A Fresh Look at the Good Morning ~ Charles Poliquin
Years ago the good morning became a popular exercise for the glutes, erector spinae, and hamstrings. It begins from a position of advantageous leverage, as opposed to the deadlift, which begins from a position of disadvantageous leverage. The good morning also involves a counter movement and starts with an eccentric contraction, as opposed to the deadlift, which does not have the such a counter movement and begins with a concentric contraction.
Consider that condemning the good morning is a relatively new trend. Olympic-style weightlifters have traditionally embraced the good morning as a key exercise in their training, and Russian training manuals often promoted this exercise as a key assistance exercise. One typical approach has been to start the exercise with the back arched and knees slightly flexed, and then lean forward (shifting the hips backward) until the bodyweight shifts toward the balls of the feet.
The good morning became less popular in the early ’70s, when the Bulgarians began their dominance; using fewer assistance exercises became the norm. This was true especially after the elimination of the standing Olympic press; in this exercise powerful erector spinae muscles are a must to stabilize the torso during the overhead movement. The success of the Bulgarian programs, which primarily involved just the Olympic lifts and squats, meant that many once-popular exercises all but disappeared from workouts.
Another factor was that with the increasing occurrence of back pain, many personal trainers became reluctant to prescribe good mornings to their clients. In fact, many strength coaches began avoiding lower back training, deadlifts, and weight-added back extension exercises. What was interesting about this trend was that these same trainers did not have a problem having their clients use seated back machines, which essentially are a form of seated good mornings. One of these medical-grade back extension units, which enables the tester to isometrically evaluate all the areas of a strength curve, had a price tag of approximately $75,000!
One sport that has helped to resurrect the good morning is powerlifting. With modern squatting methods relying more on hip extension than knee flexion, the good morning has become a primary assistance exercise in this sport. To make the good morning more biomechanically specific to the back squat, powerlifters perform it with a wide foot stance, which more strongly involves the adductors, and hold the bar lower on the back.
Although the conventional good morning and the powerlifting good morning are the best-known variations of this exercise, there are several other types that may have a place in athletic training or a bodybuilding program. Here are a few:
Good Morning Drop Snatch
Good Morning Rise on Toes
Good Morning Jump Squat
Rounded Back Good Morning
Seated Good Morning
To see more descriptions of these movements, and the article in it’s entirety, check here.
With a partner
With a 22:00
5-10-15-20-25Power snatch 135#(95#)15-12-9-6-3Ring muscle ups
Run 200 meters together after each set
With the remaining time:Build to a heavy power snatch
Scores =...
Every 2:30 x 54 Front squats*Use the back squat weight from 090823For time:50 Wallballs 20#(14#)Row 250 meters20 Ab mat sit upsRow 250 meters35 Wallballs...
