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Good Mornings

This exercise was so named because it resembled the old European custom of bowing slightly as a good morning greeting. However, the exercise movement is done much more completely than is the polite greeting. (Note) The good morning is a potentially dangerous exercise as are ALL weight training movements...especially when done with poor form and too much weight. The REAL danger in the good morning, is your inability to quickly dump the bar, should you get in trouble. If this concerns you, do the stiff-legged deadlift and be done with it...with the bar held in your hands, it is easy to simply drop the bar, should you experience a twinge or mal-positioning of your body.

Proper form

Stand with the barbell on the shoulders as for a squat. A cambered bar is a great help to avoid the bar rolling, as is the use of a small towel or piece of air conditioner foam on the bar. I sometimes use an EZ Curl bar...works for me. Place the feet a little less than shoulder width apart and with the toes very slightly pointed in.

Now, "lock" your hips in place "grip" the floor with your toes and begin to bend forward...while maintaining the arch in your back and a very slight bend to the knees. Don't allow the hips to travel very far to the rear. If you do all of this properly, you'll find it difficult to go beyond parallel without rounding your lower back. Go as far as your flexibility allows and then recover. Stay tight throughout the movement. Even if you're a Superman, it is not necessary to exceed 200 pounds...doing so will alter your form and distribute the workload to other muscles rather than the lower back, hips, glutes and hams.

The Randall Good Morning

Bruce Randall worked up to insane weights in this movement, doing a single with over 600 lbs, when he weighed 300 plus. He used quite a different style to accomplish this. First, he used a cambered bar. (I've seen pictures) Second, as he bent at the waist, he allowed his hips to travel to the rear and allowed his knees to bend further...turning the movement into kind of a "bowing, semi-squat." This is actually safer for your lower back and will allow the use of heavier weights.

Good mornings are a technique intensive exercise...one that must be slowly worked into to avoid injury. NEVER train to failure...rather, do more sets with the same weight and reps. Wicked Willie

An Interesting Variation

The Westside Barbell gang loves the exercise. They do incredible weights and practice many variations. They use it mainly as a heavy exercise, done for low reps.

I have tried the exercise from time to time but usually wind up having back problems, sometimes mild, sometimes not, and always quit the exercise. I asked one of their crew what I could do to prevent problems and he suggested trying them with a safety squat bar suspended from chains in the power rack.

I have limited access to a safety squat bar so I didn't try the suggestion. Recently I decided to just try them bottoms up style from the pins in the rack. This seems to be working great for me.

Set the rails to a spot you can get to with perfect form. An inch too deep and you're screwed - if your hamstring flexibility runs out and your back rounds, you're going to have trouble. This prevents the potential pitfall of going too deep.

Set up so that your heels or insteps are directly below the bar, take your grip, and duck under. Get the bar set, tighten everything up, and squeeze out of the bottom position. This prevents the potential pitfall of getting sloppy and loose at the bottom.

I return the bar to the position by squatting, rather than a negative good morning, and reset for each rep. I have been doing triples and sets of five reps this way. This takes should make the exercise easier to recover from and induce less muscle soreness.

If anyone wants to try it, I recommend a lot of warmups and starting with baby weights, you can't be too careful with your lower back.

• Here's further discussion on good mornings.