An expert guide to the good morning exercise

The “good morning” exercise may sound like a gentle way to start the day, but in reality, it’s a legit strength move that works the muscles on your backside that often get overlooked.

Here’s everything you need to know about the good morning exercise and how to do it properly.

What is the good morning exercise?

The good morning exercise is a compound movement that strengthens and builds the muscles in your posterior chain — the muscles along the back of your body, including your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. It’s kind of like a squat, except there’s no knee flexion, and the focus is on hinging at the hips with a barbell across your upper back.

Why is it called the good morning exercise?

“The good morning exercise is called this because it’s mimicking the motion you would make when you bow to say hello or to start the day with a ‘good morning’ to show courtesy,” John Peel, former NCAA Division I football player for the University of Utah, and celebrity trainer at iFIT and NordicTrack tells The Manual. “It’s a straight-legged movement that is going to force the spine, glutes, hips, and hamstrings all to work together.”

What muscles does the good morning exercise work?

As mentioned above, the good morning exercise primarily targets the muscles in your posterior chain — your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

“The main target muscles are going to be the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back muscles,” says Peel. “Depending on how straight you keep your legs, the more hamstring muscles you will engage. With a slighter bend in the knees, the more glutes you engage.”

Are good mornings the same as RDL?

No, good mornings and Romanian deadlifts (RDLs) are not the same exercise.

“The difference between good mornings and RDLs is the placement of the weight,” Peel explains. “With the good morning exercise, the weight is placed on your back. The RDL usually involves dumbbells that are being held at the side of the body, and when the movement begins, the dumbbells are moving toward your toes.”

How to do the good morning exercise

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to properly perform the good morning exercise, according to Peel:

1. Start with either a barbell on the back, like you are about to perform a squat, or hands behind your head if you are using bodyweight only. Feet should be about shoulder width apart, but sometimes more narrow stance the better with this movement.
2. Next, with the softest bend in the knees, you want to slowly start a bowing movement at the hips while keeping the back straight (eccentric).
3. Once the bowing motion and the upper body (or torso) are almost parallel with the floor, you return back up to the starting position.

“You want to keep the core completely engaged, push the hips forward on the way up, and feel the activation through your glutes and hamstrings,” Peel adds. “These are the target muscles forcing the weight back up (concentric).”

Good morning exercise variations

This basic exercise can be amped up or scaled down depending on your goals and fitness level. One variation Peel recommends is the good morning exercise on an incline bench to decrease the range of motion and make the movement more beginner-friendly.

“A modified variation of this can be performed while sitting on an incline bench, facing the bench,” he explains. “This allows you to get comfortable with the movement before going straight into a standing position. You can gradually drop the incline of the bench the more comfortable you become….eventually performing the move on a flat bench.”

Other variations of the good morning exercise include:

• Resistance band good mornings: Instead of a barbell, loop a resistance band under your feet and hold the ends at your shoulders.
• Dumbbell good mornings: Hold a dumbbell in each hand, letting it hang at your sides.
• Kettleball good mornings: Hold a kettlebell with both hands in front of your chest, close to your body.

You can also change your stance (wide stance, narrow stance) or add in pauses at the bottom of the movement to increase time under tension.

Benefits of the good morning exercise

Although the good morning exercise may sound like a glorified squat, it has a few benefits that make it unique and a valuable add-on to your workout routine.

• Improves posterior chain strength: As Peel mentioned, the good morning exercise targets the muscles in the posterior chain, including the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. “It’s an excellent exercise to perform [with correct form] to improve your deadlift, along with strengthening hamstrings for speed and power,” says Peel. “It can also be done as a warmup to activate the hamstrings.”
• Helps maintain proper posture: The good morning exercise forces you to maintain a neutral spine, which can help train the muscles responsible for good posture. (This is Good news for anyone who spends most of their days at a desk.)
• Teaches proper hip hinge movements: This exercise also helps teach the hip hinge pattern — a skill you’ll need to perform other movements in and out of the gym.

How to add the good morning exercise to your routine

You don’t need to uproot your entire training program to start incorporating the good morning exercise. Here are a few tips on how to add it to your routine:

• Start with bodyweight: If you’re new to the exercise, start with just your bodyweight first.
• Add it to your warmup: Use a light weight or just bodyweight to get your posterior chain muscles fired up before your main workout.
• Incorporate it into your lower body days: The good morning exercise is similar to squats, deadlifts, and other lower body exercises, so it makes sense to include it on your lower body training days.