, and nutrition into your exercise program. Your results will ultimately be based on your ability to adequately recover from your workouts. Rest for 24 to 48 hours before training the same muscle groups to allow sufficient recovery.

Throw on some athleisure, fire up a MasterClass Annual Membership, and get ready to sweat it out with exclusive instructional videos from Nike Master Trainer and GQ fitness specialist Joe Holder. Want to improve your cardiovascular endurance? Give Joe’s HIIT workout a go. Trying to get a little swole? He’s got a strength training workout for that. From fitness tips to nutrition hacks, Joe will have you feeling healthier in no time.