Find out how to do the Barbell Good Morning Train: Kind, Advantages, and Options

The great morning is a barbell train that primarily trains your hamstrings and decrease again.

It’s so efficient as a result of it means that you can elevate heavy weights safely and trains your hamstrings in a stretched place, which is uniquely useful for muscle progress.

On this article you’ll study what the barbell good morning is, its advantages, the muscular tissues it really works, how one can carry out it with correct kind, the finest good morning train alternate options, and extra.

Table of Contents

What Is the Good Morning Train?

The good morning train—or “barbell good morning”—is a compound exercise that trains your entire posterior chain (the muscles on the back of your body), primarily the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

It’s similar to the Romanian deadlift insofar as it involves “hinging” at the hips, then standing back upright. The difference is that you perform the barbell good morning with a barbell across your traps and rear delts, whereas in the Romanian deadlift, you hold the barbell in your hands.

Good Morning Exercise: Benefits

1. It trains your posterior chain (but is easier on your body than conventional deadlifting).

The main reason people do the barbell good morning is to train their hamstrings, glutes, and back without beating themselves up too much with the conventional deadlift.

Research reveals the traditional deadlift continues to be an excellent train for growing and strengthening your posterior chain, although it’s taxing on the physique and you’ll solely accomplish that a lot per week (as soon as per week is mostly loads).

The barbell good morning is an efficient compromise that means that you can prepare lots of the identical muscular tissues with out risking damage or overreaching.

2. It trains your hamstrings eccentrically and in a stretched place.

There are two varieties of muscle motion throughout most resistance workouts: concentric and eccentric.

Concentric motion includes shortening a muscle, like in the course of the lifting portion of a biceps curl, and eccentric action involves lengthening a muscle, like in the lowering portion of a biceps curl.

Research shows that workouts that prepare your muscular tissues in a stretched place and emphasize eccentric motion, just like the barbell good morning, are extremely efficient for constructing muscle.

Whereas scientists aren’t precisely positive why that is, their present finest guess is that emphasizing eccentric motion and inserting your muscular tissues below load when stretched directly stimulates muscle protein synthesis and drastically increases anabolic (muscle-building) hormones.

3. It means that you can prepare your hamstring with heavy weights.

As a rule of thumb, the extra weight you elevate, the extra strength and muscle you gain.

Aside from the conventional deadlift, most hamstring exercises don’t allow you to handle heavy weights.

For example, exercises such as the hamstring curl, hyperextension, and kettlebell swing are great exercises for training your hamstrings but become awkward when you use heavy weights.

The barbell good morning, on the other hand, allows you to handle heavy weights safely and progress regularly, which is ideal for gaining muscle and strength.

Good Morning Exercise: Muscles Worked

The main muscles worked by the barbell good morning are the . . .

Hamstrings
Glutes
Erector spinae

Right here’s how they appear in your physique:

Good Morning Train: Kind

One of the best ways to study how one can do the barbell good morning is to separate it into three elements: arrange, hinge, and ascend.

1. Arrange

Modify the hooks in an influence rack or squat rack so the bar is on the top of your midchest.

In case your squat rack has security arms or bars, set them to concerning the top of your midthigh. Load the bar together with your desired quantity of weight (or not, if the bar alone is sufficient).

Face the bar so you’ll be able to stroll it out backward. Don’t ever stroll the bar out ahead, as making an attempt to rerack it by strolling backward is harmful. Get below the bar and place the bar throughout your mid-traps and rear delts, so it rests proper above the little ridges on the again of your shoulder blades.

Grip the bar with both a thumbless (your thumbs resting on prime of the bar subsequent to your fingers) or a full grip (your thumbs wrapped across the bar), relying on which is most safe and comfy for you.

Retaining your higher again tight, unrack the bar, step again from the squat rack, and place your toes about shoulder-width aside.

2. Hinge

Take a deep breath into your abdomen, brace your abs, and with slightly bent knees, move your butt backward so your torso can “hinge” forward and lower the bar toward the ground in a straight line.

A helpful cue is to imagine pulling the bar into the top of your feet as your hinge.

3. Ascend

Once you can’t lower the bar any further without bending your back (usually when your back is at about a 20-degree angle to the floor), push your butt forward and lift the bar with your back simultaneously. This is a mirror image of what you did during the hinge.

A good cue for getting this right is to imagine throwing the bar off your back during the ascent.

The Best Good Morning Exercise Alternatives

1. Dumbbell Good Morning Exercise

You can perform the good morning with dumbbells by placing a dumbbell at the top of your back, across the base of your neck, and holding it in position with both hands. This is an excellent good morning variation when you don’t have access to a barbell or when you’re new to weightlifting, and a barbell is still too heavy.

2. Band Good Morning Exercise

In the banded good morning, you use a resistance band instead of a barbell. This makes it a good variation if you train at home or while traveling and have limited space and equipment.

However, because a resistance band offers almost no resistance when it’s slack, there’s little tension on your hamstrings and glutes when stretched. This makes the banded good morning less effective for building muscle than the barbell or dumbbell version, so you should only use it when you don’t have access to gym equipment.

3. Seated Good Morning Exercise

As the name implies, you perform the seated good morning while sitting on a bench. Performing the exercise while seated emphasizes your lower back more than your hamstrings, which is why many weightlifters use the seated good morning to strengthen their lower back so that it isn’t the “weak link” during exercises such as the deadlift and squat.

FAQ #1: Is the good morning a leg exercise or a back exercise?

Both.

The barbell good morning trains all of the muscles in your posterior chain. That said, it emphasizes the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back, and is less effective at training the other back muscle.

Thus, if developing your lats, rhomboids, and traps is a priority, you’ll also want to include exercises like the pull-up, chin-up, lat pulldown, and barbell, dumbbell, and cable row in your program.

FAQ #2: Can you do the good morning exercise at home?

Yes.

If you prefer to train at home, the best good morning variations are the dumbbell good morning and the band good morning because they require the least equipment and space.

FAQ #3: Are good mornings effective?

Yes.

In fact, research shows that the great morning is about as efficient at coaching the hamstring because the deadlift and nearly as good at training the decrease again as workouts just like the clear, snatch, Romanian deadlift, and row.

+ Scientific References

Tags: Alternatives, Barbell, Benefits, Exercise, Form, Good, Morning